Emma Durbin

Emma Durbin

Emma Durbin (they/them) is a Chicago-based playwright and dramaturg whose writing centers women and people who are experiencing gender marginalization, and the bonds they form in search of survival, community, and joy. Works in development include: landscape (workshoped at Mirrorbox Theatre and The Theatre School at DePaul University, 2022 Premiere Play Festival semi-finalist), Witchcraft, Bitchcraft (...
Emma Durbin (they/them) is a Chicago-based playwright and dramaturg whose writing centers women and people who are experiencing gender marginalization, and the bonds they form in search of survival, community, and joy. Works in development include: landscape (workshoped at Mirrorbox Theatre and The Theatre School at DePaul University, 2022 Premiere Play Festival semi-finalist), Witchcraft, Bitchcraft (commissioned by Pocket Theatre VR), and overgrown, and intergenerational ensemble play about elections and returning home (Jackalope Playwrights Lab). Their short plays have been presented by Chicago Dramatists, Shattered Globe Theatre, Naked Angels, Westmont College, Western Washington University, and DePaul University. Emma is currently a member of PlayGround-Chicago’s writer’s pool and a writer and Director of Operations for Rescripted.org. They have served on dramaturgy teams for new play workshops and readings at Actors Theatre of Louisville, TimeLine Theatre Company, The Story Theatre. They are a script reader for Playwrights Center and The Playwrights Realm. Emma interned at the Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland New Plays Festival, and attended the New Play Dramaturgy Intensive at the Kennedy Center with Mark Bly. Playwriting BFA: The Theatre School at DePaul University (2020, Dean’s Prize Recipient). Visit emmadurbin.com to learn more!

Plays

  • overgrown by Emma Durbin
    Cast: 
    6–7
    ·
    Genre: comedy, immersive + 3 more
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    Keyword: election, queer + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, immersive, political, romantic comedy, satire
    Keyword: election, queer, feminist, local politics, bi-partisan, intergenerational, ensemble, birth control, father-daughter
    overgrown is an intergenerational ensemble play about 5 election judges who must balance their personal safety and mental well-being as they endure a 17-hour bipartisan workday with (almost) complete strangers. A pro-life lawyer father and his queer liberal daughter sign up to judge a Chicago mid-term election where they meet two kooky seasoned poll workers and one firebrand fellow election day newbie....
    overgrown is an intergenerational ensemble play about 5 election judges who must balance their personal safety and mental well-being as they endure a 17-hour bipartisan workday with (almost) complete strangers. A pro-life lawyer father and his queer liberal daughter sign up to judge a Chicago mid-term election where they meet two kooky seasoned poll workers and one firebrand fellow election day newbie. overgrown examines who gets to choose what parts of themselves they share, and who doesn’t have a choice? How does someone who has overgrown an idea, belief, or person respond to suddenly returning to their past? And how crazy is it in this world to demand space for love, authenticity, and joy?

    (overgrown is written as a for the stage but I would love to adapt it as an immersive piece!)
  • Witchcraft, Bitchcraft by Emma Durbin
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: witches, magic + 4 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, fantasy, science fiction
    Keyword: witches, magic, Teen girls, young women, queer, Lesbian
    When the systems that are supposed to protect women, femmes, and other marginalized folks are not built in our favor, what do we do? When is it our turn to be villains? Witchcraft, Bitchcraft follows two best friends in high school as they experiment with magic, crushes, and ancestral lineage to claim their space in the world.

    Content warning for discussions of and a brief scene involving sex and gender violence.
  • landscape by Emma Durbin
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    8
    ·
    Genre: adventure, docudrama/historic + 4 more
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    Keyword: queer, femmes + 8 more
    Genre: adventure, docudrama/historic, drama, experimental, movement/physical, period
    Keyword: queer, femmes, gender, patriarchy, Rock Climbing, mountaineering, Victorian Women, environmental crisis, Chicago, Scotland
    How do gender, race, nationality, socioeconomics, and other intersecting identities impact our relationships with the land around us? Set in 1908 Scotland and a climbing gym in 2019 Boystown Chicago, landscape is an ensemble play about the founding of the Ladies Scottish Climbing Club and a group of queer and mostly-femme rock climbers at the Boystown Climbing Club. While they approach similar obstacles to...
    How do gender, race, nationality, socioeconomics, and other intersecting identities impact our relationships with the land around us? Set in 1908 Scotland and a climbing gym in 2019 Boystown Chicago, landscape is an ensemble play about the founding of the Ladies Scottish Climbing Club and a group of queer and mostly-femme rock climbers at the Boystown Climbing Club. While they approach similar obstacles to making space for themselves, both groups must also confront the white colonialist patriarchy, environmental racism, and the real cost of their view at the top of their real and polyurethane mountains.
  • Of Our Own by Emma Durbin
    Cast: 
    3–5
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: connection, grief + 8 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, movement/physical, political
    Keyword: connection, grief, abandonment, teenagers, queerness, Sex, self-discovery, consent, womanhood, identity
    Aimee is Lily’s ex’s best friend. Lily is Aimee’s best friend’s ex. It is the August before their Junior year in high school. Having spoken only once in the three months since the breakup, the two meet. They reflect on past relationships; Tessa who cheated on Lily after the two dated Sophomore year, and Jason, a boy that assaulted Aimee when they dated Freshman year. The two girls discover each other’s never...
    Aimee is Lily’s ex’s best friend. Lily is Aimee’s best friend’s ex. It is the August before their Junior year in high school. Having spoken only once in the three months since the breakup, the two meet. They reflect on past relationships; Tessa who cheated on Lily after the two dated Sophomore year, and Jason, a boy that assaulted Aimee when they dated Freshman year. The two girls discover each other’s never before surfaced wounds. With the earnest vulnerability of sixteen-year-olds, Lily and Aimee fall into the possibility of love. Aimee explores her past trauma and realizes she might not be straight like she’d previously assumed. Meanwhile, Lily struggles to reconcile her decision to be with Aimee as she comes to terms with the true extent of her feelings for Tessa. OF OUR OWN interrogates sexual identities, buried trauma, and what it means (or meant) to become a woman in the 2010’s.
  • Inside the Palace Royale by Emma Durbin
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama, fantasy
    ·
    Keyword: feminism, magic + 8 more
    Genre: drama, fantasy
    Keyword: feminism, magic, self-love, romance, friendship, Sex, marriage, curses, wedding, deus ex machina
    Adelaide Gilmore gives up her career in journalism to marry the man of her dreams: her boss and “total sex-god,” Beauregard de Valcourt Kendall. Behind Ada's back, her best friend casts a curse and Beau loses all prior interest in sexual activity the night of their wedding. To reverse the spell, Ada must learn to love herself. Inside the Palace Royale explores romance, betrayal, self-hate, masturbation, and magic.