Gage Tarlton

Gage Tarlton is a playwright from North Carolina, currently living in Brooklyn, NY. His work interrogates the complexities of queerness, memory, sexuality, internet culture, and hope in the midst of desolation.

His work has been developed with Arterial Projects, The Queer Ensemble, La MaMa ETC, Victory Gardens Theater, The Kennedy Center, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Queen City New Play Initiative, and Barter Theatre. His transmedia play xXPonyBoyDerekXX, executive produced by John Cameron Mitchell, ran on OnlyFans/X in 2023. He was a finalist for Rattlestick Theater's Terrence McNally Incubator Program (2024), a finalist for the UCross + The Blank Theatre’s Future of Playwriting Prize (2022), a Kennedy Center Playwriting Fellow (2019), a finalist (2023) and two-time semifinalist (2024...

Gage Tarlton is a playwright from North Carolina, currently living in Brooklyn, NY. His work interrogates the complexities of queerness, memory, sexuality, internet culture, and hope in the midst of desolation.

His work has been developed with Arterial Projects, The Queer Ensemble, La MaMa ETC, Victory Gardens Theater, The Kennedy Center, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Queen City New Play Initiative, and Barter Theatre. His transmedia play xXPonyBoyDerekXX, executive produced by John Cameron Mitchell, ran on OnlyFans/X in 2023. He was a finalist for Rattlestick Theater's Terrence McNally Incubator Program (2024), a finalist for the UCross + The Blank Theatre’s Future of Playwriting Prize (2022), a Kennedy Center Playwriting Fellow (2019), a finalist (2023) and two-time semifinalist (2024, 2020) for The O’Neill’s National Playwrights Conference, a finalist for the Neukom Institute's Literary Award for Playwriting (2023), and a semifinalist for the New Dramatists' Princess Grace Award (2023), amongst other achievements.

He received a B.A. in Dramatic Arts from UNC-Chapel Hill and is a member of the Dramatists Guild. Represented by Farrah Cukor at United Talent Agency.

Scripts

PRETTY PERFECT LIVES

by Gage Tarlton

Synopsis

In the near future, a relationship is put to the ultimate test when lifestyle influencer couple Tiffany&Tucker enter various augmented realities after being selected to join the Internet Reality Simulation-Project (IRS-P). A speculative fiction play about identity, obsession, internet addiction, and the dangers of turning life into content.

In the near future, a relationship is put to the ultimate test when lifestyle influencer couple Tiffany&Tucker enter various augmented realities after being selected to join the Internet Reality Simulation-Project (IRS-P). A speculative fiction play about identity, obsession, internet addiction, and the dangers of turning life into content.

V H S

by Gage Tarlton

Synopsis

Fifty years in the future, Christopher and Tilly are rebels, living in a world where memories have been taken from the public in order to keep past events a secret and all forms of art have been outlawed to prevent creative thinking. But Christopher has recorded his memories on VHS tapes and spends his days in a secret closet where he’s free to live in the past, while Tilly keeps a grand piano in the basement to...

Fifty years in the future, Christopher and Tilly are rebels, living in a world where memories have been taken from the public in order to keep past events a secret and all forms of art have been outlawed to prevent creative thinking. But Christopher has recorded his memories on VHS tapes and spends his days in a secret closet where he’s free to live in the past, while Tilly keeps a grand piano in the basement to keep the music alive. The arrival of Guy, a young man who looks eerily similar to Christopher’s partner from decades ago, forces them to question everything they thought they knew. A speculative fiction memory play about the simultaneous horrors of knowledge and ignorance.

exercise your demons

by Gage Tarlton

Synopsis

Max wants to be healthy. Brooks is his personal trainer. Russell is a gym rat. Wiley is an OnlyFans creator. Looming among them is The Demon, an amalgamation of their greatest desire and fear—and there’s much more than exercise at stake when these men meet up at their local gym. In the aftermath of suicide, a group of artists must grapple with grief, sex, identity, body image, performance, and the demons that...

Max wants to be healthy. Brooks is his personal trainer. Russell is a gym rat. Wiley is an OnlyFans creator. Looming among them is The Demon, an amalgamation of their greatest desire and fear—and there’s much more than exercise at stake when these men meet up at their local gym. In the aftermath of suicide, a group of artists must grapple with grief, sex, identity, body image, performance, and the demons that live inside all of us.

sons that wear dresses and mothers that love sweet potatoes

by Gage Tarlton

Synopsis

When Malcolm returns home to Durham, NC for Thanksgiving, he quickly discovers that his mother, Lillian, is moving out of their bookshop home, the home where he and his sister, Chandra, were raised. In its place, new apartments are being built. Across the street, twenty-somethings Toby and Shay exercise on treadmills at Planet Fitness. They're not real buddies - just gym buddies.

When Malcolm returns home to Durham, NC for Thanksgiving, he quickly discovers that his mother, Lillian, is moving out of their bookshop home, the home where he and his sister, Chandra, were raised. In its place, new apartments are being built. Across the street, twenty-somethings Toby and Shay exercise on treadmills at Planet Fitness. They're not real buddies - just gym buddies.

BABY TALK

by Gage Tarlton

Synopsis

*In development*

When Sammy starts seeing a new artificial intelligence therapist named SOLACE, he hopes that it will help him finally confront and defeat his intrusive thoughts. But when his casual hook-up starts dating his roommate and his employer with a baby kink fires him, he can't stop himself from falling down a dangerous dreamlike rabbit hole that forces him to reevaluate his life. A play about service...

*In development*

When Sammy starts seeing a new artificial intelligence therapist named SOLACE, he hopes that it will help him finally confront and defeat his intrusive thoughts. But when his casual hook-up starts dating his roommate and his employer with a baby kink fires him, he can't stop himself from falling down a dangerous dreamlike rabbit hole that forces him to reevaluate his life. A play about service work, shifting power dynamics, and suicidal ideation in the age of OnlyFans, AI, and therapy-speak.