Full-Length Plays
By Brianna Barrett
Identity Crisis. Narrative Medicine. Dick jokes with heart.
36 Perfectly Appropriate Mealtime Conversations
90 minutes. Cast of 6
Cameron is a hopeless romantic trying to turn online dates into real relationships to no avail until a chance second encounter with Parker. Newlyweds Morgan and Terry want to "spice things up" when they get a lot more spice than they bargained for. With a script designed such that every character can be played by an actor of any gender without changing a single line of dialogue, six actors trade roles each night to present a series of conversations about making babies, getting STDs, meeting parents, singing pop songs, and propositioning strangers for that weird stuff your spouse won’t do.
Recognition:
1st Place Selection, Page to Stage V, Hillsboro Artists' Regional Theatre
George Burns and Gracie Allen Scholarship and Fellowship in Comedy
Semi-Finalist, Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference
Finalist, KCACTF/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop
Development:
Workshop, Theatre 33
Workshop, Fertile Ground Festival
Reading, Lewis & Clark College (Gender Studies Symposium)
Community Theater Production, Hillsboro Artists' Regional Theatre
High School Production, Albuquerque High School
90 minutes. Cast of 5
Marigold is having a baby. Francine is just in commercials. One of their moms is trying to hold it together while the other creates an artificial intelligence algorithm to write her a masterpiece before she dies because surely by now she doesn't have enough time. The family reckons with what it means to honor someone's legacy.
Recognition:
Mark Twain Prize in Comic Playwriting
Finalist, Portland Civic Theatre Guild's New Play Award
Finalist, Pegasus PlayLab
Finalist, Gulfshore Playhouse New Works Festival
Development:
Production, The New Stage
Workshop, Theatre 33
Reading, Naked Angels LA
Reading, Vivid Stage
Florence Fane in San Francisco
2 hours. Cast of 10-13
A Civil War Era romantic comedy inspired by real columns from the city's most popular weekly newspaper: The Golden Era. A serious young woman enters the Lick House Hotel Saloon, looking for a job as a journalist -- she begrudgingly agrees to write a gossip column in the persona of a young single lady out on the town. What she finds is a new side of herself she didn't know she had, and a chance at a life she didn't know she wanted. Battles rage between North and South, between rival publishing companies, and between her relationship with her own alter ego.
Recognition:
Regional Arts and Culture Council Project Grant
Finalist, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference
Development:
Writing group, Central Works
Reading, Artists Repertory Theatre produced by LineStorm Playwrights
Reading, Seattle Playwrights Salon
Reading, Echo Theatre's "First Draft" produced by Over the Bridge Arts
Adapted for radio on the NYTimes recommended "Storybound" Podcast, sponsored by Regional Arts and Culture Council Project Grant, 2020. Hear it here!
90 minutes. Cast of 8-30+
Rae is diagnosed with cancer during her senior year in high school. Her sister Margo stays home from college to care for her. TV shows and social media posts become their main outlets to the world outside, as Rae copes with isolation in a highly-connected digital world.
Recognition:
Kenneth Macgowan Family Playwriting Award
Finalist, Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival
Monologue published in The Best Women's Monologues from New Plays 2020 (Applause Books)
Development:
Commissioned by Camas High School / Leukemia Lymphoma Society
Production, Camas High School
Production, Springfield High School
Production, Chagrin Falls Academy for the Performing Arts
Production, Bard High School Early College in Manhattan
Workshop, Northwest Narrative Medicine Conference
Reading, Fertile Ground Festival produced by LineStorm Playwrights
Reading, Seattle Playwrights Salon
90 minutes. Cast of 6
Harvey and Evan used to play in a band together. They've been best friends since high school. Then Harvey got a little too into drugs, Evan got straight-laced and settled down with a wife.... and now Evan has cancer. Harvey hasn't been a very good friend, in fact, he hasn't shown up at all. When Harvey finally comes back into Evan's life, they finally see the world through one another's eyes. Not in a good way.
Recognition:
Finalist, Portland Civic Theatre Guild's New Play Award
Development:
MFA Thesis Production, UCLA
Reading, 21Ten Theatre
Reading, Desert Island Studios' Top Secret Club
True Love and Other Noncommunicable Diseases
80 minutes. Solo show.
The first person perspective of a 24-year-old diagnosed with cancer, dealing with all the normal stuff: online dating, finding love, going bald, making awkward YouTube videos and ... oh, you know, trying not to die or whatever. Brianna stands on stage with a laptop, editing together footage of her real life, seen by the audience via projector. From childhood to the person in front you, her life flashes before your eyes.
Recognition:
Oregonian Art Pick
Willamette Week "Favorite Moments From Fertile Ground"
Twice named "Portland's Best Storyteller" in Willamette Week
Development:
Performance at Artists Repertory Theatre produced by LineStorm Playwrights
Performance at SOLOFEST produced by Bag & Baggage Productions
Performance at Art of the Story Festival
Performance at Northwest Narrative Medicine Conference
Performance at Portland Storytellers' Guild
Performance at ROAR
Performance at The Yarn
Performance at Funhouse Lounge
Performance of Notes of Hope at Alberta Rose Theater
Adapted into 5-part miniseries for KBNB podcast.