Jess Lauricello

Jess Lauricello

photo taken by Zoe Kay

Jess Lauricello

playwright, theatre director, actor

Resume

Acting Reel

Press

Plays I’ve Written

I write plays because I am dissatisfied with the world and do not know how to make sense of it. I paint the world not how it ought to be, but magnifying everything it shouldn’t be. My hope is to be a dual citizen of the Theatre of the Political and the Theatre of the Absurd.

photo + set design: Zoe Kay; director: Jess Lauricello; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry; props design: Bella Saban.
pictured fom left to right: Pedro Vierre, Zoe Mintz, Sam Alexander, Annabella Pritchard, Kristen Hoffman, Jake Levy, & Luis Feliciano.
pictured from left to right: Zoe Mintz & Pedro Vierre

Replaced!

Replaced! was originally self-produced at Teatro LATEA in the New York Theater Festival in 2023. In 2025, it was part of Blended City’s Reading Table Series.

Replaced! is a surrealist sci-fi tragicomedy following a young woman identified only as A Daughter who returns to her hometown to find that everyone in it has been replaced by aliens. Not knowing who’s real and who isn’t, she has to figure out how to live in this new world, and if she even wants to.

photo + costume design: Jaixa Irizarry; director: Casey Kelly; lighting design: Jack Jewell; props design: Bella Saban. pictured left to right: Kristen Hoffman, Joseph Morris, Annabella Pritchard, Padraig Bond, Samson MacDermot, Luis Feliciano, Claudia Zajic, & Pedro Vierre.
director: Ben Salazar; cinematographer: Nikolai Anton; lighting design: Jack Jewell.
pictured from left to right: Padraig Bond & Samson MacDermot.

If I Did, You Deserved It

After selling out in the 2024 Queerly Festival at UNDER St Marks, If I Did, You Deserved It (dir. Casey Kelly) was dubbed Frigid New York’s June 2024 Show of the Month, and was given an encore performance. It was the first production mounted by Laurizarry, Lauricello’s theatre company she founded with Jaixa Irizarry and Pedro Vierre to make the next generation of weird theatre on a dime.

If I Did, You Deserved It is a dark absurdist comedy about a group of self-centered and self-serving billionaires who find themselves exactly where they belong: with each other. Each one is subjected to one-on-one meetings with the devil in order to plead their case to him that they don’t deserve to be damned.

As of 2025, the If I Did, You Deserved It pilot (dir. Ben Salazar), written by Jess Lauricello and Alexandra Spina and presented by Laurizarry, is currently being filmed.

Plays I’ve Directed

The (Green Apple) Play by Padraig Bond @ UNDER St Marks (2024)

pictured from left to right: Julia Winer, Kai Barbee, Sam Alexander, Jennie Reich Litzky, & Samson MacDermot; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry
pictured: Pedro Vierre; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry
pictured from left to right: Pedro Vierre & Annabella Pritchard; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry
pictured from left to right: Sam Alexander, Jennie Reich Litzky, Kai Barbee, & Julia Winer; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry
pictured: Annabella Pritchard; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry
pictured from left to right: Samson MacDermot, Fara Faidzan, & Sydney Gerlach; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry
pictured from left to right: Fara Faidzan & Sydney Gerlach; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry
pictured from left to right: Pedro Vierre, Jennie Reich Litzky, & Julia Winer; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry
pictured from left to right: Sydney Gerlach & Annabella Pritchard; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry; fight choreography: Zoe Kay
pictured from left to right: Sam Alexander, Julia Winer, Samson MacDermot, & Kai Barbee; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry; fight choreography: Zoe Kay
pictured from left to right: Sam Alexander, Jennie Reich Litzky, Julia Winer, & Kai Barbee; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry
pictured from left to right: Samson MacDermot & Sydney Gerlach; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry
pictured from left to right: Sam Alexander, Jennie Reich Litzky, Kai Barbee, & Julia Winer; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry
pictured from left to right: Jennie Reich Litzky, Julia Winer, & Pedro Vierre; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry

Replaced! by Jess Lauricello @ Teatro LATEA (2023)

Replaced! in rehearsal. Pictured from left to right: Annabella Pritchard, Jess Lauricello, & Jake Levy. Photo taken by Padraig Bond
pictured from left to right: Luis Feliciano, Kristen Hoffman, Annabella Pritchard, & Jake Levy; set design: Zoe Kay; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry; photo taken by Zoe Kay
pictured from left to right: Zoe Mintz, Padraig Bond, & Luis Feliciano; set design: Zoe Kay; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry; props design: Bella Saban; photo taken by Zoe Kay
pictured from left to right: Zoe Mintz, Annabella Pritchard, Kristen Hoffman, Jake Levy, & Luis Feliciano; set design: Zoe Kay; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry; props design: Bella Saban; photo taken by Zoe Kay
pictured from left to right: Sam Alexander, Luis Feliciano, Annabella Pritchard, Kristen Hoffman, & Jake Levy; set design: Zoe Kay; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry; photo taken by Zoe Kay
pictured from left to right: Zoe Mintz, Kristen Hoffman, Jake Levy, Annabella Pritchard, Padriag Bond, & Luis Feliciano; set design: Zoe Kay; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry; props design: Bella Saban; photo taken by Zoe Kay
pictured from left to right: Pedro Vierre, Luis Feliciano, Sam Alexander, Annabella Pritchard, Kristen Hoffman, & Jake Levy; set design: Zoe Kay; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry; props design: Bella Saban; photo taken by Zoe Kay
pictured from left to right: Zoe Mintz & Pedro Vierre; set design: Zoe Kay; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry; props design: Bella Saban; photo taken by Zoe Kay
pictured from left to right: Padraig Bond & Zoe Mintz; set design: Zoe Kay; lighting design: Jack Jewell; costume design: Jaixa Irizarry; props design: Bella Saban; photo taken by Zoe Kay

Party Time by Harold Pinter @ Hunter College (2023)

pictured from left to right: Emily Blackburne & Noel Masal; set design: Daphne Adamson; lighting design: Kat Sciortino; props design: Julia Canny; photo taken by Daphne Adamson
pictured from left to right:Hannah Hobbins & Noel Masal; set design: Daphne Adamson; lighting design: Kat Sciortino; props design: Julia Canny; photo taken by Daphne Adamson
pictured: Pedro Vierre; set design: Daphne Adamson; lighting design: Kat Sciortino; props design: Julia Canny; photo taken by Daphne Adamson
pictured from left to right: Zach Wegner & Zoe Mintz; set design: Daphne Adamson; lighting design: Kat Sciortino; props design: Julia Canny; photo taken by Daphne Adamson
pictured from left to right: Jaixa Irizarry & Pedro Vierre; set design: Daphne Adamson; lighting design: Kat Sciortino; props design: Julia Canny; photo taken by Daphne Adamson
pictured: Zoe Mintz; set design: Daphne Adamson; lighting design: Kat Sciortino; photo taken by Daphne Adamson
pictured from left to right: Zoe Mintz & Zach Wegner; set design: Daphne Adamson; lighting design: Kat Sciortino; photo taken by Daphne Adamson
pictured from left to right: Zoe Mintz & Noel Masal; set design: Daphne Adamson; lighting design: Kat Sciortino; props design: Julia Canny; photo taken by Daphne Adamson
pictured: Pricilla Prasad; set design: Daphne Adamson; lighting design: Kat Sciortino; photo taken by Daphne Adamson
pictured from left to right: Julia Elmore, Katrina Carlyle, & Hannah Hobbins; set design: Daphne Adamson; lighting design: Kat Sciortino; props design: Julia Canny; photo taken by Daphne Adamson