Originally from Schenectady, NY, Josh used an undergrad degree in philosophy and training from the Improv Olympic in Chicago to start writing plays in Ireland with a theatre company he co-founded called ‘Catastrophe’. After having several plays–many of them site-specific productions–performed at such venues as the Galway Arts Festival and the Dublin Fringe Festival, he returned to the States to get a playwriting MFA at the University of California, San Diego. His recent plays include Election Day, Red State Blue Grass, Spoon Lake Blues, Crashing the Party and Speculator Spirits and have been produced or developed at such places as The Alliance Theatre, Atlanta; The Jungle Theater and Mixed Blood Theatre, Minneapolis; The O’Neill New Play Conference, Connecticut; Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland; Pioneer Theatre Company, Salt Lake City; Second Stage Theatre, New York; The Zach Scott Theatre, Austin; and AiShangChu Theatre, Hong Kong. Election Day is published by Samuel French and in the Smith and Kraus anthology, New Playwrights, Best Plays of 2008. Spoon Lake Blues and Lone Star Spirits and published by Dramatic Publishing. www.joshtobiessen.com.
Plays
It’s Election Day, and Adam knows his over-zealous girlfriend will never forgive him if he fails to vote. But when his sex starved sister, an eco-terrorist, and a mayoral candidate willing to do anything for a vote all show up, Adam finds that making that quick trip to the polls might be harder than he thought.
In an attempt to save their family home from the bank, two brothers, Denis and Brady, decide to start robbing their wealthy neighbors in the mountain town of Spoon Lake. But after one such felony, Brady falls in love with the daughter of the African American family they’ve just robbed and a whole new plot is hatched.
A surprise birthday party spins comically out of control as a series of unexpected guests force the Martin family to reassess their place in the American Dream.
A young woman brings her new fiancé back to her estranged father’s haunted liquor store. It’s supposed to be a quick trip back to her home town, but a high-school football hero ex-boyfriend trying to relive the good old days, a single mom on a solo girls-night out, and the ghost of the bear-wrestling town founder have other plans.