Aleks Merilo

[Full-Length] Newly expelled and seemingly futureless, Sonny and his friends engage in a final night of revelry that will end with one of them going missing. 18 years earlier, Sonny's parents were involved in a crime that would never be reported. These two stories collide in the present day in the play THE HANGING GIRL.

[Full-Length] MONTREAL (4m/3f): In 1943, the Hegleburgs were young aristocrats at the very top of Estonian society. By 1944, they were refugees fleeing war and surviving in poverty. Over 3 decades, a father, mother, and son try to rebuild a life in a new land after war erases their country and fractures their family.

Winner, Playwrights First Award
Winner, Chameleon Theatre Circle New Play Contest
Top 3 Finalist, The Oregon Play Prize

[Full-Length] In the dead of winter, a teenage girl’s estranged father unexpectedly takes her to a cabin in the isolated woods of Montana. She doesn’t know where he has been for the last 10 years. And she doesn’t know who he is searching for at night, when he stares out the window, with a sawed-off shotgun by his side.

[10-Minute Play] From a remote survival shelter in a desolate corner of Arizona, a young woman sends out a radio message to anyone who might be listening.

[Monologue] A young woman hitchhikes across state lines, but is reluctant to tell anyone why.

[Full-Length] After a volatile four year bond with a promising but unmotivated student, a young teacher is accused of actions that could end his career. He does not deny accusations against him. What if he was fired because of his most important lesson?

2nd Place Winner, The Julie Harris Playwriting Award
Finalist, Woodward/Newman Award For Playwriting, Bloomington Playwrights Project

[Full-Length] In 1918, the worst plague in human history hit America. When a small Washington town finds itself the subject of a military quarantine, a young sailor and a 19 year-old widow from opposite sides of the blockade engage in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, putting their lives, and souls, in the balance.

“A haunting play [and] truly a distinctive piece of theatre… See this intriguing play. It is a cautionary tale that you will think about long after the curtain call.” -Broadwayworld.com

Winner, the Inkslinger Playwriting Competition, Louisiana University
Winner, Project Playwright, The Sanguine Theater
Winner, New by Northwest Playwriting Contest, CoHo Productions
Winner, Best New Play, Broadway World, Houston
Finalist, Woodward/Newman Award For Playwriting, Bloomington Playwrights Project

[Full-Length] Since the year 2000, the citizens of one town have abandoned nearly fourteen hundred boys in the Utah Desert. They are called the Lost Boys of Utah. EXIT 27 is based on their stories.

"EXIT 27 is by far the best original play to be produced this season. Remember the name Aleks Merilo. He has written one of the most astounding, suspenseful, and enlightening plays of the season."

-Buzz Belmont, Houston Chronicle

“This resoundingly incredible play deftly moved me more than anything I have ever witnessed, stirring my mind and breaking my heart many times and on many different levels…I sat stoically through the first third of the first act, doing my best to control my emotions…Yet, as James Monaghan's Dodge delivered his first monologue, I lost myself. Silent tears streamed down my face throughout the remainder of the first act, as I was left utterly bereft and broken…”

- David Clarke, BroadwayWorld.com

Winner, 1st Place, Dubuque New Play Contest

[One Act Play] In LITTLE MOSCOW, an aging Russian immigrant recalls a time when his sister brought a Jewish stranger into their home, and a family dinner that would have repercussions for half a century.

Winner of the Adjudicators Award, Spokane Civic Theater Short Play Festival, Spokane, WA
Winner of the James Rogers Playwriting Award, University of Kentucky.
Winner of the Dylan Days Playwriting Contest, Hibbing, MN

[One-Act] Unseen for 8 years, a quiet, hardened, and heavily tattooed young man named Jasper appears one night, standing in the dirt road outside a modest small town home. The house may or may not belong to Rory, Jasper’s high school girlfriend, who remembers him fondly, but has never spoken his name to anyone. Who Jasper is, where he has been, and his unspoken motives are slowly revealed during a startling chain of events in this drama.

[10-Minute Play] Many years ago, in a small corner of Washington state, a wedding unlike any other took place in the last place one would expect. This wedding is the story of THE LAST BRIDE OF ANSBRUK VILLAGE (4m/2f, 1 set)

[10-Minute Play] Hoping to meet women, a young man sneaks backstage at the worst circus in Paris. He instead finds himself confronted by a haunted figure who will change his life forever, and learns the secrets of the BLUE BENCH.

[10-Minute Play] In TANGO MIKE, two retired servicemen, negotiate a series of personal crises, joys, and bad jokes in a life-long journey that ultimately captures the depth and value of true friendship.

[10-Minute Play] Three girls play a seemingly innocent game, which disguises much darker events in the life of one of them.

[10-Minute Play] An adaptation of the Edgar Allen Poe story of the same name, a charismatic Doctor shows off the methods of France's most highly regarded insane asylum.

[10-Minute Play] A tight-knit group of friends protect one of their own in a difficult time... Until it goes against their immediate interests.

[Full-Length] What makes a loving father become a monster? What turns a naive young Jew named Shalah into the ruthless and brutal villain known as Shylock? Set in the years before THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, SHALAH (4m/2f, 1 set) is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s most controversial play, told from the point of view of the Shylock’s daughter, Jessica.