Birder
Play Description
BIRDER follows middle-aged accountant Roger, who, upon discovering a house finch nesting outside his home, finds himself forced to question his most basic assumptions about what it means to be a father, husband, and breadwinner. But do his avian explorations represent a deep search for meaning, or just a city-dweller's mid-life crisis? A funny, moving study of the human need for silence, as Roger finds both terror and solace in urban ecology.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (2 female, 3 male)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
” … Myatt excels at using small details to evoke larger truths … BIRDER explore[s] fatherhood, mortality, the post-recession economy and the illusory nature of the American dream … [It] revels in quirky, meta-theatrical artifice, complete with flashbacks, overt symbolism and fourth-wall puncturing monologues. Its protagonist, the accountant Roger, is a poor excuse for a dad … Roger has always played by the rules in pursuit of an affluent lifestyle. Like so many in the disappearing middle class, Roger grapples with the pressures of living beyond his means; his atypical answer to midlife crisis, however, is to quit his job and take up bird watching … Roger maintains a disarming boyish charisma as he chronicles how the growing appreciation of birds hiding in plain sight among us come to represent everything else that’s missing from his life … [BIRDER] offers a quiet vision of hard-won hope amid adversity … ” —Philip Brandes, Los Angeles Times
Author(s)
Julie Marie MyattJulie Marie Myatt's play SOMEDAY premiered as part of Cornerstone Theater Company's Justice Cycle in June 2008. Her play WELCOME HOME, JENNY SUTTER recently premiered at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and will tour to the Kennedy Center in July 2008. Her play BOATS ON A RIVER premiered at the Guthrie Theater in May 2007 and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her play MY WANDERING BOY premiered at South Coast Rep and was featured in the 2007 Summer Play Festival in New York City. Her ten-minute play, MR AND MRS premiered at the 2007 Humana Festival. Her play THE SEX HABITS OF AMERICAN WOMEN was produced by the Guthrie Theater, Signature Theater in Arlington, VA, Synchronicity Performance Group, and premiered at the Magic Theater in San Francisco, and was recently published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc. She received a Walt Disney Studios Screenwriting Fellowship, a Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights' Center, and a McKnight Advancement Grant. Her other plays include ALICE IN THE BADLANDS, COWBIRD, 49 DAYS TO THE SUN, and THE PINK FACTOR (also published by BPPI). She is a member of New Dramatists.
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypub.com