Rae Binstock

Rae Binstock

Rae Binstock is a playwright and screenwriter from Cambridge, MA. Her work interrogates climate change and social justice through the lens of intersectional self-confrontation. She earned her B.A. from Columbia University, where she was mentored by David Henry Hwang and Ellen McLaughlin. Her plays include That Heaven’s Vault Should Crack (The New Group, Lark Development Center, T. Schreiber’s Studios), land of...
Rae Binstock is a playwright and screenwriter from Cambridge, MA. Her work interrogates climate change and social justice through the lens of intersectional self-confrontation. She earned her B.A. from Columbia University, where she was mentored by David Henry Hwang and Ellen McLaughlin. Her plays include That Heaven’s Vault Should Crack (The New Group, Lark Development Center, T. Schreiber’s Studios), land of no mercy (Landing Theatre Company, Salt Lake Acting Company, Princess Grace finalist), Consequences (Stella Adler’s Playwrights Division, Jane Chambers Award finalist), and WALKERS (The Shelter, O’Neill Conference semifinalist, Jerome Fellowship finalist) and her work has been produced and developed as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival, Jewish Plays Project, and the Fresh Fruit Festival, among others.
Rae served as the Writers’ Assistant on both FX Networks’ FOSSE/VERDON and Apple+’s shows Schmigadoon, IF/THEN, and LIBERTY. She is also one of the authors of the Climate Storytelling Playbook, a writing guide for climate change stories published by the nonprofit Good Energy. Rae has won fellowships with, among others, the Lark Play Development Center, the Dramatists Guild, and New York Foundation of the Arts. She is the 2023 Grand Prize Winner of both Screencraft and WeScreenplay’s national TV pilot competitions, and a two-time semifinalist for the Sundance Episodic Lab. She lives in Los Angeles with her cats, Lila and Garlic.

Plays

  • Relentless by Rae Binstock
    Cast: 
    5–6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: Boxing, Generational + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, movement/physical
    Keyword: Boxing, Generational, sports, women, american race relations
    Monique Jeffries was poised to be one of the greatest professional boxers in history, and her coach Johnny has never let her forget it. But years after her career has ended, Monique is right back where she started: running Bailey’s, her childhood gym, training finance bros with delusions of grandeur, and taking directions from an overbearing Johnny. As the Golden Gloves amateur tournament approaches, Monique...
    Monique Jeffries was poised to be one of the greatest professional boxers in history, and her coach Johnny has never let her forget it. But years after her career has ended, Monique is right back where she started: running Bailey’s, her childhood gym, training finance bros with delusions of grandeur, and taking directions from an overbearing Johnny. As the Golden Gloves amateur tournament approaches, Monique receives a surprising offer from one of her “white-collar” boxing clients: he wants to buy Bailey’s from her and convert it into an elite boxing facility, where they can train the best of the best and revitalize the flagging sport. After years of being marginalized for being a woman in a man’s sport, Monique is ready to jump at the chance for some real power. But Johnny, a boxing purist who is training a new champion for the Gloves with the same fervor he once trained Monique—and also happens to own a controlling share of the gym—isn’t about to let that happen. The ensuing bout between teacher and student is brutal, intimate, and bare-knuckled, but someone has to win in the end. After all, in this game, you need to be relentless.
  • WALKERS by Rae Binstock
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: apocalypse, group dynamics + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, drama, science fiction
    Keyword: apocalypse, group dynamics, Orthodox Judaism, US Marines
    WALKERS is a post-apocalyptic play (as most plays we write in and about 2020 will be) that follows a group of travelers who are trying to traverse the North American continent in the wake of an unspecified social collapse. Total strangers brought together by the simple fact that there is safety in numbers, survival is their primary challenge; but as time wears on, the change wrought in each of them by the...
    WALKERS is a post-apocalyptic play (as most plays we write in and about 2020 will be) that follows a group of travelers who are trying to traverse the North American continent in the wake of an unspecified social collapse. Total strangers brought together by the simple fact that there is safety in numbers, survival is their primary challenge; but as time wears on, the change wrought in each of them by the sudden shift from civilization to wilderness address the internal shift of human to animal. We are not who we think we are—and that may be what saves our lives.
  • 1,077 (The Shooter Play) by Rae Binstock
    Recommendations: 7
    ·
    Cast: 
    6–17
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, fantasy, horror, political, tragedy
    Today is the day that John will take his guns to school and shoot as many people as he can. But before he does, he’ll be visited by a series of apparitions that include his heroes and predecessors in the history of mass shootings. Guided by these ghosts on a journey through his own life, John confronts his anger, his fear, and the most important decision in the lives of victims yet-to-be.
  • land of no mercy by Rae Binstock
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    7–10
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: Jewish, Mexican American + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, period, romantic comedy
    Keyword: Jewish, Mexican American, identity, gentrification, shared space, Chinese American, Lower East Side, America
    The apartment sits on the corner of Monroe and Clinton, tucked away in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. It’s a cozy little place, just big enough for two—but which two? Yetta and Solomon, the Jewish immigrants from 1915, business owners fighting to get through each day and hold on to a world thousands of miles away, while they worry about starting a family in the Land of Opportunity? Or Maria and Alex, the...
    The apartment sits on the corner of Monroe and Clinton, tucked away in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. It’s a cozy little place, just big enough for two—but which two? Yetta and Solomon, the Jewish immigrants from 1915, business owners fighting to get through each day and hold on to a world thousands of miles away, while they worry about starting a family in the Land of Opportunity? Or Maria and Alex, the millennial oddballs of the present who sweep into the neighborhood on a tide of gentrification, struggling to keep their college relationship viable in the face of new stressors, new ambitions, and new neighbors?

    A century apart but close enough to touch, two couples inhabit the same cramped apartment. Their stories weave together, contrasted throughout history, a collage of youth, hope, and uncertainty in what Tony Kushner calls “the melting pot where nothing melted”.
  • POSER by Rae Binstock
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    5–6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: Art and Artists, figure model + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, romantic comedy
    Keyword: Art and Artists, figure model, young, sexual assault, dance, personal discovery, nudity
    The job of a figure model is simple: strip, pose, and whatever you do, keep still. But when a veteran model finds herself sharing the stage with an opinionated newcomer, hot tempers and rash decisions explode into a chaotic conflict that renders the calm of peace impossible. POSE is a series of portraits chronicling a wild relationship, a fall from grace, and a glimpse of the light from the bottom of the well.
  • Watch Me Burn by Rae Binstock
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: firefighter, queer women + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, political, romantic comedy
    Keyword: firefighter, queer women, African American women, family, Haitian, feminism
    Prometheus “Methe” Graham, a young black New York City firefighter, is determined to rely on herself and no one else. But the heat is rising: the stresses of her mother’s recent death, her teenage sister’s rebellion, her captain’s doubts, and the disapproval of her Harlem neighbors create an ongoing psychic holocaust that threatens to consume her from within. There are those—like Methe’s next-door neighbor...
    Prometheus “Methe” Graham, a young black New York City firefighter, is determined to rely on herself and no one else. But the heat is rising: the stresses of her mother’s recent death, her teenage sister’s rebellion, her captain’s doubts, and the disapproval of her Harlem neighbors create an ongoing psychic holocaust that threatens to consume her from within. There are those—like Methe’s next-door neighbor Sophia, who starts out friendly and ends up in bed, or her firehouse buddy Andre, who’s not sure whether his loyalties lie with the job or with those he works beside—that try to penetrate her self-selected isolation. But when the time comes, it seems unlikely that they can spare her the revenge taken by the flames she has fought so hard to conquer.
  • The Snowstorm by Rae Binstock
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: Jewish Family, rabbi + 6 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, faith-based, period, political, romantic comedy
    Keyword: Jewish Family, rabbi, love, interracial, 1950s, African American, America, Chicago
    In 1950s Chicago, a fierce winter storm isn't the only thing raging. When the oldest son of an influential Reform rabbi brings home a mysterious fiancée, the entire household is thrown out of balance. A friendly dinner does little to diffuse tensions, instead revealing that the younger brother has his own budding relationship—with the family’s lifelong Black maid. As their sons embrace the secular...
    In 1950s Chicago, a fierce winter storm isn't the only thing raging. When the oldest son of an influential Reform rabbi brings home a mysterious fiancée, the entire household is thrown out of balance. A friendly dinner does little to diffuse tensions, instead revealing that the younger brother has his own budding relationship—with the family’s lifelong Black maid. As their sons embrace the secular standards with which they’ve been raised, Rabbi Goldman and his wife have to decide what’s more important to them: the traditions of their people, or the future of their children.

    Roles and expectations of post-World War II America are explored through the relationships that run back and forth like telephone wires across the snow-bound city. Who protects the boundaries of the home—and who redefines them?
  • We Are The Light Of The World by Rae Binstock
    Cast: 
    4–6
    ·
    Genre: drama, political
    ·
    Keyword: Race, protest + 6 more
    Genre: drama, political
    Keyword: Race, protest, pregnancy, apocalypse, prophet, couples, racial struggle, lovers
    Toine and Katie are a young interracial couple, trying to survive in the aftermath of a racial apocalypse that has plunged the United States into violence and chaos. As Toine scavenges for supplies in the ruined city, a pregnant Katie waits restlessly in their squatter’s shelter on the outskirts. Meanwhile, Toine’s sister Val emerges as the semi-mythic narrator of the play, a brutal insurrectionist,...
    Toine and Katie are a young interracial couple, trying to survive in the aftermath of a racial apocalypse that has plunged the United States into violence and chaos. As Toine scavenges for supplies in the ruined city, a pregnant Katie waits restlessly in their squatter’s shelter on the outskirts. Meanwhile, Toine’s sister Val emerges as the semi-mythic narrator of the play, a brutal insurrectionist, inspirational leader of the revolution, and passionate prophet of suffering and rebirth.
  • Consequences by Rae Binstock
    Cast: 
    9
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 5 more
    ·
    Keyword: women, History + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, docudrama/historic, fantasy, period, political, satire
    Keyword: women, History, Muslim, African American, America, Mexican, Statue of Liberty, Lesbian, argument
    A rowdy group of American women come together across time, space and culture to ask the political question of today: “what DO women want?”
  • Expedition by Rae Binstock
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    4–8
    ·
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 5 more
    ·
    Keyword: queer, lewis & clark + 7 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama, fable/folktale, period, political, romantic comedy
    Keyword: queer, lewis & clark, long distance relationship, America, Native American, love, Art and Artists, Chicago, New York
    Expedition twists, twines, and collides with time as two epic journeys are played out across the American continent. In 2014, two young men struggle to sustain a relationship in the face of distance and change; in 1804, Lewis and Clark embark upon an expedition to cross the continent and reach the Pacific coast. Whether confronting old taboos or forging new alliances, both partnerships tackle American history...
    Expedition twists, twines, and collides with time as two epic journeys are played out across the American continent. In 2014, two young men struggle to sustain a relationship in the face of distance and change; in 1804, Lewis and Clark embark upon an expedition to cross the continent and reach the Pacific coast. Whether confronting old taboos or forging new alliances, both partnerships tackle American history in the making, charting a difficult course for territory that is both promising and terrifying.
  • Blue Skies At Home by Rae Binstock
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, romantic comedy
    ·
    Keyword: dance, Immigrants + 6 more
    Genre: drama, romantic comedy
    Keyword: dance, Immigrants, Haitian, Spain, love, friendship, flamenco, breakdancing
    In a grimy Massachusetts garage, two immigrant teenagers experience a moment of connection while teaching each other the way they dance.
  • The Gentleman Caller by Rae Binstock
    Cast: 
    6–7
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Transgender
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: Transgender
    As the Warner family gathers for their annual summer vacation to a quaint little cabin on Martha’s Vineyard, tensions are (like always) running high. Older brother Davy has recently lost his job and has moved back into his mother Ellen’s house, bringing his prelingually deaf daughter Koko with him. Ellen herself has just come off a brutal divorce, and all of this is in harsh contrast to younger sister Jenny,...
    As the Warner family gathers for their annual summer vacation to a quaint little cabin on Martha’s Vineyard, tensions are (like always) running high. Older brother Davy has recently lost his job and has moved back into his mother Ellen’s house, bringing his prelingually deaf daughter Koko with him. Ellen herself has just come off a brutal divorce, and all of this is in harsh contrast to younger sister Jenny, whose professional success is matched by her recent engagement. But Jenny arrives at the Vineyard with not one, but two guests in tow: her fiancé Eli, nervous about spending a month with his (white) in-laws, and a mysterious new friend named Ollie. As Ollie immediately clicks with the rest of the family, his presence seems a blessing in this neurotic and dysfunctional atmosphere. But things are not always as they appear, and the truth of Ollie’s identity will rock the Warners to their very core as old secrets resurface and new transformations sink in.
  • Just Off The Pike by Rae Binstock
    Cast: 
    7–8
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: motel, bedtime + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, young audiences
    Keyword: motel, bedtime, mother and son, Fathers and Daughters, coming of age, Boston
    When he was twelve, Michael’s mother brought him to an old motel on the outskirts of Boston and told him to wait until she got back. Alone and frightened, he made contact with Clancy, the front-desk manager, who communicates solely through the intercom in the tiny motel room. In the weeks and years that follow, Michael and Clancy’s relationship only gets stronger—despite the fact that they have never met face-...
    When he was twelve, Michael’s mother brought him to an old motel on the outskirts of Boston and told him to wait until she got back. Alone and frightened, he made contact with Clancy, the front-desk manager, who communicates solely through the intercom in the tiny motel room. In the weeks and years that follow, Michael and Clancy’s relationship only gets stronger—despite the fact that they have never met face-to-face. As Michael struggles with becoming an adult, Clancy does what he can to prepare his friend for a journey through fear and anger that finally arrives at peace.
  • FRONTIER by Rae Binstock
    Cast: 
    6–12
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: TV, writers + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, satire
    Keyword: TV, writers, Race, age, debate, Lesbian
    Dee White is a young television writer with a beautiful girlfriend, a thriving career, and a harsh spotlight following her progress as a young black lesbian in the wilds of Hollywood. When she’s hired to workshop a screenplay written by Mike Walter, longtime TV veteran and her writing idol, Dee is ecstatic at the chance to work directly with the man whose work taught her to write. But Mike isn’t so thrilled,...
    Dee White is a young television writer with a beautiful girlfriend, a thriving career, and a harsh spotlight following her progress as a young black lesbian in the wilds of Hollywood. When she’s hired to workshop a screenplay written by Mike Walter, longtime TV veteran and her writing idol, Dee is ecstatic at the chance to work directly with the man whose work taught her to write. But Mike isn’t so thrilled, especially when the studio makes it clear that Dee is being brought in to make his script a little more “socially modern.” Tempers clash as the past and future of storytelling come to a flashpoint between the two writers, and as things get heated the lines between writing and reality begin to blur…