Aeneas Sagar Hemphill

Part 1 of an epic dark comedy about the World On Terror. The nation celebrates the defeat of the Global Villain, but things aren’t so simple. In the smoke-filled rooms behind the halls of power, the search for the new Villain begins. In The Empire Live! an ensemble of actors transports us all over the World On Terror: the effects we see and the things we don’t. The plans and dominoes and butterfly wings–and the ordinary people caught in the resulting chaos. This is Part 1 of the larger piece, focusing on the perspective of the government as they pivot from one Global Villain to the next. In future parts, we will see the many ways consent is manufactured and war leads to occupation and continued cycles of violence. Should go without saying but: this is Based On a True Story

Inspired by true stories of the NY taxi drivers hunger strike, A WAKE AT SINGH’S leads a close-knit group of New York taxi drivers to their breaking point after losing one of their number.

Nearly a century ago, Clifford Odets’ play Waiting for Lefty wrestled with the state of American labor, inspired by a 40-day New York taxi driver strike of 1935. Today, in this moment of severe social and economic inequality and revitalized labor action, its themes continue to reverberate. What has changed since that Depression-era play, and what has stayed the same? Inspired by true stories of the 2021 NY taxi drivers hunger strike, A Wake at Singh’s leads a close-knit group of New York taxi drivers to their breaking point after losing one of their number to a struggle that has plagued their community for as long as it has existed.

In 1620, an English pirate yearns for his shot at securing a trade route to India for England. Two hundred years later, three drafted Indian soldiers debate their service to the British. Almost a hundred more, an inter-marriage during the Bengal famine turns bloody. And today, an adopted Indian son of a legendary English treasure hunter meets his new father-in-law and receives an indecent proposal to violently guarantee a land deal for India's biggest corporation. This is a story of imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, from the East India Company to globalization.

Ada has long been a proud worker for the Company, a corporation which, following an event of ecological collapse known as “The Flood,” has taken charge of every aspect of production and social life. When Ada experiences changes in her performance, she is assigned to her superior, Joan, for frequent meetings to assess and correct her thinking and behavior. Their work together begins to reveal a possible history of trauma, but Joan remains in denial—until a shocking act of violence throws her perfectly-ordered world off balance and puts her at odds with her radical daughter.

It was just another morning in Black Hollow—until it wasn’t. A school shooting by one of their own upends the lives of an idyllic American town, trapping them in a world of memory between a tragic past, a painful present, and an uncertain future. Haunted by the spirit of the perpetrator, the people of Black Hollow piece together the events leading up to the event, reckon with their loss, and fight to live on. A play about grief, community, and resilience.

High school is hard. Hormones run high, bullies are cruel, and pressure from adults can take its toll. For many, the internet is a safe haven—but it can also be something more sinister. When a young gamer's love goes unrequited, he becomes radicalized by a denizen of the dark web, turning him toward patriarchy. His act of revenge rocks the student body as fantasy and reality collide and a new hero rises up to stop him. An epic play about youth, love, and obsession in the internet age.

Arthur and Janet are a power-couple in more ways than one. Besides having wealth and influence in American politics, they also thrive on the games they play with each other. But Arthur, infatuated with his mistress, finally decides he's had enough, so he stages a divorce dinner at his home with a waiter he hired on Craigslist. Two things happen he doesn't expect: his wife's resistance, a visit from Amazon fraud, bumbling Trotskyists, and climate catastrophe that threatens his lucrative schemes.

Rabindranath Tagore was a legendary Bengali poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and songwriter—and the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. The moment that set his life in motion was also his life’s great tragedy: the loss of his childhood friend, first love, and muse Kadambari Devi. In Childhood Songs, Tagore conjures the spirit of Kadambari, through the memories they share and in her indelible mark on his life and work. With an ensemble playing the many characters who occupied Tagore’s life, we journey with him through his triumphs and tragedies, discovering Kadambari by tracing the shape of her absence.

Draft in progress. 30-page sample available.

Two estranged sisters reunite in a haunted Maine town, wrestling with ghosts both native to the land and carried with them.

(My first full-length. A project many years in the making. Attached is an early complete draft, which contains many of the seeds I hope to cultivate with more time having passed. I still find this draft valuable as I find a way to move forward.)

During the Cold War, Junior’s father spent most of his time working overseas, only seeing the family on his annual visits on Thanksgiving. After his mysterious disappearance, Junior suspects there may be more to the story than he’s been told. On his 27th birthday, Junior has visions that guide him to Post-Soviet Moscow, where his father was last seen, taking him on an epic journey through space and time that will change his life forever.

Two friends meet for their weekly tradition of wine, hummus, and yoga to release the stress from their everyday lives. This time, one of them brings a secret into the room that throws the ritual, and possibly their friendship, off balance.

What happens to the socks that disappear in the laundry? What about the ones left behind? When Cotton loses the other half of her pair, she looks for answers.

Charlie and Lilly have been a married cat couple for a long, long time. While Lilly is quite content, Charlie is restless, escaping into an impossible love with a horse he sees on one of his trips outside.

A New Yorker finds solace in her solitary life in coastal Maine until her city-slicker sister follows her there, hoping to bring her back and help with things back home. She fails to understand why her sister left and resists the New England charms, until she comes face to face with a mythical lobster man.

A crash test dummy crosses space and time to reunite with his love, a department store mannequin—pursued by an authoritarian scientist who seems to have some control over this world. When they collide, they find that things are not quite what they seem.

When tragedy befalls a family during protests in Gaza, a mother learns to live beyond fear.

The remaining penguins in a dwindling colony struggle to survive as they lose their home to climate change. When a lone survivor from another colony appears and a polar bear floats from the other pole on an ice flow, it sets off a chain of events that tests the limits of cross-species solidarity.