HALEY NELSON
INNOVATIVE WORK WITH WORDS
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About

Who, me?

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AWards and grants

2021 100W Writer-in-Residence

2021 Future of Playwriting Prize Semi-Finalist

2020 National Young Playwrights in Residence Finalist

2019-2021 National New Play Network Producer-In-Residence at Kitchen Dog Theater

2019 Office of Cultural Affairs/Dallas City Hall Micro-Residency, Sustainable Development and Construction: Historic Preservation Department

2017 Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas Bly Creative Capacity Grant

Actors Theatre of Louisville's Emerging Leaders Grant (2018)

John and Claire Rosenfield Award for Playwriting (2017)

ASSOCIATIONS 

  • The Podcast Academy

  • Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas

    • Regional Vice President: Third Coast 2018-2022 (Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas)

  • National New Play Network Affiliated Artist

  • Dallas Theater Center Playwrights’ Workshop member, 2019 cohort

Hi there and welcome! I’m Haley!

I began working in theatre as a dramaturg (“a what?”) and now I also apply those same research and storytelling skills to my work in narrative non-fiction TV/podcasts/YouTube. For eight years, I’ve supported theaters, production companies, and independent artists across the country in telling stories grounded in context, kindness, and curiosity. I most often work in sensitive true crime booking, pop culture commentary, script writing and development, background research and story pitching and producing.

I grew up in Northern California (big trees! foggy mornings!) but have been based in Dallas, TX for the past ten years (frozen margaritas!). You can usually find me supporting stories remotely from my home office where I’m supervised by my horrible-and-adorable cat Gordy, researching on-site, or working directly from a team’s office, filming location, or rehearsal room. I always have a suitcase packed with the essentials plus boundless joy, deep inquiry, and attentive fandom, just in case!

If you’d like to learn more about my work, please feel free to click around here or contact me. Whether you need dramaturgy, writing or consulting, wherever you may be in the country or in your process, shoot me a message through my contact page and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. 

It’s so great to meet you! Thanks for stopping by!

 

A Non-exhaustive list of Dream Projects & wild CREATIVE schemes (in no particular order)

  • New plays that play with genre, form, structure or include multiple disciplines

  • A docuseries about chronic illness or mental health

  • Any work told in earnest involving lived experiences within social justice movements, subcultures, cults, fringe beliefs and lifestyles

  • Stories about the secrets we are too afraid to say out loud

  • A podcast about pop culture conspiracy theories

  • Working with writers transitioning from other industries, or writers working with a dramaturg for the first time

  • Hosting an interview series or talk show

  • Dramaturging a concept album

  • Helping an overwhelmed/burned-out artist or arts administrator find their path back to their passion

  • Teaching a workshop on new play development tools

  • Casting an eclectic dinner party and making the perfect playlist

  • A historical story that can only be done justice by live theatre

  • Anything that lets me office out of a historic building

  • Producing any reality tv dating show (shadow-form dramaturgy is just producing The Bachelor, right?)