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 style is equally informed by the modern theatre, musical theatre, and television landscapes. As a Hispanic, Jewish, and LGBTQ+ artist, he seeks to blend satire, spectacle, and music to tell often-political, often-queer outsider narratives.

Dylan received his B.A. in Musical Theater Composition through Yale College's Shen Curriculum for Musical Theater. He studied dramatic writing under Donald Margulies, Michael Korie and Marsha Norman, as well as composition under Scott Frankel and Jeanine Tesori.

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 (NYC), the Blank Theatre Company, the National YoungArts Foundation (Finalist in Playwriting), ASCAP, and the Foundation for New American Musicals (MUSI-CAL, SHOWSEARCH). He is a six-time published author at YouthPLAYS, through which his work has been licensed and performed throughout the U.S., Europe and Australia. 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.

In the film/TV space, Dylan's writing has been distinguished by ScreenCraft, Stage 32, Scriptation and the Filmmatic Awards. Additionally, Dylan has held numerous creative production internships (Marc Platt Productions, Jason Bateman's Aggregate Films, Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions) and is currently a music assistant to EGOT-winning composer/lyricist duo Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Dylan is a founding member and in-house composer/lyricist at the LA-based social media production company Pixel Playhouse, which has garnered 500k total followers across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

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. He also sang in and arranged music for the Yale Spizzwinks(?) a cappella group, in which he managed tours to Los Angeles & Iceland and organized a free public concert and musical exchange with his family in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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.

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.

Immersive Workshop at After Hours Theatre Company, 2022 (Upcoming)
The 2022 Eugene O'Neill National Music Theater Conference, Semifinalist, 2021
Concert in the Tin Pan Alley 2 Concert Series, 2021
New Voices Project, New Musicals Inc. | Disney Imagineering, Finalist & Virtual Workshop Recipient, 2021
Creative and Performing Arts Award Recipient, Yale College, 2020
Developmental Thesis Reading at Yale College within the Shen Curriculum for Musical Theatre, 2019
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.

Commissioned by YouthPLAYS, 2021

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.

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.

Semifinalist, Scriptation Showcase, 2022
Semifinalist, Stage 32 1st Annual TV Comedy Screenwriting Contest, 2021
Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship, 2022
Quarterfinalist, Filmmatic TV Pilot Awards Season 6, 2021

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)