VILE ISLE

In eighteen days the world will end by Flood—at least according to drag queen Lizzie Fine, who receives a frightening prophecy of Old Testament proportions. Meanwhile, a gaggle of gay "chosen family" considers unchoosing each other. Nathan the Demon Twink seeks transcendence through Kabbalah (and Adderall), Christopher bravely transitions (into a DJ), and Gnocchi the Cat WILL be Bat Mitzvah'd, God willing. Vile Isle is a precocious and party-fueled dark comedy about how we fail and forgive one another and what faith is worth when our limits are existentially tested.

“Vile Isle by Justin Halle @TheTankNYC is superb. Actors are 🤯 (see Sam Gonzalez before superstardom finds him); Spencer Whale’s prod. is scrappy & stunning. Goofy but also deeply moral: the horny queer apocalypse-slash-reflection on Rosh Hashanah you didn’t know you needed.” - Helen Shaw

Review: Impulse Magazine
Review: Front Row Center
Interview: INTO

Read Vile Isle on New Play Exchange.

COWGIRL

Three city friends convene on a fracking ranch in Wyoming for a wild western wedding—but when Lila unearths Cowgirls, a relic of a feminist board-game-without-a-board, all bets on a seamless wedding are off. The game’s provocative questions threaten to unravel the secrets and dark desires that lurk just beneath the surface of these friendships. Cowgirl is a queer, passionate, and transformative dark comedy that gallops its way through questions of identity, the temptations of fracking, and the permanence of mustard stains. Oh, and one more thing: beware The Aunts. 90 min. Read Cowgirl on New Play Exchange. Finalist for Columbia @ Roundabout Reading Series, Semi-Finalist for the Princess Grace Award.

MACHT FREI

Veering between Dachau concentration camp in 1943 and New York City’s Upper East Side in 2020, Macht Frei is a short play that explores the blood memory of inherited Jewish trauma, intergenerational disconnect, and all the things history has failed to teach us—despite its violent insistence on repeating itself. 10 minutes. Read Macht Frei on New Play Exchange.

DELAWARE, COME HOME

Orli lives with her dog (named Delaware) in Montana; that is, until Delaware runs away, and Orli finds herself surrounded by vast nothing. She constructs a makeshift antenna, which she hopes will help Delaware find his way back home. 10 minutes. Read Delaware, Come Home on New Play Exchange.

Published in Best of Red Bull Theater’s Short New Play Festival, Stage Rights Publishing, 2019.