Paul Lucas

Lucas performed and worked in several theatrical offices in New York City before joining Paul Szilard Productions, where he worked booking the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for many years. While still working with Szilard, he produced several plays off-Broadway, including Messages for Gary" which featured John Epperson (Lypsinka) and Alex McCord, who later went on to become an original cast member of The Real Housewives of New York City". TimeSlips, written by McArthur Fellow Anne Basting. Nosferatu, starring Klaus Kinski’s son Nikolai Kinski, and Son of Drakula, written and performed by OBIE Award winning actor/writer/director David Drake.

After a fellowship in Arts Administration at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lucas became the Director of Press and Marketing for Williamstown Theatre Festival before founding Paul Lucas Productions, his own theatrical Producing, Management and Touring organization specializing in producing work internationally. He soon became a fixture at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (with his associate, Gail Winar), winning a Herald Angel Award (as well as an Argus Angel Award and Latest 7 Award) for The Be(A)st of Taylor Mac, written and performed by Taylor Mac and directed by David Drake, and a Fringe First Award for What I Heard About Iraq. Other notable productions under Lucas’s producing umbrella have included the Helen Hayes Award winning Woody Sez: The Words, Music & Spirit of Woody Guthrie, Miss Coco Peru, and the Lucille Lortel Award winning DAI (enough), written and performed by Iris Bahr.

In 2012, Lucas turned his attention to creating his own work. He spent several years conducting interviews with men and women of transgender experience and, after workshop productions at Rutgers University and at the Lyric Theater in Bridport (UK) and the Actors Center (London). He created Trans Scripts, Part I: The Women with the guidance of his dramaturge, Morgan Jenness, and produced the play at the Pleasance Theater during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2015 under the direction of Linda Ames Key.

Trans Scripts received over 20 four and five star reviews and garnered a Fringe First Award, a High Commendation from Amnesty International for Freedom of Expression, as well as nominations for the Best of Edinburgh Award, the Holden Street Theaters Award and the Feminist Fest Award.

American Repertory Theater at Harvard University sponsored a one night reading of the script, directed by Jo Bonney, in November 2015 that sold out in three hours, bringing the play back for a full production on its main stage (again directed by Bonney) in 2017. This production was also extremely well-reviewed by the press.

The National Endowment for the Arts supported this production with a $50,000 New Works Grant, and Opening Night of the play was introduced by Eve Ensler (creator of The Vagina Monologues), whose VDAY Foundation also awarded the original production with a $10,000 grant, and who facilitated the production at the A.R.T.

Cast members of Trans Scripts, Part I: The Women have included Calpernia Addams, Eden Lane, Bianca Leigh, Rebecca Root, and Jack Wetherall.

Lucas is currently at work on the sequel Trans Scripts, Part II: The Men.

• Fringe First Award, Trans Scripts

• Argus Angel Award, Woody Sez

Lucas was associated with When Aunt Daphne Went Nude in 2004, Floating in 2007 A Conversation With Edith Head in 2007, Bouffon Glass Menajoree in 2008, The 20th Century Abridged Concert of the History of Popular Music in 2013, and Ghost the Musical in 2014.