Oliver Mayer

Oliver Mayer is a Mexican-American playwright, poet, librettist, and tenured professor and Associate Dean of Faculty at the School of Dramatic Arts at USC. In his 30+ plays, he aims to magnify rich, violent, and taboo stories of marginal Americans. Recent works include ''Blade to the Heat'', performed at the AppleTree Theatre in Chicago, starring Stef Tovar, and its sequel ''Members Only''''.'' His newest play, ''Ghost Waltz'' (commissioned by the Latino Theatre Company) won Best Play at the 2025 Stage Raw Theatre Awards.

Mayer’s body of work spans titles like ''Fortune is a Woman'', ''Yerma in the Desert'', ''The Dragon Tree'', and ''Letters from the Black Sea'' (commissioned by the Getty Villa), ''The Wallowa Project'', ''Dias y Flores'', ''Dark Matters'', ''Conjunto'', ''Young Valiant'', ''Joy of the Desolate'', ''The Sinner from Toledo'', ''Laws of Sympathy'' and ''Ragged Time.'' Mayer wrote the libretto for the opera ''America Tropical'', composed by David Conte, and the book for ''Blue House'' with music and lyrics by Perla Batalla and David Batteau.

He has written essays regularly for Zocalo Public Square, a book of poetry entitled ''Body Languages'', and co-authored a short, illustrated children's book, ''Big Dog on Campus'', along with Patricia Rae. His plays have been produced nationwide at such venues as the Joseph Papp Public Theater, The Mark Taper Forum, and INTAR, and internationally at the Royal Court Theatre, London and the Teatro Lirico, Mexico City. His literary archive is available through Stanford University Libraries. Provided by Wikipedia