Brooke Berman

Originally trained as an actor, Brooke began performing her own work on the Lower East Side of Manhattan before receiving formal training in playwriting from the Juilliard School and Maria Irene Fornes. Her play HUNTING & GATHERING, which premiered at Primary Stages, directed by Leigh Silverman, was named one of the Ten Best of 2008 by New York Magazine. Brooke’s play A MODEL CITY was runner-up for the Trish Vradenburg prize and developed with Leigh Silverman for Stacey Mindich Productions.

Brooke's plays have been produced and developed at theaters including: Steppenwolf, Soho Rep, Williamstown Theater Festival, Naked Angels, MCC, Primary Stages, The Humana Festival, and The Bay Area Playwrights Foundation. Internationally, her work has been developed at The Royal Court Theatre, The National Theatre Studio and Pentabus and produced at Red Stitch Theatre in Australia.

As a filmmaker, Brooke wrote and directed UGGS FOR GAZA which premiered at the Aspen International ShortsFest where it won Audience Special Recognition. ALL SAINTS DAY, a short film Brooke wrote, directed by Will Frears, won Best Narrative Short at the Savannah Film Festival and played at the Tribeca Film Festival. Brooke adapted her play SMASHING for Natalie Portman and has written features for The Mark Gordon Company, Vox Films and Fugitive. She is currently in development for two features: RAMONA AT MIDLIFE and POLLY FREED. PF was developed at New York Stage and Film’s Screenwriters Lab and selected as part of the MOME inaugural finance lab for female filmmakers and  NYWIFT From Script to Preproduction lab. PF has made it to “second round” for Sundance Screenwriting Labs two years in a row and won Best Screenplay at the Toronto Independent Film Festival in 2020.

Brooke is the author of three nonfiction books including the memoir, No Place Like Home, published by Random House.

Education: The Juilliard School.Barnard College. Alumna: New Dramatists.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.brookeberman.net
FB: brooke.berman
TW:@berman_brooke
IG:brookebermannyc

MORE ABOUT ME
I got chills watching a production of Irene Fornes's MUD in 1988 starring Lili Taylor. I wasn't yet a writer. But this was the first step in becoming one. Similarly, I was thrilled by the NYU Grad School production of ANGELS IN AMERICA and by watching solo work -- Holly Hughes's Meat,  Spalding Gray's Monster In A Box, John Leguizamo's SpicORama. I wanted to do that. And so I did.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
Setting up an indie feature, Ramona At Midlife, about a middle aged working mom and writer who discovers that she and her work are the subject of a male filmmaker's new project.

KEYWORDS
feminist, Jewish, romance, screenwriter, satire, female friendship, women over 40, young women finding a voice