Cary Gitter

Librettist Playwright Lyricist

CARY GITTER’s plays include THE VIRTUOUS LIFE OF JOSEPH ANDREWS (world premiere, Penguin Rep Theatre, Stony Point, NY), a musical comedy adapted from the Henry Fielding novel, and THE SABBATH GIRL (off-Broadway, 59E59 Theaters; Penguin Rep Theatre; Theatre Ariel, Philadelphia; Invisible Theatre, Tucson), which is published and licensed by Stage Rights. He is currently at work on a musical adaptation of THE SABBATH GIRL with composer-lyricist Neil Berg and director Joe Brancato.

His play HOW MY GRANDPARENTS FELL IN LOVE was a New York Times Critic's Pick as part of the Ensemble Studio Theatre's (EST’s) 36th Marathon of One-Act Plays and aired on the acclaimed podcast Playing on Air. He has received commissions from the EST/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project, Penguin Rep Theatre, and West of 10th. He is an alumnus of EST’s Obie Award-winning Youngblood playwrights’ group.

His full-length plays have been developed by the Berkshire Playwrights Lab, the Chameleon Theatre Circle, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, EST, the Jewish Ensemble Theatre, the Jewish Plays Project, the Levine Jewish Community Center, New Jersey Repertory Company, NYU, Seven Angels Theatre, West of 10th, and Wordsmyth Theater Company. He is a two-time O’Neill semifinalist and Jewish Playwriting Contest finalist, and he has received NYU’s John Golden Playwriting Prize and honorable mentions for the New England Theatre Conference’s Aurand Harris Memorial Playwriting Award and the Kennedy Center’s Rosa Parks Playwriting Award.

His short plays have been presented by the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the Big Funk Company (Paris, France), the Boston Center for the Arts, Caps Lock Theatre, Columbia University's Center for Palestine Studies, EST, the Flea Theater, the inspiraTO Festival, the JCC Manhattan, JIB Productions, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, Mile Square Theatre, the Misfits Theatre Company, NJ Rep, NYU, Open Fist Theatre Company, Roustabout Theatre Troupe, the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival (finalist), T. Schreiber Theatre, the Tank, Theatre Nova, Tipping Point Theatre, and others.

His dramatic work has been published in anthologies from Applause and Smith & Kraus. His fiction has appeared in Baphash Literary & Arts Quarterly, JewishFiction.net, the Jewish Literary Journal, and Newtown Literary. He has been a resident in Tofte Lake Center's Emerging Artists Program and participated in Theater Reconstruction Ensemble's chemis|TRE workshop. He holds a BFA in dramatic writing and an MA in English and American literature from NYU.