Abbey Fenbert

Abbey Fenbert is a writer from Detroit, MI. Her work celebrates empathy, living in truth, and women having lots of lines.

She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Boston University and a BA from NYU. Her original plays have been produced and developed by the Matrix Theatre Company, Red Theatre Chicago, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, Boston Playwrights' Theatre, the Boston Theater Marathon, the KNOW Theatre, the Berkshire Playwrights’ Lab, the Playwrights Center of Minneapolis and the Vagrancy. Her plays Sickle and Child were Finalists for the 2016 and 2017 O’Neill National Playwrights Conferences, respectively. She's received multiple honors from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, including the 2013 Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting. Her short dramatic works...

Abbey Fenbert is a writer from Detroit, MI. Her work celebrates empathy, living in truth, and women having lots of lines.

She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Boston University and a BA from NYU. Her original plays have been produced and developed by the Matrix Theatre Company, Red Theatre Chicago, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, Boston Playwrights' Theatre, the Boston Theater Marathon, the KNOW Theatre, the Berkshire Playwrights’ Lab, the Playwrights Center of Minneapolis and the Vagrancy. Her plays Sickle and Child were Finalists for the 2016 and 2017 O’Neill National Playwrights Conferences, respectively. She's received multiple honors from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, including the 2013 Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting. Her short dramatic works are published in anthologies from Smith & Kraus and her writing has been featured online at The Toast, The Offing, HowlRound, McSweeney’s and American Theatre. She also wrote and stars in the forthcoming webseries Beck & Clem, a feminist time-travel comedy. Fenbert is currently based in Los Angeles, where she is Literary Manager of the Vagrancy Theatre Company.

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Scripts

THE INTENSIVE

by Abbey Fenbert

4
Cast Size
5
Genre
comedy,
immersive

Devotees call it a self-improvement seminar, detractors call it a cult. The Facilitator promises success — if you’re willing to do as she says. A comedy for the late-capitalist age, or anyone who binge-watched those NXIVM documentaries.

Devotees call it a self-improvement seminar, detractors call it a cult. The Facilitator promises success — if you’re willing to do as she says. A comedy for the late-capitalist age, or anyone who binge-watched those NXIVM documentaries.

SICKLE

by Abbey Fenbert

5
Cast Size
5
Genre
dark comedy,
drama,
period,
political

Stalin’s man-made famine rages against the Ukrainian peasantry. Nadya, an idealistic young communist, is assigned to helm a small village’s collective farm. When she walks into a pastoral apocalypse, she must question everything she believes about the world.

Stalin’s man-made famine rages against the Ukrainian peasantry. Nadya, an idealistic young communist, is assigned to helm a small village’s collective farm. When she walks into a pastoral apocalypse, she must question everything she believes about the world.

KILL THE MAGISTRATE

by Abbey Fenbert

Cast Size
6
Genre
drama,
period,
political,
verse

‘I have called here women of specific talents / who have cause against the magistrate.’ New England, 1600s. Verity has summoned a group of unlikely conspirators to the woods for one purpose: to murder the town magistrate. But strange changes occur around them the deeper they delve into their plot. Are they signs from God, or messages dropped through cracks in time? An eerie, fervent drama about power, fate and...

‘I have called here women of specific talents / who have cause against the magistrate.’ New England, 1600s. Verity has summoned a group of unlikely conspirators to the woods for one purpose: to murder the town magistrate. But strange changes occur around them the deeper they delve into their plot. Are they signs from God, or messages dropped through cracks in time? An eerie, fervent drama about power, fate and our colonial past.

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DESERT SURVIVAL RULES

by Abbey Fenbert

2
Cast Size
1
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama,
period

Clare treks to the remote shrine of folk heroine Loretta North to discover what it takes to survive in the desert. A play for one performer in two different centuries.

Clare treks to the remote shrine of folk heroine Loretta North to discover what it takes to survive in the desert. A play for one performer in two different centuries.

INTENTIONS

by Abbey Fenbert

6
Cast Size
5
Genre
comedy,
political,
romantic comedy,
satire

Tillerman House is an intentional community. Shit is organic, sustainable, local, shade-grown, fair-trade and cruelty-free— until Leif comes along. Does the ethos of tolerance extend to an ex-fratbro who doesn’t know a zine from a zen garden? A comedy about the lengths we will go to for both our principles and our desires.

Tillerman House is an intentional community. Shit is organic, sustainable, local, shade-grown, fair-trade and cruelty-free— until Leif comes along. Does the ethos of tolerance extend to an ex-fratbro who doesn’t know a zine from a zen garden? A comedy about the lengths we will go to for both our principles and our desires.

CHILD

by Abbey Fenbert

2
Cast Size
8—9
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama,
experimental

It starts simple: A lady wants a child. Specifically an older child, nonzero grateful, not boring, babies need not apply. She sees adoption as her chance to do some good in the world. But Mercy, Brawn and Devil-Eye (named for what they are missing) have their own ideas about what makes a family. Where lie the borders between our individual and collective selves, and what happens when they shift? CHILD is a...

It starts simple: A lady wants a child. Specifically an older child, nonzero grateful, not boring, babies need not apply. She sees adoption as her chance to do some good in the world. But Mercy, Brawn and Devil-Eye (named for what they are missing) have their own ideas about what makes a family. Where lie the borders between our individual and collective selves, and what happens when they shift? CHILD is a highly theatrical exploration of family, conviction and conversion.

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THE SAND BENEATH THE CITY

by Abbey Fenbert

3
Cast Size
1
Genre
dark comedy,
drama,
political

Leya Jahin is an Egyptian-American woman from a Muslim family who believes nothing and belongs nowhere. Yet somehow she’s the one who gets the news that Detroit is one hour from apocalyptic destruction. In this one-woman play, LJ must confront her (lack of) beliefs before a Voice goes full-on Sodom and Gomorrah over the city.

Leya Jahin is an Egyptian-American woman from a Muslim family who believes nothing and belongs nowhere. Yet somehow she’s the one who gets the news that Detroit is one hour from apocalyptic destruction. In this one-woman play, LJ must confront her (lack of) beliefs before a Voice goes full-on Sodom and Gomorrah over the city.

IDIO

by Abbey Fenbert

Cast Size
8
Genre
dark comedy,
experimental,
movement/physical

In a mysterious station, three competitors -- Hawk, Dip and Pigeon -- battle for an unknown prize. A dark comedy about truth, understanding and desire under a violent social order.

In a mysterious station, three competitors -- Hawk, Dip and Pigeon -- battle for an unknown prize. A dark comedy about truth, understanding and desire under a violent social order.

GENIUSES

by Abbey Fenbert

3
Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy

Ten-year-old twins Polly and Wilfred struggle with the trials of genius and of siblinghood.

Ten-year-old twins Polly and Wilfred struggle with the trials of genius and of siblinghood.

COPPER POT

by Abbey Fenbert

Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy

Lauren visits the Crone for help with heartache. If she passes the test, maybe she can find happiness at last. 10-minute comedy for two women.

Lauren visits the Crone for help with heartache. If she passes the test, maybe she can find happiness at last. 10-minute comedy for two women.

MARY AND MAGDA

by Abbey Fenbert

1
Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy

Magda's on the steps of her Catholic University to distribute condoms in feminist defiance. Mary's here to distribute abstinence. Take your pick!

Magda's on the steps of her Catholic University to distribute condoms in feminist defiance. Mary's here to distribute abstinence. Take your pick!

LOO

by Abbey Fenbert

1
Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy

Simon and Ned are having a very important conversation in the men’s loo. But someone is there who doesn’t belong. Will the demands of courtesy triumph?

Simon and Ned are having a very important conversation in the men’s loo. But someone is there who doesn’t belong. Will the demands of courtesy triumph?