Gwydion Suilebhan

Gwydion Suilebhan

GWYDION SUILEBHAN is a writer, innovator, and arts advocate who serves as both the chief architect and evangelist of the New Play Exchange for the National New Play Network and the Executive Director of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. A founding member of The Welders—a Helen Hayes Award-winning playwrights collective in Washington, DC—Suilebhan was elected to the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America in 2017...
GWYDION SUILEBHAN is a writer, innovator, and arts advocate who serves as both the chief architect and evangelist of the New Play Exchange for the National New Play Network and the Executive Director of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. A founding member of The Welders—a Helen Hayes Award-winning playwrights collective in Washington, DC—Suilebhan was elected to the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America in 2017. As a writer, Suilebhan’s work has been noted for its “dexterous theatricality and unexpected pleasure” (Washington Post). He is the author of several plays, including The Butcher, Inner Harbor, Reals, Abstract Nude, Let X, The Faithkiller, and the Helen Hayes Award-nominated Transmission. Two of his plays—Abstract Nude and Cracked—have been published by Original Works. Suilebhan’s work has been commissioned, developed, and produced by Centerstage, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Gulfshore Playhouse, Theater J, and Theater Alliance, among many others. He is also the author of Anthem, a short film directed by Hal Hartley, and a forthcoming (2020) web series called All Souls. Earlier in his career, Suilebhan primarily wrote poetry, serving as the poetry editor of Barrelhouse from 2004 to 2006. He speaks widely on various aspects of the intersection between the arts and technology in the 21st century; notable appearances have included South by Southwest, TEDxWDC and TEDxMichigan Avenue, and Americans for the Arts. Suilebhan earned a Master of Arts in poetry from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts in writing from Northwestern University.

Plays

  • TRANSMISSION by Gwydion Suilebhan
    Recommendations: 14
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    Cast: 
    1
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: radio, 1930s + 3 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, immersive
    Keyword: radio, 1930s, book burning, virus, epidemiology
    An immersive, participatory sermon on the viral evolution of culture from the radio age to the present. Devised for an intentionally intimate audience, all seated in 1930s armchairs clustered around period radios, the performance is a sonic mashup of 20th century history and 21st century dangers that’s part jazz, part science lecture, and part ritual invocation. Together, performer and audience investigate what...
    An immersive, participatory sermon on the viral evolution of culture from the radio age to the present. Devised for an intentionally intimate audience, all seated in 1930s armchairs clustered around period radios, the performance is a sonic mashup of 20th century history and 21st century dangers that’s part jazz, part science lecture, and part ritual invocation. Together, performer and audience investigate what it means to be inundated with narratives in our always-connected, always-sharing culture and explore the desperate need for skepticism and inquiry in a landscape of spin, lies, and out-of-control memes. It's an antidote for the excesses of the 21st century.

    NOTE: The interactive section of Act II was created in collaboration with Jordana Fraider.
  • THE BUTCHER by Gwydion Suilebhan
    Recommendations: 12
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: halal, evangelical + 4 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, faith-based, political
    Keyword: halal, evangelical, Muslim, Islam, religion, Iranian-American
    In 2006, the butcher and sole proprietor of the Super Halal Market in suburban Springfield, VA ducked into the walk-in freezer to fetch some goat meat for a customer. When he returned moments later, the customer’s severed left hand lay on the floor by the meat saw, and a trail of blood led all the way out of the store. Witnesses said the customer had used the saw to cut off his own hand, proclaiming again and...
    In 2006, the butcher and sole proprietor of the Super Halal Market in suburban Springfield, VA ducked into the walk-in freezer to fetch some goat meat for a customer. When he returned moments later, the customer’s severed left hand lay on the floor by the meat saw, and a trail of blood led all the way out of the store. Witnesses said the customer had used the saw to cut off his own hand, proclaiming again and again that he was “not a terrorist.” He had done it, he professed calmly, “for Allah.” But what exactly had he done? And why? In the ensuing weeks, the butcher, his wife, a reporter, and one innocent family try to make sense of this ultimately bewildering (and all too true) event.
  • LET X by Gwydion Suilebhan
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: algebra, math + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, experimental
    Keyword: algebra, math, Pirandello
    David, a train conductor, is trapped in a loveless marriage to Christine. He’d love nothing more than to seduce his wife’s best friend Lily, a mathematician, but her obnoxious husband Max humiliates him into inaction. It’s hopeless.

    Or is it? David decides to revise the the very play in which he is appearing. With the help of a cantankerous (and strangely omniscient) Stagehand, he goes after his...
    David, a train conductor, is trapped in a loveless marriage to Christine. He’d love nothing more than to seduce his wife’s best friend Lily, a mathematician, but her obnoxious husband Max humiliates him into inaction. It’s hopeless.

    Or is it? David decides to revise the the very play in which he is appearing. With the help of a cantankerous (and strangely omniscient) Stagehand, he goes after his girl, abruptly changing the story, confusing his fellow characters, and bringing an angry Playwright storming on stage to retaliate and try to win her back. Every change they make, however, quickly leads to another: characters lose their names, forget their lines, and old scenes are replayed in new ways. The engine of the narrative keeps heading down the tracks at top speed… but without a conductor.

    X, the character David has become, knows that the dreaded “bridge scene” – the scene in which X dies – is rapidly approaching. What he doesn’t know is how to “balance the equation” of the story. Does he carry the remainders? What formula should be use? Can Lily, the girl of his dreams and a whiz with a calculator, teach him the way? And what will he finally have to give up to avert a disaster?
  • REALS by Gwydion Suilebhan
    Recommendations: 8
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller
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    Keyword: superhero, real-life superheroes + 1 more
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: superhero, real-life superheroes, comic books
    Jack has worked hard to develop his “real-life superhero” persona. He works out every day, hones his skills as a former member of the Coast Guard, and devotes endless hours to perfecting his costume. Now, as Nightlife—the man who brings life to the night—he’s ready to start fighting crime. Or at least… he thinks he is. With his partner and confidant, Laney—a reluctant hero named Belt with advanced martial arts...
    Jack has worked hard to develop his “real-life superhero” persona. He works out every day, hones his skills as a former member of the Coast Guard, and devotes endless hours to perfecting his costume. Now, as Nightlife—the man who brings life to the night—he’s ready to start fighting crime. Or at least… he thinks he is. With his partner and confidant, Laney—a reluctant hero named Belt with advanced martial arts training—he’s assembling a team to walk the streets at night and start attacking crime head-on. He has zeal, big muscles, and a superhero code to live up to… but not much more. When Jack and Laney start interviewing potential team members, however, the façade of their crazy ambitions begins to crumble. Deceit, lies, and secrets slowly unravel their trust, until a shocking act of real violence perpetrated by Sensei—the first hero they consider adding to the team—reveals the truth Nightlife has been hiding beneath his suddenly very flimsy mask, cape, and nickname.

    “[A]n admirable engagement of a trope we just can’t seem to leave behind.” — Chris Klimek, Washington City Paper
  • SCRATCH-OFF SUNDAY by Gwydion Suilebhan
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: comedy, romantic comedy
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    Keyword: COVID-19 pandemic, Lottery + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, romantic comedy
    Keyword: COVID-19 pandemic, Lottery, romance
    In a cramped NY studio apartment, haunted by the detritus of a global pandemic and a collapsing supply chain, a newly-married couple re-discovers the essential source of their love.
  • VERTICAL CONSTELLATION WITH BOMB by Gwydion Suilebhan
    Recommendations: 9
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama
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    Keyword: Calder, World War II
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: Calder, World War II
    New York during World War II. A nun, eagerly collecting scrap metal for the war effort, and Alexander Calder, desperate for raw material for a new sculpture, plead with a grieving mother, clutching a crushed tin airplane tightly to her chest. Will she let go? And for what?
  • CRACKED by Gwydion Suilebhan
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    1
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: eggs, ritual + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental
    Keyword: eggs, ritual, food, women, grief
    Just another episode of a run-of-the-mill cooking show transforms into an intricate, otherworldly grief ritual as the program’s hostess—or is she some kind of middle-class priestess?—devises increasingly elaborate ways in which to defer the simple act of cracking an egg. When it’s finally time for the demonstration, will she actually be able to just… let go?

    “A tonally subversive solo piece… the...
    Just another episode of a run-of-the-mill cooking show transforms into an intricate, otherworldly grief ritual as the program’s hostess—or is she some kind of middle-class priestess?—devises increasingly elaborate ways in which to defer the simple act of cracking an egg. When it’s finally time for the demonstration, will she actually be able to just… let go?

    “A tonally subversive solo piece… the overall effect is beguiling.” — David Ian Lee, NYTheatre.com

    “Gwydion Suilebhan has created a tour de force… A marvelous little structured piece, full of music and nuance.” — Susan Galbraith, DC Theatre Scene
  • ABSTRACT NUDE by Gwydion Suilebhan
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: Art and Artists, LGBTQ + 2 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: Art and Artists, LGBTQ, representation, nudity
    An enigmatic, erotically-charged portrait seems to reveal more about the people who view it than it reveals about itself. As the painting moves backward in time, it passes from owner to owner, exploding the lives of everyone who encounters it. In one home, the portrait tips the balance in a barely-suppressed power struggle among the members of a well-to-do family. In another, it awakens a great deal of...
    An enigmatic, erotically-charged portrait seems to reveal more about the people who view it than it reveals about itself. As the painting moves backward in time, it passes from owner to owner, exploding the lives of everyone who encounters it. In one home, the portrait tips the balance in a barely-suppressed power struggle among the members of a well-to-do family. In another, it awakens a great deal of confusion—and passion—between two former fraternity brothers. In the home of the portrait’s subject, it inspires nothing but unrequited love and alienation between two dear friends. And finally, back in the moment of its creation, where the story both ends and begins, the painting incites a terrible violence… the tragedy that haunts it wherever it travels, and that cannot be escaped.

    “Dextrous theatricality and unexpected pleasure… bowled over by the suppleness of the writing.” — Peter Marks, Washington Post
  • HOT & COLD by Gwydion Suilebhan
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: drama, experimental
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    Keyword: virus, dissociative identity disorder + 1 more
    Genre: drama, experimental
    Keyword: virus, dissociative identity disorder, multiple personality disorder
    In the hot zone of a level-four biohazard lab, two quarantined scientists experiment with a deadly pathogen. At the same time, in the cold chill of an ordinary suburban kitchen, an out-of-her-depth Jewish mother prepares a Christmas dinner for her son, his Catholic fiancé, and her gruff father… while they negotiate the terms of the young couple’s interfaith wedding. When the distinct worlds of the lab and the...
    In the hot zone of a level-four biohazard lab, two quarantined scientists experiment with a deadly pathogen. At the same time, in the cold chill of an ordinary suburban kitchen, an out-of-her-depth Jewish mother prepares a Christmas dinner for her son, his Catholic fiancé, and her gruff father… while they negotiate the terms of the young couple’s interfaith wedding. When the distinct worlds of the lab and the kitchen begin bleeding surreally together, however, the deeper and more disturbing truth of what they’re all experiencing begins to infect them all. Is there a cure for being both hot and cold at the same time?
  • THE MIRACLE OF THE CHUPPAH by Gwydion Suilebhan
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    When the chuppah disappears just minutes before the wedding, is it a sign from God? More importantly, what will the poor bride and groom use to keep the warblers from shitting on their heads during the ceremony?
  • INNER HARBOR by Gwydion Suilebhan
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    8
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    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: Baltimore, freddie gray + 1 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, experimental, political
    Keyword: Baltimore, freddie gray, USS Constellation
    INNER HARBOR is a centuries-spanning love story between one historic ship, the sea she sailed on, and her last and best Captain. In 1860, the USS Constellation captured a slave ship called the Cora off the west coast of Africa and freed 705 enslaved human beings. In 1978, the same ship became the centerpiece in a gentrification controversy in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. (Those stories are true.) And in 2096...
    INNER HARBOR is a centuries-spanning love story between one historic ship, the sea she sailed on, and her last and best Captain. In 1860, the USS Constellation captured a slave ship called the Cora off the west coast of Africa and freed 705 enslaved human beings. In 1978, the same ship became the centerpiece in a gentrification controversy in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. (Those stories are true.) And in 2096, when sea levels have risen so disastrously the city's been abandoned, the government works quickly to load the ship with historical artifacts and sail them off to safety... but the Baltimore Liberation Movement secretly plans to steal the ship and save the last few refugees' lives instead.