Lauren Gunderson in Five Plays

Lauren Gunderson is one of the most-produced living American playwrights since 2015, topping the list four times, most recently for the 2025-2026 season (American Theatre Magazine). The reason? Her passionate storytelling uplifts women across history, science and literature, offering dozens of substantial roles and theatrical worlds for actors to bring strong, nuanced – sometimes even revolutionary – women to vibrant life onstage. These stories span a range of time periods, from a modern teenager’s bedroom in I and You all the way back to Shakesperean England in The Book of Will.

In each endeavor, the powerful voices of women are given space to be heard, seen, felt and experienced not just from the wings but directly from center stage. These stories are vital for all audiences, not just women, to bring thought and three-dimensional life to women’s struggles, victories, ordinary experiences and extraordinary achievements with passion, wit and agency.

Get a glimpse of Gunderson’s work with the following five plays, each of which offers a beautiful reflection on the intersection of science and humanity, an empowered exploration of women often overlooked, and/or a thoughtful conversation about human nature, feminism and theatre.

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Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight (US)

This play marks the first in a lineage of works that would become Gunderson’s bread and butter – expansive historiography plays about revolutionary women in history.

In this show, 18th-century scientific genius Emilie du Châtelet is back and determined to answer the question she died with: love or philosophy, head or heart? In this highly theatrical, fast, funny, sexy rediscovery of one of history’s most intriguing women, Emilie defends her life and loves, ending up with both a formula and a legacy that permeates history. This “ambitious, highly theatrical romp that literally crackles with electricity” (LA/OC Examiner) explores the relationship of Emilie and the poet Voltaire, whose love for each other is only augmented by their shared love for science and learning. It’s a fascinating, passionate, intelligent play with dramatic flair that’s naturally theatrical.

This sexy, scientific love story was commissioned, developed and first produced in 2009 by South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, beginning yet another great love story: the one between American regional theatres and Lauren Gunderson.

Silent Sky (US/UK)

The love affair between Lauren Gunderson, South Coast Repertory Theatre and women in science continued in 2011 with the commissioned play Silent Sky, which later contributed to Gunderson placing first in American Theatre’s “Most-Produced” list in the 2019-2020 season, almost a decade after the play first premiered.

When Henrietta Leavitt begins work at the Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s, she isn’t allowed to touch a telescope or express an original idea. Instead, she joins a group of women “computers,” charting the stars for a renowned astronomer who calculates projects in “girl hours” and has no time for the women’s probing theories. In her free time, as Henrietta attempts to measure the light and distance of stars, she must also take measure of her life on Earth, trying to balance her dedication to science with family obligations and the possibility of love.

This true story of 19th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt explores a woman’s place in society during a time of immense scientific discoveries, when women’s ideas were dismissed until men claimed credit for them. What shines through the night sky of patriarchy in this piece is the bright light of the fierce love between these women, their smart, infectious humor, and the glimmers of early feminism in their conversations.

I and You (US)

Two teenagers bring Walt Whitman’s “barbaric yawp” to contemporary resonance in this well-loved two-hander.

One afternoon, Anthony arrives unexpectedly at classmate Caroline’s door bearing a beat-up copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, an urgent assignment from their English teacher. Homebound due to illness, Caroline hasn’t been to school in months, but she is as quick and sardonic as Anthony is athletic, sensitive and popular. As these two let down their guards and share their secrets, this seemingly mundane poetry project unlocks a much deeper mystery that has brought them together. I and You is an ode to youth, life, love and the strange beauty of human connection.

Winner of the 2014 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award and finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, I and You made a splash in the new play world in 2014 as part of the National New Play Network’s Rolling World Premiere program. This program allows theatres of similar sizes and budgets across the country to share resources in order to help create momentum for new work; with this program, I and You first premiered with Marin Theatre Company in California, then Olney Theatre in Maryland, and subsequently Phoenix Theatre in Indiana. Since then, this buoyant, sharp, funny and breathtaking show has been performed in dozens of theatres and colleges across the country.

Lauren Gunderson is now collaborating with composer Ari Afsar to turn this sublime transfiguration into a musical, which saw its first life onstage at the McCarter Theatre on September 13, 2025.

The Book of Will (US/UK)

Lauren Gunderson won the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award again in 2018 for her grand, emotional, historical drama about grief and the Bard in The Book of Will.

Without William Shakespeare, we wouldn’t have literary masterpieces like Romeo and Juliet. But without Henry Condell and John Heminges, we would have lost half of Shakespeare’s plays forever! After the death of their friend and mentor, the two actors are determined to compile the First Folio and preserve the words that shaped their lives. They might just have to borrow, beg and band together to etch the Bard’s name in history. Amidst the noise and color of Elizabethan London, this vivid portrait of a play finds an unforgettable true story of love, loss and laughter and sheds new light on a man you may think you know.

Weaving laughter and sorrow with the linguistic brilliance of William Shakespeare, this ensemble play offers a chance for theatres to explore the making of a theatrical legacy through the loving lens of friendship.

The Christmas at Pemberley Trilogy, beginning with Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (US)

Another of Gunderson’s talents is for rethinking stories we think we already know and gifting longer life to cherished characters. In her Christmas at Pemberley Trilogy, written in collaboration with Margot Melcon, the two playwrights continue the story started by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, this time following the younger Bennet sisters through family, forgiveness and friendship across a three-play saga.

The first of these plays, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, takes place two years after the novel ends and continues the story, only this time with bookish middle sister Mary as its unlikely heroine. Now, Mary is growing tired of her role as dutiful middle sister in the face of her siblings’ romantic escapades. When the family gathers for Christmas at Pemberley, an unexpected guest sparks Mary’s hopes for independence, an intellectual match and possibly even love.

While Miss Bennet depicted the newlywed Darcys’ Christmas gathering on the ground floor of Pemberley, the second play, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley (US), takes audiences to the downstairs servants’ quarters for that same celebration. Mrs. Reynolds, a no-nonsense housekeeper; Cassie, an eager new maid; and Brian, a lovesick footman, are bustling with preparations for holiday guests. But their work is interrupted by the midnight arrival of the definitely not invited Mr. Wickham – Lydia’s rogue of a husband and Mr. Darcy’s sworn enemy. This yuletide sequel to Gunderson’s expansion on the Pride and Prejudice universe is a charming tale exploring the confines of class and the generosity of forgiveness.

The third and final play of the trilogy is Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley (US/UK). In this play, Georgiana Darcy is an accomplished pianist wary of romance. Kitty Bennet – younger sister to the first plays’ protagonist, Mary – is a bright-eyed optimist and a perfect best friend. After years of being overshadowed by their older siblings, these two younger sisters are ready for their own adventures in life and love, starting with the arrival of an admirer and secret correspondent. Meddlesome families and outmoded expectations won’t stop these determined friends from forging their own way in a holiday tale filled with music, ambition, sisterhood and forgiveness.

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Other plays by Lauren Gunderson include:

• Ada and the Engine (US)
• anthropology (US/UK)
• Artemisia (US/UK)
• Bauer (US)
• Exit, Pursued by a Bear (US)
• Natural Shocks (US)
• Peter Pan and Wendy (US/UK)
• The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful (and Her Dog!) (US/UK)
• The Catastrophist (US)
• The Half-Life of Marie Curie (US/UK)
• The Revolutionists (US)
• The Taming (US)
• Toil and Trouble (US)

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To read or license a play by Lauren Gunderson, visit Concord Theatricals in the US or the UK.