WRITING

Derek has a Master's in playwriting from the University of Edinburgh where he was awarded the William Hunter Sharpe Memorial Award for playwriting. He recently received a playwriting residency with Road Less Traveled Productions for his play Waist Deep, which also received a grant from the Global Warming Arts Fund. Derek is the artistic director for The Comfortably Quarantined Project, a virtual playwriting project which brings together writers, actors, and a dramaturg to remotely create original short pieces addressing aspects of the current pandemic.

This summer, Derek presented It's Complicated - an evening of 3 of his short plays -in the Rochester Fringe Festival's virtual Fringe. The plays Me Make Warm, Et tu, Cornelia, and Together. Forever. were recorded virtually with 3 separate couples of professional actors. Derek's play "The Exhibit" was performed at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the play was a semi-finalist for the National Playwright's Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center. His short play Peace and Quiet was performed in the NY Theatre Festival and won the Best Actor Award. Derek's original rock musical Pie Eater was an official Next Link selection for the New York Musical Theatre Festival, and he also wrote music and spoken word for a collaborative piece with choreographer Karla Garcia (Broadway's Hamilton) which premiered at the International Human Rights Festival in N.Y. Writing projects appear below: