UTILITY
"Like I gotta lose just about everything I used to like about myself
Just so I can keep shit even halfway decent for everyone else around here.”
Just so I can keep shit even halfway decent for everyone else around here.”
Photo by Russ Rowland
Amber has two jobs, three kids and an 8 year old’s birthday party to plan. Her on again-off again husband, Chris, is back on and determined to help out the best he can. Sometimes that’s good enough.
As Amber struggles with a tiny avalanche of day-to-day setbacks, she finds this life has made her a stranger to the person she once was and the person she thought she would be. |
• 2016 Yale Drama Series Prize
• 2016 New York Times Critic's Pick • 2016 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Premiere Production of a Play • 2017 Francesca Primus Prize finalist • 2018 Off West End Awards nomination for Best New Play |
PRODUCTIONS
Midwest Premiere Interrobang Theatre Project Directed by Georgette Verdin April-May 2019 UK Premiere Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond Directed by Caitlin McLeod June-July 2018 World Premiere The Amoralists Theatre Company Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in New York City Directed by Jay Stull January-February 2016 PUBLICATION
Published by Yale University Press, 2017 with a foreward by Nicholas Wright Find it at Drama Book Shop, Yale University Press, or Amazon. |
PRESS
Critic's Pick "Ms. Schwend offers a close, unblinking look at a moment in the life of a woman who’s treading water as fast as she can, trying to keep her family afloat." Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times ★★★★ "As Utility so gently but bitingly reminds us, the best drama doesn’t need to crash about to be effective." Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard ★★★★ "Brings an unpatronising candour to its graceful, low-key depiction of life in breadline America." Maxie Szalwinska, The Sunday Times ★★★★"The political and dramatic significance of Schwend’s play lies in texture, rather than incident...Cleverly, Schwend steers away from plot-twists you expect to become momentous." Sarah Hemming, Financial Times "More than any reporter I am aware of, Emily Schwend is giving us honest dispatches from the so-called silent majority that our politicians have been taking advantage of for decades." Joe Meyers, Connecticut Post |