Asher de Forest is a Minneapolis-based early career playwright. He holds a BA in English (Creative Writing) and Theater and Dance from Macalester College. In 2021, he received honors in directing and the Ruth Easton Leadership Award from Macalester's Theater and Dance Department. He became a Global Playwright Series semi-finalist in 2022 and a National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist in 2024. In August of 2023, Asher began a yearlong apprenticeship at the Playwrights’ Center. Asher's work has been fully produced at Macalester and Theatre Du Mississippi and performed in developmental readings by Melancholics Anonymous and One Egg No Batter Productions, among others.
Plays
Garry, a young man mourning his father’s recent passing, embarks on a road trip to meet his sperm donor. Garry is accompanied by his younger sister Rachel, his girlfriend Joni, and his best friend and ex-boyfriend Mohammed, each navigating relationships, grief, and the road. Meanwhile, in Mohammed’s in-progress graphic novel, a puppet, a prophet, and a shipwrecked mariner kibitz inside the belly of a whale.
After crash landing in the Pacific Ocean, Madison finds himself an eager extraterrestrial without a clear path home. Soon, he's keeping conflicting secrets from his new human crush—Elijah, a recent rabbinical school dropout—and his native planet’s flamboyant queen, who intends to conquer the Earth. NEPHESH is a queer fantasia on terrestrial themes full of monologues, movement, music, and soul.
Successes
The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center recognized my play Nephesh as a semifinalist for the 2024 National Playwrights Conference.
My play I'm Going to Go Back There Someday will be featured in Live Arts' WATERWORKS new works festival in Charlottesville, VA, May 30th and 31st, 2024.
Theatre Du Mississippi selected my one-act Lilith and Eve as one of the winners of their playwriting competition. The play is set to be performed February 16th-18th and 23rd-25th, 2024.
My play Nephesh will receive a workshop and public reading as a part of Melancholics Anonymous's New Play Series. The reading will be held at Black Forest Inn in Minneapolis, MN on January 27th, 2024 at 7PM.
My play I'm Going to Go Back There Someday was announced as a semi-finalist for Shattered Globe Theatre's inaugural Global Playwright Series.