Who Are the Playwrights

Ariel Stess

Resident Playwright

2019 — 2028

Ariel Stess is a Chicago based playwright and director originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her plays have been produced and/or developed at Playwrights Horizons, The Bushwick Starr, New Georges, Clubbed Thumb, Mabou Mines, and The Playwrights’ Center. She is a 2018-21 Core Writer of the Playwrights’ Center, a member of New Dramatists, and a New Georges Affiliated Artist. Her plays include Tranquil, KARA & EMMA & BARBARA & MIRANDA, The World My Mama Raised (Clubbed Thumb), Heartbreak (The Bushwick Starr, co-produced by New Georges, Time Out NY Critics’ Pick), and I’m Pretty Fucked Up (Clubbed Thumb, Five Stars, Time Out NY). Ariel received her BA from Bard College and her MFA from Brooklyn College where she studied under Mac Wellman and Erin Courtney. Her writing has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail and Culturebot. She has taught at NYU, Brooklyn College, BMCC, and SUNY Purchase. She teaches playwriting and screenwriting in the Radio/TV/Film Department at Northwestern University.