Steven Dietz

Steven Dietz’s forty-plus plays and adaptations have been seen at over one hundred regional theatres, as well as Off-Broadway and in twenty-five countries internationally. For the ’24-’25 season, Dietz was once again named one of the “Twenty Most Produced Playwrights in America” by American Theatre Magazine. Recent premieres include a newly updated Gaslight (from Patrick Hamilton); the intimate thrillers Mirror Lake and Vineland Place; as well as two comic mysteries adapted from Agatha Christie – Murder on the Links and Peril in the Alps. Dietz was awarded the Steinberg New Play Citation for Bloomsday; the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award for both Fiction and Still Life with Iris; the PEN USA-West Award in Drama for Lonely Planet; and an Edgar® Award for Sherlock Holmes...

Steven Dietz’s forty-plus plays and adaptations have been seen at over one hundred regional theatres, as well as Off-Broadway and in twenty-five countries internationally. For the ’24-’25 season, Dietz was once again named one of the “Twenty Most Produced Playwrights in America” by American Theatre Magazine. Recent premieres include a newly updated Gaslight (from Patrick Hamilton); the intimate thrillers Mirror Lake and Vineland Place; as well as two comic mysteries adapted from Agatha Christie – Murder on the Links and Peril in the Alps. Dietz was awarded the Steinberg New Play Citation for Bloomsday; the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award for both Fiction and Still Life with Iris; the PEN USA-West Award in Drama for Lonely Planet; and an Edgar® Award for Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure. Other widely produced plays include This Random World, Becky’s New Car, On Clover Road, Last of the Boys, and Yankee Tavern. Dietz co-adapted his play Shooting Star into the Meg Ryan movie, “What Happens Later.” He has directed at many of America’s major regional theatres. Previously a professor in the MFA Playwriting & Directing program at UT/Austin, Dietz continues to teach master-classes at theatres and universities across the country.

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Scripts

Vial Man (The Apothecary's Story)

by Steven Dietz

1
Cast Size
4
Genre
drama,
mystery/thriller

Four hundred years ago, a desperate Apothecary sold poison to a heartsick boy named Romeo. Now, this Apothecary – still alive in the Present – is determined to atone for his part in the deaths of history’s most famous lovers. Encountering a troubled young woman and a guileless young man, the Apothecary contrives to build a romantic love that cannot be destroyed … with dangerously emotional results. Vial Man is a...

Four hundred years ago, a desperate Apothecary sold poison to a heartsick boy named Romeo. Now, this Apothecary – still alive in the Present – is determined to atone for his part in the deaths of history’s most famous lovers. Encountering a troubled young woman and a guileless young man, the Apothecary contrives to build a romantic love that cannot be destroyed … with dangerously emotional results. Vial Man is a lively theatrical concoction of magic, loss and the consequences of true passion denied.

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The Shimmering

by Steven Dietz

1
Cast Size
4
Genre
drama,
immersive,
mystery/thriller

NEWLY REVISED: APRIL,2026.
This provocative, re-conceived play (previously developed at Seattle Rep, CATF and the Kenyon Playwrights Conference) is intended as an exercise in micro-intimacy: a charged, confidential and highly-voyeuristic mystery about deceptions in a marriage and the harrowing challenge of forgiveness.

NEWLY REVISED: APRIL,2026.
This provocative, re-conceived play (previously developed at Seattle Rep, CATF and the Kenyon Playwrights Conference) is intended as an exercise in micro-intimacy: a charged, confidential and highly-voyeuristic mystery about deceptions in a marriage and the harrowing challenge of forgiveness.

Mirror Lake

by Steven Dietz

Cast Size
2
Genre
mystery/thriller

RECENTLY PREMIERED.
Dinah and Phillip have a unique way of celebrating their wedding anniversaries: they scare each other. Truly. Deeply. And they love it. With their 10th Anniversary approaching, they have each built the perfect scare for one another. What could possibly go wrong? MIRROR LAKE is a dark, intimate thriller about the danger of good intentions.

RECENTLY PREMIERED.
Dinah and Phillip have a unique way of celebrating their wedding anniversaries: they scare each other. Truly. Deeply. And they love it. With their 10th Anniversary approaching, they have each built the perfect scare for one another. What could possibly go wrong? MIRROR LAKE is a dark, intimate thriller about the danger of good intentions.

Haunted Play (A Tale of the Naive and Macabre)

by Steven Dietz

Cast Size
4
Genre
adventure,
dark comedy,
experimental,
mystery/thriller

Two writers arrive at a darkened theater to receive an undisclosed award. What they receive instead is a play “ghosted” by a host of other famous works. These writers encounter a steep fall – comic, poetic, fanciful and macabre – into a world their deepest creative fears. "Haunted Play" is a cautionary Valentine to an art form that revels in its own mystery.

Two writers arrive at a darkened theater to receive an undisclosed award. What they receive instead is a play “ghosted” by a host of other famous works. These writers encounter a steep fall – comic, poetic, fanciful and macabre – into a world their deepest creative fears. "Haunted Play" is a cautionary Valentine to an art form that revels in its own mystery.

The 20th Century - ten short plays by eleven playwrights

by Bryan Willis, Glen Berger, Steven Dietz, and Y York

Cast Size
8—20
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
docudrama/historic,
drama,
experimental,
period,
political,
romantic comedy,
satire,
tragedy,
young audiences

The 20th Century - Ten short plays representing each decade of the 20th Century. I was assigned the 1920s. The series premiered at Seattle's Annex Theatre and has also been produced in England. Casting is gloriously flexible. The script was published by Rain City Projects. Please write to [email protected] for scripts and info.

The 20th Century - Ten short plays representing each decade of the 20th Century. I was assigned the 1920s. The series premiered at Seattle's Annex Theatre and has also been produced in England. Casting is gloriously flexible. The script was published by Rain City Projects. Please write to [email protected] for scripts and info.