Playwright, Screenwriter, UNC Alum, PlayMakers Friend
This is such a privilege. When you’re in college, or grad school, you’re constantly writing plays and then you get into the real world, and you realize what a miracle it is to have anybody, especially PlayMakers, to then say, I’m gonna produce your play.
Bekah Brunstetter
We’re thrilled to welcome back the talented Bekah Brunstetter, whose previous work, The Cake, made a memorable East Coast Premiere here at PlayMakers in 2018. Since then, it has enjoyed nationwide success and continues to be produced.
Bekah is known for her exceptional storytelling, seamlessly weaving humor with deep emotional truths. As a screenwriter she has written for Switched at Birth, American Gods, This is Us, and Maid on Netflix.
Most recently, she made her Broadway Debut with her musical adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’s The Notebook, which has been a hit!
The story is cleverly adapted by librettist Bekah Brunstetter, who seems almost as much guided by the TV series “This Is Us” (where she worked as a writer and producer) as by Sparks’ novel.
New York Theater, review by Jonathan Mandell
Brunstetter (who has also written well-respected plays like The Cake and Michaelson (the very model of an indie singer-songwriter) adapt — in the best sense of the word — The Notebook into what feels like a deeply personal expression
Sun-Times, review by Steven Oxman
In 2021, under the PlayMakers New Play Commission, we asked Bekah to write a modern adaptation of the first Greek comedy, Lysistrata by Aristophanes. And thus, The Game was born! Just as Aristophanes grappled with the complexities of love, war, and societal norms, so too does Bekah within the context of modern relationships and technology.
I pretty immediately had this general idea, I think that in modern relationships, especially when it comes to how gender dynamics are kind of switching, sexual power isn’t what it used to be.
Bekah Brunstetter
Drawing from her personal journey of understanding her husband’s gaming, Bekah’s adaptation centers around a couple, Alyssa and Homer, whose relationship has hit a glitch. Homer’s obsession with an online video game is the source of their relationship’s disconnection…or is it? Bekah delves deep, examining how technology can impact our relationships and sense of community.
[My husband] played a lot of video games, and it was so hard for me at first to understand them, and why they were so important to him. I had to go on this long journey to, as you do when you’re with someone for a long time, you do the work of understanding them and accepting them for who they are.
Bekah Brunstetter
When Alyssa gets frustrated with Homer’s addiction to the video game, she creates a support group of women whose partners are also obsessed with the same game. Together, they plot ideas of how to reconnect with their partners. Hilarity and friendship ensue.
It’s so interesting to me how we connect with each
Bekah Brunstetter
other, and how we form community, and get very intimate with each other very quickly. I love that about women, and I think it’s our strength, our ability to connect. And that’s what got me all the way back to Lysistrata, women using sex as power.
In a world where screens often dominate our attention, Bekah Brunstetter reminds us of the importance of genuine connection and the strength we find in community. Her modern adaptation of Lysistrata is not just a play—it’s a celebration of the human spirit and our capacity for love, laughter, and understanding.
Get ready to witness history in the making! We are giving The Game its World Premiere right here in Chapel Hill, and you can be among the first audience to see this groundbreaking performance before it’s produced by any other theatre. On stage April 10 – 28, 2024.