Hanna Novak

Hanna Novak

Hanna Novak is a New York City-based playwright, director, and producer. Her plays include The Opera is Always on the Table (New Ohio, 2018), I Wanna Destroy You (The Performing Garage, 2019) and Left Out (Semi-finalist, 2022 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference). She is a member of EST/Youngblood, a New Georges affiliated artist, and an alum of Clubbed Thumb’s Early-Career Writers Group. She has received...
Hanna Novak is a New York City-based playwright, director, and producer. Her plays include The Opera is Always on the Table (New Ohio, 2018), I Wanna Destroy You (The Performing Garage, 2019) and Left Out (Semi-finalist, 2022 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference). She is a member of EST/Youngblood, a New Georges affiliated artist, and an alum of Clubbed Thumb’s Early-Career Writers Group. She has received residencies and workshops through the Ucross Foundation, The Performing Garage, and The Hearth. Past collaborators include Tina Satter/Half Straddle, minor theater, and Liz Magic Laser. Hanna graduated from the MFA Playwriting program at Hunter College in 2018, where she studied with Annie Baker and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. She is the Producing Director for the theater company Elevator Repair Service.

Plays

  • Left Out
    Ada and Esther talk about sex, death, and money as they wade through the aftermath of their adoptive father’s will. An inheritance drama set in a minor key, Left Out follows two women trying to find themselves within a family.
  • I Wanna Destroy You
    A seemingly random act of violence connects the lives of two aging liberals and a group of teenage friends in New York City.
  • The Opera is Always on the Table
    A preteen girl and her mother attempt to navigate a tragic accident, both together and apart. A short play with music based on Sophocles' Ajax about discovering who your parents really are.
  • The Knights
    In a dark European forest, two knights – childhood friends – reunite in a clearing. Eight hundred
    years later, another pair of childhood friends falls in love, leaving their parents to reckon with
    the new relationship as well as their own marriages. The Knights puts these seemingly disparate
    characters side-by-side to reveal how our most intense feelings have the power to transcend time
    and challenge logic.