ABOUT OBIT

The play takes place at an unspecified time in the future when most of the global infrastructure has collapsed and the internet is largely nonexistent. Maya Hawthorne, an “advance” obituary writer for the New York Times, arrives at aging college president, Philip Stern’s house on the campus of Briarwood College to interview him for his obituary. It is deep winter, the college is shut down, wolves and feral dogs roam the grounds. To many, President Stern represents the best of liberal arts values. He is also an art monster. President Stern hopes this interview will solidify his legacy with a glowing obituary in the Times. Maya Hawthorne wants answers from the man who ruined her life years earlier. This is not a story about sexual assault but it is a female revenge play.

There are two actors and three characters: Philip Stern: college president, early 70s, sharp as nails. Maya Hawthorne: obituary writer for the New York Times, early 40’s. Angela Hawthorne: Maya’s long-dead mother. Angela and Maya are double-cast.

These characters are engaged in an intricate dance of charm and cruelty, vulnerability and shame. The obituary writer wants answers. The subject will never be able to read what she writes.

Obit was developed through the NYU/Tisch Graduate Acting Alumni Association Writers Group and had a staged reading at the Studio Tisch Festival, NYU/Tisch Grad Acting (2023). The play was selected as a Finalist in the Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival Playwriting Contest (2025).

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Rebecca Chace’s fifth book, Talking to the Wolf, a novel, was published in May, 2026. Her third play Obit will be produced by Theater for the New City, NYC, in September, 2026.

Rebecca writes "Advance" obituaries for the New York Times.

Rebecca is also the author of: Leaving Rock Harbor (novel); Capture the Flag (novel); Chautauqua Summer (memoir); June Sparrow and The Million Dollar Penny (for children). Her other plays include: Colette (Freehold Theater Lab, Seattle, WA; Theatre for the New City, NYC) and The Awakening (an adaptation of the novel by Kate Chopin, Book-It Repertory Theatre at Seattle Rep.); Beka 14, a multi-media solo performance received a collaborative artist fellowship at Catwalk Art Residency (September 2023).

Rebecca adapted her novel, Capture the Flag, for screen and television with director, Lisanne Skyler (Best Screenplay Short Film, 2010 Nantucket Film Festival).

Rebecca has published reviews and nonfiction essays in The New York Times, The Yale Review, The New England Review, The LA Review of Books, Lit Hub, and many other publications. She has been awarded numerous fellowships and residencies including Civitella Ranieri, MacDowell, Yaddo, American Academy in Rome (visiting artist), Dora Maar House, and others. She is an alumni of the Grad Acting Program NYU/Tisch and Bennington Writing Seminars. She is a Faculty Associate at the Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking.

Photo credit: © Marco Giugliarelli for Civitella Ranieri Foundation

Will Steinberger is a Drama League Award nominated director and producer. He has directed and developed new plays at New York Theatre Workshop, New York Stage and Film, Clubbed Thumb, The Lortel, New Dramatists, Hartford Stage, the Drama League, Berkshire Theatre Group, Powerhouse Theater, Atlantic Acting School, The Brick, motor company, the Wilma, InterAct, and more.

Will recently directed Johnny G. Lloyd’s birthday birthday birthday at The Tank and Andrea Stolowitz’s The Berlin Diaries at 59E59 featuring David Greenspan, produced in association with The New Group. Other recent productions include Joanna Castle Miller’s Inferna (Valdez Theater Conference), Han Van Sciver’s Happy Birthday, Han (JACK), Gina Femia’s meet you at the Galaxy Diner. (The Tank and New Light Theatre Project), and Charles Gershman’s Oedipus 2.0.2.0 (f/ Eddie Cooper).

Will is a former artist in residence at New York Stage and Film, The Cell, and the Jewish Plays Project, of which he is a longtime collaborator. He has been a guest speaker or artist at the Yale School of Drama, Brown University, University of California – San Diego, Syracuse University, UT – Austin, Vassar College, Neumann University, and Hunter College.

Will’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, American Theatre magazine, Philadelphia Inquirer, The Forward, WHYY, Philadelphia Weekly, and Philadelphia Magazine. Member, LCT Directors Lab. Finalist, National Directors Fellowship. This fall, he will develop new works with the Mercury Store and Voices Festival Productions.\

WSteinberger.com.

Richard Topol

BROADWAY: Lemml in Indecent (Outer Critics Circle Nomination), Fish in the Dark (with Larry David), The Normal Heart (Drama Desk Award), The Merchant of Venice (with Al Pacino), The Country Girl (directed by Mike Nichols), Cymbeline, Julius Caesar (with Denzel Washington), School for Scandal, and Awake & Sing (Drama Desk Award). OFF-BROADWAY: Our Class (Lortel Award), Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, and Dance of Death (CSC), Prayer for the French Republic (MTC), Anatomy of a Suicide (Atlantic Theater Company), The Unbelieving (The Civilians at 59E59), Bronx Bombers and Opus (Primary Stages), King Lear, Twelfth Night and The Winter's Tale (Public Theater), When the Rain Stops Falling (Lincoln Center), The Wayside Motor Inn (Signature Theatre), Mouth to Mouth (The New Group), Hamlet (Theatre for a New Audience) and others.

FILM/TV: Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, Hello Darkness (upcoming), Indignation, Mickey Blue Eyes, Party Girl, recurring roles on Godfather of Harlem, Netflix’s A Man in Full, Manifest, Genius: Einstein, Perception, Covert Affairs, and The Practice as well as guest starring on The Good Doctor, The Blacklist, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Good Wife, and others.

His one person show Dad Variations has received recent workshops at The Old Globe and New York Stage & Film

Carolyn Holding is an actor with extensive work in theater, television, and classical stage productions. Her selected theater credits include Billie Jean (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), The Cake (Manhattan Theatre Club), Zurich (New York Theatre Workshop), Rubicon, As You Like It (Denver Center), Proof, Cry It Out (Shadowland Stages), Comedy of Errors, Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline (Colorado Shakespeare Festival), and The Scene (Dorset Theatre Festival).

On television, she has appeared in The Gilded Age, High Maintenance, Heels, FBI, Bull, and The Blacklist. She holds an MFA in Acting from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program and a BA from Harvard University.

*All actors appear courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association.

Amy Fritz has produced and consulted on many live events including those for United States Artist Foundation, Providence Productions International, Inc. and The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

She has stage managed on Broadway as well as being a staff stage manager at The Seattle Repertory Theatre for 11 years. While there, she worked on many world premieres including Eastern Standard by Richard Greenberg, directed by Michael Engler and The Cider House Rules by John Irving, adapted for the stage by Peter Parnell, and directed by Tom Hulce and Jane Jones.

Amy has worked on major motion pictures and television as a consultant, producer, production manager and in the art department as coordinator and art director. Her film and television credits include: The Ballad of Jack and Rose, written and directed by Rebecca Miller, starring Daniel Day Lewis and The Hoax directed by Lasse Hallstrӧm, starring Richard Gere. She was nominated for a Prime Time Emmy for the HBO feature film, You Don’t Know Jack, directed by Barry Levinson, starring Al Pacino.