Natalie Sacks

Natalie Sacks

NATALIE SACKS is a Brooklyn-based playwright specializing in historical and sci-fi theater. Her plays have been finalists or semifinalists for American Shakespeare Center’s Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries, Premiere Stages' Premiere Play Festival, the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, and the Detroit New Works Festival, and have had staged readings at Playground-NY, Benchmark Theatre, Blunt...
NATALIE SACKS is a Brooklyn-based playwright specializing in historical and sci-fi theater. Her plays have been finalists or semifinalists for American Shakespeare Center’s Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries, Premiere Stages' Premiere Play Festival, the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, and the Detroit New Works Festival, and have had staged readings at Playground-NY, Benchmark Theatre, Blunt Objects Theatre, The Rude Mechanicals, The Bechdel Group, and Turn to Flesh Productions.

Plays

  • An Interpretation of Anna by Natalie Sacks
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    9–13
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    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 4 more
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    Keyword: Freud, sigmund freud + 7 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama, period, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Freud, sigmund freud, Holocaust, gay and lesbian, historical drama, psychoanalysis, antisemitism, Austria, 20th century history
    Anna Freud, Sigmund Freud's youngest daughter and a psychoanalyst in her own right, finds her world turned upside down when heiress Dorothy Burlingham arrives in Vienna and requests that she treat her children. Together, the women found a school, fall in love, build a family together, and work to protect the Freuds from the encroaching threat of antisemitism coming out of interwar Germany.

    ...
    Anna Freud, Sigmund Freud's youngest daughter and a psychoanalyst in her own right, finds her world turned upside down when heiress Dorothy Burlingham arrives in Vienna and requests that she treat her children. Together, the women found a school, fall in love, build a family together, and work to protect the Freuds from the encroaching threat of antisemitism coming out of interwar Germany.

    Content Warning: This play contains discussions of antisemitic violence, suicide, domestic violence and animal death.
  • The Young Ladies of the Class of 1902 of Wesleyan University Present, "As You Like It" by Natalie Sacks
    Cast: 
    9
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: Shakespeare, As You Like It + 8 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, period
    Keyword: Shakespeare, As You Like It, historical fiction, women, women's rights, new england, wesleyan university, gender, Connecticut, LGBTQ
    In Middletown, Connecticut in the spring of 1902, the entire women's senior class of Wesleyan University, an early coed college, puts on an all-female production of "As You Like It." Amidst rampant gender discrimination and the looming threat of the university's plans to remove women from its student body entirely, a band of courageous young women come together to make their voices heard...
    In Middletown, Connecticut in the spring of 1902, the entire women's senior class of Wesleyan University, an early coed college, puts on an all-female production of "As You Like It." Amidst rampant gender discrimination and the looming threat of the university's plans to remove women from its student body entirely, a band of courageous young women come together to make their voices heard through Shakespeare. In the meantime, drama, romance, deception and true friendship all begin to form. This play is based on true events.
  • Invasive Species by Natalie Sacks
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama, satire + 1 more
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    Keyword: Dystopia, post-apocalyptic + 5 more
    Genre: drama, satire, science fiction
    Keyword: Dystopia, post-apocalyptic, GMOs, Brooklyn, Bushwick, millennials, Utopia
    Imagine a world in which a "super-GMO" designed to solve world hunger—fast-growing, extremely durable, and requiring almost nothing to survive—has gone completely out-of-control, overtaking the Earth and driving the human race almost entirely extinct. Paul and Magdalena are a late-twenties couple living in Bushwick, Brooklyn, who along with their upstairs neighbor Jaz are each fighting to remake the...
    Imagine a world in which a "super-GMO" designed to solve world hunger—fast-growing, extremely durable, and requiring almost nothing to survive—has gone completely out-of-control, overtaking the Earth and driving the human race almost entirely extinct. Paul and Magdalena are a late-twenties couple living in Bushwick, Brooklyn, who along with their upstairs neighbor Jaz are each fighting to remake the world as they see best, with very different ideas of what that should look like.
  • Hey Sexy: An Environmental Parable by Natalie Sacks
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: global warming, environment + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, experimental, science fiction
    Keyword: global warming, environment, astronomy, magical realism, climate science, video games, hero's journey
    Hey Sexy: An Environmental Parable is a video game-style one-act play about the day the sun explodes and the badass ladies who have to stop it, and the government-sponsored climate change deniers who get in the way.
  • Until We Get It Right by Natalie Sacks
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: drama, period + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Depression, mental illness + 5 more
    Genre: drama, period, tragedy
    Keyword: Depression, mental illness, fractured time, Victorian, 1960s, psychiatry, medicine
    Anna, 1891. Maggie, 1965. Jamie, 2014. Three people whose lives suddenly no longer make sense. UNTIL WE GET IT RIGHT tells a story of depression that spans generations, a fight between love and medication as everything else ceases to matter. Four actors portray a cast of characters in each era struggling to find a solution to a problem no one can understand.
  • 'Tis a Sort of Duty to Be Rich by Natalie Sacks
    Cast: 
    12
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: poetry, feminist + 6 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, melodrama, parody/spoof, period
    Keyword: poetry, feminist, Georgian, London, metatheatrical, friendship between women, social commentary, social class
    At St. James's Coffeehouse, where London's elites come mingle, drink their tea, and louse, a battle of reputations has broken out between free spirit Flavia and prim Roxana. But when a stroke of fate pushes Flavia off the top of the food chain, Roxana finds herself the new object of worship in her society. In this "18th century Mean Girls" adapted from the poetry of Mary Wortley Montagu, can...
    At St. James's Coffeehouse, where London's elites come mingle, drink their tea, and louse, a battle of reputations has broken out between free spirit Flavia and prim Roxana. But when a stroke of fate pushes Flavia off the top of the food chain, Roxana finds herself the new object of worship in her society. In this "18th century Mean Girls" adapted from the poetry of Mary Wortley Montagu, can two women rise above it all and save a true friendship amidst the scheming of their contemporaries?
  • Shooting in the Dark by Natalie Sacks
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: gun violence, Stalking + 6 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: gun violence, Stalking, memory, LGBTQ, millennials, city life, Washington DC, Maryland
    In October 2002, ten people were killed and three others critically injured in a series of completely random sniper attacks across the Washington, DC Metropolitan area. Today, five friends who have just graduated from college and moved to DC revisit those memories of tragedy as they encounter a series of mysterious crimes, from someone stuffing anonymous, threatening notes into their mailbox to one of them...
    In October 2002, ten people were killed and three others critically injured in a series of completely random sniper attacks across the Washington, DC Metropolitan area. Today, five friends who have just graduated from college and moved to DC revisit those memories of tragedy as they encounter a series of mysterious crimes, from someone stuffing anonymous, threatening notes into their mailbox to one of them witnessing the shooting of a stranger directly in front of her. What can you do when you realize violence is all around you and there is no way to stop it?
  • 50 Meters by Natalie Sacks
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: Shakespeare, Farce + 3 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, farce, parody/spoof, romantic comedy
    Keyword: Shakespeare, Farce, Romeo and Juliet, Verona, tour guide
    A modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet, from fair Rosaline's point of view.
  • Loving Grandma Jean by Natalie Sacks
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
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    Keyword: love, grandmother + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: love, grandmother, granddaughter, grandmother/granddaughter relationship, mother and daughter, gender roles, ghosts
    Marianne can't understand why her daughter Amy won't speak to her Grandma Jean. Amy can't understand why her mom won't mind her own business. Then things get spooky when Grandma Jean starts answering back.
  • The Queen of Ireland by Natalie Sacks
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama
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    Keyword: Queen Elizabeth, Grace O'Malley + 4 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: Queen Elizabeth, Grace O'Malley, Ireland, female pirates, pirate, motherhood
    The Palace of Placentia, Greenwich, England, 1593. Queen Elizabeth I receives an unusual petitioner: the Irish Pirate Queen Grace O'Malley, come to negotiate for the freedom of her son, who has been arrested by the English for treason. But from the second she walks in, it's clear that Grace isn't like any other subject Elizabeth has met before; this could even be the one woman who has the upper...
    The Palace of Placentia, Greenwich, England, 1593. Queen Elizabeth I receives an unusual petitioner: the Irish Pirate Queen Grace O'Malley, come to negotiate for the freedom of her son, who has been arrested by the English for treason. But from the second she walks in, it's clear that Grace isn't like any other subject Elizabeth has met before; this could even be the one woman who has the upper hand over the Queen of England. Who could win this battle of wills?
  • Human Programming by Natalie Sacks
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: ai, Artificial Intelligence (AI) + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, science fiction
    Keyword: ai, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Therapy, science, psychology, Robots, Mental Health, scientific research
    Can you train an AI to feel empathy? When one researcher builds an AI therapy bot, his request for help leads to unintended consequences.
  • Masculinity Complex by Natalie Sacks
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: Freud, sigmund freud + 6 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama, period
    Keyword: Freud, sigmund freud, gay and lesbian, historical drama, psychoanalysis, Austria, 20th century history, dogs
    Sigmund Freud's daughter—unmarried, childless, and a renowned psychoanalyst in her own right—confronts her father about her life choices.

    The 10-minute play version of AN INTERPRETATION OF ANNA.
  • Frogs by Natalie Sacks
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, political + 1 more
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    Keyword: frogs, autistic child + 7 more
    Genre: drama, political, young audiences
    Keyword: frogs, autistic child, Autistic, climate activism, climate change, Parenting, father-daughter relationship, public speaking, anxiety
    Did you know that more than a third of all frog species are threatened with extinction? Maya does, and she's making sure the whole school does too.
  • No Place to Go by Natalie Sacks
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, holiday + 2 more
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    Keyword: Christmas holiday, holiday comedy + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, holiday, romantic comedy, zoom
    Keyword: Christmas holiday, holiday comedy, holiday, holiday party, great for zoom, cats, zoom play
    Sometimes a childhood friend's holiday party isn't the worst way to spend your Saturday night.
  • Three Ghosts Walk Into a Bar by Natalie Sacks
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: A Christmas Carol, Christmas holiday + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, holiday, parody/spoof, political, satire
    Keyword: A Christmas Carol, Christmas holiday, holiday comedy, bar, ghosts
    The ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come walk into a bar...
  • Susceptible to Fire by Natalie Sacks
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, parody/spoof
    "Well, he was sorta asking for it, dressing in such flammable clothing. If he didn't want to get set on fire, he should have stayed indoors." A reflection on the sexism and bigotry of internet comments sections.