Harley Elias

Harley Elias

2024 NNPN National Showcase of New Plays Finalist for the Handless King!

Harley Elias is a playwright, librettist, and performer from New York City. His work has been supported by residencies at Banff Centre, Sewanee Writers Conference, a Fulbright Grant to India in Playwriting, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Resonance Ensemble, and Sparkfest at Amphibian Stage. He is the winner of the Wild...
2024 NNPN National Showcase of New Plays Finalist for the Handless King!

Harley Elias is a playwright, librettist, and performer from New York City. His work has been supported by residencies at Banff Centre, Sewanee Writers Conference, a Fulbright Grant to India in Playwriting, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Resonance Ensemble, and Sparkfest at Amphibian Stage. He is the winner of the Wild Imaginings New Play Award, the Samuel French OOB Award, a Young Playwrights Award, and his Play #3 is published by Samuel French. Recent plays include The Museum Plays (Miami New Drama), The Handless King (Amphibian Stage, Wild Imaginings), Thug Play (Resonance Ensemble), The Pardon (Brown University), and 47 Years of Marriage (Samuel French OOB). He was recently librettist-in-residence at Banff for their Opera in the 21st Century. For the composer Francisco de Guevara he wrote the libretto for the opera 11:35, set to premiere in Mexico City in 2024. The documentary he co-wrote and directed, Reconquest of the Useless, was shown at the Havana, Zurich, Woodstock, and Virginia Film Festivals. As an actor his credits include Les Miserables (Broadway and National Tour), A Thousand Clowns (Broadway), A Christmas Carol (Broadway), Ragtime (National Tour), and work at Goodspeed Opera House, EST, Workhouse, Second Stage, HB Studio, and Soho Rep. He holds a BA and MA in History and Art History from Stanford, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Playwriting at Brown. He is currently under commission from Miami New Drama and Theater J.

Plays

  • The Handless King by Harley Elias
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: Mesopotamia, gender + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: Mesopotamia, gender, Cuneiform, disability, Amputation, poetry, Ancient History, Mesopotamian mythology, Iraq, political oppression
    2024 NNPN National Showcase of New Plays

    Two eunuch scribes argue over the transition from Cuneiform to Aramaic in 728 BCE, and in turn wrestle with the purpose of writing, changing technologies, state violence, systemic oppression, revolution, gender, disability, and the invention of poetry. A dark comedy for anyone who has ever wanted to draw triangles in clay.
  • Gallerina by Harley Elias
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    A performance artist living in a contemporary art gallery performing as a dog for a month unexpectedly causes the upheaval of the gallery and the lives of those who work there, as the true nature of his identity is called into question. A canine comedy about the art world and the power of deception.
  • The Pardon by Harley Elias
    Cast: 
    5–8
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: crypto-Jews, expulsion of Jews + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, docudrama/historic, period
    Keyword: crypto-Jews, expulsion of Jews, kink, Sephardic, adultery, antisemitism, Catholic, Cults, shoes, craft
    Diogo gets a notary's pardon to forgive his wife for maybe sleeping with his best friend Gaspar, but stipulates that if Gaspar ever gives her earrings again, he's going back to jail. So, what happened with those earrings? It's 16th century Portugal and secret Jews are making secret shoes and having secret sex. A dark comedy about the invention of high heels, kink, Catholic sacrifice, cults, crypto-Jews, and betrayal.
  • Thug Play by Harley Elias
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: 19th century history, British India + 4 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: 19th century history, British India, thug, deception, South Asian History, South Asian
    An out of work actor wants to join the gang of the Thuggees, India's best medieval roadside murderers, from whence we get the word Thug. He enters a world of deception, slang, and bloodless murder that takes him up against the British colonial force, who themselves seek to be the only roadside murderers in town. A dark comedy about a forgotten history, taking on empire, and how to kill with a handkerchief.
  • New Deli by Harley Elias
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
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    Keyword: robbery, deli + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: robbery, deli, betrayal, sandwiches, hospitality, queer romance, heists, bumbling caper
    A sudden armed robbery in a delicatessen causes the sandwich maker and the guy-who-hangs-around-the-store-too-much to unexpectedly kiss. As they fall deeper in love, will their relationship last outside deli? And can they successfully stage a robbery themselves, to heist their way into the sunset. A play about sandwiches, unexpected love, and what happens when you hang around the corner store too much.
  • Wall of Death by Harley Elias
    Cast: 
    1–3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: carnival, monologue play + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, immersive
    Keyword: carnival, monologue play, solo performance, rogue taxidermy, Taylor Swift, country music, motorcycles
    Step right up and be transfixed by the Wall of Death! Motorcycle riders flying at breakneck speed around and around in front of your eyes. A man singing his way to redemption. Memories creating their own gravity. It all moves together on the Wall. The lives of a motorcycle stunt rider, a taxidermist, and a wannabee country songwriter intersect through three adjacent monologues. A meditation. A confession. A...
    Step right up and be transfixed by the Wall of Death! Motorcycle riders flying at breakneck speed around and around in front of your eyes. A man singing his way to redemption. Memories creating their own gravity. It all moves together on the Wall. The lives of a motorcycle stunt rider, a taxidermist, and a wannabee country songwriter intersect through three adjacent monologues. A meditation. A confession. A song cycle. A carnival. Come ride.
  • The Horizon, its Waves by Harley Elias
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: surfing, colonialism + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, docudrama/historic
    Keyword: surfing, colonialism, Hawaii, almost all female cast
    Two female surfers looking for waves plot to prove that Captain Cook is not the god he thinks he is by challenging him to surf, and take down his invading force. Set entirely on water, an anticolonial radical surfer revolution revenge play.