Rachel Bonds

Rachel Bonds

Rachel Bonds’ plays have been developed or produced by Ars Nova, WP Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre, Roundabout Underground, Atlantic Theater Company, South Coast Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Studio Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and New York Stage & Film, among others.

Her plays include: JONAH (Studio 2020-21); GOODNIGHT NOBODY (McCarter...
Rachel Bonds’ plays have been developed or produced by Ars Nova, WP Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre, Roundabout Underground, Atlantic Theater Company, South Coast Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Studio Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and New York Stage & Film, among others.

Her plays include: JONAH (Studio 2020-21); GOODNIGHT NOBODY (McCarter); THE LONELY FEW (collaboration with composer Zoe Sarnak for The Geffen); SUNDOWN, YELLOW MOON, a play with songs by The Bengsons (Ars Nova & WP Theatre, NY Times Critic's Pick); CURVE OF DEPARTURE (South Coast Rep, Studio Theatre, Northlight); AT THE OLD PLACE (La Jolla Playhouse); FIVE MILE LAKE (South Coast Rep, McCarter, Shattered Globe, Weissberger Award); SWIMMERS (Marin Theatre Co, Sky Cooper Prize); THE WOLFE TWINS (Studio Theatre); ALMA (Atlantic Theatre Company commission); MICHAEL & EDIE (NY Times Critic's Pick); WINTER GAMES (Humana Festival, Heideman Award, Public Radio's "Playing on Air"); ANNIVERSARY (EST’s Marathon of One-Act Plays, Sam French OOB Festival Winner and Public Radio’s “Playing on Air.”); and BIRD ("Playing on Air" co-commission with David Auburn).

Bonds was the 2016 Tow Foundation Playwright in Residence at Ars Nova. She is an Alumna of EST’s Youngblood, Ars Nova’s Play Group and SPACE on Ryder Farm’s Working Farm Writers’ Group. She has also been both a Fr. William Ralston Fellow and a Tennessee Williams Scholar at The Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She has served as a frequent Volunteer/Playwright for the 52nd Street Project.

She is currently collaborating with composer Zoe Sarnak on a commission for The Geffen, developing a fictional podcast THE HEART OF IT ALL, and adapting her play SUNDOWN, YELLOW MOON into a screenplay. Bonds is a graduate of Brown University.

Plays

  • JONAH by Rachel Bonds
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Ana is on scholarship at a boarding school far from home, deeply and distinctly alone until she crosses paths with day student Jonah. They navigate the edges of this new relationship, tentative and heady, but something else is stirring, and what begins as an exploration of new, exultant desire shifts into more complex negotiations of intimacy and survival. A story of fracture and resilience, what bodies carry...
    Ana is on scholarship at a boarding school far from home, deeply and distinctly alone until she crosses paths with day student Jonah. They navigate the edges of this new relationship, tentative and heady, but something else is stirring, and what begins as an exploration of new, exultant desire shifts into more complex negotiations of intimacy and survival. A story of fracture and resilience, what bodies carry and what they can release, and the radical possibilities of trust.
  • GOODNIGHT NOBODY by Rachel Bonds
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    A group of old friends reconnect after years apart. They reminisce with wild abandon, until the things they aren't telling each other come hurtling to the surface. The play asks: What is the cost of pursuing artistic excellence? Is there a connection between creative brilliance and mental illness? Can a female artist — however disciplined — ever attain pure freedom from the fact of her own womanhood?
  • THE LONELY FEW, with Music & Lyrics by Zoe Sarnak by Rachel Bonds
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, musical
    Lila, a queer woman living on the edges of society, and The Lonely Few, her band, head out on tour immediately following the tragic loss of her brother. Lila begins to unravel as she grapples with the fraying of her first real relationship—and first honest experience of her sexuality—as well as her estrangement from her family.
  • CURVE OF DEPARTURE by Rachel Bonds
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    On a balmy New Mexico night in a too-small motel room, a "ragtag little group" gathers in anticipation of the funeral that has brought them together. But the dearly departed is the least of their concerns as they all grapple with the curves life has thrown them.
  • SUNDOWN, YELLOW MOON, a play with songs by THE BENGSONS by Rachel Bonds
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, musical
    While navigating the unsettling waters of young adulthood, twin sisters Ray and Joey return home to find their father in a moment of crisis. Under the cover of late-night, small-town shadows, sleep is elusive, connections are frayed, and the southern summer heat presses in. Sundown, Yellow Moon is an ethereal, honest, funny and sad play about seeing old faces with new eyes, and the liminal space between loss and letting go.
  • SWIMMERS by Rachel Bonds
    Cast: 
    11
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Coyotes evading police. Billboards predicting the end of the world. It’s been a strange day at the office and it’s only 9AM. A play exploring the relationships we take most for granted: those with the people we work with every day.
  • FIVE MILE LAKE by Rachel Bonds
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: drama
    Genre: drama
    A moving portrait of a group of young people, yearning to make the right choices—and facing the choices they have already made—as they journey into their thirties in a rapidly transforming world.
  • AT THE OLD PLACE by Rachel Bonds
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Facing a breaking point, a middle-aged woman returns to her childhood home to hide with a bottle and book of poetry. But a chance encounter with two young people camped out on her lawn leads to the discovery of the common bond that connects uncommon people. This keenly-observed, slice-of-life play evokes long nights spent on the grass with friends, considering the roads not taken – and the best way forward.
  • THE WOLFE TWINS by Rachel Bonds
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Lewis invites his estranged sister Dana on a trip to Rome to reconnect. But when he befriends a beautiful stranger, old wounds fester and intimate secrets are revealed.
  • ALMA by Rachel Bonds
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller
    Just as Millie's new relationship with Tavi begins to deepen, she finds herself drawn to Will, a lonely cartoonist, whose secrets share a strange symmetry with her own.
  • FIRECRACKER by Rachel Bonds
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama
    Genre: drama
    Tasha has recently returned to her home in the rural south, tight-lipped about the past decade and determined to make a new start with Calvin, a local boy she knew as a teenager. When her former drama teacher, fueled by white wine and regret, comes over to “catch up,” the fabric of Tasha's new life begins to unravel.