BIO
Ry Szelong (they/them) is a writer, director, and performer from the Bay Area, CA, now based in Brooklyn, NY.
They have been a member of Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writers Group, and a Fellow with University Settlement's Performance Project & LAMBDA Literary's Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices.
They wrote and directed (and sometimes acted in) their autobiographical, family play, interra-bang, from 2016 - 2021 at Dixon Place, Loading Dock Theatre, and The Wild Project; They’ve shared solo performance art, prose, or drag at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest, LaMaMa, Dream Baby Bar, the Circus Amok Loft, Wendy’s Subway, Brooklyn ARTery, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and Under St. Marks Theatre; Their playwriting & devised work has been staged at The Tank, Triskelion Arts, Undiscovered Countries at BiZarre Bar, The Downtown Community Television Center, and in a house on Governor’s Island with the Public Works Department.
Directed new plays by: La Daniella for the Bushwick Starr reading series and The Parsnip Ship at Cloud City; kimber lee and Arif Silverman for Ma-Yi Theater Company & 2nd Generation’s first PlayFest; and Chris Welles for NYU’s MFA Dramatic Writing Festival, among many others.
Acted in new plays by: Agnes Borinsky at JACK & HERE Arts Center, God Complex at Center for Performance Research, Max Yu at Gingold Theatrical Group, Little Lord at Abrons Arts Center, Normandy Sherwood at The Tank, and many others at venues like: Skirball Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Irish Arts Center, Classic Stage Company, The Cell Theater, The 14th St. Y, The Paper Box, The Eagle, Speyer Hall, 632 on Hudson, Laguardia Performing Arts Center, and The Entertainment Community Fund Arts Center.
Currently, Ry is writing their second short screenplay, still producing visual art (aka doodles on instagram), and developing new oral storytelling for The Generations Project.
