PLAYWRIGHT & LIBRETTIST

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SMJ (they/them) is an NYC-based, mixed-Latiné, and Trans non-binary playwright, musical theater writer, educator, & theatermaker originally from Mount Vernon, OH. They were a 2022 - 2023 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow. They create work that is unapologetically queer and designed to highlight & challenge collaborators. Informed by their uneasy upbringing in the middle of Ohio, their plays warn about our world's funny yet terrifying truths.

Currently, SMJ is creating work with Ars Nova, Latinx Playwrights Circle, The Road Theatre Company, The Orchard Project, American Theater Group, Northern Sky Theater, and Open Jar Studios. Their work has been seen in various forms throughout the US including the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, New York Stage and Film, Lincoln Center, National Queer Theater, Latiné Musical Theatre Lab, Carnegie Mellon University, Otterbein University, Wright State University, Art House Productions, UTEP, Andy's Summer Playhouse, The Workshop Theater, The 24 Hour Plays, The Fled Collective, The Flea Theater, Live Arts, CRY HAVOC, The Tank, The Uptown Collective and DR2 Theatre. SMJ also writes for the serial podcast, University Radio. SMJ has been a semifinalist for the O’Neill’s National Playwrights Conference (three times), Princess Grace Award at New Dramatists, Van Lier New Voices Fellowship, and The Civilians R & D Group (two times) as well as a Finalist for the 2023 Parity Development Award, Write Out Loud Contest, 5th Avenue Theater's First Draft Commission, and the Doric Wilson Playwright Award. 

SMJ is a graduate of Otterbein University and the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. They’re a member of the Dramatists Guild and Ring of Keys. SMJ is currently represented by Krissy Bylancik, WME. 

CLICK ON THE PLAY OR MUSICAL TITLE TO LEARN MORE INFORMATION

The 79th Annual Raccoon Dinner in Danville, OH is on the chopping block due to an ominous QAnon drop, a missing member, and a contentious raccoon election.

  • 2022 - 2023 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship

  • Current Semifinalist, 2024 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference

  • Semifinalist, 2023 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference

Four social media influencers meet at a newly remodeled Spahn Ranch for an exclusive retreat that will forever alter their promising yet dangerous futures.

  • Workshop Production, The Fled Collective (May 2023)

  • Semifinalist, 2022 National Playwrights Conference & 2022 - 2023 Princess Grace Award

  • Student Production, Wright State University (April 2023)

Andy and Mark find themselves on a pirate ship after a tumultuous upbringing on land. But when they find themselves locked in a closet, their lives are changed forever.

  • 2024 Latinx Playwrights Circle Intensive Mentorship Selection

  • Finalist/Honorable Mention, 2023 Parity Development Award

  • Semifinalist, 2023 - 2024 Van Lier New Voices Fellowship

  • 2022 Artist Co-Op Cold Read Residency

It’s the night before the opening of Our Town in Mount Vernon, OH, and their production’s Emily is trapped at home with a branding in the shape of the cross on her arm.

  • Readings, The Uptown Collective / Dream Center Harlem (December 2022 & September 2023)

  • Workshop, FESTIVAL at Otterbein University (April 2021)

  • Finalist, 2024 Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative at Illinois State University

Alison is a country singer turned mega pop star whose career is under intense scrutiny after a popular podcast made some accusations about her private life. As midnights become Alison & Marina’s afternoons, their Eras reveal a lot of parasocial-based issues.

  • The Road Theatre Company’s Under Construction 4 Playwright's Group

  • The Orchard Project’s 2023 Greenhouse Lab

Co-written with Anne-Marie Pietersma

Best friends Anne-Marie and SMJ try to chart their queer journeys through the straight people they loved growing up. However, they uncover an uncomfortable intersection of queer liberation and exploitation.

  • 2023 - 2024 Ars Nova CAMP Residency

  • Premiere Production, Ars Nova (June 2024)

  • CAMP Residency at Walhalla Farms (January 2024)

Stacy and Mia are college roommates. Or lovers. Or both. Class, codependence, and queerness are explored in the confines of a 120-square-foot dorm room.

  • The Strides Collective’s Emerging Playwrights Workshop (November 2021)

  • Sold Out Workshop Production at The Tank (February 2020)

Maya, the only Latina wrestler in Trailblazer Championship Wrestling, must go through a gauntlet of white wrestlers and backstage politics in order to win her first title.

  • American Theater Group 2023-2024 BIPOC PlayLab

  • Workshop Production, DR2 Theatre (July 2022)

  • 2022 Moxie Arts Incubator

Five apprentices at a high-profile regional theater get a coveted production slot in the summer season after they get a commission to write a play about Power Rangers.

  • Reading, Rough Draft Festival at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (March 2024)

  • Reading, Cold Read Series at the Dramatists Guild Foundation (June 2023)

  • Online Workshop with actual Power Rangers in Attendance (May 2020)

Five former teen stars are invited back for a Disney+ reunion special for the show they made famous, Dating Academy. However, something more sinister awaits them.

  • Multi-Gen: New Works Lab with the Entertainment Community Fund & Moxie Arts (Spring 2023)

  • 2021 City Arts Corp Grant Recipient from New York Foundation for the Arts

  • Art House Productions 2020-2021 INKubator

As five seniors await their final audition at a small university in Ohio, they rehearse for Midsummer, wait for lunch, and ask some hard questions.

  • Staged Readings with Lake Ridge Academy & New Albany High School (November 2023 - February 2024)

  • Staged Reading, Buck’s Rock Camp in New Milford, CT (August 2023)

  • 2023 Waterworks New Reads Series Selection, Live Arts in Charlottesville, VA (May 2023)

A.collection of other plays in development, monologues, & short plays including University Radio, The Triangle, Not the Truth We Seek, and more.

  • Created with The 24 Hour Plays, Serials at The Fled Collective, The Workshop Theater, CRY HAVOC, Shotgun Players (CA), Otterbein University, Andy’s Summer Playhouse, The Tank, & Permafrost Theatre Collective

MUSICALS

At The Barre

Book & Lyrics by SMJ / Music & Lyrics by Natalie Myrick / Original Music by Sarah Flaim

A talented, queer principal dancer at an NYC ballet company and a talented, non-binary mime must battle their minds, their grief, and noise as they try to make a connection.

  • In Residence with NYSAF & Latiné Musical Theatre Lab (July 2023)

  • SOLD OUT Concert, The Green Room 42 in NYC (April 2023)

  • 4xLatiné with the Latiné Musical Theatre Lab, Teatro LATEA (March 2023)

Book by SMJ / Lyrics by Maggie Marie Rodgers / Music by Maggie Marie Rodgers & Dillon Feldman / Directed & Developed with Rebecca Wahls

Four old friends meet at a cabin in the woods and are forced to face that they've grown up and apart. They summon the ghosts of their past selves to build a future.

  • 2023 Julia de Burgos Cohort with Latiné Musical Theatre Lab

  • Academic Premiere, Carnegie Mellon University (November 2022)

  • Workshop, Fort Salem Theater (July 2022) & NYU’s Tisch New Theatre (January 2024)

Book & Lyrics by SMJ / Music & Lyrics by Natalie Myrick

Rae is in a bad place after a series of huge rejections. Armed with a camera, a timer, an audience, and an instrument, Rae has sixty minutes to decide whether to give up or not.

Book by SMJ / Music & Lyrics by Nedelle Torrisi / Directed & Developed with Jared Mezzocchi

Based on a Twitter thread, a person comes in last place in a fantasy football group and is punished by having to spend 24 hours at a Waffle House diner.

  • Workshop Production with Andy’s Summer Playhouse (August 2023)