Hal Cosentino

I am a transgender theater maker creating scripts that blend embodied performance with expansive language. I've developed work in Chicago, New York, and Austin. Previously I was a member of The Syndicate, a network of artists that produced new plays, performances, and events by women, queer, and trans people. Before that, as an undergraduate at Skidmore College, I studied performance with SITI Company and at the Moscow Art Theatre School. Right now I'm pursuing an M.F.A. in Playwriting at The University of Texas at Austin and frequently collaborating with my art/life partner, Ellenor Riley-Condit. My pronouns are he/him.

I am a transgender theater maker creating scripts that blend embodied performance with expansive language. I've developed work in Chicago, New York, and Austin. Previously I was a member of The Syndicate, a network of artists that produced new plays, performances, and events by women, queer, and trans people. Before that, as an undergraduate at Skidmore College, I studied performance with SITI Company and at the Moscow Art Theatre School. Right now I'm pursuing an M.F.A. in Playwriting at The University of Texas at Austin and frequently collaborating with my art/life partner, Ellenor Riley-Condit. My pronouns are he/him.

Scripts

Kitty

by Hal Cosentino

Cast Size
5—10
Genre
drama

A fraught breakup, a late-in-life discovery of queerness, a lesbian's murder weaponized by the press, all contend for space in the foyer of a Queens apartment building. A chorus of rats in the LIRR station brings us back to 60s gay bar raids, white flight, and the New York Times fucking everything up. About how systems of power weaponize our identities against each other, and what it would take to heal.

A fraught breakup, a late-in-life discovery of queerness, a lesbian's murder weaponized by the press, all contend for space in the foyer of a Queens apartment building. A chorus of rats in the LIRR station brings us back to 60s gay bar raids, white flight, and the New York Times fucking everything up. About how systems of power weaponize our identities against each other, and what it would take to heal.

Oh, Buddy

by Hal Cosentino

Cast Size
5
Genre
dark comedy

New Guy's not actually new, he's just new to being a guy. Tell that to his longtime coworkers, who scramble to treat him differently now that he's One Of The Guys. New Guy should be up for Promotion, but Buddy the boss doesn't recognize him. Oh, and Buddy's a giant furry monster, but no one seems to notice... About how the bizarre demands of binary gender affect the way we take on roles in the workplace and...

New Guy's not actually new, he's just new to being a guy. Tell that to his longtime coworkers, who scramble to treat him differently now that he's One Of The Guys. New Guy should be up for Promotion, but Buddy the boss doesn't recognize him. Oh, and Buddy's a giant furry monster, but no one seems to notice... About how the bizarre demands of binary gender affect the way we take on roles in the workplace and beyond.

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Once In A Hundred Years

by Hal Cosentino

Cast Size
9—15
Genre
adaptation,
comedy,
movement/physical

Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull opens with a play within a play, its creator Treplev insisting “We need new forms!” In Once In A Hundred Years, a company of actors tries to recreate Treplev's play. But can anyone make art that is truly “new”? A metatheatrical event that tries to break open both Chekhov’s play and the theatrical form, over the span of hundreds of years.

Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull opens with a play within a play, its creator Treplev insisting “We need new forms!” In Once In A Hundred Years, a company of actors tries to recreate Treplev's play. But can anyone make art that is truly “new”? A metatheatrical event that tries to break open both Chekhov’s play and the theatrical form, over the span of hundreds of years.

Godfriend

by Hal Cosentino

Cast Size
2
Genre
experimental,
movement/physical

Trying to decide whether or not to have a baby, a queer couple becomes possessed/obsessed with the Public Universal Friend, a colonial Quaker preacher who claimed God renounced them of their gender. It's the feeling when you love someone so much that you start to feel like the same person, whether that person is your partner, your child, your god, or your friend.

Trying to decide whether or not to have a baby, a queer couple becomes possessed/obsessed with the Public Universal Friend, a colonial Quaker preacher who claimed God renounced them of their gender. It's the feeling when you love someone so much that you start to feel like the same person, whether that person is your partner, your child, your god, or your friend.

Lineage

by Hal Cosentino

Cast Size
8—15
Genre
pageant

Queer and trans neighbors pass their time around the courtyard pool at Future’s Corners. One day a Fake Rock starts talking, and sets off a chain of memories that seem to seep up from the ground. When an old crush appears at the gate, she may bring the big wave that will end us all.

Queer and trans neighbors pass their time around the courtyard pool at Future’s Corners. One day a Fake Rock starts talking, and sets off a chain of memories that seem to seep up from the ground. When an old crush appears at the gate, she may bring the big wave that will end us all.