Peter Gil-Sheridan

Peter Gil-Sheridan is a Cuban-American playwright, Chair of the Department of Drama, and Associate Professor of Drama at Vassar College. His work explores the performance of masculinity, the Cuban diaspora and its relationship to politics and survival, addiction, queer lives, working-class families, and the women who hold them together.

His current projects include Marielitos, a new musical about the Mariel BoatLift commissioned by the History Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota, written in collaboration with Cristina Luzárraga and Julián Mesri and currently in development toward its world premiere; Medea and Her Sons, a revisionist retelling of the Medea myth developed through Powerhouse; and Maybe When You’re Older, developed at PlayLabs, the Playwrights’ Center’s annual festival of new plays in Minneapolis.

His play This Space Between Us was developed by both The New Harmony Project and Page 73 Productions through the Page 73 Residency before receiving its Off-Broadway premiere at Keen Company under the direction of Jonathan Silverstein. Cockfight, originally written through Soho Rep’s Writer/Director Lab, was subsequently developed at PlayPenn and produced as an audio play by The Parsnip Ship. Ritu Comes Home, commissioned through InterAct Theatre Company’s 20/20 Commission Program, received its world premiere in Philadelphia. Topsy Turvy Mouse was produced through the Cherry Lane Mentor Project and Borderlands Theater and received the Smith Prize from the National New Play Network for Outstanding Political Play. Peter was also a founding member of The Pool, a pop-up theatre company formed with Lynn Rosen and Susan Bernfield, which produced The Rafa Play in repertory with new works by Rosen and Bernfield at The Flea Theater.

His work has been supported by residencies and fellowships including The New Harmony Project, the Jerome Fellowship, the Sundance Institute, the Millay Colony, the Ucross Foundation, the Tofte Lake Residency, and Page 73’s I73 Writers Group. He is an Affiliated Writer with the Playwrights’ Center and the National New Play Network. Peter has also performed his solo work, People Tell Me Things, at venues across the country, including Ars Nova’s ANTFest, Identity, Inc. in Farmington, New Mexico, the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, and on Martha’s Vineyard.

Prior to joining the faculty at Vassar, Peter served as Head of the MFA Playwriting Program at Indiana University from 2015 to 2020.

At Vassar, Peter founded and annually produces the Steerman Festival of New Work, which features fully produced world premieres of full-length plays by Vassar writers. Working alongside students and faculty collaborators, he has helped bring fifteen new plays to production. He serves as Co-Chair of the Arts Working Group for Vassar’s Engaged Pluralism Committee and has mentored students participating in ModFest, the Creative Arts Across Disciplines (CAAD) Program, the Office of Community-Engaged Learning (OCEL), and senior thesis projects in Women’s, Feminist, and Queer Studies.

Peter has also brought numerous artists and theatre professionals to Vassar, both in person and virtually, including playwrights Paula Vogel, David Adjmi, Phaedra Scott, Gina Femia, Liz Duffy Adams, Madeleine George, Naomi Iizuka, Clare Barron, Keith Bunin, Lydia Blaisdell, Mauricio Miranda, and performance artist Becca Blackwell. Visiting directors and theatre professionals have included Liz Dahmen, Estefanía Fadul (’10), fight choreographer Michael Rossmy, Metropolitan Opera Director of Wardrobe Stephanie Spangler, and Movement Theatre Company Producing Artistic Director Deadria Harrington (’10).