A.A. BRENNER WRITES PLAYS/FILMS/TV

A.A. heads up to SPACE on Ryder Farm for a week-long creative residency in July 2023 to develop Transgressions. Originally written under the mentorship of Lynn Nottage at Columbia University, Transgressions follows a masculine-of-center nonbinary person's struggle with their identity and internal/external forces of toxicity after they are diagnosed with breast cancer. 

This past year, A.A.'s Blanche & Stella was named an Honorable Mention for the 2022 Leah Ryan Playwriting Prize, and a Semi-Finalist for the 2023 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. 

Last October, A.A. was in residence at the Catwalk Art Institute alongside Dramaturg Austin Tooley and Assistant Director Emma Denson, where they continued developing What I Thought About When I Thought About Love; or, Those Games You Used to Play with Your Barbies. 

A.A. served as a panelist alongside Ryan J. Haddad and Ben Ranaan in a conversation with Gregg Mozgala about Disabled Artistry at Lincoln Center's David Rubenstein Auditorium, where they also presented an excerpt from Blanche & Stella. Blanche  was directed by Colm Summers and featured McLean Peterson as Blanche DuBois and Carey Blackburn as Stella Kowalski.
 

Queens Theatre produced a reading of A.A.'s  Blanche & Stella as part of their Apothetae x New American Voices Reading Series at the Forward Festival of the Arts. Directed by Colm Summers and featuring McLean Peterson as Blanche DuBois, Carey Blackburn as Stella Kowalski, Rakesh Palisetty as Arman Ashiq, and A.A. as The Gentleman Caller, the reading took place on May  20th, 2022, capping off a developmental "mini-tour" of the Columbia workshop production.
 

A workshop production of A.A.'s  Blanche & Stella premiered at Lenfest Center of the Arts on May 12 & 14, 2022 as part of the 2020-2022 New Play Festival at Columbia University School of the Arts. Directed by Colm Summers (Resident Director, The Abbey Theatre), this production served as A.A.'s MFA thesis, marking a capstone of their time at Columbia.
 

A.A. was invited by New York Stage and Film and The Lark to be in residence as part of NYSAF's 2021 Summer Season. They joined fellow Lark playwrights Brittany K. Allen, Jahna Ferron-Smith, Edison Ventura Mata Diaz, Xavier Galva, and Nora Brigid Monahan up at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY for a week of intensive play workshops. 

A.A.'s full length, BLANCHE & STELLA, is a Finalist for the 2021 Columbia @ Roundabout New Play Reading Series. A modernized queer, Disabled adaptation of Tennessee Williams' A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE with no cis white men and one Gentleman Caller who is not a gentleman, BLANCHE & STELLA tackles the central complex female relationships at the heart of Williams' play and canon.  

A.A. is featured on the new Audible Originals podcast TAN FRANCE'S QUEER ICONS, Episode 2: Bobbie Lea Bennett, where they discuss the impact of Bobbie Lea Bennett, the trans, Disabled activist who drove from San Diego to the White House in 1978 to demand that Medicare cover her gender affirmation surgery. Bobbie was also the inspiration for A.A.'s play, EMILY DRIVER'S GREAT RACE THROUGH TIME AND SPACE, co-written by Gregg Mozgala 

A.A. and their play PHANTASIA were named a Finalist for the 2021 Platform Presents Playwright's Prize. Run by actor Gala Gordon and producer Isabella Macpherson, Platform Presents is a London-based organization that strives to give a platform to rising young talent. 

A.A. has signed with agent Chris Till, the head of Verve's newly expanded New York City Office, and television agent Jake Dillman.   

A.A. was named a Finalist for the 2020-22 Apothetae and Lark Playwriting Fellowship. They are also one of the inaugural recipients of the Jody Falco and Jeffrey Steinman Award, and will participate in Lark programs as a featured playwright. 

A.A.'s show for young audiences, Emily Driver's Great Race Through Time & Space (co-written by Gregg Mozgala and commissioned and produced by La Jolla Playhouse with National Disability Theatre), was featured on the 2020 Kilroys List. The List 2020 honors plays by women, trans, and nonbinary playwrights whose first or second productions were postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A.A.'s one-act The Wind Cries Mary was featured at The New Alternatives Theatre Festival on June 25th, 2020. Produced by the podcast A Star is Bored and streamed live on HowlRound TV, Mary was directed by Colm Summers, dramaturged by May Treuhaft-Ali, and featured performances by Kara Young, Morgan Dean, Muneera Batool, and Antionette LaVecchia. 

A.A.'s full-length, Transgressions, will receive a workshop production at Columbia University School of the Arts. The play, which was written under the mentorship of Lynn Nottage, will be directed by Colm Summers and was initially slated to run March 12-14th, 2020 at the Studio @ Schapiro. The production has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Co-written by A.A. and Gregg Mozgala, Emily Driver's Great Race Through Time and Space premiered at La Jolla Playhouse Feb. 29 - March 1. The show, which was produced in collaboration with National Disability Theatre, continued to tour through schools and community centers in the San Diego region through mid-March, where it played to over 11,000 students. 

A.A. and Gregg Mozgala were commissioned by National Disability Theatre to write La Jolla Playhouse's 2020 POP Tour. Featuring an entirely disabled creative and design team, the play, which is for young audiences, premiered on January 28, 2020, and will subsequently tour across schools in San Diego county. 

A.A. began the second year of the MFA Playwriting program at Columbia University School of the Arts, where they study under David Henry Hwang, Lynn Nottage, Charles Mee, and others.