Playwriting alum Sam Grabiner ‘21 won the 2024 Stage Debut Award for his play Boys on the Verge of Tears. The Stage, Britain’s premier theatre publication, has annually recognized the most promising debuts in the region since 2017.
The play is set in a men’s public toilet in London. Within the confines of the restroom, audiences follow a small cast of men as they grow from children into adults and are transformed by the pressures of masculinity. Bodily fluids are a central prop: on Instagram, Grabiner promoted the show with backstage shots of bags filled with fake blood, vomit, and pee.
Boys on the Verge of Tears debuted in April at Soho Theatre in London. Grabiner’s play was produced and staged by the theater as a prize for winning their Verity Bargate Award in 2022.
Sam Grabiner is the Writer-in-Residence at The National Theatre Studio in London. Last year, Manhattan Theatre Club awarded him a Sloan Playwriting Commission to develop a new script set in a coastal English town afflicted by climate change. He is a MacDowell Fellow and a graduate of the clown school L'ecole Philippe Gaulier. Grabiner is currently developing his film debut with 2AM/BBC Films.
