Best Plays by Annie Baker

A Bit About Annie Baker

Annie Baker is one of the best contemporary playwrights, making a habit of creating unexpected and exciting work. Baker won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her play The Flick and was named a McArthur Fellow in 2017.

Baker’s play Circle Mirror Transformation began as an attempt to create a circular plot structure and once produced, became one of the longest running shows in the history of the theatre organisation Playwrights Horizons. Baker is also renowned for writing extensive pauses into her work and allowing all characters to enter the stage, leaving the audience to observe an empty space for prolonged periods. Her unconventional approach has proven to be controversial with audiences – such as when audience members left her show at interval at early performances of The Flick due to the long run time and sections of the play when the stage is left empty. However ultimately, Baker’s boldness has garnered great acclaim and shows an interest in taking risks to create something new and unexpected.

Baker grew up in Massachusetts in the United States and graduated from the Department of Dramatic Writing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in playwriting from Brooklyn College in 2009.

Baker discusses having a large number of jobs from her teens and throughout her 20s which gave her great fodder for writing. These included working as a camp counsellor, script reader, nanny, bakery cashier, and dorm mother for young ballerinas at New York City Ballet’s Training School. She also worked as a ‘guest wrangler’ on the reality TV show, The Bachelor, supervising the contestants on the show.

Top Five Annie Baker Plays

1. The Flick (2013)
2. John (2015)
3. Circle Mirror Transformation (2009)
4. The Aliens (2010)
5. Body Awareness (2008)

Quotes by Annie Baker

“I like theatre because it’s so unprofitable. The only reason to do it is to make something surprising and strange.”

“I think of my plays as incredibly political, but I have no interest in trying to convince anyone of anything.”

“If you’re making a choice from a place of fear or obedience, it’s the wrong choice.”