Martin Casella

Martin Casella's plays include The Irish Curse (New York off-Broadway, London, Los Angeles, Edinburgh, Dublin, L.A., Outstanding Playwriting Award, FringeNYC; published by Samuel French), Scituate (Best New Play, SCFTA), Mates (L.A. WEEKLY Award, Best New Play), Paydirt, Desert Fire, Beautiful Dreamer, Grand Junction, The Big Enchilada and George Bush Goes to Hell. He wrote the book for the musicals Paper Moon, Happy Holidays, Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll, Saint Heaven and Doo-Dah!, and co-wrote the book for the jazz musical Play It Cool (off-Broadway; GLAAD nomination, OCC nomination for Best Off-Broadway musical).

His plays have been seen at, among others, the Pasadena Playhouse, Coast Playhouse, the Cast, the Coronet (Los Angeles); Theatre Row, Soho Playhouse, TBG, Linhart and Access Theatres (New York); Village Theatre, Group Theatre (Seattle); Bailiwick, Theatre Building (Chicago); Stage One (Wichita); Paper Mill Playhouse (New Jersey); Goodspeed Opera House, Stanford Center for the Arts (Connecticut); Walnut Street Theatre (Philadelphia); Ford’s Theatre (Washington); in Tokyo; and at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada.

He has just finished a new play, Directions for Restoring the Apparently Dead, and is currently writing Miss Maude, about midwife Maude Callen and Life Magazine photographer Eugene Smith, and The Report, a stage adaptation of Jessica Francis Kane’s novel about the official investigation into London’s worst civilian accident during World War II. TV projects include the film Behind the Lens for CBS and Daddy's Girl, a pilot for HBO. He also spent some time as a staff writer on ABC's One Life to Live. His screenplay One Night Stand was directed by Talia Shire. Casella recently adapated David Johnson's play Busted Jesus Comix into a screenplay for director Leon Joosen, and wrote the feature film Tom's Dad, to be directed by three-Oscar nominee Lasse Hallstrom.

Casella is a graduate of the California Institue of the Arts and currently teaches playwriting at the Harvey Milk High School in Manhattan. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, the Writer's Guild of America, Actors' Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild.