A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE
Today Is My Birthday
Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 3w, 3m
Susan Soon He Stanton’s hilarious play, told through a lively mixture of phone calls, voicemails, and live radio spots, is a comedy about loneliness in the age of connection. After struggling in Manhattan, aspiring writer Emily goes home to O’ahu seeking success in work, love, friendship and family relationships.
Image: 2022 Yale Repertory Theatre Production (Joan Marcus)
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Cast Size
3w, 3m -
Duration
90 minutes -
Target Audience
Adult, Teen (Age 14-18)
Accolades
- Winner! 2017 Venturous Theater Award for Best New Play
Nominee: 2014 Kilroys List
Nominee: Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
Details
Summary
History
Today Is My Birthday was developed at Sundance Theater Lab, New York Theater Workshop, American Conservatory Theater, and New York Stage & Film with the Lark. The play premiered off-Broadway at Page 73 on November 28, 2017. Directed by Kip Fagan, the production featured Jennifer Ikeda, Jonathan Brooks, Ugo Chukwu, Ron Domingo, Emily Kuroda and Nadine Malouf.
Cast Attributes
Keywords
Performing Groups
- Time Period Contemporary, Present Day
- Setting On the telephone, live radio, voice message and intercom. The present.
- Features Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes
- Additional Features No Intermission
- Duration 90 minutes
- Cautions
- Strong Language
Media
“[A] hilarious, intricate new comedy... It’s a rollicking show—you’ll laugh and laugh—but it’s bitter underneath.” – Time Out NY
“[A] charming dramedy... great humor and poetry... Abetted by depersonalizing technology, [Emily] can maintain a semblance of normal intimacy while actually shutting down. Ms. Stanton dramatizes this cleverly. Thanks to all those voice messages and quick cellphone check-ins, we never see Emily fully interact with anyone.” – The New York Times
“Unconventional... Emily's clamorous world is an apt metaphor for an age in which we're constantly hammered by the deafening racket of technology, information, and countless ringtones... the play's continuous stream of voices adds to the alienating hurly-burly of sound that gives Today Is My Birthday its resonance.” – Theatermania
“Susan Soon He Stanton’s hilarious, intricate new comedy... Today Is My Birthday is a gift. Most playwrights today get our phone-obsessed, zero-contact reality wrong, but Stanton nails it with a modernization of the epistolary play... It’s a rollicking show—you’ll laugh and laugh—but it’s bitter underneath. In call after call, Emily reaches out and fails to touch anyone at all.” – Time Out NY
Videos
Sundance Theatre Lab: The Sound Design of Today Is My Birthday
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Actor Greg Watanabe on Today Is My Birthday
Photos
Image: 2017 Page 73 Production (Jeremy Daniel)
Image: 2022 Yale Repertory Theatre Production (Joan Marcus)
Licensing & Materials
- Minimum Fee: £55 per performance plus VAT when applicable.
Authors
Susan Soon He Stanton
Susan Soon He Stanton is a playwright, television writer and screenwriter originally from 'Aiea, Hawai'i, and now living in New York and London. Susan is a producer/writer for HBO’s Succession, for which she has received Writers Guild of America and Peabody Awards. Upcoming t ...