writing & directing

S.I.M.P.S.

        (book & lyrics; original workshop director)

_about:

_{Kevin is stuck. He knows that boys need to talk about their feelings, but he also knows that his voice is probably not what the world needs to hear. With this in mind, he joins the Self-Improvement & Male Preservation Society, or S.I.M.P.S., a cult of men promising to teach Kevin how to protect the world from the dangers of his masculinity. But when the society uses harrowing violence to uphold its supposed progressivism, Kevin must reckon more honestly with his role in today’s gender landscape. A surrealist tragicomedy with a violent jazz-pop score, SIMPS uses sensibilities like those of Fight Club, Michael R. Jackson, South Park, and Midsommar as it embarks on an incisive, oddly earnest interrogation of modern masculinity.} 

_{development history:}

_{SIMPS was selected for residency at IRT, an experimental theatre off-Broadway, where it sold out its multi-week production in January and February 2025. It also received a post-production workshop with A.R.T. / Normal Ave. Prior to New York, the piece (then called “THE BROTHERHOOD OF DIX”) had a workshop presentation in June 2023 at the Attic Theatre in Toronto. More info about the script, song demos, lyric sheets, etc. is available upon request.} 

_{simpsmusical.com}

 musical direction by Patrick B. Phillips
produced by Shannon Molly Flynn
set by Cat Raynor
sound by Germán Martínez
lights by Paige Seber
costumes by Martín Lara Avila

Cory Jeacoma
John El-Jor
Walter Higginbotham
Aaron Arnell Harrington
Logan Farine
Kamari Saxon
Gen Parton-Shin*
*(replaced Karl Josef Co due to illness)

Dead Man’s Plunge

    (director)        

_{Brad and Chad are two old rivals who happen to recognize each other on their way up what they think is a ski lift. We soon learn, however, that Brad and Chad have each mistaken the other for a different Brad and a different Chad that they’d known in life previous. Throughout the play, they continue their ascent up their ski lift until they reach the Dead Man’s Plunge, at which point they fall into the same pattern as all the Brads and Chads before them.} 

_{In this piece, I felt that there was a certain musicality to the characters’ manners of speech. Creaking ski lift sounds were vital to the forward momentum of DEAD MAN’S PLUNGE’s text, but to me it felt inauthentic to use realistic sound cues in this play’s non-realistic world. Instead, I used a violinist who stood center throughout the piece and functioned as a musical narrator. The creaking sounds were played by on the violin in varying ways depending on the intensity, timing, and length of each creak. We also collaborated to include a longer solo that was featured at both the beginning and the end. Like the circular staging of the ski lift, this was meant to symbolize the story’s cyclical nature.}

text by Allison Theveny

directed by Hamish Marissen-Clark

produced by Northwestern’s MFA in Writing for the Stage & Screen

 lights by Seojung Jang
sound by Deon Custard
projections by Michael Frazel
festival production by Katie Lupica
fest. artistic direction by Skyler Tarnas
fest. co-artistic direction by Alex Joyce

cast:

Peter Carroll
Stephen Peng
Max Reichek (violin)

Songs for a New World 

    (director) 

_about:

_{In early 2021, Hamish was awarded a grant from Northwestern University to adapt Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World into a cinematic piece of theatre. Even though it’s often referred to as a song cycle, Hamish views Songs  a robust piece of drama, and this was something he illuminated with his direction.} 

directed by Hamish Marissen-Clark
produced by Clay Lawhead
costumes by Lucy London
set construction by Luke Arnold & Olivia Behr
props by Matthew McGrory

Danielle Llevada
Adelina Marinello
Emily Somé (Les Misérables Nat. Tour)
Carson Stewart (The Notebook, B’way)

Sons of Hollywood 

    (assistant director)

directed by David H. Bell
assistant directed by Hamish Marissen-Clark
set by Lauren Nigri
costumes by Sydney Moore
lights by Anthony Forchielli
sound by Willow James
props & set dressing by Foiles
musical direction by Shraman Ghosh

Abby Lee
Adam Jennings
Adriel Irizarry
Ben Dow
Jonathan Connolly
Kyle Patrick
Max Stewart
Trey DeLuna