Lindsay Joelle

Lindsay Joelle

Lindsay Joelle is a playwright, screenwriter, and librettist.

​The granddaughter of a survivor in Poland's Underground Resistance and the daughter of a first-generation Israeli-American, Joelle is drawn to stories of misfits, rebels, and the un-assimilated. Her plays spotlight voices not usually heard in the American theater: Chasidic Jews addicted to rock and roll. ​Sanitation workers...
Lindsay Joelle is a playwright, screenwriter, and librettist.

​The granddaughter of a survivor in Poland's Underground Resistance and the daughter of a first-generation Israeli-American, Joelle is drawn to stories of misfits, rebels, and the un-assimilated. Her plays spotlight voices not usually heard in the American theater: Chasidic Jews addicted to rock and roll. ​Sanitation workers who find treasure in the trash. Scientists, refugees, soldiers, and translators. Her writing explores the rituals, routines, and humor of urban and rural micro-communities across America... and beyond.

Plays include "TRAYF" (Geffen ’22, Theater J, Penguin Rep, New Rep), "The Messengers" (Audible Theater audioplay), "A Small History of Amal, Age 7" (Forward Flux/Pratidhwani), and "The Garbologists" (Philadelphia Theatre Company, City Theatre ’22). She has been awarded an Audible Theatre Emerging Playwright commission, Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Foundation Science & Technology commission, Vital Theatre musical commission, Irving Zarkower Award, and Goldberg MFA Playwriting Prize.

Originally from Chicago, Joelle received her BA from Columbia University and MFA from Hunter, studying under Tina Howe, Arthur Kopit, and Samuel D. Hunter. Alumna of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, Nashville Repertory Theatre’s Ingram New Works Lab, and 2017-2018 NNPN Playwright-in-Residence at Curious Theatre. Non-theatrical writing includes restaurant reviews for New York Magazine’s Grubstreet and the prep book "Tutor Tells All: ACT Test Strategy."

Plays

  • THE MESSENGERS by Lindsay Joelle
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: adventure, comedy + 4 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, drama, political, science fiction
    In the midst of a decades-long intergalactic war, a Soldier and a Messenger discover that they share more than a mission...while a Runner and a Refugee find an unexpected path to freedom that will link their lives forever. A dark comedy about survival, connection, and the messages we carry in our bones.
  • TRAYF by Lindsay Joelle
    Recommendations: 11
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, faith-based, period
    Orthodox teens and lifelong best friends Zalmy and Shmuel are intent on saving the world, one mitzvah at a time. But when a curious outsider draws Zalmy into the forbidden secular pleasures of 1990s New York City, Shmuel must do everything in his power to keep their dreams intact or risk losing his friend forever. This road-trip bromance is a funny and heartwarming ode to the turbulence of youth, the universal...
    Orthodox teens and lifelong best friends Zalmy and Shmuel are intent on saving the world, one mitzvah at a time. But when a curious outsider draws Zalmy into the forbidden secular pleasures of 1990s New York City, Shmuel must do everything in his power to keep their dreams intact or risk losing his friend forever. This road-trip bromance is a funny and heartwarming ode to the turbulence of youth, the universal suspicion that we don't quite fit in, and the faith and friends that see us through.
  • THE GARBOLOGISTS by Lindsay Joelle
    Recommendations: 8
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, movement/physical
    Danny’s a white, blue-collar, New York City mansplainer. Marlowe’s the Black, female, ivy-educated newbie who just joined his garbage route. Thrown together in a 19-ton truck and forced to pick up what the world has discarded, two essential workers from different worlds discover there's more that binds them than taking out the trash. An unconventional buddy comedy in a garbage truck, The Garbologists is a...
    Danny’s a white, blue-collar, New York City mansplainer. Marlowe’s the Black, female, ivy-educated newbie who just joined his garbage route. Thrown together in a 19-ton truck and forced to pick up what the world has discarded, two essential workers from different worlds discover there's more that binds them than taking out the trash. An unconventional buddy comedy in a garbage truck, The Garbologists is a hopeful story about finding common ground in uncommon times.
  • A SMALL HISTORY OF AMAL, AGE 7 by Lindsay Joelle
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    6–9
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    Genre: adaptation, adventure + 4 more
    Genre: adaptation, adventure, drama, immersive, movement/physical, young audiences
    Amal, an imaginative orphan confined to a hospital bed in Mumbai, lives a day of jungle adventures, high-speed train chases, and Bollywood love scenes, befriending the hospital's staff and patients. But when Mumbai's commuter trains are hit by a terrorist attack and the hospital struggles beyond capacity to treat the survivors, Amal gets lost in the shuffle. Now, it’ll take an explorer’s heart and a...
    Amal, an imaginative orphan confined to a hospital bed in Mumbai, lives a day of jungle adventures, high-speed train chases, and Bollywood love scenes, befriending the hospital's staff and patients. But when Mumbai's commuter trains are hit by a terrorist attack and the hospital struggles beyond capacity to treat the survivors, Amal gets lost in the shuffle. Now, it’ll take an explorer’s heart and a little Bollywood magic to defeat the God of Death. Based on Rabindranath Tagore's "The Post Office" and true historical events, this is an ensemble-centered, magical-realism story for all ages that explores the meaning of a life well-lived.