Writing, Devising & Directing

Published Essays

COMPLETE WORKS

TENT CITY - A full-length play

O'Neill Center National Playwrights Conference - Semi-Finalist

WHALES - A short play

TROGLOBITES - A full-length play

FLIGHTLESS - A short screenplay

FRIENDS CALL ME ALBERT - A full-length play

TRANSFER PLAY - A one act play

MILKTOWN: 1999 - A short play

Contact for Full Texts

Playwriting C/V

TROGLOBITES

A full-length play by Zachary Desmond
Workshop directed by Piper Patterson and presented at Studio/NY

Photos by Stephanie Gaweda

It's the very last thing, isn't it, we feel grateful for: having happened. You know, you needn't have happened. You needn't have happened. But you did happen.

Douglas Harding

Born human,

I aspire to be more like the mountain,

Letting the world grow all over me,

Becoming so visible I disappear

Into becoming something else.

Sophie Wood

What makes it unbearable is your mistaken belief that it can be cured.

Charlotte Joko Beck

FRIENDS CALL ME ALBERT

A full length play by Zachary Desmond
Directed by Ryan Emmons and produced by No. 11 Productions

Photos by Sean Meehan

I want to know if you are willing

To live day by day

With the consequences of love

And the bitter unwanted passion

Of your sure defeat.

I have been told

In that fierce embrace

Even the gods

Speak of God

David Whyte

Self Portrait

Before experiments, measurements, mathematics, and rigorous deductions, science is above all about visions.

Carlo Rovelli

Seven Brief Lessons of Physics

When I say to the Moment flying,

'Linger a while -- thou art so fair!'

Then bind me in they boonds undying,

And my final ruin I will bear!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Faust

ALASKA RADIO PLAYS, POEMS & ONE ACTS

Over three and a half years in Alaska, Zachary wrote and premiered two radio plays (KCAW-Raven Radio), an epic poem set to aerial dance (Sitka Cirque), and earned a commissioned to write a one act drama in honor of the 150th anniversary of the territorial transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States at the exclusion of Tlingit and other Alaska Native peoples.

Directed by Taylor Ciambra, Frances Donohoe, and Zachary Desmond

Photos by Christine Davenport, Michael Gabbert, Ellie Schmidt and James Poulson

I remember

When the world was still forming

When breaking waves were warnings

I remember how the land was locked.

TIDES, A CIRQUE REVUE

ELIZA. Ew. What is this stuff?

MIRANDA. Ambiguous dairy product.

DARREN. I think it’s brie.

MIRANDA. This was not in the plan.

ELIZA. We didn't have a plan!

DARREN. Okay, should we be totally freaked out that we’re stuck? Or just grossed out that we’re stuck in cheese?

MILKTOWN: 1999

(A RADIO PLAY)

LADY JANE. What are the facts? Of the argument, I mean.

FATHER. Russian land, Tlingit land, American land, who knows?

LADY JANE. Well, somebody, I imagine.

SITKA: A TRANSFER STORY

FLIGHTLESS

A short screenplay by Zachary Desmond
Currently in Pre-Production

Contact for full pitch deck

ACT ONE

Bird leaves the nest to save his family but miscalculates and loses everything.

ACT TWO

Destitute, Bird follows his wife's ghost to the country but doesn't find her.

ACT THREE

Bird hits rock bottom before discovering new family and choosing to survive.

Mischief
Atlas

A Monthly Treasure Map + Letter

In July 2022, I was awarded a Creatives Rebuild New York Grant, designed to help artmakers reboot the state's arts and culture community after the COVID-19 pandemic by providing us a monthly basic income for a year and a half. Since then, I've written a monthly-ish letter to friends, family, and collaborators about the spiritual economy and ecology of being a professional artist and storyteller in New York City.

Enter Here