Writer
Nic has been a writer for many years focused mostly on short plays and sketch comedy, with new full length works on the way.
Dear Santa by Nic Sommerfeld, Production Photo from Best Of Playground 2019
Short Plays
Nic has written one-act and short plays for over 10 years. They first had their work produced as part of the local One Act Play Festival at Venture Theater in Billings, MT. From there they studied playwriting at Santa Clara University under Brian Thorstenson. They have since written for, and been produced by UCSF, The San Francisco Olympians Festival ( ‘17 and ‘18), ShotzSF, Utopia Theatre Project, and Monday Night Playground. They have also had their work featured as part of The Best of Playground Festival ( ‘18, ‘19, and ‘20).
You can watch trailers for A Giant Story (BOP 2018) and Dear Santa (BOP 2019), and find press for The Best of Playground Festival for 2018 and 2019.
During the 2020 Pandemic, Nic wrote a short play for a virtual ShotzSF production called Socially Distant Noir. You can watch the recorded Zoom production here. They also had their plays in two Zoom theater festivals. The first was with Third Citizen’s Digital Dionysia Festival. The company, based out of Massachusetts, produced the play Octavian Augustus: A Tale of Topping over Zoom with actors from around the country. The second festival was the Trans TheatreFest, hosted by the University of Wisconsin - Madison and InterMission Theatre. They performed the play High In A Tower over Zoom as part of the festival.
Production photo from Queering My Lobster
Sketch Comedy and Storytelling
Nic has been working with Killing My Lobster since 2017 when they were selected to be a part of the Diversity in Comedy Writing Fellowship. Since then they have written on multiple shows with the company including Pride Inside, Queering My Lobster, To Bard Or Not To Bard, and Snowed In. You can see “Gaycation”, one of Nic’s sketches from QML here.
During the lockdown, they worked on two digital pieces with Killing My Lobster. The first is a six-episode web series that Nic co-wrote and performed with Sean Owens called Gothic Poetry Corner. All episodes are available to watch on Youtube. Nic also wrote and performed in KML’s summer show, Pride Inside. You can see the trailer for that show here.
Outside of Playwriting and Sketch Comedy, Nic has written for events such as The Cliterary Salon, Greetings from Queer Mountain, and for Show Me As I Want To Be Seen, a storytelling event with Porchlight and The Contemporary Jewish Museum. You can listen to a recording of the event Show Me As I Want To Be Seen here.
Writing Trans Realities w/ Scott T Schofield + Nic Sommerfeld with playwright Lauren Gunderson
Commissions and more…
During the 2020 Pandemic, Nic lead a class with Scott T Schofield and Lauren Gunderson on Writing Trans Realities. You can read more about it and watch the full class here.
Nic has also written a full-length play commissioned by Lauren Gunderson. More on that in the future…