Michael Louis Wells - Playwright
A winner of The London New Play Festival, two-time finalist for the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Heideman Award, inaugural recipient of a First Light commission from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and finalist for the Verity Bargate Award at London’s Soho Theatre & Writers Centre, Wells’s plays have seen production, publication, workshops and readings in New York, London, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington, DC and elsewhere.
Wells made his professional debut in New York with Real Real Gone (published by Smith & Kraus), which The Star Ledger observed “heralds a new writer with an acute sense of language and a special ability to dramatize human behavior” and Variety pronounced as “the best of the bunch -far and away – with language that laces the natural poetics of the street with erudition”.
Other works include The “I” Word: Interns (Faber & Faber), about idealistic Clinton staffers, , cited by Show Business as “ripe with political savvy” and The Village Voice for “handling the Beltway lingo with brains and Shavian brio!” as well as Detail, winner of The London New Play Festival and produced in a new version in New York in June 2006.
Also recently published is his short piece, Two From The Line, selected for inclusion by Smith & Kraus for their “Best Ten Minute Plays – 2008” anthology. Having adapted this short theatre work into a screenplay, Michael oversaw casting, rehearsals and pre-production for the short film version of the piece, which began principal photography in July 2010 in San Francisco.
His play, District of Columbia, set in a cooperative house on the eve of the 1988 US Presidential election, was workshopped in March 2007 at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and given a subsequent developmental reading off-West End at The Finborough in November 2007 - both under the direction of Wilson Milam.
Another full-length, Seven Pages Unsigned- was workshopped in New York in August 2007 under the direction of Pamela Berlin and, simultaneously in development with San Francisco’s Magic Theatre under Artistic Director, Chris Smith, received a workshop in December 2007 as one of three plays selected for “New Voices West”, a programme dedicated to new works from emerging American playwrights. 7PGS has received subsequent fully-staged readings in October 2008 and February 2009 at LA's Road Theatre and Rogue Machine Theatre companies, respectively. And the play saw its European premiere in May 2010 with a workshop reading directed by Wilson Milam at London's Finborough Theatre as part of their "Vibrant" festival, curated by Finborough Artistic Director Neil McPherson in celebration of the theatre's 30th anniversary.
Invited by Youngblood Artistic Director Graeme Gillis to write a new short play, Michael recently completed a one-act called "Happiness, which had a one-off debut performance in New York in November 2009.
Several other works are currently in development. Wells is a member of New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre (Founding Artistic Director- the late great Curt Dempster), The Dramatists Guild of America and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.