NYSCA Support for Artists Grantee 2024
Joey Merlo
ARTIST BIO
Joey Merlo is a theatermaker who has worked all over the world including Greece, Peru, and Ghana. They are a New York Foundation for The Arts Fellow whose recent projects include Midnight Coleslaw, “The year’s most twisted psychosexual melodrama. A bittersweet, yet biting piece” (NYT) and the “Brilliant/Highbrow” (NY Mag) On Set with Theda Bara. “Merlo is one of the most exciting and original voices writing for the New York stage at the moment.” (Theatermania). They hold a BFA from NYU Tisch and an MFA from Brooklyn College.Â
ARTIST STATEMENT
“My work explores the cracks between the boundaries of what’s “real” and what isn’t—by fusing the two I attempt to locate my own existence within the realm of the fantastic. I’m a lyrical playwright who loves the campy, melodramatic and surreal I am also interested in making work that transcend traditional beliefs around gender identity, sexuality and self-actualization. My plays are not defined completely by who I am as a queer person, however, many of them dramatize the shifting relationship between deviant culture and heteronormativity. Ultimately, I write to find myself, in my own life and in the lives of others—to subvert death with magic–to embrace grief through imagination.”
ABOUT THE WORK
Out of Memory
Theaterlab welcomes back frequent collaborator, playwright Joey Merlo, for a staged reading of his poignant new work, Out of Memory. Inspired by the passing of his Nonna after a decade-long battle with Alzheimer’s, Merlo embarks on a deeply personal journey to uncover the untold stories of his family. Blending interview transcripts with auto-fictitious scenes, this hybrid docu-theater piece explores the mysteries of dissolving identity, the fragility of memory, and the enduring power of love across generations.
ARTIST’S WORK AT THEATERLAB
2024 NYSCA GRANTEES
