Alexa Derman

Alexa Derman

Alexa Derman's plays include THE CREATURE (O’Neill NPC Finalist; Princess Grace/New Dramatists Runner-Up; Kernodle Prize), PSYCHOPSYCHOTIC (Relentless Award Honorable Mention), GIRLISH (Fresh Ink), RESTORATION MASTER RESET (Cutting Ball in WAYS TO LEAVE A BODY), ZIONISTA RISING (Winner, Jewish Plays Project National Competition) and I’LL BE IN MY HANUKKAH PALACE (sold-out at Ars Nova ANT Fest). Finalist:...
Alexa Derman's plays include THE CREATURE (O’Neill NPC Finalist; Princess Grace/New Dramatists Runner-Up; Kernodle Prize), PSYCHOPSYCHOTIC (Relentless Award Honorable Mention), GIRLISH (Fresh Ink), RESTORATION MASTER RESET (Cutting Ball in WAYS TO LEAVE A BODY), ZIONISTA RISING (Winner, Jewish Plays Project National Competition) and I’LL BE IN MY HANUKKAH PALACE (sold-out at Ars Nova ANT Fest). Finalist: Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship (x2), the O’Neill, Seven Devils; semifinalist: Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Irons in the Fire; long-list: Theatre 503 International Playwriting Prize (x2). Other honors and experiences include: nomination for the Cherry Lane Mentor Project, L Arnold Weissberger Award (x2), and the Susan Smith Blackburn; participation in Orchard Project’s Audio Lab; selection as a Playwrights Center Core Apprentice (mentored by Sheila Callaghan); and recently working as a staff writer on a Netflix series. She is currently under commission from Manhattan Theatre Club via the Sloan Foundation and is a member of Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writers Group. BA from Yale in Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies; brand-new MFA from Brown, where she studied under Julia Jarcho. alexaderman.com

Plays

  • The Creature by Alexa Derman
    Recommendations: 6
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    Cast: 
    6–12
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: future, apocalypse + 3 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, science fiction
    Keyword: future, apocalypse, bio-ethics, speculative, reproductive autonomy
    Soon, a biomedically-engineered creature is grown in the body of a graduate student – and then soon becomes later. A speculative play about care, reproduction, bodies, and every wild thing.
  • PSYCHOPSYCHOTIC, or, everyone at yale is a goddamn sociopath !!! by Alexa Derman
    Recommendations: 11
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: dark comedy, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: feminism, misogyny + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental, horror
    Keyword: feminism, misogyny, gender, college, rape culture
    Something is amiss at Yale University. Female students are disappearing at alarming rates, only to be later found stuffed in discount mini-fridges and hacked to pieces. Meanwhile, a new freshman is pretty sure there’s something up with the guy she met at the campus bar last night...
  • Girlish by Alexa Derman
    Recommendations: 6
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: girls, female friendship + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: girls, female friendship, internet, teenage girls
    Windy loves painting her nails, being fifteen, goofing off with her BFF, and every one of her American Girl dolls. But loving AG is totally embarrassing until it leads you to Internet fame and sexting A Boy and then it’s -- what, exactly?
  • I'll be in my Hanukkah palace by Alexa Derman
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, experimental + 2 more
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    Keyword: Jewish, kids + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, experimental, faith-based, fantasy
    Keyword: Jewish, kids, dunno what's up with this one truly
    Five Jewish nine-year-olds LARP Christianity! Watch as they: role-play heterosexual marriage, don flame-throwing mech suits, stab each other to facilitate animal reincarnation and try to cross themselves. I’ll be in my Hanukkah Palace is a feverish excursion back into the weirdo dreamscape of queer Jewish childhood.
  • Play House by Alexa Derman
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: queer, thriller + 6 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, horror
    Keyword: queer, thriller, horror, dinner party, feral teens, stand-mixers, Cryptids, Gen Z vs millennials
    Jo and Mona are married, Jo and Mona live in a beautiful house, Jo and Mona have wonderful friends visiting for the weekend, Jo and Mona don’t know about the two Teen Things lurking in the shadows, waiting, waiting…
  • Zionista Rising by Alexa Derman
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: American Jews and Israel
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, faith-based
    Keyword: American Jews and Israel
    At a Jewish American media organization, two Gen Z interns compete to rebrand Israel as a #girlboss #progressive #diversity-win via an AI-generated Instagram influencer. Somewhere, a Jewish American playwright is slowly losing her shit as her play is falling apart.