Eric Marlin

Eric Marlin

Eric Marlin (he/him/his) has been produced and developed by the Public Theater, Ars Nova ANT Fest, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, The Tank, Dixon Place, Samuel French, HOT! Festival, Exquisite Corpse Company, PTP/NYC, Tennessee Williams Festival, Play Date @ Pete's, and Wildclaw Theatre. Winner of the Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival and shortlisted for the Berliner Festspiele Stuckemarkt. Finalist for...
Eric Marlin (he/him/his) has been produced and developed by the Public Theater, Ars Nova ANT Fest, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, The Tank, Dixon Place, Samuel French, HOT! Festival, Exquisite Corpse Company, PTP/NYC, Tennessee Williams Festival, Play Date @ Pete's, and Wildclaw Theatre. Winner of the Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival and shortlisted for the Berliner Festspiele Stuckemarkt. Finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, SPACE at Ryder Farm, and the Jewish Plays Project. Former Resident Artist at Montclair's New Works Initiative. Co-founder of the Healthy Oyster Collective, with whom he has created three original works. He has worked as a producer and stage manager for the Bushwick Starr, New Georges, Women’s Project, Red Bull Theatre, CTown, PTP/NYC, Public Theater, New Ohio Ice Factory Festival, and PRELUDE. MFA: Iowa Playwrights Workshop. BA: Bennington College.

Plays

  • bad things happen here by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 6
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: vignettes
    Genre: drama, experimental, political
    Keyword: vignettes
    ​The nation has never been healthier. Crime is down. Streets are clean. Civility reigns. But out of the corner of your eye, you might catch a glimpse of the men keeping things orderly. In a series of brief, enigmatic scenes, two women take us into the heart of a nation that has been disciplined by violence,
  • there will come a time for vengeance by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    11
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    Genre: adaptation, biography + 4 more
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    Keyword: The Jew of Malta, merchant of venice + 6 more
    Genre: adaptation, biography, comedy, experimental, horror, political
    Keyword: The Jew of Malta, merchant of venice, based on Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, judaism, Anti-Semitism, family history, Jewish
    Within the horrifying chambers of the Christian imagination, four Jews chart the psychological and sexual violence of internalized anti-Semitism. A revenge adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Marlowe's The Jew of Malta.
  • Blackberry: A Burial by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 8
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 2 more
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    Keyword: children, grief + 3 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, political, tragedy
    Keyword: children, grief, class and economic inequality, childhood trauma, class
    Jess's pet goat Blackberry has been inexplicably murdered and beheaded. As she burrows into her grief, she begins to hear the song of Blackberry’s head crying out to her. In a world that doesn’t take children's pain seriously, and where grief is too expensive for her family’s means, Jess must grapple with her loss alone as she looks for Blackberry’s head.
  • How to Mourn the Dead: A Tragedy (in flux) by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    14–10000
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    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: Antigone, chorus
    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy, experimental, movement/physical, tragedy
    Keyword: Antigone, chorus
    Two bros watch the dissident Antigone buried alive on national television. The spectacle inspires a misguided attempt to capture her martyrdom in art, as they glibly repurpose her story in search of some truth about the nature of suffering.

    Formerly titled "The Antigones: A Tragedy in Flux."
  • What a World! What a World! by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: comedy, experimental + 3 more
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    Keyword: camp, queer + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, experimental, melodrama, movement/physical, parody/spoof
    Keyword: camp, queer, experimental
    ​Two actors work their way through an old melodrama. It's not going very well. They can't figure out what works and what doesn't. They burrow further and further in. They recreate and destroy. They rehearse again. A new work emerges from the old. But is it any better?
  • Pastoral Play by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    7–12
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    Genre: comedy, experimental + 2 more
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    Keyword: pastiche, queer + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, experimental, musical, parody/spoof
    Keyword: pastiche, queer, music, ensemble
    Everyone’s been hooking up with each other in the meadows. The Wooer loves the Wooed. The City Slicker loves the Wooer. The Wooed’s not into either of them. And the Lady of the Moon is tired of all these dumbstruck lovers. An exploration of the erotic liberation found in pastoral literature, "Pastoral Play" is a pastiche comedy about queer desire and horny shepherds.
  • Kingdom Crosses Over by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: cello, grotesque + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, fantasy, political
    Keyword: cello, grotesque, power dynamics
    The Queen is in distress; the capital of her kingdom has burned down. The Architect has been taken prisoner, and her son has been taken away. The Architect is drafting the plans for the city as fast as she can. But it’s difficult to work with so much screaming in the palace. Inspired by the Argentinian grotesco criollo tradition, Kingdom Crosses Over is an examination of torture and power--and just how terrifying cello music can be.
  • The Book of Jonah [The Interim Years] by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: Bible, Tolstoy + 5 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, drama, experimental, fantasy
    Keyword: Bible, Tolstoy, Jonah, Anna Karenina, memory, love, grief
    Jonah’s been running from God, ever since escaping the belly of the whale. He can’t seem to forget his ex-lover Isaiah as he waits in a rainy train station somewhere in Moscow. And waiting with him is a sad young woman named Anna Karenina, who has her own train to catch. "The Book of Jonah" is the story of the heartbroken Jonah and Anna as they begin to grope their way towards a sense of logic in their sorrows.
  • If the Saints Arrive in Germany by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: adaptation, docudrama/historic + 3 more
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    Keyword: questioning faith, choral style
    Genre: adaptation, docudrama/historic, drama, faith-based, period
    Keyword: questioning faith, choral style
    Sixteen-century Germany. Europe is in the midst of the Protestant Reformation. The nuns of the Convent of St. Cecilia are preparing for the performance of a choral mass to honor the Feast of Corpus Christi. At the same moment, a group of Lutheran iconoclasts have arrived in town to smash the convent to pieces. And yet the woman refuse to flee. The resulting catastrophe provokes an intimate and comic investigation of personal faith.
  • Scenes of Ascending: A Fable by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: Mormon, feminism + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, fantasy, political
    Keyword: Mormon, feminism, theology
    A woman from a modest Mormon household announces to her family that she has decided to become a god. Husband wants to support her. Son doesn't want to know much more. And Daughter just wants her to shut up and say grace. As Wife begins her ascension, the family slowly unspools. Meanwhile, the whole house is slowly flooding. Scenes of Ascending is a comedic fable about ambition, theology and oceans.
  • and come apart by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: Jewish, Jewish history + 1 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, political
    Keyword: Jewish, Jewish history, assimilation
    Three daughters gather for their mother’s passing. Ancient family wounds are reopened as the audience, blindfolded for the play, eavesdrops on these women’s conversations.
  • AirSpace by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    8
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    Genre: comedy, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: absurd comedy, globalization + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, experimental, political
    Keyword: absurd comedy, globalization, corporate culture, corporate corruption
    Susannah's father has just died. But she doesn't have time to grieve. She's been called to Romania to help an unnamed company expand into international markets. Trapped in a world of corporate absurdity, Susannah's grief grows more distant as she burrows into her job. Meanwhile, the city outside is beginning to look oddly like the office inside. AirSpace is a comedy about the cultural consequences of globalization.
  • Denial by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: drama, horror + 1 more
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    Keyword: Anti-Semitism, American Racism + 2 more
    Genre: drama, horror, political
    Keyword: Anti-Semitism, American Racism, state of the nation, Holocaust denial
    Six people gather for a meeting of the minds. The lights go out. The smell of rot permeates the air. The ghosts come out to taunt us. "Denial" is a horror play about humanity's worst impulses.
  • three sisters I never had by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama, experimental
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    Keyword: Chekovian, The Three Sisters + 1 more
    Genre: drama, experimental
    Keyword: Chekovian, The Three Sisters, grief
    Irina wants Moscow. Masha wants Vershinin. Olga wants peace. And in a room that is not in Imperial Russia, a man who is not Chekhov frets about his windowsill, his mother, and the longings of three fictional sisters. The sisters, meanwhile, keep slipping out of their theatrical world, in this phantasmagoric collision between Chekhov’s grief-stricken past and our grief-stricken present.
  • The Lady's Lamentation, 1542 by Eric Marlin
    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 2 more
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    Keyword: Renaissance art, Museums + 1 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, period, political
    Keyword: Renaissance art, Museums, art vs. commerce
    In 1542, a model sits for a painter and is never paid. Over the centuries, the painting's reputation grows. In the present day, the model's descendant demands the money her ancestor never received. A two-hander about art, power, and whether or not the world needs to burn.
  • War/Time by Eric Marlin
    Cast: 
    4–12
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: apocalypse, future
    Genre: comedy, drama, experimental, science fiction
    Keyword: apocalypse, future
    Bomb are dropping. Sparrows are taking over. Spacesuits won't save us. An elegy in five parts, "War/Time" meditates on the end of humanity across millions of years.
  • 'Neath Shuttle Clicks by Eric Marlin
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: docudrama/historic, experimental + 3 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, experimental, movement/physical, musical, political
    Four weavers, through a series of games, begin performing versions of a life unshackled from their looms. Erotic desire and revolutionary impulse mingle and coalesce, and the beginnings of a rebellion start to bubble underneath. Loosely based on the Luddite movement, 'Neath Shuttle Clicks is a found-text play that is built on the sounds and words from eighteenth-century looming life.
  • Breakfast Scene by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, experimental
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    Keyword: Painting
    Genre: comedy, experimental
    Keyword: Painting
    Rene and Georgette Magritte are making breakfast. Outside their kitchen is a cowboy, slowly approaching. Over a few dozen cups of coffee, husband and wife try to avoid discussing their recent infidelities.
  • Lamb, and Other Considerations by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
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    Keyword: absurdism, queer + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: absurdism, queer, witch
    Elliot has brought his boyfriend home to meet his mother. Mom has brought home her new lover, a BDSM-obsessed Russian witch. Fights ensure over a lamb dinner that does not exist.
  • Towards the Heart of the Forest by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: fable/folktale, fantasy
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    Keyword: baba yaga, deconstructed fairy tale + 2 more
    Genre: fable/folktale, fantasy
    Keyword: baba yaga, deconstructed fairy tale, fairy tale, Russian
    Deep in a Russian forest, the witch Baba Yaga is attempting to have a quiet evening in. She won't have much rest when she gets a visit from a young girl named Vera, who is obsessed with the stories of the ancient sorceress.
  • Zurich by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: LGBTQ, melancholy + 1 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: LGBTQ, melancholy, love
    Two men fall in and out of love many times during the course of an 60 years relationship, which takes them from a youthful encounter in a park to a failed life together in Switzerland. Zurich is a ten-minute play that track this relationship in brief, elusive vignettes.
  • Seven Scenes of Writers Writing Writerly by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    4–15
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    Genre: comedy, experimental
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    Keyword: bad writing, dada
    Genre: comedy, experimental
    Keyword: bad writing, dada
    A CPA drones on about his unfinished masterpiece. A eighteenth-century woman scribbles her patriarchy-smashing masterpiece by candlelight. A man destroys his marriage for his art. "Seven Scenes of Writers Writing Writerly" gleefully rips through the worst clichés of artistic genius. Created in collaboration with Lila Rachel Becker.
  • How It Will End by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: comedy
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    Keyword: plays about theatre and acting
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: plays about theatre and acting
    Two women chat during an unbearably long scene change. Chit chat leads to a plan to burn down the theater.
  • The Golem of California by Eric Marlin
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5–7
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    Genre: comedy, young audiences
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    Keyword: Golem, Jewish folklore + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, young audiences
    Keyword: Golem, Jewish folklore, learning
    When a newly made golem runs away from home, he goes on a journey across the land and under the sea to learn about accountability and self-control. An educational play for kids grades 3-6, commissioned by CLIMB Theatre.