Aaron Coleman

Aaron Coleman

AARON COLEMAN is a New York City-based playwright and lyricist originally from Los Angeles. He is currently the Playwright-in-Residence at Circle in the Square Theatre School.

His play UNCLE REMUS, HIS LIFE AND TIMES, AS TOLD TO AARON COLEMAN was chosen by Primary Stages for their 2019 ESPA Drills reading series. He has recently been a Finalist for NYTW’s 2050 Fellowship, the DGF Fellowship, The...
AARON COLEMAN is a New York City-based playwright and lyricist originally from Los Angeles. He is currently the Playwright-in-Residence at Circle in the Square Theatre School.

His play UNCLE REMUS, HIS LIFE AND TIMES, AS TOLD TO AARON COLEMAN was chosen by Primary Stages for their 2019 ESPA Drills reading series. He has recently been a Finalist for NYTW’s 2050 Fellowship, the DGF Fellowship, The Civilians' R&D Group, and the 2019 Playwrights’ Week at The Lark. He has also been a Semi-Finalist for the Jerome Fellowship at The Playwrights’ Center and the Creative Residency at SPACE on Ryder Farms. He has developed work with The Workshop Theater and others.

Select works include lyricist for the Off-Broadway musical IMELDA written with East West Players and New Musicals Inc. (Pan Asian Rep, David Henry Hwang Theatre), and co-book writer for STAY FOREVER: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF DUSTY SPRINGFIELD (Renberg Theatre), produced at New World Stages as FOREVER DUSTY. As a lyricist with New Musicals, Inc. in Los Angeles, Aaron has developed musicals for McCoy Rigby Entertainment, the Celebration Theatre, and American Folklore Theatre.

Aaron is also an accomplished director with shows presented with New Musicals, Inc., New York’s Prospect Theater Company and the Hudson Theatre Los Angeles. Aaron is an MFA graduate in Writing for Screen and Television from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and earned his B.A. in Drama from the University of California, Irvine. He is also a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.

Plays

  • UNCLE REMUS, HIS LIFE AND TIMES, As Told to Aaron Coleman by Aaron Coleman
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    9
    ·
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: African American, American South + 6 more
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale, period
    Keyword: African American, American South, black, Race, History, slavery, American Civil War, storytelling
    Selected for 2019 Primary Stages/ESPA Drills Reading Series

    THERE'S MORE TO THE TALE THAN ZIP-A-DEE-DOO-DAH.

    Uncle Remus’s Brer Rabbit folktales have enchanted Americans for over a century—no one more so than Aaron Coleman, a writer trying to find his own story in today’s world. Needing inspiration, Aaron finds himself in a plantation cabin in the late 1800s, face-to-face with...
    Selected for 2019 Primary Stages/ESPA Drills Reading Series

    THERE'S MORE TO THE TALE THAN ZIP-A-DEE-DOO-DAH.

    Uncle Remus’s Brer Rabbit folktales have enchanted Americans for over a century—no one more so than Aaron Coleman, a writer trying to find his own story in today’s world. Needing inspiration, Aaron finds himself in a plantation cabin in the late 1800s, face-to-face with the legend himself. As Remus starts spinning his wild stories, conjuring up a fantastical world of rabbits and foxes, he also reveals his untold life growing up in the antebellum South—a life that inspired his tales of family, courage, and survival.

    UNCLE REMUS, HIS LIFE AND TIMES, AS TOLD TO AARON COLEMAN is a new play about visiting the stories of the past to understand the present—and reveals the ultimate truths about being a black storyteller in America.

  • WHERE HAVE ALL THE FAIRIES GONE? by Aaron Coleman
    Cast: 
    3–4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: gay history, gay rights + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, period, romantic comedy
    Keyword: gay history, gay rights, Gay Pride, civil rights, 1960s, New York, African American culture and identity, Gay Culture, romance, love story
    Finalist, Playwrights' Week, The Lark, 2019
    Finalist, Brave New Works Reading Series, Brave New World Repertory Theater, 2020

    Greenwich Village. 1968. In a jail cell, two strangers meet after being arrested during a raid of a local gay bar. One is a Southern Black man who moved to New York to escape a world of intolerance. The other is an extravagant white man who escapes into old...
    Finalist, Playwrights' Week, The Lark, 2019
    Finalist, Brave New Works Reading Series, Brave New World Repertory Theater, 2020

    Greenwich Village. 1968. In a jail cell, two strangers meet after being arrested during a raid of a local gay bar. One is a Southern Black man who moved to New York to escape a world of intolerance. The other is an extravagant white man who escapes into old movies and gin martinis. Against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement and the nascent Gay Liberation Movement, the two men form a burgeoning relationship, seeking connection in a society built to keep them apart.
  • TELL ME I'M GORGEOUS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, The Last Gay Play by Aaron Coleman
    Cast: 
    5–6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, commedia dell'arte + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: absurdism, Dystopia + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, commedia dell'arte, dark comedy, farce, satire, verse
    Keyword: absurdism, Dystopia, Gay and LGBTQ, black, African-American, Asian-American, party, African American culture and identity, gay identity, queer
    The party rages on in a fierce Fire Island share, and nothing will stop it. Not even two unexpected guests, who set off a reckoning of apocalyptic proportions. Blowing up the tropes of the White gay party play and shit-stirring it with Wagnerian opera, Molièrian satire, and Jacobean tragedy, TELL ME I'M GORGEOUS AT THE END OF THE WORLD examines what happens to men who dare to join a free-spirited community that does not welcome them.

Recommended by Aaron Coleman

  • PULP VÉRITÉ by Crystal Skillman
    18 Dec. 2020
    “ A timely, thrilling piece that gives an unwavering look at how conflicts in the Middle East trickle down to American lives today. It is a deft exploration on how youthful ideologies yearn create a better world, but invariably face high-stakes challenges. It also shows how media--in this case filmmaking--influences the narrative, and how the result may be searingly unexpected. A great play for an ensemble cast looking to dig into rich material. ”
  • OPEN by Crystal Skillman
    18 Dec. 2020
    “ Brilliantly imaginative! Crystal has written a piece that blends theatrical magic and illusion into a powerful tale of love and loss. The play presents a young woman who so thoroughly believes in magic that she uses the fantasy of it to cope with the realities of life. Written with deep humanity, the piece explores how we often deceive ourselves with emotional slights-of-hand. This is a serious piece, but not heavy. Crystal imbues it with her trademark energy, whimsy, and vibrant sense of play. Actor and director alike will have great fun exploring this wonderfully moving story. ”