Steve Fogelman

Playwright
he/him/his

The most surprising fact about Steve Fogelman, who is not only a playwright, actor, singer, and also an accomplished painter, chef, designer and filmmaker is that he is a late- diagnosis Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This life-long struggle unaware of the spectrum not only afforded him strong visual and cognitive skills but also laid the groundwork for story and character conflicts, though propagating the relationships to exploit his talents and opportunities remained elusive. Lucid visualizations and complex problem solving are a hallmark ASD characteristic so Steve was naturally drawn to first developed his 3-D visual skills, receiving a bachelor’s degree in architecture in 1985 from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he also took playwriting classes in their famed drama department. An exchange year in Lausanne, Switzerland benefited him becoming fluent in French. For a year after graduation he studied at George Romero’s Pittsburgh Filmmakers before moving to Los Angeles to work as a film art director. On the coast, Steve quickly decided to commit to acting, spending three years studying at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, which was also helpful in understanding relationships in the ‘real world.’ There, he performed in a workshop production of his first full-length Hey, Picasso! which developed into the musical Bluegrass Requiem. Though several companies also performed his first short play The Hoodoo, he missed the writing on the wall to become a playwright and hurled himself further into filmmaking, studying screenwriting at Writer’s Boot Camp with founder Jeff Gordon, where he wrote several feature films, including My Guy, Lunch With the Devil and The First Gentleman. As a member of Filmmakers Alliance, he wrote, produced and directed several shorts, most notably Limbo, which screened at the Tiburon, Asheville and New Orleans film festivals. Now back focusing on theater in New York since the spring of 2012, Steve has taken opportunities to hone his writing skills with director Sam Gold and noted playwrights Will Eno, Annie Baker, Josh Harmon and Gary Garrison,

Highlights

He finally gained member status with the production of his play, MUSICAL CHAIRS as part of the 2023 NY Theater Festival. His short, "The Glove," was part of Equity Library Theater’s 2017 Playwrights Festival and was published by Art Age Publications the same year. His short plays "Breeders Cup" and "Genius" were staged through Love Creek Productions. "tran-si-tions" was a semi finalist for the 2014 Vittum Prize for best new play and 2016 Great Gay Play and Musical Festival, both in Chicago. "charrette" had a premiere staged reading as part of the DG's Friday Night Footlights in 2018, and during Identity Theater Company's playwriting festival the same year.