Original Creative Team

About the Playwright: JOHN CARIANI

John Cariani is a Tony® Award-nominated actor and a playwright. He has appeared on and Off Broadway, at regional theaters across the country, and in several films and television shows. He’s been nominated for a Tony Award. He’s done movies with Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Ed Asner. Most people seem to know him for his roles on TV’s Law & Order (Forensics Tech Beck), The Onion News Network (Reporter Michael Falk), and Numb3rs (Professor Otto Bahnoff).

He started writing plays when he moved to New York City in the late nineties. He and his friends became known for an offbeat comedy show they would put on from time to time at any downtown theater they could find to perform in. They started to gather a little following, and one night, up-and-coming director Gabe Barre caught one of their shows and was taken by the odd, funny, sad, romantic and anti-romantic little plays and sketches that comprised the evening. A few nights later, Gabe met with John and asked him how many of these short plays he had written, and John said, “A couple dozen,” and Gabe asked if he could take a look at all of them and he did…and he noticed that many of the plays were surreal love stories, all set on a cold winter’s night in a strange little non-town in far northern Maine, and he said, “There’s a play here. Almost.”

And the rest is history.