Full-Length · Dark Comedy
Real Estate
Two underpaid academics, a co-op board, a homeless activist mother, and a dog named Rufus. A dark comedy about who gets to stay.
Read more →New York Playwright
Waltrudis Buck
Plays about the precarity, comedy, and grace of ordinary life under pressure.
About
★ 2019 Ellie Award for Excellence in PlaywritingWaltrudis Buck writes plays that locate the profound within the everyday pressures of contemporary New York life—housing insecurity, family fracture, moral compromise, the distance between who we are and who we imagine ourselves to be.
Her plays include Real Estate, a dark comedy in two acts examining late-stage capitalism and survival; and Water Without Berries, winner of the 2019 Women Playwrights Initiative Ellie Award for Excellence in Playwriting. Her work has been read in many readings and workshops in New York, Chicago, and Connecticut.
Explore the Plays →Featured Work
Selected Plays
One-Act · ★ Ellie Award
Water Without Berries
Two brothers return to Harlem to bring their ailing grandmother home. Yearning, art, rivalry, and hope against the relentless forces of reality.
Read more →One-Act · Comedy
Disco
Inspired by Katherine Brush’s “Night Club.” One late Saturday shift at Mrs. Brady’s workstation, and life’s dramas arrive without warning.
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About
She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Hunter College, where she studied with Chang-rae Lee, Michael Cunningham, and Grace Paley, and is the author of the novel The Berlin Girl. A member of PAGES and a veteran of Naked Angels, she has also had a distinguished career as an AEA actress.
Recognition
Ellie Award
Women Playwrights Initiative
Excellence in Playwriting, 2019
Water Without Berries
MFA, Hunter College
Creative Writing, Fiction
Summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
Chang-rae Lee · Michael Cunningham · Grace Paley
Publications
The Berlin Girl (novel)
Olivetree Review · Craft Magazine
Big City Lit · Hunter Honors Review
Theatre
Long Wharf Theatre
Ivoryton Playhouse
Play Market · PAGES · Naked Angels