2025
The Phantom of the Opera’s Friend (Playwright, Performer)
The Phantom of the Opera’s tale has always been incomplete without Michel, the Phantom’s drinking buddy and best friend. Now, Michel gets to share his memories of the Phantom, his strange, obsessive and somewhat homicidal friend. A solo show based on the short story by Donald Barthelme, this piece borrows the character of the Phantom to tell a different story about a well-intentioned artist trapped by his own love for his form. Performed at Under St. Marks in the New York Fringe Festival, April 2025.
Victory (Playwright)
An adaptation of Coriolanus that places the action among high school hockey teams, Gitelman & Good Publishers writes:
Martin just won the biggest game of his life. After years of losses, he led Roma High to victory over their fiercest rivals––and earned a new name in the process: C. Captain. Champion. Coriol-killer. Suddenly, he’s the school’s golden boy, with chants echoing his name and classmates pushing him to run for class president.
But C doesn’t want speeches, applause, or the spotlight. He just wants to play lacrosse. To stay invulnerable behind the bars of his helmet. To keep moving, hitting, winning.
Except the spotlight won’t go away.
Read more and license the play at Gitelman & Good.
2024
A Hunger Artist (Playwright)
Conceived and directed by Yibin Wang in completion of his MFA in directing from Columbia SOA, A Hunger Artist sets the protagonist of Franz Kafka’s story in the present day, performing his skill online as a streamer. Incorporating live-feed projection and multimedia, the play uses the Hunger Artist’s attempt to understand his skill as an art, his struggle against his audience, and his misanthropy as analogs for the experiences of all artists trying to be understood. As playwright, my collaboration with Yibin on the script began in May of 2023. Reviewed at Columbia’s student news Bwog and the Columbia Spectator; script and video available on request.
2023
The Attempted Making of Nikola Hythlodaeus and the Five Utopoi in Five Acts and Roughly Fifteen Parts (Playwright, Performer)
The second of three performance pieces comprising my thesis project in Dramaturgy at Columbia, a response to the financial crisis in American theatre after the pandemic. This hour-long solo show can be booked to be performed anytime, anywhere for $15, minimum wage for the actor’s time. The play itself combines reflections on the restrictions placed on the play with assorted footnotes on theatre and economics and a mostly-unsuccessful adaptation of the obscure play Nikola Hythlodaeus and the Five Utopoi. More information, including complete cast and team, can be found at the project’s website linked here and above.
Oedipus At The Intersection (Playwright, Performer)
An adaptation of Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus at the Intersection is the first of three performance pieces comprising my thesis project in Dramaturgy at Columbia, all responding directly to the financial crisis in American theatre after the pandemic. By using choral odes as opportunities for meta-commentary, the play comments on its own expense and the process of self-producing a no-budget play through the story of the original tragedy (including the extra challenge of losing our Oedipus (Adebowale Adebiyi) partway through the process). For the piece, I adapted the script, directed, produced, and performed in the role of the Chorus; Emily Kleypas played Antigone and Bethsabé Caballero as all other roles. More information can be found at the event page linked here and above. Script and video available on request.
Dancing at Lughnasa (Dramaturg)
The most recent of many collaborations with director Miguel Bregante, Dancing at Lughnasa was staged at the Lenfest Center for the Arts in completion of his thesis for an MFA in Directing at Columbia, advised by Anne Bogart and Brian Kulick. Major interpretive choices included casting a single actor to play all male roles and scoring the show anachronistically with the songs of Nina Simone. These choices emphasized the play’s use of fragmentation and memory, as well as our international team’s approach to the themes of Irish identity and diaspora in the play. More information, including complete cast and team, can be found at the event page linked here and above. Video available on request.
Susana Riaño: A Reconstruction (Writer, Dramaturg)
One of many collaborations with director Catalina Beltrán, who also originated the concept, Susana Riaño is a mockumentary play about the fictional writer, director, and artist Susana Riaño. Following her trajectory from rural Colombia to New York City and beyond, the play features recreations of Susana’s works, interspersed with the cast’s reflections on her lack of fame and eventual disappearance. As co-writer and deviser, I participated in creating Susana’s biography, conceiving of many of Susana’s works, and writing the playtext based on the devising process. This work included both researching the actual histories of the cities and decades Susana lived in, and generating fictionalized research to cite and present in the performance. More information, including complete cast and team, can be found at the event page linked here and above. Selected video available here.
The Process (Writer, Dramaturg)
Conceived and directed by Danica Selem, The Process combines scenes adapted from Franz Kafka’s The Trial with true testimonies by the all-female cast about their experiences as first- and second-generation immigrants to the U.S. As one on a team of writers, my contributions included adapting the first few chapters of The Trial in collaboration with the team, conducting interviews with the cast, and editing and compiling their responses in the playtext. More information, including complete cast and team, can be found at the event page linked here and above.
2022
Masha | Maria (Writer, Dramaturg)
Conceived and directed by Catalina Beltrán, Masha | Maria combines Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull and Three Sisters by following the character of Masha through both plays. Inspired by Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9, Masha | Maria is split into two acts: the first follows the plot of The Seagull and is set in the original time period and performed in an expressionistic style, while the second act adapts Three Sisters as a naturalistic play set in the present day. The similarities between the plays and Masha’s characterization in both, emphasized through double-casting, suggests a cyclical resonance of Masha’s misanthropy and depression through time and space. As co-writer with the director and dramaturg, I authored the playtext and participated consistently in rehearsals, providing feedback and collaborating with the director as well as the performers and designers. Full team and more information can be found here and above.
The Terrorists (Writer)
Written in a course taught by Leslie Avayzian, The Terrorists follows six anonymous left-leaning activists who have decided to pursue violence to achieve their political goals. Styled after naturalistic workplace dramedies (Miles for Mary, Skeleton Crew) with some experimental elements, the play aims to seriously and honestly consider the reasons for violence as activism, inspired by Marx, Frantz Fanon, Emma Goldman, Malcolm X, and other writers and thinkers. Current playtext is available by request.
2019
The Book Of Job in Pine Plains, NY is the first of several performance adaptations of the biblical Book of Job produced in the past few years. The solo piece used multiple outdoor locations on the grounds of the ChaNorth Residency, . Full text linked above.
2018
Umbilical is a one-act play produced in July of 2018 as part of the Planet Connections Festivity in New York, NY, directed by Adam Chisnall and starring Joyce Miller, David Shakopi and Denver Crawford. Set in a post-apocalyptic near-future, the play follows a mute rock gardener and a woman with a body bag attached to her by an umbilical cord, containing a flautist. The play was awarded Outstanding Playwriting in an Experimental Piece by the festival. Full video recording linked here and above.
Michael Landes - Theater Maker 