Tess Rowan

Tess Rowan

Tess Rowan (She/Her) is an 19-year-old performer, composer, playwright, director, and musician from the Washington, D.C. Area. She is a student at NYU Tisch, studying Drama at the New Studio on Broadway. NY, CT - Playwright: Break My Bones (The O’Neill YPF, ‘20). Playwright/Director: Mr. Stranger and Pie from the Pattersons’ (Dramafest at Stagedoor Manor with Stephen Sondheim’s Young Playwrights Inc., ‘19-’20...
Tess Rowan (She/Her) is an 19-year-old performer, composer, playwright, director, and musician from the Washington, D.C. Area. She is a student at NYU Tisch, studying Drama at the New Studio on Broadway. NY, CT - Playwright: Break My Bones (The O’Neill YPF, ‘20). Playwright/Director: Mr. Stranger and Pie from the Pattersons’ (Dramafest at Stagedoor Manor with Stephen Sondheim’s Young Playwrights Inc., ‘19-’20). D.C. - Book/Music/Lyrics/Morse Code: Static: Noise of a New Musical (Capital Fringe Festival - Best Music & Best Ensemble Winner, ‘18-present). Playwright/Director/Music/Live Musician: Your Carving Footprint (Saxon Stage After Hours, ‘21-’22). Playwright/Director: Gravediggers (Saxon Stage After Hours - Reading & Developmental Workshop, '22.) First-ever WTOP Top Kid award winner (D.C. Regional, ‘20) for work on Static during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Whatta World” and “Tell Me How” on all streaming platforms. Co-Captain and Co-Founder of Saxon Stage After Hours, a playwriting, directing, and student-run production group. Lead Cappies Critic Langley Critic Team for high school theater awards critics in the D.C. area. www.tessrowan.com @tessrowan

Plays

  • Gravediggers by Tess Rowan
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: dark comedy, dry humor + 6 more
    Genre: dark comedy
    Keyword: dark comedy, dry humor, sarcasm, graveyard, church, awkward romance, death and dying, monologue.
    Gravediggers is an original dark comedy play following six inhabitants of a run-down historic estate in rural Montana and the secrets they bury down deep in the ground.

    On one side of the Boothe Estate lies a graveyard, garden, gift shop, and mansion, home to aging property owner, Boothe, and lonely gravedigger employee, Pete. On the other side stands a small church and clergy house, now a part-...
    Gravediggers is an original dark comedy play following six inhabitants of a run-down historic estate in rural Montana and the secrets they bury down deep in the ground.

    On one side of the Boothe Estate lies a graveyard, garden, gift shop, and mansion, home to aging property owner, Boothe, and lonely gravedigger employee, Pete. On the other side stands a small church and clergy house, now a part-time chapel, run by Reverend Margot, and a funeral home, run by her sister-in-law, Audrey, and Audrey’s teenage niece, Joyce.

    When new groundskeeper Nellie arrives at the Boothe Estate, people and plants suddenly die, invasive insects take over, and a new romance rewrites tombstones, leaving secrets sprawled out across the overgrown lawn. The Boothe Estate’s odd occupants and even odder staff members must learn to let their skeletons out of the closet in a story of love, destruction, and obsessions with death.
  • Static: Noise of a New Musical by Tess Rowan
    Cast: 
    7–15
    ·
    Genre: adventure, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: A Family drama, appalachian trail + 5 more
    Genre: adventure, drama, musical, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: A Family drama, appalachian trail, International Morse Code, amateur crime-solvers, mystery/thriller, action and adventure, Indie / Alt. Alternative Rock & Folk Music
    Static is an original morse code musical about a teen trying to find her dad who's lost in the woods. The McAfees have lived in the Pennsylvania forest ever since their father went missing on the Appalachian Trail. Daughter Maine teams up with local teen Charlie on a detective mission to find Maine’s father. Yet, the truth may silence waves of sound. An original adventure musical with a radio blend of...
    Static is an original morse code musical about a teen trying to find her dad who's lost in the woods. The McAfees have lived in the Pennsylvania forest ever since their father went missing on the Appalachian Trail. Daughter Maine teams up with local teen Charlie on a detective mission to find Maine’s father. Yet, the truth may silence waves of sound. An original adventure musical with a radio blend of musical theater, rock, folk, and immersive morse code clues.

    Static is the first musical to utilize morse code as a method of dramatic storytelling, including cryptic morse mode clues for audiences to solve and messages embedded in drum rhythms and grooving musical lines, ultimately allowing for an immersive mystery listening experience.

    You can learn more about Static at @staticmusical or www.tessrowan.com/staticmusical
  • Your Carving Footprint by Tess Rowan
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: physical and immersive elements, Humanity and Nature + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, immersive
    Keyword: physical and immersive elements, Humanity and Nature, environmental activism, sustainability, a young couple
    Your Carving Footprint is an immersive one-act conservationist comedy about acting out against the inevitable. Teenage couple, Bobbi and Simon, have one hour left at their hideout until Bobbi’s parent’s construction company tears down Zone B of the South Valley Parkland Forest. Distracted by signing petitions, stabbing trees, and tossing paper airplane projectiles, Bobbi and Simon confront their own natural...
    Your Carving Footprint is an immersive one-act conservationist comedy about acting out against the inevitable. Teenage couple, Bobbi and Simon, have one hour left at their hideout until Bobbi’s parent’s construction company tears down Zone B of the South Valley Parkland Forest. Distracted by signing petitions, stabbing trees, and tossing paper airplane projectiles, Bobbi and Simon confront their own natural disasters. Before sunrise, Bobbi and Simon must decide to accept fate or fight the uncontrollable.
  • Break My Bones by Tess Rowan
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: grief and healing, young couple + 2 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: grief and healing, young couple, close friendship, colleges and high schools.
    Break My Bones is a cathartic journey through worlds, exploring how youth makes hurting so hard to heal. Lily fights to craft the perfect eulogy to fix broken relationships and stitch the wounds of her high school friends. In this ten-minute drama, Patrick, Andrew, and Lily must reconnect to change their story and bring life back.
  • Mr. Stranger by Tess Rowan
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: romantic comedy
    ·
    Keyword: flirtation, imagination vs. reality + 4 more
    Genre: romantic comedy
    Keyword: flirtation, imagination vs. reality, gossip, The impact of gossip, Teen girls, teen boy.
    Newly single Leah and her confidant, Maggie imagine whimsical ideals and fatal destinies that could ensue with the unidentifiable teenage enigma, Mr. Stranger. An odd day in the park may lead to young love or a strange family Friday game night in this upbeat ten-minute comedy.

    Published and available for licensing by Smith & Kraus Publishers' Dramafest collection.
  • Pie from the Pattersons by Tess Rowan
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy
    ·
    Keyword: fraternal twins, Bad Neighbors + 5 more
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: fraternal twins, Bad Neighbors, cooking, cat, hijinks, dry humor, dark humor.
    Teenage twins, Penelope and Sawyer Patterson, struggle with saying "sorry," so they must give an apology in the only way they know how: with pie. It's all up to cat-caregiver and cooking connoisseur, Mrs. Margery to decide whether or not these Patterson twins can be redeemed for their fatal mistake. Eccentric characters, rolling dialogue, diverging alliances, and a kitchen-equipped bloodbath are...
    Teenage twins, Penelope and Sawyer Patterson, struggle with saying "sorry," so they must give an apology in the only way they know how: with pie. It's all up to cat-caregiver and cooking connoisseur, Mrs. Margery to decide whether or not these Patterson twins can be redeemed for their fatal mistake. Eccentric characters, rolling dialogue, diverging alliances, and a kitchen-equipped bloodbath are baked into this off-beat one-act comedy.

    Published and available for licensing by Smith & Kraus Publishers' Dramafest collection.
  • Break My Bones by Tess Rowan
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: grief and healing, young couple + 2 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: grief and healing, young couple, close friendship, colleges and high schools.
    Break My Bones is a cathartic journey through worlds, exploring how youth makes hurting so hard to heal. Lily fights to craft the perfect eulogy to fix broken relationships and stitch the wounds of her high school friends. In this ten-minute drama, Patrick, Andrew, and Lily must reconnect to change their story and bring life back.