Ian August
Artistic Statement
I’ve always been a storyteller. Anyone who starts a conversation with me realizes too late they have given me an excuse to monologue. It’s only recently I’ve begun to understand the implications of that power—because yes, storytelling is a power. It can change minds, it can sway perspectives, it can enlighten and it can obfuscate. Storytelling can be used for good or evil. And every writer must make the decision: What are the messages we want to champion? Who are we writing for today? Who will we be writing for tomorrow?
My muse has often been found in the intersection of history and social activism—most frequently regarding issues of the LGBTQ community, but not exclusively. My works are diverse and multi-layered, each play an attempt at marrying form and content—style and substance—in order to invent an audience experience that will be entertaining, intellectually stimulating, and emotionally fulfilling. I am attempting, as much as I can, to use my storytelling ability to tell stories of healing, redemption, and love. I am trying to use my power for good.
Thank you for looking at my website. Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Ian August
Playwright Bio
The playwright posing unnaturally for the camera.
Ian August is a NJ based playwright and lyricist, whose works have been performed across the U.S., as well as in Canada, Australia, the UK, South Korea, and Bermuda. His plays have been developed at the PlayPenn New Play Conference, the Powerhouse Theatre Festival (Vassar / New York Stage and Film), the Great Plains Theatre Conference, Ashland New Plays Festival, Red Mountain Theatre Company, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, New Jersey Repertory Company, Wordsmyth Theatre Company, the Garry Marshall Theatre, UC Davis Dept. of Theatre and Dance, the Philadelphia Artists Collective, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the NY, Philly, and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, and elsewhere.
Mr. August is a member of the American Theatre Group’s ATG PlayLab, and a graduated member of PlayPenn’s playwriting lab, The Foundry. Several of his short plays have been published by Sam French Inc., Smith and Kraus Publishing, the One-Act Play Depot, and Pipeline / Applause Books. He was a 2019 Playwright in Residence at the William Inge Center for the Arts in Independence, Kansas, and graduate of Goddard College’s Creative Writing MFA Program. In 2021, Mr. August was the recipient of an Independent Artist Fellowship from the NJ State Council on the Arts. He is also an adjunct professor of Playwriting at Stockton University in Stockton, NJ. Mr. August lives at a boarding school with one husband, four cats, and approximately 830 teenage children.