Profoundly Deaf playwright Garrett Zuercher is native to American Sign Language and English and creates in both, often simultaneously. A recipient of multiple playwriting awards from the Kennedy Center for two of his plays, Garrett has also been recognized with many other prizes and honors. These include semifinalist status from the Eugene O’Neill Center for both VOICES and HARD PLACES, as well as the 2021 Zarkower Award from Hunter College for ALCESTIS 2020, a probing look at the recent COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on a modern and diverse Southern family.
Also a filmmaker, his comic take on the true stories of the relentless pursuit of Deaf people by religious sects, The Witnesses, won the 2020 Seattle Deaf Film Festival competition. More currently, another short he wrote, directed...
Profoundly Deaf playwright Garrett Zuercher is native to American Sign Language and English and creates in both, often simultaneously. A recipient of multiple playwriting awards from the Kennedy Center for two of his plays, Garrett has also been recognized with many other prizes and honors. These include semifinalist status from the Eugene O’Neill Center for both VOICES and HARD PLACES, as well as the 2021 Zarkower Award from Hunter College for ALCESTIS 2020, a probing look at the recent COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on a modern and diverse Southern family.
Also a filmmaker, his comic take on the true stories of the relentless pursuit of Deaf people by religious sects, The Witnesses, won the 2020 Seattle Deaf Film Festival competition. More currently, another short he wrote, directed, and stars in alongside several other Broadway actors - Flirting, with Possibilities, a look at finding love as a gay and Deaf man - recently wrapped up post-production ahead of the 2022 festival circuit.
A veteran stage and screen performer and a proud, longtime member of both Actors Equity and SAG-AFTRA, Garrett is also a founder and the Artistic Director of Deaf Broadway, a collective of professional Deaf performers who make existing theatre productions visually accessible to their community in American Sign Language. Actors Garrett has directed and performed alongside for Deaf Broadway include A Quiet Place's Millicent Simmonds, Oscar-nominated actor Troy Kotsur of CODA, James Caverly of Hulu's Only Murders in the Building, and Tony-nominee Lauren Ridloff of Marvel’s Eternals. In 2021 and 2022, Garrett produced and directed Deaf Broadway stagings of Stephen Sondheim’s INTO THE WOODS and SWEENEY TODD at Lincoln Center with entirely Deaf casts, including Lucille Lortel Award-nominee Alexandria Wailes (The Public’s FOR COLORED GIRLS…) as the Witch in the former. Currently, Deaf Broadway is enmeshed in preparations for another production at Lincoln Center in summer of 2023, details about which are forthcoming.
As an actor, Garrett got his big break right out of college when he was cast in the lead role of Huckleberry Finn in Deaf West’s Broadway production of BIG RIVER, after which he never stopped working. Notably, he can be seen a featured role in Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck alongside Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams and has been both murdered and a murderer on television in shows such as Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
A magna cum laude graduate of the theatre and writing programs at Marquette University in Milwaukee, he is currently in the final semester of his MFA studies in playwriting at Hunter College in New York City. In spring of 2021, the very first play he wrote for his master's studies - HARD PLACES, about a Deaf alcoholic finding it more challenging to communicate in rehab than to stay sober - was showcased as part of Roundabout’s Reverb Theatre Festival with Broadway’s Joshua Castille (Deaf West’s SPRING AWAKENING) reprising the lead role he helped to develop.
Dedicated to increasing the visibility of authentic Deaf voices in the mainstream, Garrett continues to advocate for awareness and representation within the theatre and film industries.