DEAR ALIEN

Synopsis

A shambolic, reclusive advice columnist known professionally as Dear Alien is under the gun. They have a deadline of yesterday for a collection of their columns; if they don’t turn it in they won’t get paid, and they will be evicted from their apartment. But the agonizing predictability of readers’ questions is driving them mad, their editor is showing alarming signs of romantic interest, and and online trolls are making threats. In a desperate attempt to create a passable manuscript, Dear Alien chooses seven unread letters at random and proceeds to answer them in a countdown to transcendent meaning or absolute despair. An existential comedy about what it is to survive in our mad moment.

Dear Alien will premiere in May 2026 at the Alley Theater, Houston. It was workshopped at the Alley Theater in April 2025, and had readings at Playwrights Foundation Rough Readings, 2017 and New Dramatists, 2016. Originally written to be played by one actor (of any gender), it will premiere in a revised version for three.