Perlman's plays are dramatic, funny - sometimes absurd. They may explore contemporary life (CLIFF DIVING, CECILIA'S WALTZ) or include a new look at an old Greek tragedy (JOCASTA), Shakespeare's KING LEAR (LUNACY), the sacrifice of a real family in Ohio during WWI (DEAR MOTHER & ALL) or the impact of the May 4th shootings on the campus of Kent State during anti-war demonstrations in 1970 (NIGHTWALKING).
Perlman is the recipient of three Ohio Arts Council fellowships in playwriting for IN SEARCH OF RED RIVER DOG, CLIFF DIVING and most recently SWANN. She was nominated for the American Theatre Critics Association’s M. Elizabeth Osborn Award for Emerging Playwright. Her play LUNACY premiered at Dobama Theatre in May of 2007 to rave reviews during The Cleveland PlayHouse FusionFest.
A former writer-host for PBS television Channels 45/49, Perlman has also taught and lectured about playwriting at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland State University. At present she teaches playwriting at Kent State University. Excerpts from her plays have been published in anthologies by Dramatic Publishing, Smith & Kraus and the Middle Tennessee State University Press.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Perlman lives in Kent, Ohio with her artist husband, Henry Halem. Their daughter, Jessica Halem, is a stand-up comic in NYC.
Jocasta
3 w/ 2 acts, 80 minutes
Characters
Jocasta
Ismene
Iris
Setting
The Queen's Bedroom
TIME
Act 1 Eve of wedding to Oedipus
Act II Ten years later
Synopsis
A new twist on a classic tale of love, lies and the other woman in the Oedipus complex.
Click to download a copy of the playLunacy
(King Lear With A Twist)
2 m / 1 w / 2 acts/seven scenes, 85 minutes
Characters
Cornelia Lamb......A Quaker woman who supervises the Friends Asylum.
Edwin Forrest......The rising young Shakespearean actor, twenty-one years old, who is preparing for his production of King Lear.
Benjamin Lamb......Cornelia's father, a former schoolteacher, now a patient at Friends Asylum, who believes he is King Lear.
Synopsis
The year is 1827 and the rising young Shakespearean actor Edwin Forrest is preparing to play King Lear when a young woman interrupts him with a proposal: Meet the perfect Lear, her father. If Edwin follows this stranger is it an act of kindness, lunacy, or an actors dream come true. What is the price of perfection?
Setting
Walnut St. Theatre/Friends Asylum, Philadelphia/Bowery Theatre, NYC
Time
Spring, Summer and Winter, 1827
Click to download a copy of the play