Haley Nelson

Haley Nelson

Haley, originally from the foothills of Northern California, now lives in Dallas, Texas. She is a playwright, dramaturg and researcher for television, podcasts, and theatre.

Haley's most recent full-length play, THIS IS A MORTALITY PLAY SET IN AN OFFICE DEPOT, was developed during her time in the Dallas Theater Center Playwrights Workshop 2019 cohort, and was a finalist in the 2021 Urbanite...
Haley, originally from the foothills of Northern California, now lives in Dallas, Texas. She is a playwright, dramaturg and researcher for television, podcasts, and theatre.

Haley's most recent full-length play, THIS IS A MORTALITY PLAY SET IN AN OFFICE DEPOT, was developed during her time in the Dallas Theater Center Playwrights Workshop 2019 cohort, and was a finalist in the 2021 Urbanite Modern Works Festival. Her other work has been developed and produced across Dallas with organizations including IMPRINT Theatreworks, House Party Theatre, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Kitchen Dog One-Minute Play Festival, among others. She received the Rosenfield Playwriting award from her alma mater, Southern Methodist University, in 2017. She is a 2021 Ucross/Blank Theatre Future of Playwriting Prize Semi-Finalist, and was a 2020 Echo Theatre National Young Playwrights in Residence Finalist.

Haley was a 2019-2021 NNPN Producer-in-Residence at Kitchen Dog Theater, where she also worked as the company's Manager of Literary and Community Engagement since 2018. She completed a Fall Literary Fellowship at Geva Theatre Center in 2019, and has worked full-time in her field since 2017. She has dramaturged new and produced works at Dallas Theater Center, Circle Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theater, Second Thought Theatre, and Theatre Too; evaluated scripts for Seven Devils and the Playwrights Center; and assisted at several new play festivals across the country, in addition to her private clients. She frequently works across disciplines, having also dramaturged immersive multi-media work for Artstillery, two Spoke Media podcasts, and the procedures of the Dallas City Hall Historic Preservation office (completed during her 2019 Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs Micro-Residency). Additionally, Haley is the LMDA Third Coast Regional Vice President, and a recipient of both the 2017 Bly Creative Capacity Grant and an inaugural Actors Theatre of Louisville Emerging Leaders Grant.

Currently, Haley is working as a researcher on AARP's THE PERFECT SCAM podcast and an AMS Pictures true crime documentary for a major network. More information about her work is available at her website, www.haleynelson.me.

Plays

  • THIS IS A MORTALITY PLAY SET IN AN OFFICE DEPOT
    Parallel universes are real and in all of them Office Depots exist and that makes Tina want to die.

    A play for millennials on the brink of everything.
  • PERAMBULATORY: preambleastory
    JP, 6, is scared. Samantha Louise, 8, writes stories that are “inappropriate.” The same could be said of teachers Miss Charlene and Mr. Boris making out at lunch, or of Samantha Louise’s always-gone Mother, or of JP’s Dad scaring his son with talk of taxes and disease. Nothing's working, but everyone’s trying their best; maybe there’s love in there somewhere. A play about kids for adults, PERAMBULATORY is...
    JP, 6, is scared. Samantha Louise, 8, writes stories that are “inappropriate.” The same could be said of teachers Miss Charlene and Mr. Boris making out at lunch, or of Samantha Louise’s always-gone Mother, or of JP’s Dad scaring his son with talk of taxes and disease. Nothing's working, but everyone’s trying their best; maybe there’s love in there somewhere. A play about kids for adults, PERAMBULATORY is a 70-minute, joyful ride exploring how we cope with ourselves. Includes elements of dance/movement.
  • On Staying Indoors
    The sky has turned orange, and it's probably the end of the world, but a married couple sits comfortably on their front porch talking about the weather, carrying on as usual. MR. has a mysterious box his wife can't touch. MRS. is reading the subtext of the newspaper. It's all a little unsettling. What is bravery, and how do we express love, in the face of (probable) doom?

    Run...
    The sky has turned orange, and it's probably the end of the world, but a married couple sits comfortably on their front porch talking about the weather, carrying on as usual. MR. has a mysterious box his wife can't touch. MRS. is reading the subtext of the newspaper. It's all a little unsettling. What is bravery, and how do we express love, in the face of (probable) doom?

    Run time approximately twenty minutes.
  • MEET CUTE
    Mary's getting married and Teryn is unlucky in love. As they spend their night talking and drinking, Teryn reveals her fantasies about what it would be like if she was the type of girl that could have a "meet cute." The duo gets carried away acting out the ridiculous possibilities and have as much "fun as the female romantic narrative is toxic" before the truth of it all is revealed, and two people lose an eye.