Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance

Peter Gil-Sheridan is an award-winning playwright and the current head of the MFA Playwriting Program at Indiana University. He was a founding member of The Pool, a pop-up theatre company formed with Lynn Rosen and Susan Bernfield that produced his play The Rafa Play under the direction of Morgan Gould in rep with Rosen’s and Bernfield’s work at the Flea Theatre in New York in November of last year. He is also the creator, writer, and executive producer of a new webseries, Hungry, commissioned by Amar Srivastava that is slated to shoot in New York this November. Hungry is the story of a 35-year old Indian American wrestling coach with eating disorder.  He is a regular writer-in-residence with the Silverton Theatre Mine in Silverton, CO where he’s written several plays, including his two latest: Useful People and The Space Between Us. He was a contributor to Artbarn 2017 in Tacoma, Washington, a site-specific immersive piece about heroic women created in residence at the Warner Gym on the University of Puget Sound under the direction of Jess K. Smith. Peter was a guest at the University of Iowa’s New Play Festival where he also gave a video talk on the art of dramatic writing for Iowa’s renowned International Writing Program’s online course “Power of the Pen: Identities and Social Issues in Poetry and Plays” and was a recipient of the Iowa Playmakers Residency.

His play Cockight was originally written at Soho Rep’s Writer/Director Lab and was further developed by PlayPenn in Philadelphia.  His play Ritu Comes Home, originally commissioned by InterAct in Philadelphia as part of their 20/20 Commission program had its world premiere there in 2015.

Other plays include Courtney and Caroline, a piece written and performed in Farmington, NM with Navajo and non-Navajo community members about religious and cultural traditions in the area and What May Fall, commissioned by the Guthrie and performed there. Topsy Turvy Mouse was produced by the Cherry Lane and Borderlands Theatre in Tucson and was the winner of The Smith Prize awarded by the National New Play Network for outstanding political work. Other work developed by the Lark’s Playground, New York Theatre Workshop, and Queens Theatre in the Park.

Residencies include the Jerome Fellowship in Minneapolis, The Sundance Institute, The Millay Colony, The Ucross Foundation, and the Tofte Lake Residency. Peter has also been a member of I73, Page 73’s weekly writing group in New York. He’s performed his solo piece People Tell Me Things at several venues across the U.S. including Ars Nova’s ANTFest, Identity, Inc. in Farmington, NM, at Ucross in Wyoming and on Martha’s Vineyard.

Before teaching at Indiana University, Peter was on the faculty at Fordham University. He also taught more than 2,000 students in the New York City Public School system to write and finish short plays through the LEAP OnStage Program. He directed, dramaturged, and produced 14 selected plays with over 80 students actors for performances at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway, New World Stages and Baruch College. He also edited 14 scripts for publication in 6 volumes of Samuel French’s “The Theatre, The Early Years," developed curriculum with LEAP leadership and designed over 20 successful lesson plans on the art of playwriting in short form. He has also designed and led professional development workshops for teachers of all levels as well as theatrical workshops for parents and community members across greater New York. 

He received his MFA from the University of Iowa and his BA from Fordham University at Lincoln Center.