Caitlin Saylor Stephens is an American playwright known for her darkly comedic, visually charged works that interrogate themes of capitalism, femininity, labor, and beauty. Based in Brooklyn, New York, she creates plays that often center on women navigating extreme psychological, aesthetic, and societal pressures. Her writing blends experimental performance with classical narrative forms, frequently drawing on feminist philosophy and visual art.

Stephens is the author of When We Went Electronic (2018), a brutal comedy set in an American Apparel store that critiques memory, trauma, and consumer culture; Modern Swimwear (2023), about the final night in the life of a fashion designer; and Five Models in Ruins, 1981, a play set during a disastrous Vogue cover shoot, premiering at Lincoln Center Theater in 2025. Her work has been presented Off-Broadway, internationally (Athens, Milan, Rome), and developed by institutions like New York Theatre Workshop, The Lark, and Ensemble Studio Theatre.

She has received commissions from Lincoln Center Theater and the EST/Sloan Project, and her work has been supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, the NYC Women’s Fund, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Critics have described her writing as “gutting” (The New York Times) and “taut and brutal.”

Stephens teaches in the MFA Visual Narrative program at the School of Visual Arts and holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College in Experimental Performance and South American History.