I write plays for adults and for kids, create devised work, and am developing on-screen projects.
I perform on stage and camera as an actor and improviser
Here are some samples of my work
Plays
Doctor Automaton’s Android
Dr. Automaton’s latest invention is an android, built to be just like a human. But when the Doc discovers that her android is missing the essential human qualities of imagination, empathy, and friendship, it will be up to us to help the android learn what it means to be human!
Dr. Automaton’s Android is an interactive, virtual play commissioned by Only Make Believe to be performed for children in in hospitals, care facilities, and special education schools. It has now been performed at over 15 sites nationwide for more than 865 kids.
“We are all imperfect. And we all have to learn things sometimes. That is what makes us human.”
The Great Lt. Sprinkle Didn’t Save Me
A security guard at a former police station hears and sees strange things during his graveyard shift. His new wife, a ghost buff, is delighted, but he is wary. When the spirit(s?) haunting the building are unleashed, he will have to face his limitations as he tries to become the hero he’s never quite managed to be.
The Great Lt. Sprinkle Didn’t Save Me is a haunted house play with integrated multimedia (the security camera feed is an active part of the storytelling), that asks whether it’s possible to match the myth of the hero protector. Commissioned, workshopped, and produced by Field Trip Theater (RIP) in DC from a short play produced by Rorschach Theater.
“Every ghost story is a kind of history lesson.”
Fanatics
For the sixth graders at South Haven Middle School, the cafeteria is divided into territories governed by fandom. If you aren’t a superfan, don’t even think of sitting at that table. When fandom politics lead to broken friendships and fandoms are banned from the school, the students will have to learn how to balance self-expression, belonging, and kindness.
Fanatics was commissioned by Imagination Stage for the Speak Out On Stage program. I worked with the youth ensemble to device the concept and characters, and then I wrote the book and lyrics for a musical. The musical was then performed by the ensemble in a professional production.
“Our world is a world of fandom.”
Retcon
A self-doubting but visionary young comic book artist attempts to return to her work on a precious project after experiencing a sexual assault from her mentor, and finds herself spinning through unreliable narratives of her past as she tries to contextualize her present so she can find the space to create again.
Retcon is a non-linear, fragmented play with elements of magical realism and the absurd about the struggle to find the space to create when the gatekeepers not only stand in the way practically, but invade your own self-image and cut off your will to actualize at its source. Retcon was developed in the UC Riverside MFA program, and received an independently produced staged reading.
“So there’s this girl who can enter the body of an animal.”
This Historic Night
Two teenagers contend with an unplanned pregnancy. News anchors report on their own demise. Doomsday cultists reckon with a failed apocalypse. Five stories about people on the edge of catastrophe, looking into an uncertain future. Welcome to this historic night.
This Historic Night is a collection of five short plays, varying in form and style from a naturalistic monoscene to an absurd language play, about people staring down their doom. This Historic Night was produced in the Capital Fringe Festival, 2018.
“Hello and welcome, viewers, citizens, voters. People of this great nation. To this historic night.”
A Decade of Wandering
A mysterious phone rings in a stranger’s house, voices yearning to be freed from their prison. A young man encounters the devil in an old phone booth. Two friends are pit against each other in a strange game with high stakes. These are folk tales for our generation, as it entered into the decade of wandering—that unstable space between adolescence and adulthood.
A Decade of Wandering is a cycle of five interconnected plays styled after different classic folk tales. This play was the winner of the Agnes Nixon Playwriting Award at Northwestern University, and received a full workshop and staged reading. It has since been further developed by Field Trip Theater and produced by St. Bonaventure University.
“I feel like I was born in the wrong decade, but maybe that’s because my decade hasn’t happened yet.”
Devised
Fox Cried
A musician, an artist, and a storyteller give a lecture/performance to present the findings from their study of an as-yet unknown myth-poem and the ancient culture that generated it. But as the event progresses, the truth of what is going on gets called into question, and a deeper story emerges.
Fox Cried was conceived of by myself, JC Remick, and Ethan Foote. Originally commissioned as a short devised work by the Source Festival (RIP), we then independently produced a full-length version. It is a work of multimedia theater/performance art, along with dance and original music, that explores how value gets placed on cultural objects.
Fox went down to Crow’s place
Stayed a long, long time
I have participated in and/or directed a number of devising projects. Other projects have included Six Impossible Things (Filament Theater), a TYA mash-up of three classic stories about girls who are whisked away to magical worlds; From the Circle (Filament Theater), an ensemble storytelling performance exploring our relationship to the earth and climate change through folk tales and mythology; James Bond in: Nickle and DIE! (Annoyance Theater), a ridiculous parody of a certain long-running franchise; and countless original works generated with kids in summer camps, after-school programs, and advanced courses.
On-Screen
FAILURE
One-Hour [Serialized] TV Series | Sardonic Family/High School Drama | Cable
When an unfulfilled theater director is pressured into teaching drama at his ambitious daughter’s ultra-privileged school, he juggles his roles as parent vs. artist as he tries to assert his highbrow artistic vision over this vacuous realm of musical theater drones.
COMPS: AP BIO meets THE BEAR
Sample Projects:
THE LIZARD PEOPLE
Half-Hour [Serialized] TV Series | Conspiracy-Fiction Dark Comedy | Cable
When a headstrong idealist fed up with self-interested and incompetent bosses is hired by the Illuminati to save them from their inept selves, she must learn to work with, not against, them to keep the world from falling apart, while attempting to do some good in the process.
COMPS: THE X-FILES meets PARKS AND RECREATION
I am developing pilots for serialized projects featuring behavioral farce, devastating miscommunication, and unresolved introspection.
In my scripts, I chronicle the awkward journeys of flawed visionaries toward self-acceptance and self-actualization as they untangle messy relationships.
click for videos!
Acting
“screamingly funny”
Lovers Vows, We Happy Few, Helen Hayes Nomination: Outstanding Supporting Actor, Photo by Mark Williams Hoelscher
“Novak brings sharp wit and timing”
Perfect Arrangement, Source Festival, Photo: Teresa Wood
The Forgiving, www.theforgivingmovie.com
Twelfth Night, Prince George’s Shakespeare
Orpheus: Featuring DJ Puzzle as Fate, Filament Theater
Blue, Imagination Stage, Photo by Lauren Alexander
Clown Cabaret, Photo by Rich Higgins
In high school, I started an improv club, directed a Harold, and wrote my US History term paper about Second City.
I was, as you assumed correctly, super cool.
I went on to perform in and direct the Mee-Ow Show at Northwestern University, almost complete the Annoyance training program (didn’t finish, but did get to perform in Co-Ed Prison Sluts), and do some improv around Chicago before leaving to follow a doomed relationship.
But that brought me to Washington, DC, where (in addition to meeting my wife—happy ending!) I got to perform for years with Commonwealth, (a house team at Washington Improv Theater) teach classes & spearhead a youth outreach program at WIT, and enjoy a good run in the improv duo Husbands of Wives. I also got to do some other funny stuff, like The Character Show at Dojo Comedy.
Improv
Leading an after-school program for WIT