Beth Harpaz

I retired in 2024 from a long career in journalism (including 30 years at AP) to pursue playwriting. And I've never felt so free. For the first time in my life, I'm not in charge of children, running a household, caring for elders, or meeting deadlines at work. I've been able to devote myself to taking playwriting classes, participating in writers' groups, meeting actors and directors, and going to theater three or four times a week — and not just on Broadway, but all over NYC. This newfound freedom has allowed my creativity to blossom. In less than two years, I've had a dozen short plays produced in five cities by festivals, theaters, podcasts and other venues. I've also written a half-dozen full-length plays, and my goal for 2026 is to see one of them onstage. Maybe because of my background in journalism, the themes in my plays tend to relate to controversial topics and social issues. I've written about abortion, addiction, homelessness, anti-Trump activism, transgender history and the Israel-Gaza conflict. Sometimes, I wish I could sit down and just write a sweet rom-com or a murder mystery -- but somehow, I can't! Or at least, I haven't yet.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
FB: beth.harpaz/ Twitter: @literarydj IG: @philosophyofbeth


MORE ABOUT ME
The first time I saw something that I wrote performed on stage was magical. It was like Pygmalion! To see my characters come to life, to see actors breathe life into the people I imagined, to hear the audience laugh and sigh and wipe away tears at the story that I wrote, to have people come up to me afterwards and want to know what was next for my characters — it was beyond my wildest dreams. That play, a 20-minute piece about strangers meeting on the Staten Island Ferry called "And I Ate a Pear," ended up winning best script, best actor and best director in that festival, and I have since turned it into a full-length play. Fingers crossed that I can find a home for it!

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
"Susan and Her Daughters: A Modern Fiddler" is about a Jewish advice columnist whose own family is coming apart over conflicts related to the Israel-Gaza war.

KEYWORDS
Women, mothers, Jewish, New York, politics, history, surreal, comedy, time-travel, poetry, family, addiction, abortion, transgender, pandemic, anti-Trump, comedy