Bess Wohl

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Bess Wohl is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actress whose plays include Grand Horizons, Small Mouth Sounds, Liberation, and the book for the musical Pretty Filthy with composer/lyricist Michael Friedman and The Civilians. For Grand Horizons, Wohl was nominated for the 2020 Tony Award for Best Play.

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Early life

Wohl grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where she developed a love of theater. She went to Harvard College for an AB in English, and then went to the Yale School of Drama for an MFA in acting. While at Yale, she created the play Cats Talk Balk, which went on to the New York International Fringe Festival, where it won Best Overall Production. [1]

Career

Wohl's plays have been produced in numerous venues in New York City and around the United States.

Pretty Filthy, which ran Off-Broadway from January 2015 to March 1, 2015, was nominated for the 2015 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Musical, and the 2015 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Musical. Bess also won the 2015 Sam Norkin Special Drama Desk Award for “establishing herself as an important voice in New York theater, and having a breakthrough year.” [2]

Small Mouth Sounds premiered Off-Broadway at Ars Nova in 2015 to wide critical acclaim. [3] The play also was produced in 2016 at the Off-Broadway Signature Theatre [4] and has been performed in a US national tour in 2017. [5] Wohl won the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award, presented for an American play, preferably by a new playwright for Small Mouth Sounds in 2017. [6]

Wohl's Grand Horizons began previews on Broadway at the Hayes Theater, presented by Second Stage Theater on December 23, 2019 and opened on January 23, 2020. [7] [8] This play marked her Broadway debut. [9] Grand Horizons premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in July 2019, directed by Leigh Silverman. The play is co-commissioned by Williamstown Theatre Festival and Second Stage Theater. [10] Grand Horizons was nominated for the 2020 Tony Award for Best Play.

Her play Camp Siegfried opened at The Old Vic theatre in London in September 2021. [11]

She then wrote the play, Liberation, which explores the second-wave feminism movement in the 1970s in Ohio. Wohl said she was inspired to write the play by her mother, Lisa Cronin Wohl, who worked at Ms. Magazine during her youth. The play opened to acclaim, with the New York Times calling it "gutting and inventive," [12] and it was nominated for the 2025 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and won the 2025 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play. The play will transfer to Broadway in fall of 2025 at the James Earl Jones Theatre, as Wohl's second Broadway credit.

Credits

YearTitleRoleVenueRef.
2004Chinese FriendsAlegraOff-Broadway, Playwrights Horizons [13]
2014American HeroPlaywrightOff-Broadway, Second Stage Theatre
2015 Pretty Filthy BookOff-Broadway, Abrons Arts Center
Small Mouth SoundsPlaywrightOff-Broadway, Ars Nova
2016Off-Broadway, Signature Theatre Company
2017U.S. National Tour
2019ContinuityOff-Broadway, Manhattan Theatre Club
Make BelieveOff-Broadway, Second Stage Theatre
Grand HorizonsRegional, Williamstown Theatre Festival
2020Broadway, Hayes Theater
2021Camp SiegfriedWest End, The Old Vic Theatre
2024BarcelonaWest End, Duke of York's Theatre
2025LiberationOff-Broadway, Laura Pels Theatre
Broadway, James Earl Jones Theatre [12]

Honors and awards

YearAwardCategoryWorkResultRef.
2015 Drama Desk Award Sam Norkin Off-Broadway AwardAmerican Hero, Pretty Filthy and Small Mouth SoundsWon [14]
2017 Outer Critics Circle Awards John Gassner Playwright AwardSmall Mouth SoundsWon
2020 Tony Award Best Play Grand HorizonsNominated
Outer Critics Circle Awards Outer Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play Make BelieveNominated
2025 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Play Liberation Nominated
Outer Critics Circle Awards Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play Won

References

  1. ↑ Gibson, Lydialyle (January 2019). "Playwright Beth Wohl: a profile". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  2. ↑ "Pretty Filthy Off-Broadway" Internet Off-Broadway database, accessed January 13, 2020
  3. ↑ Collins-Hughes, Laura (April 6, 2015). "In Bess Wohl's 'Small Mouth Sounds,' a Loss for Words Leads to a Gain in Insight". New York Times . Retrieved January 3, 2020.
  4. ↑ Small Mouth Sounds, 2016" Internet Off-Broadway database, accessed January 13, 2020
  5. ↑ Clement, Olivia. " Small Mouth Sounds to Launch National Tour" Playbill, April 11, 1997
  6. ↑ "Winners List, 2017" outercritics.org, accessed January 14, 2020
  7. ↑ Clement, Olivia (December 23, 2019). "Bess Wohl's Grand Horizons Begins on Broadway December 23". Playbill.com. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
  8. ↑ "Read Reviews for Grand Horizons on Broadway" Playbill, January 23, 2020
  9. ↑ Montpelier, Rachel. "Playwright Bess Wohl Making Her Broadway Debut with “Grand Horizons”" womenandhollywood.com, March 28, 2019
  10. ↑ Grand Horizons at Williamstown" wtfestival.org, accessed January 2020
  11. ↑ "Camp Siegfried at the Old Vic – first look at rehearsals | WhatsOnStage". www.whatsonstage.com. 18 August 2021. Retrieved 2022-08-25.
  12. 1 2 “Stars flock to playwright Bess Wohl’s ‘Liberation’, hope for Broadway transfer,” *The New York Times*, July 31, 2025.
  13. ↑ "Bess Wohl". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
  14. ↑ "Bess Wohl". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
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