Alexa Derman is a queer Jewish playwright from Jersey who writes about gender, systems, and other freaky things. Her plays include PSYCHOPSYCHOTIC (Relentless Award Honorable Mention), GIRLISH (Fresh Ink Theatre), RESTORATION MASTER RESET (Cutting Ball in WAYS TO LEAVE A BODY), and I’LL BE IN MY HANUKKAH PALACE (sold-out at Ars Nova ANT Fest).
She’s been a finalist for Playwrights Realm’s Writing Fellowship, the Starr Reading Series, Pegasus PlayLab, Kitchen Dog New Works, and Unicorn Plays-in-Progress; semifinalist for Bay Area Playwrights Festival and the O’Neill.
Other honors and experiences include Orchard Project Audio Lab, Fresh Ground Pepper’s BRB Retreat, nomination for the Cherry Lane Mentor project and the Susan Smith Blackburn, a residency with StageFemmes at Kenyon College, selection as a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow, and at Yale the Marina Keegan Award for Excellence in Playwriting. Her work has been developed with Cutting Ball Variety Pack and Fresh Ink. She is a 2022-2023 Core Apprentice at the Playwrights Center and currently under commission from Manhattan Theatre Club via the Sloan Foundation.
BA from Yale in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies. She is currently pursuing her MFA at Brown, where she is a member of the Brown-RISD Game Developers, is a recipient of the Lucille Lortel Playwriting Fellowship, and studies under Lisa D’Amour and Julia Jarcho. She is also a staff writer on an upcoming Netflix series. alexaderman.com
