C O C K P I T    W R I T E R S

Jaclyn Backhaus is an Indian-American playwright born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. Her work delves into such sundry topics as heritage (American or otherwise), deserts, knick-knacks and their origin stories, the cross-section of past and present, and theatrical prose. She has developed works with Naked Angels, Ars Nova, Fresh Ground Pepper’s PlayGround PlayGroup, 3LD, The Bushwick Starr, breedingground, The Hypocrite Reader, Walker Space, The Tank, and Magic Futurebox. Her original musical Folk Wandering, a collaboration with composer Mike Brun and director Andrew Neisler, made the final round of selection for this year’s Yale Institute of Musical Theater. Folk Wandering also received performances at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest and Walker Space; it will receive a concert reading at Joe’s Pub in January of 2013. She is the resident playwright of Theater Reconstruction Ensemble—their first collaboration, the Chekhovian mash-up Three Seagulls, or MASHAMASHAMASHA!, played to sold-out houses and rave reviews at HERE Arts Center. Other plays include Black Canyon City, Shoot the Freak, The Forgetting of Things, What It’s Like When Two Geeks Love Each Other and James Franco Brings the Light of God to the Linguistics Department at the University of Buffalo. She is the co-founder and executive curator of Fresh Ground Pepper, a monthly development series that focuses on emerging artists and new work. She is one half of traveling filmmakers’ collective wuliHAUS and a member of the Cockpit Writers’ Group.  Upcoming projects for 2013 include a new musical with Preston Martin and Grace McLean, called Heart Prints; her 2nd production with Theater Reconstruction Ensemble, a meditation on American Realism entitled Set in the Living Room of a Small Town American Play; a teen-angst film adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde with Brooklyn-based musician Tim Fite; and continued development on her first feature-length screenplay, Phillip and Falling Asleep. She resides in Brooklyn, where she is currently working on a novel about a girl who turns into Ernest Hemingway. Jaclyn is represented by the Gersh Agency. BFA: NYU/Tisch.