Erin Lerch

Erin (they/them) is a Boston-based playwright and stage manager who can’t/won’t stop writing deeply queer, stubbornly optimistic sci-fi. Erin’s plays often feature found families, unlikely connections, and a fair amount of cussing. They frequently interrogate the role of violence, especially in dire situations, and explore what it means to be a person. They appeared on ArtsBoston’s July 2020 list of 10 Boston Playwrights You Should Know.

Erin’s primary ongoing project is the Legion Cycle, a series of interconnected plays and audio dramas all set in a shared post-alien-apocalypse world. The most recent entry in the Cycle, Break, Break, was produced with the support of a LAB grant from the Boston Foundation by Legion Theatre Project and Artists’ Theater of Boston in September 2023...

Erin (they/them) is a Boston-based playwright and stage manager who can’t/won’t stop writing deeply queer, stubbornly optimistic sci-fi. Erin’s plays often feature found families, unlikely connections, and a fair amount of cussing. They frequently interrogate the role of violence, especially in dire situations, and explore what it means to be a person. They appeared on ArtsBoston’s July 2020 list of 10 Boston Playwrights You Should Know.

Erin’s primary ongoing project is the Legion Cycle, a series of interconnected plays and audio dramas all set in a shared post-alien-apocalypse world. The most recent entry in the Cycle, Break, Break, was produced with the support of a LAB grant from the Boston Foundation by Legion Theatre Project and Artists’ Theater of Boston in September 2023. Previous plays in the series include Shrike, which received its world premiere production with Fresh Ink Theatre in February 2022; and Crossing Flight, the first in the cycle, which premiered with TC Squared Theatre Company in January 2018. The world of the Legion also includes the podcast/audio drama series The Legion Tapes, which Erin is the writer and co-producer for.

Outside of the Legion stories, Erin’s full-length play Pinch Point has been developed at the Valdez Theatre Conference in Alaska and with Flat Earth Theatre in Boston, including a public reading with Flat Earth in March of 2023. Erin’s short plays include By Any Other Name, a one-act that received its world premiere performance in New Repertory Theatre’s inaugural New Rep, New Voices festival in 2022. World Line, a longer one-act, received a digital reading with TC Squared Theatre Company in July 2020 and a staged reading with Blunt Objects Theatre in New Orleans in 2016. Their ten-minute play Random Access Memory received a reading with TC Squared in April 2020, and was performed as part of the 2020 Boston Theatre Marathon with Flat Earth Theatre. Their other ten minute plays, which include Don’t Look Back, Event Horizon, and Clockwork have been read and produced in Texas, West Virginia, Florida, Washington, and throughout Massachusetts.

Scripts

Break, Break: a Legion Cycle play

by Erin Lerch

Synopsis

When the alien Legion arrives, bringing chaos and destruction with them, small-town DJ Rachel takes shelter in the radio station with a small group of survivors, vowing to keep information flowing as long as they can. As the Legion war drags on and the voices over the airwaves start to dwindle away, Rachel and the others must face a difficult decision: do they keep broadcasting in the hope that someone's still...

When the alien Legion arrives, bringing chaos and destruction with them, small-town DJ Rachel takes shelter in the radio station with a small group of survivors, vowing to keep information flowing as long as they can. As the Legion war drags on and the voices over the airwaves start to dwindle away, Rachel and the others must face a difficult decision: do they keep broadcasting in the hope that someone's still alive to hear, or abandon the station - and hope along with it?

Shrike: a Legion Cycle play

by Erin Lerch

Synopsis

When the alien Legion came, Sheena lost everything. All she has left is one final, unlikely dream: the Rebellion. But when she arrives, it’s to a Rebellion shattered by the loss of its leader, pushed to increasingly desperate measures – including working with their alien enemy. As tensions mount, Sheena has to face the question: when you have nothing left, what do you fight for?

When the alien Legion came, Sheena lost everything. All she has left is one final, unlikely dream: the Rebellion. But when she arrives, it’s to a Rebellion shattered by the loss of its leader, pushed to increasingly desperate measures – including working with their alien enemy. As tensions mount, Sheena has to face the question: when you have nothing left, what do you fight for?

Pinch Point

by Erin Lerch

Synopsis

As climate change ravaged the Earth, those with money and power escaped into space, leaving behind the less fortunate to try and survive in the wreckage. Half a century later, a small group of said survivors stumble across a treasure trove left by one of those rich escapees, guarded by a cyborg tasked with keeping people like them out. When their first attempt to break in results in an injury that’s quickly...

As climate change ravaged the Earth, those with money and power escaped into space, leaving behind the less fortunate to try and survive in the wreckage. Half a century later, a small group of said survivors stumble across a treasure trove left by one of those rich escapees, guarded by a cyborg tasked with keeping people like them out. When their first attempt to break in results in an injury that’s quickly becoming lethal, the group must figure out how to defeat the guard - or find a way to convince them to change sides.

Crossing Flight: a Legion Cycle play

by Erin Lerch

Synopsis

Once a veteran fighter pilot, Mel now spends her days hiding from the constant threat of the alien Legion in the basement of an old ranger station, deep in the untouched wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. But when Laione, a winged Legion scout, is shot down right over her head, Mel seizes what could be her last chance to fulfill a lifelong dream. What starts out as an uneasy truce slowly morphs into something...

Once a veteran fighter pilot, Mel now spends her days hiding from the constant threat of the alien Legion in the basement of an old ranger station, deep in the untouched wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. But when Laione, a winged Legion scout, is shot down right over her head, Mel seizes what could be her last chance to fulfill a lifelong dream. What starts out as an uneasy truce slowly morphs into something more as they race against the clock. The Legion is coming. Can they finish in time?

RUBICON: a theatrical RPG

by Erin Lerch

Synopsis

Rae Nigellus, captain of the diplomat/aid ship Rubicon, has been dispatched to a planet currently under siege by a powerful space fleet. But the situation is more complicated than it first appears – not only is Rae contacted by organizers on the ground asking for help of a sort that threatens Rae’s standing as a neutral aid ship; it turns out the leader of the blockading army is someone she once knew, and...

Rae Nigellus, captain of the diplomat/aid ship Rubicon, has been dispatched to a planet currently under siege by a powerful space fleet. But the situation is more complicated than it first appears – not only is Rae contacted by organizers on the ground asking for help of a sort that threatens Rae’s standing as a neutral aid ship; it turns out the leader of the blockading army is someone she once knew, and someone who knows what she’s done.

Written specifically for digital presentation, RUBICON is also a choose-your-own-adventure play. Through choices made before and during the play, the audience will help decide the fate of the Rubicon, the colonists, and Rae herself.

World Line

by Erin Lerch

Synopsis

Eddie has always dreamed of escaping suburban Wyoming to become the first astronaut on Mars. But with their family's debt piling up, and as the anniversary of their mother's death looms, Eddie struggles with the question of whether it's worth it to chase a dream that may never come true. 

Eddie has always dreamed of escaping suburban Wyoming to become the first astronaut on Mars. But with their family's debt piling up, and as the anniversary of their mother's death looms, Eddie struggles with the question of whether it's worth it to chase a dream that may never come true. 

By Any Other Name

by Erin Lerch

Synopsis

In the far future, after a disaster that destroyed her home, Amaranth must decide who and how she needs to be in order to survive beneath the weight of others' expectations.

In the far future, after a disaster that destroyed her home, Amaranth must decide who and how she needs to be in order to survive beneath the weight of others' expectations.

Random Access Memory

by Erin Lerch

Synopsis

Ganymede Dawes, captain of the interstellar courier ship Minnow, has never been one to play by the rules. When her ship's AI (and her best friend) Mallard is ravaged by a memory-mixing virus, Ganymede has to convince a 14-year-old backup to help her get Mal back. But can Mal ever really be the same?

Ganymede Dawes, captain of the interstellar courier ship Minnow, has never been one to play by the rules. When her ship's AI (and her best friend) Mallard is ravaged by a memory-mixing virus, Ganymede has to convince a 14-year-old backup to help her get Mal back. But can Mal ever really be the same?

Don't Look Back

by Erin Lerch

Synopsis

Monsters are much less frightening when you realize they have rules: bogeymen hide under beds, kelpies stick to fords and streams, and Black Dogs can only kill you if you look behind. But who made the rules? And when Abigail asks Riley to break them, will the monster be brave enough to do it?

Monsters are much less frightening when you realize they have rules: bogeymen hide under beds, kelpies stick to fords and streams, and Black Dogs can only kill you if you look behind. But who made the rules? And when Abigail asks Riley to break them, will the monster be brave enough to do it?

Clockwork

by Erin Lerch

Synopsis

You know what they say: life, uh, finds a way. And when Alex and Louie's latest AI project, Clockwork, starts displaying signs of sentience, they have to decide: what does it mean to be alive? And do they have the right to destroy something when they never meant to create it in the first place?

You know what they say: life, uh, finds a way. And when Alex and Louie's latest AI project, Clockwork, starts displaying signs of sentience, they have to decide: what does it mean to be alive? And do they have the right to destroy something when they never meant to create it in the first place?

Event Horizon

by Erin Lerch

Synopsis

Isabel and Maya are orbiting a black hole and a dying star when the ship’s computer detects an anomaly on the edge of the accretion disk. At first, they think it's a ship, trapped in the gravity well and calling for help. But as they get closer, they begin to realize that something is watching, out there in the dark.

Isabel and Maya are orbiting a black hole and a dying star when the ship’s computer detects an anomaly on the edge of the accretion disk. At first, they think it's a ship, trapped in the gravity well and calling for help. But as they get closer, they begin to realize that something is watching, out there in the dark.

Avalon

by Erin Lerch

Synopsis

For Avalon Stephens, hir small, stifling hometown has never felt at all like home. When a family emergency brings Avalon back to Adelaide and into contact with a young trans man struggling to find his footing, Avalon decides to confront hir fear and hir past and work to make the town safe for people of all genders. A play about identity and what happens when the present and the past collide.

For Avalon Stephens, hir small, stifling hometown has never felt at all like home. When a family emergency brings Avalon back to Adelaide and into contact with a young trans man struggling to find his footing, Avalon decides to confront hir fear and hir past and work to make the town safe for people of all genders. A play about identity and what happens when the present and the past collide.