DEAR ALIEN

Synopsis (3 M/W)

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 premiered 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. It will have a second production at Chester Theater Company, Massachusetts, in August 2026.

Recipient of a 2025–2026 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.

Press

”Dear Alien explores the beautiful weirdness of being human:

There’s something quietly radical about a play that asks audiences to slow down and listen — really listen — to the inner lives of strangers. That’s part of the intrigue behind Dear Alien, the new world premiere now playing at Houston’s Alley Theatre from acclaimed playwright Liz Duffy Adams. Equal parts existential comedy, emotional fever dream, and intimate character study, the production follows an advice columnist teetering on the edge of collapse while attempting to answer a series of unusual letters from readers searching for guidance, connection, and meaning. The title may suggest sci-fi, but Dear Alien is far more interested in the alienation of modern life than little green men. The result is a play that feels witty, melancholic, deeply human — and surprisingly timely.” –Melanie Camp, KPRC’s Houston Life

”Dear Alien lives in the postmodern age where no ending is inevitable or set. And while the play’s final word is a simple active verb that I won’t give away here, it leaves possibilities open—possibilities in harmony with the work’s comic tone. More importantly, it works as a stage production, creating depth without sinking into intellectual or ideological complexity. Instead, it leaves audiences free to interpret what they experience for themselves… The amazing feat overall is that with so many simple ingredients, Dear Alien explodes into orbits that seem stranger than anything encountered on movie Sci-Fi screens. In doing so, it reveals how isolated living in a tribe defined by our texting thumbs can feel and what hope there is for connection, which is theatre’s great promise. With just a boost of luck from this world premiere at the Alley, Dear Alien will find its place in the stars.” –Robert Donahoo, Houston Chronicle