Degenerates

World premiere play by Else Went, directed by Emma Rosa Went. Featuring Christopher Dylan White, Zachary Desmond, Juan Arturo, Tyler Nowell Felix, and Olivia Rose Barresi. Premiering at Playwrights Horizons in October 2026, in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

The boys are fucked. And they know it. In their own obscure corner of the internet, they offer each other proof that the game is rigged against men, and that it was over before it began. When an unexpected relationship begins to form, the consequences of the boys’ fatalism are made painfully clear. Degenerates offers a telescopic, darkly funny view of one insular community, formed on the bedrock of shared and infinite miseries.

Drama Desk Awards & Lucille Lortel Awards

Initiative, the world premiere play by Else Went, was nominated for a 2026 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Ensemble. The ensemble of Initiative included Marisa Brau-Reyes, Brandon Burk, Greg Cuellar, Harrison Densmore, Carson Higgins, Andrea Lopez Alvarez, Jamie Sanders, Jose Useche, Christopher Dylan White, and Olivia Rose Barresi.

Initiative was awarded a 2026 Drama Desk Special Commendation for its ensemble and creative team. “The epic yet intimate Initiative gave us the full high school experience, making five-plus hours in the theater somehow feel like no time at all thanks to the collective of writer Else Went, director Emma Rosa Went, and the extraordinary ensemble cast of Olivia Rose Barresi, Brandon Burk, Greg Cuellar, Harrison Densmore, Carson Higgins, Andrea Lopez Alvarez, Jamie Sanders, and Christopher Dylan White. Collaborating over almost nine years, the Initiative team tapped into the world of D&D to illuminate the magic that can be found in devoting time to process, showing how the richness of a shared language can conjure community, produce ambitious art, and captivate audiences.”

The cast and creative team of Initiative accepted their award at the Drama Desk Awards ceremony on May 17th, 2026, at the Town Hall.

Lennox Mutual

A live, serialized, interactive experience from Candle House Collective, running through 2026. Curated, ongoing “performance” designed for one “audience member” at a time, in one 20 minute phone session at a time.

Customer service like you've never experienced before! Lennox Mutual is a first-of-its-kind "life en-surance" company. Our friendly representatives are here to help you make the most of the time you have. You have their full attention when you call, and they'll remember when you return.

Available worldwide. Just make an appointment!

Beta

Workshop performance of Lawrence Dial’s play at Bouldering Project Gowanus, directed by Molly Shayna Cohen. May 31st, 2026. Featuring Olivia Rose Barresi, Arjun Biju, Tony Crane, Keenan Jolliff, Da’Von Moody, Ariunsanaa Odbayar, Demone Seraphin, Sam Stagg, Amanda Sykes, Ruby Wolf, and Jade Ziane.

Welcome to a chalk-dusted climbing gym in the it's fine Midwest, where effort is everything, and the crowd is part of the climb. An exploration of failure and struggle, Beta invites you into the climbing community to become part of the energy that holds it all together — because in a climbing gym, nobody sends alone.

Waiver required; chalk bag optional.

The Cause

Workshop presentation of Else Went’s play, presented as a part of New York Theatre Workshop’s Mondays at 3 reading series, on March 30th, 2026. Directed by Emma Rosa Went. Featuring Martin K. Lewis, Delaney Feener, Van Dukes, Felix Teich, Esther Williamson, and Olivia Rose Barresi.

In The Cause, a group of actors and a director gather at newly formed artist residency, "The House Upstate," for a week-long workshop development of The Cause, a new play in which a group of actors and a director who gather in a house upstate for a week to rehearse The Cause, an experimental adaptation of Othello. As daily rewrites from an absent author elevate coincidence to paranoia, Othello's themes of jealousy and ambition fill the rehearsal room thick as the nightly mist in this quiet, empty town.

Degenerates

Workshop presentation of Else Went’s two-act play on February 6th, featuring Zachary Desmond, Christopher Dylan White, Juan Arturo, Tyler Nowell Felix, and Olivia Rose Barresi. Directed by Emma Rosa Went. Presented in the Niarchos Studio at Playwrights Horizons.

The boys aren't doing so hot. In an obscure corner of the internet, they form a community on the bedrock of their shared and infinite miseries, offering each other proof that the game is rigged against men. When an unexpected relationship begins to unravel their dismal incel fraternity, the consequences of their fatalism are revealed—some may get out, and some may not. But how much would it hurt them to come alive again?

73, SK

Audio drama produced as a part of Playing on Air’s 2025-26 season. Written by Else Went, directed by Emma Rosa Went. Featuring Chukwudi Iwuji, Olivia Rose Barresi, Paul Joseph Bernardo, Zachary Desmond, and Joe McGurl. Hosted by Joshua Kahan Brody & Garlia Cornelia Jones.

In the Central Coast of California, a community exists over the airwaves - an obscure group of radio operators who key up to discuss the minutiae of their lives and the county's goings on. When an unfortunate event shifts their number, the remaining members mourn, and ask themselves if they can return to the real world.

Premiering December 5th, 2025, online and on streaming platforms.

Initiative

World premiere play by Else Went, directed by Emma Rosa Went, at the Public Theater’s LuEsther Hall. Opening in November 2025. Featuring Marisa Brau-Reyes, Brandon Burk, Greg Cuellar, Harrison Densmore, Carson Higgins, Andrea Lopez Alvarez, Jamie Sanders, Jose Useche, Christopher Dylan White, and Olivia Rose Barresi originating the role of Clara.

Playwright Else Went, alumnus of The Public’s acclaimed Emerging Writers Group, brings her transformative new play Initiative to The Public this fall. A bittersweet reflection on adolescence at the dawn of the new millennium, Initiative charts the intertwined lives of seven teens from 2000-2004, as they become friends and more than friends, wrestle with their potential, face incalculable loss, and struggle to find their way in (and get out of) “Coastal Podunk, California.” Emma Rosa Went directs this epic world premiere guaranteed to make you remember the most difficult and beautiful things about growing up. 

Three Sisters

One-night-only, “secret” performance of Else Went’s new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters. Directed by Emma Rosa Went. July 24th, 2025, at an undisclosed location in Brooklyn. Featuring Olivia Rose Barresi as Irina, Zoe Goslin as Masha, and Esther Williamson as Olga. Also featuring Will Ormsby Cary, Christopher Dylan White, Delaney Feener, Brendan Sokler, Keith Michael Pinault, Else Went, Tania Kass, Soph Metcalf, and Greg Warren.

You are cordially invited to Irina Prozorovna’s Birthday Party!

One Night Only - Doors at 6:30p, Show at 7:00p. Seating is first-come first-serve.

Drinks, snacks and cake included in price of ticket - and if you're so inclined, bring a flower for the birthday girl.

Why Taylor Swift is Gay: A Presentation

Workshop presentation for Theatre [Untitled]’s 2025 season, on March 31st, 2025. By Lily Camp, directed by Alex Keegan. Featuring Susannah Perkins, and Olivia Rose Barresi as Taylor Swift.

A playwright and self-proclaimed “Gaylor” takes us through a presentation on why they are convinced that Taylor Swift is gay (and leaving clues to out herself to queers), interspersing lecture, songs, and scenes of Taylor and her supposed relationships with three women. But what begins as their exploration of Taylor’s career and secrets is interrupted by Taylor hijacking the presentation and staging moments with the playwright’s own ex-lovers. Will the playwright be faced not with the truth about Taylor, but instead some indelible truths about herself?

Degenerates

Workshop production as a part of the Public Theater’s 2024 Judith Champion New Work Series. By Else Went, directed by Emma Rosa Went. Dramaturgy by Sarah Lunnie. Featuring Tyler Nowell Felix, Juan Arturo, Zachary Desmond, Christopher Dylan White, and Olivia Rose Barresi. Performances on October 28th and 29th, 2024.

The boys aren’t doing so hot. In an obscure corner of the internet, they form an incel community on the bedrock of their shared and infinite miseries, offering each other proof that the game is rigged against men; it was over before it began, they will never be loved, better just to lay down and rot. When an unexpected relationship begins to unravel their dismal fraternity, the consequences of their fatalism are revealed — who might get out, and who might not?

Dogman I

Premiere screening (with talkback) of short film by Olivia Rose Barresi and Emily Barresi, taking place at BRIC Media Arts in Brooklyn on September 24th, 2024. Presented as a part of the BRIClab 2023-24 Video Art Fellowship. Fellowship cohort includes Olivia Rose Barresi and Emily Barresi, DaeQuan Collier, Eliza Lu Doyle, Rachael Guma, and Yasi Ghanbari. Talkback moderated by Andrea Monti of Microscope Gallery.

In the experimental short Dogman I, analog and digital AV equipment are woven together to portray a cryptozoological sighting. Created by sisters and artists Olivia Rose Barresi and Emily Barresi, Dogman I delves into the universal human fascination with the supernatural, and the blurred boundary between reality and fabrication. This first foray into the Dogman Universe explores the challenge of imbuing authenticity into the extraordinary and interrogates our faith in the moving image.

Feelings Are Tasty, but They Also Make Me Sick

World premiere reading of Madeline Rouverol’s play on September 14th 2024, in Brooklyn. Featuring Raquel Chavez, Annie Fox, Bartley Booz, Brian Bock, and Olivia Rose Barresi.

Uh oh! A girl who’s 29 needs her feelings sopped up. They’re coming out of her like blood or water or bile. The only people who can help her are her bad bitch doctor, her budding filmmaker bf, and her super cool chill parents. Feelings are Tasty is a new play about loving too much, feeling everything and getting drained by leeches.

Twelfth Night

Workshop production of William Shakespeare’s comedy at the Decatur Audio Laboratories, presented on August 2nd 2024. Directed by Emma Rosa Went, with original music and orchestrations by Ray Duncan.

Featuring Kara Arena, Will Cary, Liam Gerard, Zoë Goslin, Daniel Holme, Ben McNamara, Soph Metcalf, Logan Sutton, Esther Williamson and Olivia Rose Barresi.

The Cause

Workshop production of Else Went’s new play The Cause, presented as a part of WP Theater’s 2024 Pipeline Festival. Directed by Dina Vovsi. Featuring Yansa Fatima, Jovan Davis, Esther Williamson, Felix Teich, Delaney Feener, and Olivia Rose Barresi. Performing May 2nd through 4th, 2024.

In this house of mirrors, a group of actors and a director gather at a newly formed artist residency, The House Upstate, for a week-long workshop development of The Cause - a new play about a group of actors and a director who gather in a house upstate for a week to shoot The Cause, an experimental film retelling of Othello. As daily rewrites from the absent playwright elevate coincidence to paranoia, jealousy and desire fill the rehearsal room thick as the nightly mist in this quiet, empty town.

Photo by Maria Baranova-Suzuki, 2024.

"With Ash on Their Faces" by Cathy Otten

Audiobook version of Cathy Otten’s With Ash on Their Faces: Yezidi Women and the Islamic State, first published in 2017, read by Olivia Rose Barresi. Produced with the original publisher, renowned alternative publishing house OR Books, the audiobook will be released in late 2024.

ISIS’s genocidal attack on the Yezidi population in Northern Iraq in 2014 brought the world’s attention to the small faith that numbers less than one million worldwide. That summer ISIS massacred Yezidi men and enslaved women and children in the areas surrounding the Sinjar Mountains. While the armed conflict has ended and the headlines have moved on, thousands of Yezidi women and children remain in captivity - and many more are still displaced. This genocide is here conveyed with extraordinary intensity in the first-hand reporting of journalist Cathy Otten, who challenges common perceptions of Yezidi female victimhood by focusing on deeply moving personal narratives of resistance - those passed down over generations, and those here made new.

Unresolved Rage Game

Public playtests as a part of Soho Rep’s Writer Director Lab for 2022-23. Presented the week of September 18-23rd, 2023. Realized by Risa Puno and Ran Xia. Lab co-chaired by Jackie Sibblies Drury and William Burke.

Unresolved Rage Game is a playable, theatrical experience about the creation of a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) designed as a tool for Asian femmes to access and express rage. These playtests encapsulate the creative processes of Puno and Xia, while also aiming to empower individuals with a similar cultural background to safely, openly explore and articulate their emotions.

System Admins played by John Racioppo, Ella Raymont, Antony Jenkins, and Samuel Reeder. NPCs played by Max Henry and Olivia Rose Barresi.

"Zero-Sum" by Joyce Carol Oates

To be published in mid-July 2023. By Joyce Carol Oates, with audiobook produced by Penguin Random House Audio. Read by Amy Jensen, Max Meyers, Linda Jones, Karissa Vacker, Cassandra Campbell, Robert Fass, and title story read by Olivia Rose Barresi.

Zero-sum games are played for lethal stakes in these arresting stories by one of America’s most acclaimed writers, the award-winning, best-selling author of Blonde. In these powerfully wrought stories that hold a mirror up to our time, Joyce Carol Oates has created a world of erotic obsession, thwarted idealism, and ever-shifting identities. Provocative and stunning, Zero-Sum reinforces Oates’s standing as a literary treasure and an artist of the mysterious interior life.

Available to purchase/listen here, through Penguin Random House.

Initiative

A reading of Else Went’s Initiative, developed as a part of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group. Performing at the Public on both May 8th and May 9th. Directed by Emma Rosa Went. Featuring Carson Scott Higgins, Greg Cuellar, Jamie Sanders, Christopher Dylan White, Harrison Densmore, Andrea Lopez, and Olivia Rose Barresi.

Between first loves and first betrayals, the SAT and D&D, house parties and homecomings, it's a wonder any of us survive high school. Initiative is an epic microcosm, charting the fatefully intertwined lives of seven teens' struggle to grow up in and get out of Coastal Podunk, California, at the dawn of the new millennium.

RSVP for free - for either the May 8th (6pm) or May 9th (2pm) showing - on the Public Theater’s website.

Degenerates

A reading of Else Went’s post-digital play Degenerates, presented at Ars Nova, on April 21st 2023 at 3pm. Directed by Emma Rosa Went. Featuring Zachary Desmond, Tyler Nowell Felix, Christopher Dylan White, and Olivia Rose Barresi.

The boys are not doing so hot. In an obscure corner of the internet, they form a community on the bedrock of their shared and infinite miseries, offering each other proofs that the game is rigged against men. When an unexpected relationship shakes the foundations of their miserable incel fraternity, the consequences of their fatalism are revealed.

RSVP for free at Ars Nova’s website.