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
    Zalmy lives a double life: by day, he drives a Chabad “Mitzvah Tank” through 1990s NYC, performing good deeds with his best friend Shmuel. By night, he sneaks out of his orthodox community to roller-skate and listen to rock and roll. But when a curious outsider offers him unfettered access to the secular world, is it worth jeopardizing everything he's ever known? This road-trip bromance is a funny and...
    Zalmy lives a double life: by day, he drives a Chabad “Mitzvah Tank” through 1990s NYC, performing good deeds with his best friend Shmuel. By night, he sneaks out of his orthodox community to roller-skate and listen to rock and roll. But when a curious outsider offers him unfettered access to the secular world, is it worth jeopardizing everything he's ever known? 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. At first, they bicker and spar, but when these two essential workers from different worlds find something on the street too valuable to discard, it challenges their beliefs on race, gender, class, and the meaning of true partnership. An unconventional buddy comedy in a garbage truck.
  • 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
    Based on Rabindranath Tagore's The Post Office, an immersive, whimsical experience told simultaneously through the eyes of a Mumbai train conductor and a child in a public hospital. On a historic day in 2006, Amal, an imaginative boy confined to a hospital bed, lives a smaller history of jungle adventures, high-speed train chases, and Bollywood love scenes. But when the city's commuter trains are...
    Based on Rabindranath Tagore's The Post Office, an immersive, whimsical experience told simultaneously through the eyes of a Mumbai train conductor and a child in a public hospital. On a historic day in 2006, Amal, an imaginative boy confined to a hospital bed, lives a smaller history of jungle adventures, high-speed train chases, and Bollywood love scenes. But when the city's commuter trains are attacked 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.