Shooting Stars
In Shooting Stars, Janet wants an ordinary life, one more like her sister’s. When she finds out she’s pregnant with the wrong man’s child just as the right man comes back into town, though, she has to make a choice. Shooting Stars is about memory, pregnancy, and autonomy, and the different ways sisters test and strengthen the bonds that connect them.
Opening the Box, Script-in-Hand Series, Writers & Books, 2025
–
Thirteen Ways
Jo and Tony repeat and repeat again the same comically absurd argument about the ethics of kidnapping. The danger is that as long as their goal remains to win, neither one of them ever feels heard. A fun, provocative look into the dynamics of disagreeing with someone you love.
Rochester Fringe Festival, City Newspaper Staff Pick, Rochester, 2025
Rochester Community Players, Playwright Showcase, Rochester, 2024
–
Something Else
In Something Else, Rachel has purchased Cynthia, an AI programmed to be a younger version of herself. At first, it seems the point is for Rachel to use Cynthia to address some past experience with “Mr. John,” a fictionalized version of a man she worked with twenty years earlier. As the play progresses, though, it becomes clear that something else is hidden in Rachel’s unconscious. It’s not until she uses an experimental electrode method of programming Cynthia that she confronts the consequences of her own childhood mistakes, and learns how to address her current relationship more directly.
Brockport Writers Forum, SUNY Brockport, 2024
The Blank Theatre, Living Room Series, Hollywood, 2022
Southwest Theatre Productions, Female Lead Competition, Semi-Finalist, Austin, 2020
Geva Theatre Center, Regional Writers Showcase, Rochester, 2019
–
Swans
When Paul’s mother returns after a ten-year absence, Paul is forced to confront the circumstances of her leaving as well as his own complicity in shaping a world where women are not always safe. In the era of #MeToo, the play Swans is a tender exploration of a local family torn apart by abuse.
Southwest Theatre Productions, Male Emotional Transformation Competition, Semi-Finalist, Austin, 2020
IGNITE of Greater Rochester, All-Deaf Production, Rochester, 2019
Straw Mat Writers and Method Machine, World Premiere, Geva Theatre Center’s Fielding Stage, Rochester, 2018
MuCCC, New Plays New Voices, Rochester, 2017
–
New York Plays
Courtesy of Annette Dragon Photography
This collection of 27 short plays set across New York State chronicles the cultural and geographical diversity of the state, exploring different histories and ideologies specific to different regions. Some employ straightforward, gritty realism; some employ choruses that function as ghosts or speak in poetry; some are experimental in their staging; some aim for lyricism; some have no spoken words at all. All confront the complexity and humanity of the dramatic form—as well as of New York State, its landscape, and its residents.
Out of Pocket Productions, World Premiere, MuCCC, Rochester, 2014
For Production Rights through Heartland Plays, Click Here
Featured Shorts from New York Plays:
“Speaking Through a Screen”
InDigest, Publication, 2014
“They Were Real”
Geva Theatre Center/Writers and Books, 2 Pages/2 Voices, Rochester, 2014
“Litter”
The Women’s Theatre Project, Girl Play Festival, Fort Lauderdale, 2014
“Relativity”
Over Here Theatre Company, ObamAmerica Festival, Finalist, London, 2014
Subversive Theatre, Subversive Shorts Festival, Finalist, Buffalo, 2013
“The Next Thing: After Eugene O’Neill’s Before Breakfast”
Chamber Four Literary Magazine, Publication, 2013
Geva Theatre Center/Writers and Books, 2 Pages/2 Voices, Rochester, 2013
–
Hearts (formerly The Cell)
In Hearts, Harry launches an affair with Lisa while following the trail of a twenty-year-old environmental crime. By the play’s end, both characters wrestle with questions of accountability and exchange in a market-based economy, as well as with the relationship between personal loss, romantic love, and the stories we tell ourselves about our lives.
MuCCC, New Play Festival, Out of Pocket Productions, Rochester, 2014
Geva Theatre Center, Festival of New Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, Rochester, 2014
Earth Matters on Stage Festival, Semi-Finalist, Reno, 2014
Geva Theatre Center, Regional Writers Showcase, Rochester, 2014
–
Rochester Fringe Festival, with Straw Mat Writers
Shitty Lives, co-authored with Straw Mat Writers
The First Niagara Fringe Festival, MuCCC, Rochester, 2015
FourPlay, co-authored with Straw Mat Writers
Cahoodaloodaling, Publication, In Cahoots Contest Honorable Mention, 2014
The First Niagara Fringe Festival, MuCCC, Rochester, 2014
–
Revolutions
Revolutions tells the stories of Cody, Adele, Hugh, and Ellie in monologue form–first on the morning of July 4, and then later that evening. The four characters are connected not only by their celebrations of Independence Day, but also by their confrontations with the paradox of revolution: a word that means both to break out of and to persist in a pattern. Accompanying this theme are circular images and metaphors that infuse each monologue, inviting audience members to explore what it means to revolt as much as what it means to revolve.
Conceived by Maria Brandt and Erin Bell, Written by Maria Brandt, Performed by Erin Bell, 2006
–
Short Plays
Taking Charge
The Geriactors, Rochester Fringe Festival, 2025
Writers & Books, 2 Pages/2 Voices, Rochester, 2024
The Stonecoast Review, Publication, 2025
Mini-Plays Magazine, Publication, 2025
What Moves at the Bottom
Commissioned by Alleyway Theatre as part of Currents: 716, Buffalo, 2020
Ghosts
Everyone’s Theatre Company, Rochester, 2017
The Root People
Shark Reef Literary Magazine, Publication, 2012
Boog City Poetry Festival, Workshop Production, NYC, 2012
Moving Arts Theatre Festival, Semi-Finalist, Los Angeles, 2012
Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Workshop Reading, Valdez, 2004
Santa’s Baby
The Bridge Theatre Company, Boston, 2003
Boston Theatre Marathon, Finalist, 2002
–
Maria Brandt 