Main Text — Sam Max

PROFILE

Sam Max (b. 1995) is a writer and director of film and theater. He is an American of Sephardic descent, living in New York, working frequently in Berlin. Sam is known for creating “poetic spaces where death and dreams converge, making otherwordly encounters possible” (Suhrkamp). Drawing on the unconscious, his work frequently explores gender, sexuality, class, violence, the impact of media and film on the psyche, and American culture.

Sam was one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” 2022. His “formally assured and chillingly acted” debut short film Chaperone (2022) stars Zachary Quinto. Chaperone held its world premiere at Sundance competing for the Short Film Grand Jury Prize, and was deemed one of IndieWire’s “10 Must-See Shorts” of the festival that year. Chaperone subsequently received a Jury Special Mention for Best U.S. Short at Palm Springs, a Jury Special Mention for Best Short at Turin Horror, won the Horizon Award for Most Promising Filmmaker at 24fps, and was shortlisted for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. The film has played over three dozen festivals internationally, including Fantasia, NewFest, Overlook, BIFAN, Oslo Fusion, Iris Prize, and MotelX Lisbon. Chaperone is distributed by Altered Innocence (North America) and Peccadillo Pictures (UK). Sam’s “seductive and unnerving” and “super inventive” second short film Ticks (2022) stars Jack Haven in a sapphic bloodplay thriller. The film was commissioned by 20th Digital, streams on Hulu, and held festival premieres at NewFest and Palm Springs. Sam’s forthcoming body horror feature debut Baby is produced by Luca Intili and Kindred Spirit.

Ticks (2022)

Chaperone (2022)

Onstage, Sam’s plays have been performed in New York City, Berlin, Beijing, Bamberg, and Wiesbaden. Sam’s play Coop (DE: Zaun) introduced his voice to German audiences for the first time as a part of Theatertreffen-Stückemarkt 2020/1. The play subsequently premiered in a full production staged by Wilke Weermann at ETA Hoffmann Theater in Bavaria. The play was called an “extraordinary debut piece [...], telling an exciting, atmospherically gripping story in a nonlinear fashion by fluidly interlacing two levels of reality: the choreographed, self-contained rhythms of everyday life with a para-real world of the subconscious” (Suhrkamp). It was additionally complimented for its commentary on the “monstrosity of compulsively lived heteronormativity” (Die Deutsche Bühne).

Zaun, ETA Hoffmann Theater, dir. Wilke Weermann, 2023

Sam’s newest play Double Serpent (2024), in its premiere staging by Ersan Mondtag, was selected for the 2025 Theatertreffen festival, as one of the “10 Most Remarkable Productions” in Germany. Sam’s text was complimented as a “strong commentary on [...] inheritance, and on a society in which violence immediately shows itself as soon as you dare look away” (Greta Götze, Nachkritik). The play was also complimented for its combination of “anguish and pleasure,” its delicacy, and its successful and surprising plot-twist (SWR Kultur). The overall production was called “a work of art, a masterpiece of precision and nuanced imagery [that] one cannot look at without being drawn into it” (Egbert Tholl, SDZ). The Theatertreffen jury notes the work’s nightmarish qualities, as well as its ceremonial and hypnotic nature.

Double Serpent, Staatstheater Wiesbaden, dir. Ersan Mondtag, 2024

Beyond playwriting, Sam’s directorial work for the stage has become recognized for its sense of anarchism, atmospheric qualities, and its portrayal of the “vulnerability of the human psyche” (Die Deutsche Bühne). Recently, Sam was invited to be a Guest Director at the historic Deutsches Theater Berlin, where his commissioned directorial work Wüste (2024) (EN: The Holes) plays in the theater’s repertoire. The “virtuoso chamber piece” was called “strongly played” and “surprising,” and the performance continues to play in the theater’s repertoire (Berliner Morgenpost).

Wüste, Deutsches Theater Berlin, dir. Sam Max, 2024

In New York City, Sam recently made his Off-Broadway directorial debut in 2024 at Playwrights Horizons with Francesca D’Uva’s This Is My Favorite Song, a show about death and grieving that features an experimental mash-up of confessional monologue and musical comedy. The production’s run was extended and earned a “Highbrow-Brilliant” ranking on New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix.

Sam’s plays and performances have been taught at The New School, Pratt, and Stockholm University of the Arts. Sam has been a guest artist or lecturer at Vassar, NYU Tisch - Playwrights Horizons Theater School, and NYU Tisch - Strasberg Institute. He has been invited to read from new work at The Poetry Project, Melville’s Arrowhead, Sarasota Art Museum, The Hermitage, DAGESH Transitions Festival, and more.

Sam is a member of New Dramatists (class of 2029), a recipient of the 2021 Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences, and a recipient of the 2019 Chesley-Bumbalo Playwriting Award. He was an Honorable Mention for the Relentless Award in 2019. In 2018 he was named a member of the Young & Hungry List’s “Top 100 New Hollywood Writers.”

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PRODUCTION STILLS

WÜSTE (2024) | Deutsches Theater Berlin

Premiere: April 19, 2024
Direction and Text: Sam Max
Translation: Maria Milisavljevic
Stage Design and Costumes: Matthias Nebel
Lighting Design: Peter Grahn
Sound Design and Composition: Natalie Szende
Dramaturgy: Karla Mäder

Mit Deutsches Theater Ensemble:
Mathilda Switala
Natali Seelig
Lenz Moretti

Guests:
Liselotte Weber and Lisbeth Gagern

Photos by Jasmin Schüller

THIS IS MY FAVORITE SONG (2024) | Playwrights Horizons

Premiere: November 19, 2024
Written and Performed by Francesca D’Uva
Direction: Sam Max
Production Design: Sam Max
Lighting Design: Zack Lobel
Dramaturgy: Celeste Yim

Photos by Maria Baranova

COOP (2020) | Paradise Factory

Premiere: February 24, 2020
Direction and Text: Sam Max
Stage Design: Emona Stoykova
Costume Design: Ivy Karlsgodt
Lighting Design: Krista Smith
Sound Design and Composition: Michael Costagliola
Dramaturgy: Mia Hull

Cast: (in order of appearance)
Lío Mehiel
Don Meehan
Elizabeth Kenny
Sam Breslin Wright
Mateo Correa
Brie Archer

Photos by Maria Baranova

TWIN SIZE BEDS (2019) | Under the Radar Festival

Premiere: January 6, 2019
Written and Performed by Sam Max
Co-Directed with Caitlin O’Connell
Music by Sam Max and Avery Leigh Draut
Stage Design: Sam Max
Costume Design: Ivy Karlsgodt
Lighting Design: Krista Smith
Sound Design: Michael Costagliola
Dramaturgy: Mia Hull

Cast:
Sam Max
Avery Leigh Draut
Sophie Sagan-Gutherz
Braden Wilkerson
Brie Archer

Band:
Zack Milster
Bernardo Ochoa
Mikiya Ito

Photos by Maria Baranova

PUBLICATIONS

Coop (Mandarin trans.):
One-Way Street Journal, Beijing

Double Serpent (German trans.):
Suhrkamp Theater Verlag, Forthcoming, Spring 2025
Available for pre-order.

CONTACT

UNTITLED
Tracy Kopulsky, Manager
TKopulsky@untitledent.com

CAA
Marissa Frobes, Film Agent
Marissa.Frobes@caa.com

Albert Lee, Motion Picture Literary Agent
Albert.Lee@caa.com

Arya Zanganeh, Talent
arya.zanganeh@caa.com

Sam Barickman, Theater Agent
Sam.Barickman@caa.com

SUHRKAMP
Anna-Katharina Müller, Editor
Mueller@suhrkamp.de