CODED
by Kirsten Brandt
5+ actors (running time: 2 hours plus intermission)
Jerrie was on her way to being a leader in the gaming industry until a competitor armed with a legion of internet trolls launched an all-out assault on her, forcing her into hiding. Now, she’s back with a hand-picked team and plans to revolutionize virtual-reality gaming. If she can keep the trolls at bay and control over her staff, she might be able to dismantle the industry’s boys’ club. But when the virtual world begins to invade the real one, things get more surreal than she could have imagined.
Commissioned by City Lights Theatre Company, San Jose, CA
World Premiere September 2021
Launching Ships
by Kirsten Brandt and Janet Hayatshahi.
solo performance with media
Blending projected media and live performance, Launching Ships is a non-linear piece that examines beauty and objectification. This solo piece is a modern riff on Helen of Troy mythology.
The Snow Queen
“A fairy-tale that rocks!” –The New York Times
book by Kirsten Brandt and Rick Lombardo; music by Haddon Kime; lyrics by Kirsten Brandt, Haddon Kime and Rick Lombardo
based on the story by Hans Christian Anderson
Full Version and TYA Versions available
Berzerkergäng
by Kirsten Brandt
10+ actors (running time: 2 hour 15 minutes)
Inspired by Richard Wagner’s opera Der Ring des Nibelungen, Snorri Sturluson’s Poetic & Prose Eddas, The Volsungasaga, and The Nibelungenlied, Berzerkergäng is a contemporary telling of the quest for love and power. When the dwarf Alberich steals a source of unlimited power – the business world goes berserk. As Giants and Gods wage corporate warfare, a Valkyrie named Brunhilde must choose between obedience & love, forgiveness & rage, and desire & truth, even if it means her own doom.
Berzerkergäng received its world premiere at Sledgehammer Theatre, February 2003 directed by Michael Severance and Jessa Watson.
San Diego Playbill Award for “Outstanding New Play” and a KPBS Award for “Outstanding Production.”
A Doll’s House
by Henrik Ibsen, platform translation by Anne-Charlotte Harvey
Adapted by Kirsten Brandt and Anne-Charlotte Harvey
4 women, 3 men
running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes (one intermission)
Nora’s life is on the upswing. Her husband got a promotion, and their financial struggles are over at last. But when a man from her past reappears, bent on bringing a dangerous secret to light, everything changes: her marriage, her family, even her relationship to the world around her. The opening night of A Doll’s House was one of the seminal moments in theatre history. The play’s explosive ending and sly, insinuating tone hit its audience like a thunderbolt.
Commissioned by The Old Globe, A Doll’s House received its world premiere March 2013.
The Thinning Veil
by Kirsten Brandt
flexible cast of 5w, 5m (plus three camera operators per venue)/ 90 minutes running time.
This is a telematic piece that requires two performance venues.
Clytemnestra grieves for her daughter Iphegenia. Electra grieves for her father Agamemnon and plans to avenge his death with the help of her brother. Meanwhile in the Underworld, Iphigenia is confronted by the truth about her death while Agamemnon tries to control his family from beyond the grave. Based on the myths surrounding the House of Atreus, The Thinning Veil is a visually stunning drama about the damage family can inflict upon themselves and others.
The Frankenstein Project
by Kirsten Brandt
4 women, 3 men (or up to 21); running time: 90 minutes (no intermission)
Multi-media production
The Frankenstein Project is a modern re-telling of Mary Shelley’s classic tale set against the backdrop of late-breaking developments in science and medicine. Haunted by the death of her mother from a cocktail of weight-loss pharmaceuticals, PhD candidate Mary Frankenstein (Mary #1) strives to create life and, by doing so, conquer death. The “monstrous” creation that is the result of her work is Mary #2, a woman who is plagued by the memories of the seven prostitutes that make up her body. Mary #3, Mary Shelly, floats in and out of her own story as her creations grow beyond her control.
The Waves
by Kirsten Brandt
2 women, 1 man; running time: 90 minutes
Mary has a dilemma. She has destroyed her relationship with her father by running off with the love of her life. Claire wants “free love” but believes others should be monogamous with her. Claire’s driving force and vitality is the direct opposite of Mary’s richness of mind. Although the sisters adore one another, when a baby enters the picture, jealousies emerge. The sisters’ battle of wits triggers something in Mary’s subconscious and what she manifests is more horrific and surprising than she could possibly imagine. Inspired by the lives of Mary & Percy Shelley, Claire Clairmont and Lord Byron, The Waves is a modern look at relationships, sex and deeply rooted psychological conundrums.
The Waves received a workshop and staged reading at Vox Nova Theatre Company in April 2008 and a production in conjunction with Southwestern College in July 2009 directed by Ruff Yeager.
..an absorbing drama… clever, perceptive writing.. – San Diego.com
The Open Door
By Kirsten Brandt, adapted from the short story by Margaret Oliphant (1881)
5-6 actors (flexible); running time: 30 minutes (no intermission)
A young boy has gotten very ill. He tells his father that someone needs their help – a voice coming from the ruins of a house. Is it the supernatural?
The Open Door received a reading with Wicked Lit at the Huntington (LA) in August 2015 and a full production in Wicket Lit in 2017 at the Mountain View Mausoleum and Cemetery in Altadena, Ca. directed by Paul Millet
NU
by Kirsten Brandt
Part I: Mr. Phosphorescence 5+ actors non gender specific; 20 minutes
Part III: Wintering 4 women, 2 men, 30 minutes
Told entirely without words. In Mr. Phosphorescence, a man awakes to the grotesque absurdity in his mundane world. In Wintering, inspired by the poetry of Sylvia Plath, haunting images collide with colossal force as a lost soul makes a mortal choice.
NU received its world premiere, Sledgehammer Theatre November 2003. The play received a San Diego Playbill Award for “Outstanding Choreography.”
Wuthering Heights
adapted from Emily Brontë’s novel by Kirsten Brandt.
Inseparable since childhood, Heathcliff and Cathy believe themselves eternally bound. But when they are brutally torn apart, the resulting course of retribution provides an unflinching look into the cyclical nature of revenge, injustice and the unknowable passions of the heart. Travel across Yorkshire’s stormy moors with one of literature’s darkest antiheroes in this legendary tale of devotion and redemption. Emily Brontë’s epic love story is re-imagined in this gripping adaptation.
Wuthering Heights was workshopped at San Jose State University Department of Film & Theatre. It received a staged readings at New Fortune Theatre in San Diego and Santa Cruz Shakespeare.
The Mechanic’s Daughter
A modern retelling of Euripides’ Medea set in the suburb of a large American City.
The play is published in The Myth Strikes Back: Medea Plays by Women (Kirsten Brandt, Velina Hasu Houston, Cherrie Moraga, Liz Lochhead, and Marianne McDonald)
Praise for the anthology:
I endorse these attempts to show not only agony, but also the joy of success. These women are all warriors of the heart. --Athol Fugard, Playwright
The Myth Strikes Back gathers a roaringly defiant collection of plays that interact, interrogate, wrestle with and illuminate the story of Medea from a variety of perspectives. Authors Brandt, Hasu Houston, Lochhead, Moraga and McDonald position their new Medeas in situations that complicate, disrupt and reclaim her status as a heroine, albeit a problematic one. No question that Medea makes us consider what happens to the fate of a woman wronged by patriarchal society, and how forces within and outside her control can lead to tragic circumstances. Looking at Medea through a pagan, ritualistic lens is also worth noting - how indeed Medea's power transcends the systemic barriers placed upon women. This collection allows readers to meet Medea in multiple and various guises again and be reminded of how she is always somehow with us, troubling our souls and conscience. --Caridad Svich, Playwright