Wendy Herlich

Wendy Herlich

Originally from Seattle, and more recently NYC, Wendy is a playwright and performer now living in the Philly area. Her Awkward Romance series of original two-person shows (An Evening of Awkward Romance, Another Evening of Awkward Romance, and Awkward Romance: The Third Evening) have been performed at The Tank and The New York International Fringe Festival, earning four stars from Time Out, which called the work...
Originally from Seattle, and more recently NYC, Wendy is a playwright and performer now living in the Philly area. Her Awkward Romance series of original two-person shows (An Evening of Awkward Romance, Another Evening of Awkward Romance, and Awkward Romance: The Third Evening) have been performed at The Tank and The New York International Fringe Festival, earning four stars from Time Out, which called the work "perky, quirky, and easily crushed on." For two years in a row, Another Evening of Awkward Romance and Awkward Romance: The Third Evening were selected by Indie Theater Now for publication as part of their FringeNYC Fringe Collection.

Her play Played in China was a semi-finalist for the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. Her work has been performed and read at The New York International Fringe Festival, The Tank, The Barrow Group mainstage, TBG Arts Center, the PIT, The Playground Experiment, and Primary Stages ESPA.

Wendy is also a fiction writer; her short story "Silence Is Golden" was a finalist in the Mississippi Review's annual contest. Other short fiction has appeared in The Laurel Review, the Berkeley Fiction Review, and the Hawaii Review.

She has studied acting with Seth Barrish at the Barrow Group, and improv with Randy Dixon of Unexpected Productions, the UCB Theatre, The People’s Improv Theater (PIT), and Chicago City Limits, where she was a member of the National Touring Company. As an actress and improviser, she has performed regionally and internationally.

Plays

  • Territory 4
    In a sterile conference room, with clients watching through a one-way mirror, Danielle, reeling from a run-in with her ex, moderates a focus group of six small business owners to get feedback that will influence the launch of a new credit card. In this satire, marketing and technology have come together to rule society, and Danielle finds herself resorting to more and more desperate tactics to get insights....
    In a sterile conference room, with clients watching through a one-way mirror, Danielle, reeling from a run-in with her ex, moderates a focus group of six small business owners to get feedback that will influence the launch of a new credit card. In this satire, marketing and technology have come together to rule society, and Danielle finds herself resorting to more and more desperate tactics to get insights. Over the course of the evening, the world turns upside down, until even a premium airport lounge isn't what it seems.

    Territory 4 explores the lengths to which we'll go for convenience and comfort in the modern age.
  • Played in China
    Gwen, a stay-at-home mom concerned about her estranged, video-game obsessed son, dives into the massive multi-player role-playing game Progeny of the Revolution in the hopes of connecting with him anonymously. In the process, she hires Liu, a young Chinese woman who is working in the black market industry of “gold farming,” to level her up so she can play with him. When Gwen gets more information than she...
    Gwen, a stay-at-home mom concerned about her estranged, video-game obsessed son, dives into the massive multi-player role-playing game Progeny of the Revolution in the hopes of connecting with him anonymously. In the process, she hires Liu, a young Chinese woman who is working in the black market industry of “gold farming,” to level her up so she can play with him. When Gwen gets more information than she bargained for, and Liu sees an opportunity to raise her station in life, the women become entwined in a dance of hope, resentment, and something resembling friendship.
  • An Evening of Awkward Romance
    AN EVENING OF AWKWARD ROMANCE introduces a collection of oddball characters on their quest to find love. An office romance at an ad agency sours over excessive jargon; a woman with a movie-related “affliction” finds her Prince Charming; a couple of misfits find true love at a funeral home. These and other vignettes are interwoven to create a hilarious (and at times poignant) celebration of the search for the elusive “soul mate.”
  • Another Evening of Awkward Romance
    The second in a series, ANOTHER EVENING OF AWKWARD ROMANCE features seven vignettes, including a chronic sinus infection sufferer who is infatuated with her pharmacist, a pair of lovelorn auctioneers, and a teenager who wants nothing more than for her boyfriend to notice her physical flaws. This two-person comedy offers an unvarnished take on the search for love, and celebrates human beings at our most odd, endearing, and vulnerable.
  • Awkward Romance: the Third Evening
    The third in a series featuring characters bungling their way through love, AWKWARD ROMANCE: THE THIRD EVENING centers on the story of two movie sidekicks yearning to change their fates. As they struggle to cross space and time, other misfits contend with their own challenges, including a babytalker trying to kick the habit, a hip-hop–loving phone solicitor who can’t stop dancing at a wedding, and a lonely, yet...
    The third in a series featuring characters bungling their way through love, AWKWARD ROMANCE: THE THIRD EVENING centers on the story of two movie sidekicks yearning to change their fates. As they struggle to cross space and time, other misfits contend with their own challenges, including a babytalker trying to kick the habit, a hip-hop–loving phone solicitor who can’t stop dancing at a wedding, and a lonely, yet powerfully persuasive employee at a holiday store.