Who Are the Playwrights

Sarah Gancher

Resident Playwright

2018 — 2027

Sarah Gancher loves big ideas, epic stories, and deep comedy. Her writing has been seen on stages worldwide including London’s National Theatre, Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, The Public Theatre, New York Theater Workshop, Steppenwolf, Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Hartford Stage, RoundHouse (DC), Seattle Rep, Forward Theatre, and Ars Nova. (Upcoming: Playwrights Horizons Soundstage and Vineyard Theatre/En Garde Arts.) In 2020, the online production of her play Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy (dir. Jared Mezzocchi and Elizabeth Williamson, Theaterworks Hartford/Theatre Squared/The Civilians) was included in the New York Times' Top 10 Theater of 2020 list.  

Honors include the Richard Rodgers Award, New York Stage and Film Founders’ Award, The Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe Award, the James Stevenson Prize for Comedy, a Toulmin Foundation commission, several Lortel, Drama Desk, and Drama League nominations, and the AR Gurney Prize.

Her plays include I’ll Get You Back Again (Round House, dir. Rachel Chavkin), Seder (Hartford Stage, dir. Elizabeth Williamson), The Place We Built (The Flea, dir. Danya Taymor) and Klauzál Square (Quarter6Quarter7 Festival, Budapest, dir. Eszter Kalman.) She frequently collaborates on musicals, including Hundred Days (Public Theatre, New York Theater Workshop, national tour) and The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova) with The Bengsons and Anne Kauffman, and Mission Drift with Heather Christian, Rachel Chavkin, and The TEAM (National Theatre, Traverse, world tour.) Her work in the realm of large-scale spectacles includes partnerships with Blue Man Group, Madison Square Garden and Cirque du Soleil.

Sarah loves working with devisers and musicians.She currently teaches graduate and undergraduate playwriting at The New School and NYU Tisch School of the Arts' Department of Dramatic Writing. Alumna: Women’s Project Lab, Playwrights’ Realm Writing Fellowship, P73’s writers’ group, and Ars Nova Play Group. MFA: NYU.