Gillian Beth Durkee

Gillian Beth Durkee

Gillian Beth Durkee (she/her) is a Seattle-born playwright/screenwriter and an alumna of EST/Youngblood. She has worked with Normal Ave, The Workshop Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Project Y, The Bellwether Project, The Tank, Current Harbor, Sam French OOB Festival, Rhapsody Collective, PTP/NYC, In the Water Theatre Company, Tiny Rhino, and Middlebury College. She currently writes for the forthcoming web...
Gillian Beth Durkee (she/her) is a Seattle-born playwright/screenwriter and an alumna of EST/Youngblood. She has worked with Normal Ave, The Workshop Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Project Y, The Bellwether Project, The Tank, Current Harbor, Sam French OOB Festival, Rhapsody Collective, PTP/NYC, In the Water Theatre Company, Tiny Rhino, and Middlebury College. She currently writes for the forthcoming web series Adulting with Jane.

Awards: Alfred P. Sloan screenwriting grant recipient, Sanguine Project Playwright finalist, three-time O’Neill NPC semi-finalist.

Residencies and conferences: Sewanee Writers Conference; In the Water Block Island guest artist.

Gillian also sings a cappella with Treble NYC, and appeared in the film How to be Single with them.

BA: Middlebury College. MFA: Carnegie Mellon University, Steven Bochco Fellowship; WCDAC Award.

Headshot: Louis B. Stein photography (https://lbsphoto.photoshelter.com/index)

Plays

  • On Trash Monsters
    Horrified by a film on global warming she sees in school, Jessica Bilson decides to take control of her family's trash situation, only to discover there is a trash monster named O'Leary living in their basement garage. The Bilson family quickly find themselves caught up in a tornado of garbage, mononucleosis, Vivaldi busts, 3 a.m. secrets, doll houses, and — most importantly — the crushing guilt of feeling poisonous.
  • Banshees
    Sisters Ettie and Mariella have always been haunted -- Ettie by the difficulties that come with partial hearing loss, Mariella by the feeling of being an outsider in her own family. Mariella is pregnant and very close to her due date when their estranged, biological mother, Gina, is put into hospice care. The combined pressures of this news, Ettie’s new job, Mariella’s concerns about childbirth and motherhood,...
    Sisters Ettie and Mariella have always been haunted -- Ettie by the difficulties that come with partial hearing loss, Mariella by the feeling of being an outsider in her own family. Mariella is pregnant and very close to her due date when their estranged, biological mother, Gina, is put into hospice care. The combined pressures of this news, Ettie’s new job, Mariella’s concerns about childbirth and motherhood, and the occasional appearance (or hallucination?) of banshees send the sisters into a tightly coiled, pushed-down spiral of chaos — one where qualms remain unspoken, unaddressed until they absolutely must claw their way out. This is a story about our relationship to sound, about the intersection of disability and womanhood, about sisterhood and motherhood, about nightmares and fears, about perseverance. It’s about the murky line between taking up the space you deserve, and infringing upon the space that belongs to someone else. When does standing up for oneself become oppressive? Is it possible to stake your claim and maintain peace? What is the non-genetic legacy we leave to those who follow?
  • post-nowism
    Maria has a new job caring for a room full of orbs. Each orb holds the mind of someone who has passed away. Maria learns she, too, will receive an orb - a rare and exciting prospect, mostly reserved for the very wealthy. Maria's father is unwell; he's starting to forget things; he's not as sharp as he's accustomed to being. And then there's Maria's co-worker, Samuel; is there...
    Maria has a new job caring for a room full of orbs. Each orb holds the mind of someone who has passed away. Maria learns she, too, will receive an orb - a rare and exciting prospect, mostly reserved for the very wealthy. Maria's father is unwell; he's starting to forget things; he's not as sharp as he's accustomed to being. And then there's Maria's co-worker, Samuel; is there something off about him? And the widow if a client, Deanne, who possesses a diverting flighty magnetism; but lurking beneath that, is there the potential for something else - something dangerous? Maria stands at the intersection of class, technology, spirituality, and identity, but somehow, in that room full of disembodied minds, she is always a little alone.
  • Little Souvenirs
    An unlikely duo of ghost hunters spends three days in a haunted mansion, while a ghost named Greta grasps for any memory of her death and the life that preceded it. Worlds collide as the ghosts and humans discover they may be linked across the boundaries of time and mortality.
  • The Prying
    To escape a bad relationship, Ray joins her friend Eleanor on a trip home to visit Eleanor's parents. An old friend of Eleanor's, Nat, shows up unexpectedly, asking for help with a mysterious woman she has recently befriended. As Eleanor's attentions are redirected away from Ray, and the cracks in their friendship start to show, Ray must reckon with her aloneness and the influence Eleanor had on her decision to leave her ex.
  • Sincerely, Best Wishes, Regards
    An e-pistolary play. Sheyenne and Willa work together, but they have never met. Sheyenne works out of Des Moines, Willa works out of Sacramento. Neither of them knows what the other looks like, apart from a small, pixelated office headshot in the company roster. Yet, somehow, all of a sudden, maybe freed by the knowledge they’ll likely never meet in person, they come to know one another. The kind of knowing that almost feels like being.