Adrian Einspanier

Adrian Einspanier

Adrian Einspanier’s plays include Lunch Bunch (PlayCo and Clubbed Thumb; New York Times and Time Out Critic’s Picks; in development for TV with Film Nation), House Plant (New York Theatre Workshop’s Next Door; ‘highbrow / brilliant’ in New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix; Lambda Literary Award Finalist), I LOVE SEAN (Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow), The Convent of Pleasure (Cherry Lane’s Mentor Project),...
Adrian Einspanier’s plays include Lunch Bunch (PlayCo and Clubbed Thumb; New York Times and Time Out Critic’s Picks; in development for TV with Film Nation), House Plant (New York Theatre Workshop’s Next Door; ‘highbrow / brilliant’ in New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix; Lambda Literary Award Finalist), I LOVE SEAN (Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow), The Convent of Pleasure (Cherry Lane’s Mentor Project), MADONNA col BAMBINO created with composer Deepali Gupta and director Caitlin Sullivan (Ars Nova’s ANT Fest and the New Ohio’s Ice Factory, curated by New Georges), Doctor De Soto and Other Stories by William Steig conceived by Miranda Haymon and co-written with Miranda Haymon and Seonjae Kim with music by Ellen Winter (upcoming tour TheaterWorksUSA), and I forgot to tell you (The Brooklyn Rail, June 2021 Issue).

Their work has also been developed and presented by Ars Nova’s Play Group, Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers’ Group, the New Georges Jam (former co-leader), and Williamstown Theatre Festival’s Directing Studio. They have been a resident at Millay Arts, the Hambidge Center, Sewanee Writers’ Conference (Walter E. Dakin Fellow), Cape Cod Theatre Project (Noel Coward Foundation Writer in Residence), SPACE on Ryder Farm, Mercury Store, and Erik Ehn’s annual Texas Silent Writing Retreat.

A recipient of Darren Aronofsky‘s Protozoa Pictures/LAMF Theater Fund commission and the 2023 Lotos Foundation Prize, they teach at NYU Tisch, HB Studios, and the National Theater Institute and have recently developed work with A24 and with Breaking the Binary Theatre (DEBT co-written with reid tang).

Plays

  • Lunch Bunch by Adrian Einspanier
    Recommendations: 5
    ·
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: vegetarian, Whole 30 + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, experimental, farce, movement/physical, political
    Keyword: vegetarian, Whole 30, family court, Zadie Smith, Schopenhauer, evolution, Flow, existential, ensemble
    Dragon Fruit! Black Beluga Lentils! Perfectly Soft-Boiled Eggs! Amidst the distinct fear/feeling that: the world is, always has been, always will be (???) going to shit! Seven public defenders seek meaning, belonging, some semblance of order VIA their lunches.

    Postponed / Upcoming: PlayCo and Clubbed Thumb directed by Tara Ahmadinejad (Originally Scheduled March & April 2020)
    Recent:...
    Dragon Fruit! Black Beluga Lentils! Perfectly Soft-Boiled Eggs! Amidst the distinct fear/feeling that: the world is, always has been, always will be (???) going to shit! Seven public defenders seek meaning, belonging, some semblance of order VIA their lunches.

    Postponed / Upcoming: PlayCo and Clubbed Thumb directed by Tara Ahmadinejad (Originally Scheduled March & April 2020)
    Recent: Clubbed Thumb's Winterworks and Summerworks directed by Tara Ahmadinejad (2019)

    New York Times Critic's Pick: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/theater/lunch-bunch-review.html
    Time Out Critic's Pick: https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/lunch-bunch
  • I forgot to tell you by Adrian Einspanier
    Cast: 
    2–200
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: twinning, queer + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, experimental, fantasy, movement/physical, tragedy
    Keyword: twinning, queer, kink, friend crush
    Are we all just wandering around saying the same shit to different people?
    On the perpetual prowl, so to say, for someone to narrate our lives to?

    https://brooklynrail.org/2021/06/theater/I-Forgot-to-Tell-You
  • House Plant by Adrian Einspanier
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: sound design, mountain climbing + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, drama, experimental, fantasy
    Keyword: sound design, mountain climbing, grey's anatomy, the cult of domesticity
    !? WELL THEN WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR !? LET’S POP THAT SUCKER IN

    When his girlfriend moves on, her best friend moves in. Rivals turned roommates unearth common ground in rejection, rootlessness, and retreat. A play about making do, making rent, and making “Art”—while climbing an (imaginary?) mountain.

    Recent: New York Theatre Workshop's Next Door directed by Jaki Bradley,...
    !? WELL THEN WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR !? LET’S POP THAT SUCKER IN

    When his girlfriend moves on, her best friend moves in. Rivals turned roommates unearth common ground in rejection, rootlessness, and retreat. A play about making do, making rent, and making “Art”—while climbing an (imaginary?) mountain.

    Recent: New York Theatre Workshop's Next Door directed by Jaki Bradley, produced by Madeleine Foster Bersin

    "Highbrow / Brilliant" in New York Magazine's Approval Matrix: https://nymag.com/article/2020/02/the-approval-matrix-week-of-february-17-2020.html
  • I LOVE SEAN by Adrian Einspanier
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    4–400
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: language, loneliness + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, fantasy
    Keyword: language, loneliness, casseroles, karaoke
    Three to three hundred women in pursuit of high ground between dreams, reality, and reality TV. (This is what happens when you write a play after transcribing an entire season of ABC's The Bachelor.)

    Recent: The Playwrights Realm's INK'D Festival of New Plays directed by Jenny Koons
    (https://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/keelay-gipson-sarah-einspanier-inkd-festival_88229.html)
  • MADONNA col BAMBINO by Adrian Einspanier
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: religion, Catholic + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, experimental
    Keyword: religion, Catholic, psychology, monkeys, chosen family, binaries, Both And
    Merry (with an E) is Christine's surrogate mother. Mary (with an A) is Christine's biological mother. Kristine (with a K) is Christine's biological mother's surrogate daughter. Martha is Christine's friend. Martha is having a baby. She can’t decide on a name. A "play" about family (in many forms) with no yelling.

    Created with composer Deepali Gupta and director...
    Merry (with an E) is Christine's surrogate mother. Mary (with an A) is Christine's biological mother. Kristine (with a K) is Christine's biological mother's surrogate daughter. Martha is Christine's friend. Martha is having a baby. She can’t decide on a name. A "play" about family (in many forms) with no yelling.

    Created with composer Deepali Gupta and director Caitlin Sullivan

    Interview with Julia May Jonas: https://www.culturebot.org/2018/07/28379/5-questions-with-the-creative-team-for-madonna-col-bambino/
    Response by Agnes Borinksy: https://www.culturebot.org/2018/08/28464/past-internetting-on-madonna-col-bambino/

  • The Convent of Pleasure by Adrian Einspanier
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: REI, relaxation apps + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, experimental, fantasy
    Keyword: REI, relaxation apps, environment
    Margaret and Katherine are moving? Going back to the earth? Going off the grid? Starting a lesbian sex den (L.S.D. for short)? Or maybe just camping...? Ambitions of meadowy feminist utopias plagued by 17th century men, mortality, and ants.