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Out of the Water
“I am extremely taken and impressed with her work and find everything she writes to be infused with a most intriguing and original voice…I think Brooke is a first rate talent and will distinguish herself in the American theater.”Christopher Durang “Ms Berman has a vigorous interest in turning over the rocks in contemporary relationships to find what is growing underneath.”The New York Times on A PERFECT COUPLE “Twisted obsession is just one of the themes that Berman navigates with skill and humor.”David Cote, Time Out New York on SMASHING “Brooke Berman has proven herself a playwright to watch.”Curtain Up on THE TRIPLE HAPPINESS “Brooke Berman’s book has an odd and subtle charm, an intelligent memoir about growing up and finding one’s place in the world. This is a thoughtful and fascinating coming-of-age book...intelligent and wise.”Laurie Hertzel, Minneapolis Star Tribune on No Place Like Home
54 pages, Paperback
First published November 26, 2012
About the author
Brooke Berman
22 books29 followersBrooke Berman is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Originally trained as an actor and solo performer in the experimental theater, Brooke began performing her own work on the Lower East Side of Manhattan before receiving formal training in playwriting from the Juilliard School. Her play Hunting and Gathering, which premiered at Primary Stages, directed by Leigh Silverman, was named one of the Ten Best of 2008 by New York Magazine.
Brooke's plays include: Hunting and Gathering, Smashing, Until We Find Each Other, The Triple Happiness, Sam and Lucy, A Perfect Couple, Out of the Water, Casual Encounters, The Jesus Year, Wonderland, The Liddy Plays and others. They have been produced and developed across the US at theaters including: Primary Stages, The Second Stage, Steppenwolf, The Play Company, Soho Rep, Williamstown Theater Festival, Naked Angels, MCC, WET, SPF, New Dramatists, New Georges, The Hourglass Group and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. In the UK, her work has been developed at The Royal Court Theatre, The National Theatre Studio and Pentabus. Her plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing, Playscripts, The Backstage Books and Smith & Kraus.
Brooke is the recipient of a Berilla Kerr Award, a Helen Merrill Award, two Francesca Primus Awards, two LeCompte du Nuoy awards and a commissioning grant from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. She recently completed a seven-year residency at New Dramatists, where she developed countless plays. She has received support for her work from the MacDowell Colony and the Corporation of Yaddo.
Her short play Dancing with a Devil was a co-winner of The Heideman Award at Actors Theater of Louisville in 1999, presented in "Life Under 30" at the Humana Festival, and nominated for an American Theater Critics Best New Play award. It has been published in numerous anthologies. Her short play Defusion is included in the anthology The Backstage Book of New American Short Plays, published by Backstage Books.
Brooke's short film All Saints Day, directed by Will Frears, won Best Narrative Short at the Savannah Film Festival and played at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008.
Brooke has taught as a guest artist in the New York City public school system and at colleges including Eugene Lang, Fordham, and Barnard, as well as privately through the "24 With 5 Teaching Collective" which she co-created at New Dramatists. She spent five years as the Director of the Playwrights Unit for MCC Theater's Youth Company, a free after-school program for NYC youth. She has mentored with the Young Storytellers Foundation in Los Angeles and Young Playwrights in New York.
Brooke attended Barnard College and is a graduate of The Juilliard School. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, PEN and the MCC Playwrights Coalition. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her fiancé, writer Gordon Haber.
NO PLACE LIKE HOME is her first book.
Brooke's plays include: Hunting and Gathering, Smashing, Until We Find Each Other, The Triple Happiness, Sam and Lucy, A Perfect Couple, Out of the Water, Casual Encounters, The Jesus Year, Wonderland, The Liddy Plays and others. They have been produced and developed across the US at theaters including: Primary Stages, The Second Stage, Steppenwolf, The Play Company, Soho Rep, Williamstown Theater Festival, Naked Angels, MCC, WET, SPF, New Dramatists, New Georges, The Hourglass Group and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. In the UK, her work has been developed at The Royal Court Theatre, The National Theatre Studio and Pentabus. Her plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing, Playscripts, The Backstage Books and Smith & Kraus.
Brooke is the recipient of a Berilla Kerr Award, a Helen Merrill Award, two Francesca Primus Awards, two LeCompte du Nuoy awards and a commissioning grant from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. She recently completed a seven-year residency at New Dramatists, where she developed countless plays. She has received support for her work from the MacDowell Colony and the Corporation of Yaddo.
Her short play Dancing with a Devil was a co-winner of The Heideman Award at Actors Theater of Louisville in 1999, presented in "Life Under 30" at the Humana Festival, and nominated for an American Theater Critics Best New Play award. It has been published in numerous anthologies. Her short play Defusion is included in the anthology The Backstage Book of New American Short Plays, published by Backstage Books.
Brooke's short film All Saints Day, directed by Will Frears, won Best Narrative Short at the Savannah Film Festival and played at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008.
Brooke has taught as a guest artist in the New York City public school system and at colleges including Eugene Lang, Fordham, and Barnard, as well as privately through the "24 With 5 Teaching Collective" which she co-created at New Dramatists. She spent five years as the Director of the Playwrights Unit for MCC Theater's Youth Company, a free after-school program for NYC youth. She has mentored with the Young Storytellers Foundation in Los Angeles and Young Playwrights in New York.
Brooke attended Barnard College and is a graduate of The Juilliard School. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, PEN and the MCC Playwrights Coalition. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her fiancé, writer Gordon Haber.
NO PLACE LIKE HOME is her first book.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 13, 2014
More or less by accident, we ended up seeing the world premiere of Out of the Water when we were in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago. If you like that style of analysis, I suppose it's technically a feminist retelling of the story of Odysseus and Calypso, transposed into modern America and from Calypso's point of view. Telemachus has also been turned into a girl.
That makes it sound pretentious, clever and academic, which all goes to show how useless it is to think about things in these terms. The play is sexy and funny; Calypso/Polly comes across as a warm, human character, as does Telemachus/Cat. You really want Odysseus/Graham to stay on Ogygia (here, New York), but of course he can't. The tragic ending is very powerful.
If you happen to be Odysseus - many guys are - consider breaking with convention and not leaving the island. And if my brief review doesn't convince you, at least check out Brooke Berman's play. It's terrific.
That makes it sound pretentious, clever and academic, which all goes to show how useless it is to think about things in these terms. The play is sexy and funny; Calypso/Polly comes across as a warm, human character, as does Telemachus/Cat. You really want Odysseus/Graham to stay on Ogygia (here, New York), but of course he can't. The tragic ending is very powerful.
If you happen to be Odysseus - many guys are - consider breaking with convention and not leaving the island. And if my brief review doesn't convince you, at least check out Brooke Berman's play. It's terrific.
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July 31, 2014Graham (the Odysseus character): You want kids?
Polly (the Calypso character): I don't know.
Graham: You're too old to not know. You get like, how old are you? Thirty-four? Thirty-five? I mean, not to be a dick or anything, but it's harder after forty. On you, on the kid. There are all these statistics. So if you don't know - and you don't have any prospects - you've got like a few good years left to figure that out.
Polly: Thanks, Graham. But I'm not so convinced about family. I know you say it matters, and maybe it does, but I think family is what gets us into trouble. Family, tribe, country. Anything that keeps us loyal to the pack -
Graham: What "pack"?
Polly: - like animals, like wolves. Or cows. We're better off alone. (Small beat) I could adopt.
pp. 5-6
Cat (the Telemachus character, talking about her mother, the Penelope character): She's doing that thing again where she stays up all night watching Home Shopping Network and playing online bingo. Which is not only gambling, but it is the Internet, which you know Mom has issues with. ... But people are starting to ask. So I just think you should come home. Don't you get it? How you have to come home now? We all think you've like left us for good or something and our otherwise happy family is entirely destroyed like people on TV, like those amoral dysfunctional family TV shows the left wing conspiracy likes to put out so they can sell music or whatever.
pp 30-31
Polly (the Calypso character): I don't know.
Graham: You're too old to not know. You get like, how old are you? Thirty-four? Thirty-five? I mean, not to be a dick or anything, but it's harder after forty. On you, on the kid. There are all these statistics. So if you don't know - and you don't have any prospects - you've got like a few good years left to figure that out.
Polly: Thanks, Graham. But I'm not so convinced about family. I know you say it matters, and maybe it does, but I think family is what gets us into trouble. Family, tribe, country. Anything that keeps us loyal to the pack -
Graham: What "pack"?
Polly: - like animals, like wolves. Or cows. We're better off alone. (Small beat) I could adopt.
pp. 5-6
Cat (the Telemachus character, talking about her mother, the Penelope character): She's doing that thing again where she stays up all night watching Home Shopping Network and playing online bingo. Which is not only gambling, but it is the Internet, which you know Mom has issues with. ... But people are starting to ask. So I just think you should come home. Don't you get it? How you have to come home now? We all think you've like left us for good or something and our otherwise happy family is entirely destroyed like people on TV, like those amoral dysfunctional family TV shows the left wing conspiracy likes to put out so they can sell music or whatever.
pp 30-31
June 29, 2025
Not my favorite play in the world but it has some good monologues!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews