Erika Phoebus

Erika Phoebus

Erika Phoebus (she/her) is a queer, neurodivergent playwright whose work orbits around pleasure, autonomy, and all things magical, strange, and a little horrific. Her work has been developed and/or produced at the Great Plains Theatre Conference, New Ohio Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company Conservatory, Primary Stages ESPA, Torn Page, Theatre 4the People, Actors Theatre of NY, and the McKittrick Hotel (home of...
Erika Phoebus (she/her) is a queer, neurodivergent playwright whose work orbits around pleasure, autonomy, and all things magical, strange, and a little horrific. Her work has been developed and/or produced at the Great Plains Theatre Conference, New Ohio Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company Conservatory, Primary Stages ESPA, Torn Page, Theatre 4the People, Actors Theatre of NY, and the McKittrick Hotel (home of Sleep No More). She's received residencies through Fresh Ground Pepper’s BRB retreat and Theatre 4the People @theBarn and was a winner of the Samuel French OOB festival, with the winning play, Shark Week, now published and licensed by Concord Theatricals. She was named a finalist for the Soho Rep Writer Director Lab (2022-23) and the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference (2023). She's taught playwriting at Bowie High School (Austin, TX), Westerly High School (Westerly, RI), Arizona Actors Academy (Phoenix, AZ), and offers playwriting workshops, script consultations, and dramaturgical support online and in NYC. William Esper Meisner Conservatory alum. B.F.A. Creative Writing from Brooklyn College. A proud member of the Dramatist Guild. www.erikaphoebus.com IG: @ephoebs

Plays

  • witch play by Erika Phoebus
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: queer, magical realism + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, period
    Keyword: queer, magical realism, queering religion, History, LGBTQ, witch trials, reproductive freedom, women's health, female sexuality, Reproductive Rights
    It's 1563...ish, and Anny Chapman wants to get pregnant. No wait, sorry, Anny Chapman MUST get pregnant, or else she could be tried as a witch. As secret fertility treatments from the local alewife, Besse, births an unexpected love between them, the world outside threatens to knock down their door. Meanwhile, the Virgin Mary has arrived on the scene, and she wants her autonomy back… A dark comedy, a love...
    It's 1563...ish, and Anny Chapman wants to get pregnant. No wait, sorry, Anny Chapman MUST get pregnant, or else she could be tried as a witch. As secret fertility treatments from the local alewife, Besse, births an unexpected love between them, the world outside threatens to knock down their door. Meanwhile, the Virgin Mary has arrived on the scene, and she wants her autonomy back… A dark comedy, a love story, a ritual, a spell; witch play searches for all the places our pleasure may go, after we’ve chosen to unleash it.
  • Shark Week (short play) by Erika Phoebus
    Recommendations: 7
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    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: periods, animal characters + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, fantasy, satire
    Keyword: periods, animal characters, teen pregnancy, best friends, abortion
    Kyri and Alex are synced. Like literally. They always get their periods at the same time. But Kyri’s got a secret, and it’s going to take a post-storm ocean, forgotten tampons, and a little help from a drag queen shark, to finally be able to say what’s right for her body and for her life.
  • Rosaline & Juliet (short play) by Erika Phoebus
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, satire
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    Keyword: queer romance, adaptation of Romeo and Juliet + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, satire
    Keyword: queer romance, adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, meta
    Juliet's trapped inside the play. Rosaline's trapped outside the play. It IS Romeo's play GODDAMMIT!... until the play starts looping in on itself.
  • Rusalka by Erika Phoebus
    Cast: 
    8–10
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    Genre: drama, fable/folktale + 1 more
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    Keyword: resistance fighters, coming of age + 1 more
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale, period
    Keyword: resistance fighters, coming of age, World War II Amsterdam
    1943. Amsterdam. The resistance. Two young girls return to their old stomping grounds, a neighborhood jazz bar now catering to the secretly jazz loving Nazi SS. The younger of the sisters, Nessa, is the lookout, the older there to seduce a Nazi officer to the woods to meet his maker. When Nessa finds herself the object of the officer’s affection, she must quickly learn how to turn herself from prey to predator...
    1943. Amsterdam. The resistance. Two young girls return to their old stomping grounds, a neighborhood jazz bar now catering to the secretly jazz loving Nazi SS. The younger of the sisters, Nessa, is the lookout, the older there to seduce a Nazi officer to the woods to meet his maker. When Nessa finds herself the object of the officer’s affection, she must quickly learn how to turn herself from prey to predator in a body she is just starting to understand.
  • Kiss It, Make It Better by Erika Phoebus
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: puberty, first love + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: puberty, first love, trauma, empowering survivors
    Nadia and Ty are best friends. And live in an abandoned fairground, under a decrepit rollercoaster. Nadia and Ty are confused. Are they really best friends, or maybe something more? When Nadia starts having flashbacks about a time before 'the grounds,' she starts to piece together the tattered truth of her buried trauma. In the tradition of Peter Pan, KISS IT, MAKE IT BETTER asks one question: can...
    Nadia and Ty are best friends. And live in an abandoned fairground, under a decrepit rollercoaster. Nadia and Ty are confused. Are they really best friends, or maybe something more? When Nadia starts having flashbacks about a time before 'the grounds,' she starts to piece together the tattered truth of her buried trauma. In the tradition of Peter Pan, KISS IT, MAKE IT BETTER asks one question: can growing up really mean forgetting?