Sean has written and performed multiple solo pieces across the United States and overseas, from Off Broadway to Juvenile Detention Centers winning the Smith Prize, a Barrymore Award, two Central Ohio Critic Circle Awards, the NEA Voices in Community Award and making numerous year end lists.
CONCEAL AND CARRY
In CONCEAL AND CARRY we meet the father of a mass shooting victim, and ride along on an all night drive towards revenge. The play tackles a prominent issue in America today by delving into the inner psyche of the liberal gun owner, the cryptic history of the NRA, and how we go about giving up the gun.
Developed at All For One Theatre, NYC
World Premiere at
Out of Hand Theatre*, Altanta GA
(* SUZI Recommended)
Productions:
Urbanite Theatre, Sarasota FL 2020
DOGS OF RWANDA
1994. At 16 years of age David found himself in Uganda as a church missionary. When he follows the girl of his dreams into the woods to help a Rwandan boy they’ve stumbled upon he enters a world from which he will never fully be able to escape. On the 20th anniversary of the genocide he witnessed firsthand a book David wrote regarding his experiences that Spring arrives with a note from the Rwandan boy he once tried to save. “You didn’t tell them everything,” it says. “You didn’t tell them everything.” A dinner party story for the ages.
Awards
Best Drama of 2018- Arizona Daily Star
Best of 2017- Philadelphia Inquirer
Reviews
“Profoundly unsettling new play… this piece maintains a viselike power — it is, quite literally, a trip to hell and back, and it poses lingering questions about guilt and reconciliation. Urban Stages has done us all a favor by bringing this urgent piece, previously seen in Chicago and Philadelphia, to our attention”- Light and Sound Magazine
“Lewis’s words cut to the bone and he shows us how to forgive and let go of the pain that binds. He captures our emotions and dare I say, this is one of the best plays I have seen this year.”- Times Square Chronicle
“Harrowing… Dogs of Rwanda shows that cultural scars are not limited by racial or national origins. We are all implicated in historical traumas by the narratives we hear and the stories we receive.”- Talking’ Broadway
“It takes awhile to find out why the Dogs of the title are relevant but when you do it is extraordinarily powerful. I loved listening to it”- Peter Filicha, Broadway Radio
” I cannot divulge the crux of this thriller, you’ll have to witness this remarkable journey for yourselves… It’s a remarkable evening all around, evocative and harrowing.”- Stage Buddy
“An intense and unnerving look at man’s inhumanity to man, the lingering personal effects of unimaginable trauma, and ideas on how best to cope in the aftermath by embracing truth and forgiveness… Dogs of Rwanda isn’t easy to watch, but it’s impossible to turn away from the truth of what happened and the riveting production at Urban Stages.”- DC Metro Arts
“One of the Best Shows of 2017”- Philadelphia Inquirer
“Highly Recommended… Lewis delivers the gripping tale of a callow, lovesick young man who only went to Africa to be with his crush and got much, much more than he bargained for.” — Chicago Reader
“This one-act, one-man show written by Sean Christopher Lewis is riveting and… is so deeply rooted in the character and the story that the guilt, the trauma, David’s journey, is palpable. A powerful story, powerfully told.”- Arizona Daily Star
“Layered suspensfully… intense… exquisite”- Upstage Indiana
“Riveting… an expert storyteller.”- The Equinox
“Lewis is a mesmerizing storyteller, and this is a story of forgiveness that needs to be seen by church youth groups, high school social studies students, adult discussion groups and any place where people can gather.”- Cedar Rapids Gazette
Performances:
OFF BROADWAY PREMIERE- Urban Stages,NYC,NY
Out of Hand Theater, Atlanta, GA
Interact Theatre, Philadelphia, PA
Phoenix Theatre, Indianapolis, IN
16th Street Theatre, Chicago, IL
Tucson Labyrinth Project, Tucson AZ
University of Northern Iowa Genocide Center, Cedar Falls, IA
Redfern Performing Arts Center, Keene, NH
Englert Theatre, Iowa City, IA
Horizon Theatre, Atlanta, GA
CSPS/ Legion Arts, Cedar Rapids IA
Available Light Theatre, Columbus OH
Ojai Playwrights Festival, Ojai, CA
KILLADELPHIA
In the Summer of 2008, it was often said that Philadelphia had “more bodies than days.” The city was in the midst of a murder epidemic that put it on par with some third world countries.
Determined to take an unflinching look at the causes of the crime rate and its effect on the community, playwright/performer Sean Christopher Lewis introduces us to the inmates of Graterford Prison – men employed to beautify the city even as they serve out life sentences.
The voices of the prisoners, their victims, Mayor Nutter, local rappers, conservative talk show hosts, trauma surgeons, and the citizens of the City of Brotherly Love crowd the stage to say their piece.
Played by Lewis, a performer described by the New York Press as “explicitly authentic”, these voices combine with a shocking document of life in America’s toughest town.
Reviews:
“A must-see evening of theatre … epic”- NY Theatre
“5 Stars… in a year of amazing theater KILLADELPHIA leaves the rest behind”- Metromix
“A call to action as well as a plea to open our minds”- City Paper
Performances:
16th Street Theatre, Chicago, IL
Woolly Mammoth, Washington DC
Baltimore Centerstage, Baltimore MD
Southern Rep, New Orleans, LA
American Theater Company, Chicago, IL
InterAct Theatre Company, Philadelphia, PA
Institute del Teatre de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Available LIght Theatre, Columbus, OH
Drilling Company Theatre, NYC, NY
Touchstone Theatre, Bethlehem, PA
Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA
Broughal Middle School, Bethlehem, PA
Hartbeat Ensemble, Hartford, CT
Stagewest, Des Moines, IA
Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, MO
Revolutions International Theatre Festival, Albuquerque, NM
Studio Roanoke, Roanoke, VA
Art Reach, Philadelphia, PA
Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Southern Idaho Juvenile Detention Center, Boise, ID
Welsh-Garcia Productions, Boise, ID
La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA
Cape May Stage, Cape May, NJ
Adirondack Theatre Festival, Glens Falls, NY
Children of Promise, Iowa City, IA
Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall, MN
SUNY ONONDAGA, Onondaga, NY
Riverside Theatre, Iowa City, IA
CSPS/Legion Arts, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York City
Penn State University, Cultural Conversations Festival, State College PA
St. Gabe’s Boys Home, Philadelphia, PA
Graterford Prison, Montgomery County, PA
University of Kansas, Kennedy Center ACT Festival, Lawrence KS
JUST KIDS
Spending lonely weeks in Kansas teaching a group of mentally-troubled kids, Sean Lewis (Killadelphia) is pulled into a sudden rush of discoveries about his own unsettling past. Sean’s long-estranged biological father forces him to endure the strife of their troubled relationship one more time, before leaving Sean to pick up the pieces and figure out what it all means.
Reviews:
“Best Original Work of 2011: Sean Christopher Lewis’s one-man show, shaped with the help of director Matt Slaybaugh, was a deeply personal examination of the roots of violence.” – The Other Paper
“Best Theatre of 2011”- Columbus Dispatch
“Best of 2011, Theatre”- Sanford Speaks
“Gutsy, raw, evocative… a powerful world premiere”- Columbus Dispatch
“Brilliant… moving, daring, funny”- Experience Columbus
Performances:
Ko Festival of Performance. Amherst, MA
Hollins University, Hollins, VA
Revolutions International Theatre Festival, Albuquerque, NM
Sandglass Theatre. Putney, VT
Pontine Theatre, Portsmouth, NH
Working Group Theatre, Iowa City IA
Available Light Theatre, Columbus, OH
GHOST STORY
Co-created with Jennifer Fawcett. This is an immersive piece meant to use the entirety of a theater space, GHOST STORY, tells the story of a theater Box Office attendant who after-hours has transformed the theater he works at into a living museum of his sister, an actress, who has gone missing. Taking influences from found footage horror movies, the creepy solo work of Daniel MacIvor and the renegade art of Banksy and Ai WeiWei the work is meditation on grief.
Performances:
Berkeley Rep Ground Floor Residency, Berkeley CA
Englert Theatre, Iowa City IA
I WILL MAKE YOU ORPHANS
A tale told entirely in rhyme, Orphans is the story of Sean Boogie – a confused white boy in upstate NY who believes he’s “blacker” than his African American poetry professor. When his girlfriend becomes pregnant and his teacher attacks his reality, Boogie is left questioning not only who he is but who he wants to be.
A hip-hopera, a ghetto comedy, and a social drama, I Will Make You Orphans is a genre-bending experience about what it is to “be” and what it is to “wannabe.”
Reviews:
“A night of storytelling that’s exciting and explicitly authentic.” – New York Press
“Lewis has a genuine love for the hip-hop art form and it shows … A fine, contemporary piece replete with street credibility.”- Times Colonist
Performances:
Adirondack Theatre Festival, Glens Falls NY
Keuka College, Keuka, NY
Johnson State College, Johnson, VT
Available Light Solo Performance Festival, Columbus, Ohio
Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn, NY
Hyde Park, Austin, TX
Uno Festival of Solo Performance, Victoria, BC
The Riverside Theatre, Iowa City, IA
Center for Independent Artists, Minneapolis, MN
Columbus Fringe Festival, Columbus, Ohio
Cincinnati Fringe Festival, Cincinnati, Ohio
Bowery Poetry Club, NYC
Changing Spaces Gallery, Albany, NY