Ellen O'Brien

Ellen O'Brien

ELLEN O’BRIEN is a Boston-based playwright.

Her 10-minute play Just the Right Light, was a Region 1 (semi-finalist) in KCACTF Gary Garrison National Ten-Minute Play Award.

Her 10-minute play Phenom has been featured in the Boston Theater Marathon, and her full-length play Rabbit Hunting as Dawn was developed as a Next Voices fellow at New Repertory Theatre in Newton, MA. She is a...
ELLEN O’BRIEN is a Boston-based playwright.

Her 10-minute play Just the Right Light, was a Region 1 (semi-finalist) in KCACTF Gary Garrison National Ten-Minute Play Award.

Her 10-minute play Phenom has been featured in the Boston Theater Marathon, and her full-length play Rabbit Hunting as Dawn was developed as a Next Voices fellow at New Repertory Theatre in Newton, MA. She is a 2016 recipient of an MFA in Creative Writing for Stage and Screen from Lesley University.

Plays

  • Rabbit Hunting at Dawn by Ellen O'Brien
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: drama, tragedy
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    Keyword: school shooting, journalists + 5 more
    Genre: drama, tragedy
    Keyword: school shooting, journalists, investigative journalists, mothers, guns, school violence, combat trauma
    How does the nonstop cycle of U.S. school shootings - trauma, loss, prayers, loss, apologies and presidential appeals - take its toll on all of us? This play answers big-picture questions through the lens of one female journalist and the hearts of women who come together in the aftermath of an early school shooting.

    in In 2016, two Arkansas boys open fire on their schoolmates, killing five young...
    How does the nonstop cycle of U.S. school shootings - trauma, loss, prayers, loss, apologies and presidential appeals - take its toll on all of us? This play answers big-picture questions through the lens of one female journalist and the hearts of women who come together in the aftermath of an early school shooting.

    in In 2016, two Arkansas boys open fire on their schoolmates, killing five young children. Journalist Dylan Yates and photographer Beirut Dani show up to cover yet another school shooting. As details of the deadly day unfold in an unrelenting media climate, Dylan finds herself unraveling. The homicide humor she uses to hold up under pressure seems to fall flat, and the toll that her work takes on her marriage and family begins to rise to the surface.

    Inspired by a real-world event, this is a play about gun violence that never mentions gun rights, the debate over them, or the 2nd Amendment. At its heart, it’s a play about mothers. Mothers and grief, mothers and blame, and mothers who must admit they cannot save everyone.
  • Common Cores by Ellen O'Brien
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: Boston, irish + 3 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: Boston, irish, interracial relationships, Celtic music, mermaids
    Phineas “Finn” O’Dea and Talitha Harris are Parent Council Co-Chairs at a Boston elementary school slated for a possible closing, and they are worlds apart on the issue. But the disagreements they have over race and class and public school funding are all overshadowed by the real battle they share: Can they keep denying their true feelings for each other? An Irish immigrant and widower, Finn mourns the loss of...
    Phineas “Finn” O’Dea and Talitha Harris are Parent Council Co-Chairs at a Boston elementary school slated for a possible closing, and they are worlds apart on the issue. But the disagreements they have over race and class and public school funding are all overshadowed by the real battle they share: Can they keep denying their true feelings for each other? An Irish immigrant and widower, Finn mourns the loss of his wife and the vision she had for the little neighborhood school. Born in Barbados and raised in Boston, Talitha is carrying the burden of raising a black son in a mostly white system. As Finn and Talitha navigate the treacherous and sometimes hilarious territory of public school politics, they must also decide whether to follow through on an obvious simmering attraction and risk real heartache.