Playwriting

Robert Eisele’s writing career began in the theater as a playwright. His play GOATS, produced at UCLA, won the American College Theatre Festival’s Pacific Region. His most produced play, ANIMALS ARE PASSING FROM OUR LIVES, was staged at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and won him the A.C.T. playwriting fellowship. Eisele earned his Actors Equity card at A.C.T., performing in the West Coast premiere of Peter Shaffer’s EQUUS. During the show’s run, Shaffer saw Eisele’s play and recommended it to several theaters. ANIMALS ARE PASSING FROM OUR LIVES went on to be published in WEST COAST PLAYS (Volume 3, Berkeley), and distributed by Edward Albee’s American Playwrights Theater. But Eisele’s most memorable experience at A.C.T. was meeting the great American playwright Tennessee Williams, a major influence on his writing. ANIMALS ARE PASSING FROM OUR LIVES was subsequently produced at Hedgerow Theatre (Philadelphia), UCLA, Kentucky Cooperative Theatre (Louisville), Bonfils Theatre (Denver Center for the Performing Arts), Waterloo Playhouse (Iowa), Grassroots Experience Theatre (San Francisco), St. Clement's Theatre (New York City, staged reading), Foothill Theatre Company (Nevada City, CA), and Montana State University. Eisele’s play about Henry Miller and Anais Nin, A GARDEN IN LOS ANGELES, was produced in San Francisco by the Brueghel Project.

A DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL by Robert Eisele was staged at David Mamet’s St. Nicholas Theatre in Chicago. Eisele’s one act play THE MURDER OF EINSTEIN was produced at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, and also aired on WETV/PBS in Atlanta. THE GREEN ROOM was produced at the University of Colorado and THE MISSING STRING and JESUS TREATS at UCLA. Eisele’s plays have been called deeply human, even mythic by critics, and have riveted audiences nationwide.