Lisa Wagner Erickson - Playwright

About Lisa Wagner Erickson

Lisa Wagner Erickson is a playwright, interdisciplinary artist -and occasional signer and performance artist. Her varied experience includes singing at Red Rocks, performing sketch comedy at Boulder Theater, and plays that have been developed and produced across the United States.

A True West Award winner, she has also been a finalist for the Gary Garrison Award for 10-Minute Plays, a regional finalist for the KCACTF 10-Minute Play Award, a PlayPenn semi-finalist, and a Landing Theatre’s New American Voices semi-finalist.

Her plays have been developed and presented by Primary Stages, Stickball Productions, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, No Strings Theatre Company, And Toto too, Edge Theatre, Theater 29, and BETC, among others. Her work has been published in Literature Today and Mini Plays Review.

Her full-length plays include THE MRS. WHEATLAND PAGEANT, A SHINY QUEST, THE CHICKEN FLIES AT NIGHT, and THE TITLE IX EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM HAS SOME ISSUES. Production highlights include THE MRS. WHEATLAND PAGEANT, which debuted in 2019 at Theater 29 in Denver and was subsequently produced by No Strings Theatre Company in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The Boston Globe called her short play Step On Me, “a hilarious short play by Lisa Wagner Erickson that toys with one woman’s obsession with her bathroom scale.

From 2018 - 2022, she was the owner and Creative Director of Theater 29 , a Denver venue dedicated to original work by Colorado playwrights and multi-genre artists. Under her leadership Theater 29 featured the work of over 46 Colorado creative artists, including 30 playwrights and theatre artists.

She is the founder and Artistic Director of Cypherbird Projects, dedicated to creating unconventional theatrical and multi-genre arts.

Lisa instructor at the Community College of Denver, where she has taught courses in playwriting and theater appreciation, and is playwriting instructor for Lighthouse Writers Workshop youth programs. She holds an MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen from Lesley University.

Click HERE to learn more about her plays.



Playwriting resume

AWARDS/ HONORS

Winner, True West Award, 2020

Guest Artist, Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive, 2016

SELECTED PLAYS

THE MRS. WHEATLAND PAGEANT (full length) 

  • Production, No Strings Theatre, Las Cruces, NM. 2019

  • Production, Lulubird Project at Theater 29, Denver, CO. 2019

  • Scene Reading, New Play Summit Local Playwrights Slam, DCPA, Denver, CO. 2018

  • Workshop, On Your Feet Development Series, Edge Theatre, Lakewood, CO. 2015-2016

  • Semi-Finalist, New American Voices Festival, Landing Theatre, Houston, TX. 2015

  • Semi-Finalist, New Play Development Conference, PlayPenn, Philadelphia, PA. 2013

  • Staged Reading, Marran Theater, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA. 2012

    Step On Me (10-minute play) 

  • Finalist, Gary Garrison Award for 10-Minute Plays, Tusculum Review, 2023

  • Production, Stickball Productions, Boston, MA. 2014

    • Boston Globe review: Don’t miss the curtain riser, “Step On Me,” a hilarious short play by Lisa Wagner Erickson that toys with one woman’s obsession with her bathroom scale.

  • Staged Reading, Estrogenius Extended, Manhattan Theatre Source, NYC, 2013

  • Semi-Finalist, 10-Minute Play Award, Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, 2013

  • Staged Reading, Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, 2013


A SHINY QUEST (full-length play in process)

  • Development, BETC Writers Group, 2023-2024

  • A 10-minute audio play based on A Shiny Quest debuted in 2020 in Project Playbox, an immersive theatrical experience Westword called, “a novel theatrical experience for these stay-at-home, virus-plagued times.” 

THE CHICKEN FLIES AT NIGHT (full-length play in process)

  • Development, Advanced Playwriting Workshop, Primary Stages, 2023

Emergency Garden (1-minute monologue)

  • Publication, International Literature Review, 2023

  • Semi-Finalist, The PlayGround Experiment Faces of America Monologue Festival, 2022

  • Video Short, Lulubird Project, 2021

A Strange Burd (10-minute play)

  • Production, Lulubird Project at Theater 29, Denver, CO. 2019

  • ​Production, Play Crawl, And Toto too Theatre Company, Denver, CO. 2019

We’re Perfect For Each Other (3-minute micro-play)

  • Production, Play Crawl, And Toto too Theatre Company, Denver, CO. 2018

    Do It For Francine (10-minute play)

  • Production, DirtyFish Theater, Denver, CO. 2016

  • Production, Play Crawl, And Toto too Theatre, Denver, CO. 2015

Unframed (3-minute micro-play)

  • Production, Play Crawl, And Toto too Theatre Company, Denver, CO. 2016


    But I’m a Witch (10-Minute Play)

  • Semi-Finalist, 10  X 10 In The Triangle Play Festival, 2013

  • Staged Reading, Playwrights of the Western Region Conference Showcase, 2007

EDUCATION               

Lesley University, Department of Creative Writing, MFA, Writing for Stage and Screen, June 2012

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Founder, Artistic Director - Cypherbird Projects (formerly the Lulubird Project), 2019 to date 

Founder, Creative Director - Theater 29, 2018 - 2022