Sam Chanse is the author of plays including What you are now (Ensemble Studio Theatre and The Civilians, Sloan/EST Commission), Trigger (Lark Venturous Fellowship), Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play) (The Magic Theatre, NPC Semi-finalist), Disturbance Specialist (NAATCO and The Public Theater's Out of Time), and Lydia’s Funeral Video (Kaya Press). Under commission with La Jolla Playhouse, she is currently developing a new musical, The Family Album (2024 Idea Awards / Vivace Musical Theatre Award), with composers MILCK and AG, and director Jess McLeod.
She is a resident playwright of New Dramatists, a recent Lark Venturous Fellow, and a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. She was recently a participant in New York Stage and Film’s inaugural NYSAF NEXUS project.
A past fellow at MacDowell, Cherry Lane, Sundance Theatre Institute, and Playwrights Realm , she has also received residencies and commissions from La Jolla Playhouse, NAATCO, Djerassi, SPACE at Ryder Farm, EST/Sloan, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, University of Rochester’s International Theatre Program, Ma-Yi/the Flea, and the SF Arts Commission. She is an alum of Ars Nova’s Play Group, the Civilians R&D Group, and the Lark’s New York Stage & Film Vassar Retreat.
As an educator, she has taught writing and playwriting at Columbia University, New York University, the University of Rochester, and elsewhere. A native New Yorker, she was based in San Francisco for several years, when she served as artistic director of Kearny Street Workshop and co-director of Locus Arts, and developed work as a writer and performer at Bindlestiff, AATC, Playground, standup spots, and other artistic homes. She was a writer on three seasons of ABC’s The Good Doctor, and is a member of Dramatist Guild and WGA. MFA: Columbia University and NYU/Tisch GMTWP.
Photo credit: JMA photography.