Drama Queens, a five-star arts journal focusing on female artists

Erin Shea Brady is a writer, director and social worker living in Chicago, IL. As a playwright, Erin has developed two plays (Revival and Chaos Theory, or something about butterflies) with the Jackalope Playwrights Lab. Directing credits include: Grace, or the Art of Climbing and Everybody (Brown Paper Box Co.); Cabaret; Annapurna (staged reading) and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (No Stakes Theater Project). Assistant Directing and Dramaturgy credits include productions at the Goodman, Jackalope, TimeLine, A Red Orchid, Northlight, and Remy Bumppo. Erin is a graduate of the directing program at Columbia College Chicago, has participated in the internship program at Steppenwolf and was part of Goodman’s “Criticism in a Changing America” bootcamp. Erin has been a company member with Brown Paper Box Co. and The Wampus Cat Collective, is a contributing writer and critic at Newcity Stage, and is a practicing therapist with a Masters in Social Work from Loyola University. They are currently pursuing a Masters in Extension Studies with an emphasis on Creative Writing and Literature at Harvard University.

“I’ve worn a lot of hats in the theater world and, more recently, the world of social work as well,” says Erin Shay Brady, looking back at their career; “I think I’ve always been interested in how people navigate the stuff that we don’t talk about — the messy, intimate, confusing stuff that gets glossed over in favor of big drama,” they continued. It seems fitting that her mission in art and in life looks at life from the inside. They quote Brene Brown, in saying that the art that both captures our pain and delivers us from it, is the road she travels. Of cousre a compassionate artist/social worked would gavitate and communicate art that helps us face the tough stuff and holds our hand through it.

“I’m interested in stories that give visibility to the moments when we’re low and alone, when we’re at our messiest and most unsure, when we’re afraid of our questions and afraid of our answers and of all the things we haven’t learned. Maybe if more characters met us there, we wouldn’t avoid that place so ardently. Maybe we would all, collectively, be a little more willing to risk, grow, listen and learn.”

Words to live by.

“Annie Best is basically a queer, polyamorous take on Nora Ephron’s classic romcoms (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, Julie & Julia),” Brady exclaims, launching into the details of her new play premiering as part of the Fresh Fruit Festival’s “Return to LIVE” Theatre Festival. Her perfiormanc schedule is May 6 @ 6:30 pm; May 8 @ 5:30 pm; and May 9 @8:15pm at The Wild Project, 195 E 3rd St, New York City. Visit FreshFruitFestival.com for tickets and details.

“Nora’s movies have always felt like home to me, except for the fact that they’re all super straight!” Brady says witha laugh; “[her movies are] warm, comforting, hopeful — things that are rarely, if ever, associated with polyamory in the media. More often than not, polyamory is seen as this destructive force breaking up a hetero marriage, which is far, far, far from the whole picture. People with more than one love in their life deserve the kind of wholesome, idealistic representation that straight, monogamous folks have had for decades. The play follows Annie as she wades through her relationships — with partners, with family, with herself — challenging assumptions along the way.”

Brady caught our attention.

… and what’s so great about Nora Ephron? 

Oh gosh, what a question! Not to borrow too much from the play, but nobody can blend hope and cynicism together so perfectly as Nora. She writes characters who are desperate to be part of the world around them, capturing all the beauty and neuroses of their small moments and big dreams. Plus, she’s dry and funny as hell.

You’re a respected figure in the Chicago arts scene … is this your first NY play? 

It is! I grew up in New Jersey and spent a ton of time seeing plays in NY as a kid, so it feels especially meaningful to bring this play to NY.

What is your philosophy on LGBTQ theatre and characters?

I love what Dan Levy did with Schitt’s Creek in creating an aspirational town where there’s no homophobia and people are just accepted. As much as we need stories that shed light on the opposition that queer folks face, we need stories that show us what acceptance looks like and give us a pathway forward. Annie Best gives us both — the total normalcy of queerness and polyamory, as well as the fight for that normalcy.

Why Fresh Fruit Festival?

LGBTQ+ work is so important — and LGBTQ+ community is so important! I’m so grateful to get to be in community with folks in NY and to share this play with a queer-affirming audience. Even in queer art spaces, polyamory isn’t always celebrated or even acknowledged, so getting to tell this story through Fresh Fruit feels like a special opportunity.

What happens with this play from here? 

Rewrites! While I’ve gotten to hear some different voices read this play over zoom throughout the pandemic, audiences have been harder to come by. I’m excited to test the waters; to hear what lands and what doesn’t, to see how folks experience polyamory through the play, what questions they still have… I hope that, on the other side of those rewrites, it’ll be ready for a full production.

What’s next for you? 

I just started the creative writing and literature program at the Harvard Extension School and hope to come out of it with a new work or two — maybe a collection of essays. Otherwise, enjoying the summer with my wonderful partners, being somebody’s therapist and hanging out with my cats!