Mary Elizabeth Hamilton

Mary Elizabeth Hamilton

Mary Elizabeth Hamilton was a Lila Acheson Wallace Fellow at The Juilliard School and a Jerome New York Fellow at The Lark. She has participated in The O’Neill Theater Conference, Youngblood, I-73, New Georges’ The Jam, and Play Penn. Mary holds her MFA in playwriting from The University of Iowa. Her play 16 Winters won the American Shakespeare Center’s New Contemporaries Award in 2018. She has developed work...
Mary Elizabeth Hamilton was a Lila Acheson Wallace Fellow at The Juilliard School and a Jerome New York Fellow at The Lark. She has participated in The O’Neill Theater Conference, Youngblood, I-73, New Georges’ The Jam, and Play Penn. Mary holds her MFA in playwriting from The University of Iowa. Her play 16 Winters won the American Shakespeare Center’s New Contemporaries Award in 2018. She has developed work with Playwrights Horizons, Studio Theater, EST, Page 73 and Ars Nova. She was a story editor on the television series "Why Women Kill" and wrote the podcast "Power Trip." Mary is a resident playwright with New Dramatists and lives in Brooklyln with her daughter.

Plays

  • Tuesday
    When she learns that her son has been diagnosed with a life threatening illness, Mary, a recovering opioid addict, begs her housekeeper to stay the night and help stop her from falling off the wagon. As the women make dating profiles, try on clothes, smoke, drink and delve into whiskey-induced examinations of their pasts, they find they have more in common than they realized. Will Cathy keep Mary from the abyss...
    When she learns that her son has been diagnosed with a life threatening illness, Mary, a recovering opioid addict, begs her housekeeper to stay the night and help stop her from falling off the wagon. As the women make dating profiles, try on clothes, smoke, drink and delve into whiskey-induced examinations of their pasts, they find they have more in common than they realized. Will Cathy keep Mary from the abyss, or will Mary pull Cathy down along with her? Loosely inspired by Long Day's Journey Into Night, Tuesday is a dark comedy/drama about ghosts, motherhood and addiction.
  • Arise
    What is the line between education and conformity? "Arise" follows 5 characters from very different backgrounds in a bizarre, unexpected and sometimes terrifying interview process for a charter school in Manhattan, which will require more of them than simply their cv's by the interview's end. The play explores the corporatization of education in our country and the affects on the individuals...
    What is the line between education and conformity? "Arise" follows 5 characters from very different backgrounds in a bizarre, unexpected and sometimes terrifying interview process for a charter school in Manhattan, which will require more of them than simply their cv's by the interview's end. The play explores the corporatization of education in our country and the affects on the individuals that this system of education is shaping.
  • A Liberal Tradition
    When her six-year-old daughter starts asking probing questions about the holidays, Gwynn, a young single mom, is forced to examine her own beliefs about the world and then figure out how she's going to communicate them to a six-year-old. Her two best mom friends, meanwhile, have joined a Unitarian church and are planning to "take in a poor person" for the holidays. A Liberal Tradition looks at...
    When her six-year-old daughter starts asking probing questions about the holidays, Gwynn, a young single mom, is forced to examine her own beliefs about the world and then figure out how she's going to communicate them to a six-year-old. Her two best mom friends, meanwhile, have joined a Unitarian church and are planning to "take in a poor person" for the holidays. A Liberal Tradition looks at how we deal with parenting, politics and religion in our modern world...how we balance being honest with ourselves and trying to be good people...and how we take messy stabs at recreating tradition out of a complicated history.
  • The Quiet Ones
    Katherine’s old-school methods as a kindergarten teacher have come under new scrutiny. She struggles to handle a disturbing event between two of her students; her only son is getting married and she can’t decide on a pair of shoes; and she is still recovering from a breakup of her family 17 years ago, after her husband transitioned genders. As Katherine attempts to navigate a new culture using all the old rules...
    Katherine’s old-school methods as a kindergarten teacher have come under new scrutiny. She struggles to handle a disturbing event between two of her students; her only son is getting married and she can’t decide on a pair of shoes; and she is still recovering from a breakup of her family 17 years ago, after her husband transitioned genders. As Katherine attempts to navigate a new culture using all the old rules, the fragility of her world-view becomes painfully clear. The Quiet Ones explores what is lost or gained as we evolve as people and as a society.
  • 16 Winters or The Bear's Tale
    16 Winters or The Bear’s Tale takes place during the 16 year gap between acts one and two of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. After being condemned by her husband for adultery, Her escapes to a small cottage in Bohemia where her attendant, Pauly, cares for her. With nothing to do and little company, the two women do their best to survive the tedium, while the king laments his actions and starts an aging rock...
    16 Winters or The Bear’s Tale takes place during the 16 year gap between acts one and two of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. After being condemned by her husband for adultery, Her escapes to a small cottage in Bohemia where her attendant, Pauly, cares for her. With nothing to do and little company, the two women do their best to survive the tedium, while the king laments his actions and starts an aging rock band. Meanwhile, their abandoned child, P., takes up with some bohemian artists and rebels against the patriarchy…while also falling in love with one of its better-looking representatives. Full of love, jealousy, mistaken identity and male privilege gone wrong, 16 Winters explores the effects of reimagining social constructs, and asks whether it is truly possible to create something new in the wake of repression.
  • The Plan
    When her boyfriend Billy is accepted into an elite culinary institution in Manhattan, Julia sees it as her opportunity to escape her dead end life, and will go to any length to make sure he attends. She decides to visit Billy’s physically incapacitated brother to ask him to stop taking the medication that is keeping him alive, thus freeing Billy of the obligation of his care. Yet her plan has unforeseen...
    When her boyfriend Billy is accepted into an elite culinary institution in Manhattan, Julia sees it as her opportunity to escape her dead end life, and will go to any length to make sure he attends. She decides to visit Billy’s physically incapacitated brother to ask him to stop taking the medication that is keeping him alive, thus freeing Billy of the obligation of his care. Yet her plan has unforeseen repercussions, and as we jump in time, first ahead and then back five years, we begin to question the impact that her actions have, and whether those actions are inevitable or could have been avoided. The Plan explores what it means to ask sacrifices of those we love and the unintended consequences that those sacrifices can entail.
  • One of the Women
    Caroline has her life in order. She pays her bills and taxes early, showers twice a day, writes day-of thank-you notes…yet when that order is shifted even slightly, she’s paralyzed. Therefore when she learns that her father – whom she idolizes – has been lying, stealing and sleeping with prostitutes her entire life, Caroline’s sense of the world is shattered. Her first response is denial. Her second response is...
    Caroline has her life in order. She pays her bills and taxes early, showers twice a day, writes day-of thank-you notes…yet when that order is shifted even slightly, she’s paralyzed. Therefore when she learns that her father – whom she idolizes – has been lying, stealing and sleeping with prostitutes her entire life, Caroline’s sense of the world is shattered. Her first response is denial. Her second response is that she has to get this part of her life in order with the same manic intensity with which she folds socks. She finds the women – mostly sex workers - with whom her father has had relationships. The play follows Caroline’s encounters with these women as she seeks to find the reality behind her father’s past, and in so doing uncovers unexpected truths about herself. Will Caroline be able to let go of her orderly sense of the world so that she can move forward with her life, or will she retreat further from the world the more she learns about it? One of the Women looks at how we construct our ideas of truth and meaning in the world, and what happens when those ideas are called into question.