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A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE
Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 3w, 3m
Susan Soon He Stanton
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)
Winner! 2017 Venturous Theater Award for Best New Play Nominee: 2014 Kilroys List Nominee: Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
Emily, a would-be writer, retreats home to O’ahu after Manhattan finally gets the best of her. Trading one island for another doesn’t help, though, and when she stumbles into a gig as an actor on a shock-jock radio dating show, she finds herself strangely determined to turn fantasy into reality. Told through a playful mixture of phone calls, voicemails, and live radio spots, Today Is My Birthday is a comedy about loneliness in the age of connection.
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.
EMILY – a temp
[All other roles should be doubled as much as possible. Roles below are grouped into possible doublings.]
MOM – Emily’s Mother MRS. KOBAYASHI – Receptionist ALYSSA – Bill Tapia’s manager JOYCE – Public radio hostess MRS. ASUNCION – Landon’s mother and editor for newspaper
DAD – Emily’s Father BILL TAPIA – 103-year-old ukulele player, world’s oldest performing musician
KURT – Artistic Director of Hawai'i Repertory Theatre RICHARD – Emily’s Boss SEBASTIAN – Emily’s ex-boyfriend KEONI/JONATHAN/FRANKLIN – Emily’s on-air love interest
DJ LOKI – FM DJ GRANDPA Z – Caricature grandpa performed by DJ Loki DR. JOHANNNES CONNECTION – German Radio Shrink performed by DJ Loki LANDON – Emily’s high school friend AMAZINGPRESENCE83 – A phone helpline volunteer MARCUS – Emily’s ex-boyfriend
HALIMA – Emily’s best friend DJ SOLANGE – FM DJ GODDESS SWEET LEILANI – Advice Guru performed by DJ Solange HOSTESS – Works at Doraku Restaurant GENERIC FEMALE VOICE
This is a play that entirely takes place on the telephone, live radio, voice message and intercom. No characters are in the same physical location as Emily. Doubling is highly encouraged as much as possible.
On the telephone, live radio, voice message and intercom. The present.
“[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
Sundance Theatre Lab: The Sound Design of Today Is My Birthday
Actor Greg Watanabe on Today Is My Birthday
Image: 2017 Page 73 Production (Jeremy Daniel)
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 ...
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