Abe Koogler / Playwright

NOW PLAYING: DEEP BLUE SOUND at Clubbed Thumb (through June 15)

UPCOMING: STAFF MEAL at Playwrights Horizons

Abe Koogler: Collected Plays will be published by Methuen Drama in Spring 2024

Abe Koogler writes darkly comedic plays. Many of them are about economic class, unusual jobs, and the challenges and absurdities of making a living in today’s America. Although grounded in realism, his plays often incorporate imaginary elements and heightened or musical language.

Abe has won an Obie Award for Playwriting, the Dramatist Guild’s Lanford Wilson Award, and a Weissberger Award. He earned graduate degrees in playwriting from UT-Austin and Juilliard. He has taught playwriting at Primary Stages and Bennington College. He also works as a political speechwriter.

Abe’s plays include Deep Blue Sound (Clubbed Thumb), Staff Meal (Playwrights Horizons), Aspen Ideas (Studio Theatre, postponed due to COVID), Fulfillment Center (Manhattan Theatre Club), Kill Floor (Lincoln Center Theatre), Lisa My Friend (Kitchen Dog), Blue Skies Process (Goodman Theatre), and Advance Man (UTNT). With fellow playwrights Katie Bender and Gab Reisman, he co-wrote the immersive journey plays Slip River and Church of the Passionate Cat, which both premiered in Austin. His plays have been directed by Daniel Aukin, Lila Neugebauer, Les Waters, and Will Davis, among others.

”[Fulfillment Center] is steeped in a luminous and illuminating empathy that feels both uncommon and essential right now.” — Ben Brantley, The New York Times

Purchase Fulfillment Center

Recent press:

Interviews in Interview and on WNYC and in TDF Stages.
A longer conversation with Nathan Alan Davis in the Yale Review.

Read reviews of Fulfillment Center from The New York Times, the Village Voice, TimeOut and the Chicago Tribune.

Read reviews of Kill Floor from Third Coast Review, NewCityStage, TimeOut, and the Chicago Tribune.

Read more about Aspen Ideas, Lisa My Friend, and Blue Skies Process.

"The Stage's Best Moments This Year," NYT

Professional inquiries:
Emma Feiwel, WME
efeiwel (at) wmeentertainment.com or (212) 903-1409