Dylan Schifrin (he/him) is a playwright, composer, lyricist, librettist and TV writer specializing in new musical storytelling for the stage and screen.
Born and raised in LA, attending undergrad at Yale, and now living bicoastally between LA and NYC, his writing is equally informed by the modern theatre, musical theatre, and television landscapes. As a Hispanic, Jewish, and LGBTQ+ artist, he seeks to populate politicized worlds with deeply human characters to tell urgent, queer outsider narratives that directly challenge the inequity of the present moment.
As a theater writer and composer, Dylan has been distinguished by the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center (2022 NMTC Semifinalist), New Musicals Inc. (2021 New Voices Project Finalist), IAMA Theatre Company (2021-2022 Emerging Playwrights Lab Member), the Civilians (R&D Group Semifinalist), the Blank Theatre Company, the National YoungArts Foundation (Finalist in Playwriting), ASCAP, and the Foundation for New American Musicals (MUSI-CAL, SHOWSEARCH Finalist). Dylan is a member of ASCAP, the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and UNTITLED Musicals Project, a new writers group for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ musical theater writers in NYC. Dylan has also placed in several television writing contests and has reached audiences of millions with his work as a songwriter for the social media company Pixel Playhouse.
At Yale, Dylan served as managing editor and director of online content for the Yale Record, Yale's humor and satire publication (and oldest publication overall). He music directed several undergraduate musicals (including the first ever collegiate production of Broadway's A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder) and arranged for the Yale Spizzwinks(?) a cappella group.
When he's not writing, you can find Dylan arranging, transcribing, and music assisting shows around the city, including the projects of songwriting duo Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. (Dylan may also be based on the cartoon character Timmy Turner of The Fairly Odd Parents, though this theory remains unproven).
PROJECTS & WRITING SAMPLES
$CABS (or, why does no one want to work anymore?!!!) | Play with Music
Six new hires within a mysterious mega-corporation are sent to Antarctica to prove they make good leaders. Good thing they all love their jobs more than themselves—except one dealing with chronic illness, one trying to conquer past trauma and one who maybe wants to take down the entire operation. In this fevered musical interrogation of hustle culture, burnout and the Great Resignation, optimizing the machine means breaking yourself down.
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Staged Reading through the IAMA Theatre Company Emerging Playwrights Lab, 2022
Y2K | Immersive Stage Musical
Book, Music and Lyrics by Dylan Schifrin
Riley grew up among Y2K-era doomsday preppers in rural Nebraska. So did her best friend Ben, and now he's in love with Riley's father Michael, the charismatic, omnipresent colony leader, even though Ben's supposed to be repopulation partners with Riley. But when Riley herself falls in love with one of the "sheeple" from outside the colony, she embarks on a secret mission to test her father's validity—with Ben or without. This immersive musical about echo chambers, "us" vs. "them" mentality and the danger of misinformation has us follow Riley's escape as she grapples with uncertainty in a new world just as resistant to the truth as her own.
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Immersive Workshop at After Hours Theatre Company, 2022 (Upcoming)
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The 2022 Eugene O'Neill National Music Theater Conference, Semifinalist, 2021
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Concert in the Tin Pan Alley 2 Concert Series, 2021
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New Voices Project, New Musicals Inc. | Disney Imagineering, Finalist & Virtual Workshop Recipient, 2021
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Creative and Performing Arts Award Recipient, Yale College, 2020
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Developmental Thesis Reading at Yale College within the Shen Curriculum for Musical Theatre, 2019
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Concert at MUSI-CAL, The Foundation for New American Musicals @ The Rockwell Table and Stage, 2019
Y2K at MUSI-CAL, Foundation for New American Musicals (feat. Cami Árboles)
KEY CHANGE | One-Act Play
A college junior comes out as trans to her all-male a cappella group, prompting discussions of history, tradition and masculinity. An interrogation of the all-male space written for high school and college-aged performers.
More at NPX and youthplays.com
In Development
UPPIES | Stage Musical
Inspired by the exposé documentary film Smile Till It Hurts, UPPIES tells the story of the reactionary, political performance organization Up With People and its LGBTQ+ members during the late 1960s as they struggle to reconcile mission with identity amidst a democracy in crisis. In development in the BMI Musical Theatre Librettists Workshop.
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Semifinalist (Pitch), The Civilians R&D Group, 2021
TV Samples
THE BRIS WHISPERER | Half-Hour Original Comedy Pilot (Top 15% on Coverfly)
When a freak accident at a bris grants Benzi Frumkin, Jewish medical school dropout, the ability to talk to babies, he must seek their guidance in order to put his life back together.
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Semifinalist, Stage 32 1st Annual TV Comedy Screenwriting Contest, 2021
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Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship, 2022
IN PIECES | Half-Hour Original Comedy Pilot
In this highly visual world of sculpture and sabotage, a first year student must overcome paranoia, a traumatic upbringing, and rivals’ attempts break her as she and her misfit friends survive a cutthroat fine arts conservatory. Based on true events.
More at Coverfly
Social Media Samples
Pixel Playhouse Commissions (TikTok & YouTube Shorts)
MUSIC DIRECTION, ARRANGING & MUSIC PREP
