Nick Sawin writes to give voice to queer stories told in queered ways,
exploring experimental theatre and finding intersections with poetry and
creative nonfiction. In recent years, he has been a playwright, short story writer, journalist, theatre
reviewer, copy editor, photographer, theatre marketer, and a college teacher.
He earned his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Media Arts from the University of Missouri – Kansas City in 2013. He previously earned a Bachelor of Journalism as well as a Bachelor of Arts in English, studying creative writing at the University of Missouri–Columbia.
His play Unnamed Lands was named a National Finalist at the 2012 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, 10-Minute Play Competition, and was given a concert reading at the Kennedy Center Family Theater in Washington, D.C. Unnamed Lands has taken Nick from UMKC, to Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa; to the Missouri Playwrights Workshop at MU; to the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Unnamed Lands was produced in 2012 as part of InTENsity: Ten Bite-Sized Plays by KC Writers at the Fishtank Performance Studio in Kansas City. Other productions include MadLab Theatre’s 13th Theatre Roulette in Columbus, Ohio in 2012, and Present Life: An Evening of 10-Minute Plays at Glendale Community College in Glendale, California in 2013.
His play Górecki in Silence was featured in Extended 4 Play in the 2013 Kansas City Fringe Festival at Unicorn Theatre, a production that was the 3rd-highest attended in that festival. His 2015 KC Fringe Festival play Ace of Leaves will be a part of Alphabet Soup: Stories from Queer Voices produced by Whim Productions at Union Station’s City Stage.
He
has an affinity for the dramatic monologue, a love that has led to his
collection of LGBT monologues titled Queer
Thoughts: The Monologues, which was part of the Fishtank’s Fall Shorts
Reading Series in 2013. Other monologues include The Cookie Pusher, produced as part of InTENsity 2.0: Ten (+One) Bite-Sized Plays by KC Writers at the
Fishtank in 2013 and The Soporific Uncle,
which was read as part of Fishtank
Unfiltered: Three Nights of Pint-Sized Plays at the Fishtank in 2014.
He is currently at work revising Queer Thoughts: The Monologues and his historical play Whitman & Wilde, based on the meeting of Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde in 1882.
Nick works as the marketing director of Unicorn Theatre, taking inspiration from the provocative new plays, dedicated staff, and talented artists who make it their home. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Playwrights Center of Minneapolis, and the Fabulous Queer Writers of Kansas City.
