Michael Wells-Oakes
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
An American cocktail, US Whiskey-90 proof, with a splash of Irish bitters; my life, a series of bright highs and dark blue hangovers. A large Philadelphia family in a small suburban town growing up with thousands of sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers – – it inspires me, it’s where I find my stories.
The fourth of five children I retain my “little brother” perspective. Stepping back a ways, always looking up, struggling to see, to understand. . . and again and again find in the dense tribal nucleus metaphors for politics, power, society, betrayal, spirituality, success, failure— find my stories.
And so, I lift the pencil-shaped oars and row down the River Schuykill. Past the Art Museum’s Ionic Columns, under the gaze of brotherly-loving William Penn, smelling the faint aroma of smoky refineries, and with disciplined bewilderedness listen. . . and try to tell my truth as well as I can- - to create a grand theater of feeling. Theater that surrounds my audience with poetry, song, comedy, dances, deaths, life, and shimmers in the afterglow with urgent questions. Where were we, where are we now, where must we go from here?
Michael Wells-Oakes recent plays include SEA VINE, NJ; WE LABOR; A COLD DECEMBER; GRACE; I KEEP THINKING ABOUT FREEDOM; CHRISTMAS; and THE COLLEGE HOOP SCANDAL OF 1962.
In July 2020, his play WINTER WHEAT was a semi-finalist for the Risk Theater Modern Tragedy Competition. His monologue, YOU LABOR, received the Silver Ear Award at the “Me & My Masks” Monologue Festival. YOU LABOR had its London premiere as part of LOST SOUL MONOLOGUES podcast on Friday, November 20, 2020 at https://lostsoulsmonologues.com/
LEAVE PHILADELPHIA NEVER by Michael Wells-Oakes is the second play of a tetralogy of four plays about his home town of Philadelphia. He is working on musical, BREATH TO BREATH, that tells the story of a 14-year-old girl mourning for her mother who died on 9/11, Subway Girl, and every person now living in New York City. Both plays have been presented as part of THE NEW WORKS SERIES.
His plays have been produced at The Luna Stage (NJ), The Puzzle Theater, Cubiculo Theater, The Triangle (SC), Harold Clurman Theater, Bernie Wohl Theater, White Fire Theater (CA), Barrow Street Theater, The Ko Festival(MA), Manhattan Class Company, and as part of the 29th Street Playwrights New Work Series.
In 1986, he and his wife, Jennifer Wells founded and ran the NYC Drama Workshop, a theater program for teenagers sponsored by Greenwich Village Youth Council. They wrote and produced 14 plays for teens to perform. Two Drama Workshop plays, REMEMBER ME ALWAYS and GREENFIELD BLOOMS, are published by Samuel French.
Michael is a National Playwrights Conference Finalist, has received a New York Foundation for the Arts grant for screenwriting, and a DeWitt Wallace Writer of Distinction Grant. He is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and a member of the Dramatist Guild.
An American cocktail, US Whiskey-90 proof, with a splash of Irish bitters; my life, a series of bright highs and dark blue hangovers. A large Philadelphia family in a small suburban town growing up with thousands of sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers – – it inspires me, it’s where I find my stories.
The fourth of five children I retain my “little brother” perspective. Stepping back a ways, always looking up, struggling to see, to understand. . . and again and again find in the dense tribal nucleus metaphors for politics, power, society, betrayal, spirituality, success, failure— find my stories.
And so, I lift the pencil-shaped oars and row down the River Schuykill. Past the Art Museum’s Ionic Columns, under the gaze of brotherly-loving William Penn, smelling the faint aroma of smoky refineries, and with disciplined bewilderedness listen. . . and try to tell my truth as well as I can- - to create a grand theater of feeling. Theater that surrounds my audience with poetry, song, comedy, dances, deaths, life, and shimmers in the afterglow with urgent questions. Where were we, where are we now, where must we go from here?
Michael Wells-Oakes recent plays include SEA VINE, NJ; WE LABOR; A COLD DECEMBER; GRACE; I KEEP THINKING ABOUT FREEDOM; CHRISTMAS; and THE COLLEGE HOOP SCANDAL OF 1962.
In July 2020, his play WINTER WHEAT was a semi-finalist for the Risk Theater Modern Tragedy Competition. His monologue, YOU LABOR, received the Silver Ear Award at the “Me & My Masks” Monologue Festival. YOU LABOR had its London premiere as part of LOST SOUL MONOLOGUES podcast on Friday, November 20, 2020 at https://lostsoulsmonologues.com/
LEAVE PHILADELPHIA NEVER by Michael Wells-Oakes is the second play of a tetralogy of four plays about his home town of Philadelphia. He is working on musical, BREATH TO BREATH, that tells the story of a 14-year-old girl mourning for her mother who died on 9/11, Subway Girl, and every person now living in New York City. Both plays have been presented as part of THE NEW WORKS SERIES.
His plays have been produced at The Luna Stage (NJ), The Puzzle Theater, Cubiculo Theater, The Triangle (SC), Harold Clurman Theater, Bernie Wohl Theater, White Fire Theater (CA), Barrow Street Theater, The Ko Festival(MA), Manhattan Class Company, and as part of the 29th Street Playwrights New Work Series.
In 1986, he and his wife, Jennifer Wells founded and ran the NYC Drama Workshop, a theater program for teenagers sponsored by Greenwich Village Youth Council. They wrote and produced 14 plays for teens to perform. Two Drama Workshop plays, REMEMBER ME ALWAYS and GREENFIELD BLOOMS, are published by Samuel French.
Michael is a National Playwrights Conference Finalist, has received a New York Foundation for the Arts grant for screenwriting, and a DeWitt Wallace Writer of Distinction Grant. He is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and a member of the Dramatist Guild.
Zahaira Curiel and Lorelei Rey in Breath to Breath by Michael Wells-Oakes, New Works Series 2017. Photo by Emily Hewitt.
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Jazmin Williams and Arian Badoo in Breath to Breath by Michael Wells-Oakes, New Works Series 2017. Photo by Emily Hewitt.
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Vanessa Pereda-Felix, Jon Esquivel and Zahaira Curiel in Breath to Breath by Micael Wells-Oakes, New Works Series 2017. Photo by Emily Hewitt.
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