Theatre Student D.A. Mindell ’25 makes his Off-Broadway Playwriting Debut

By
Ellice Lueders
January 24, 2025

Playwriting student D.A. Mindell is making his Off-Broadway debut with the play On the Evolutionary Function of Shame.

The play follows twins Adam and Eve during Adam’s pregnancy. Eve, a pioneering scientist, offers Adam, a transgender man, neonatal care at her cutting-edge firm. Her scientific intervention leads to an explosive discovery.

On the Evolutionary Function of Shame will debut at The Pershing Square Signature Center from February 12 to March 9, 2025. Second Stage Theatre is staging the play, with support from the National Endowment of the Arts. Tickets are available here.

On the Evolutionary Function of Shame is the centerpiece premiere of Second Stage’s Next Stage Festival 2025. Last year, the play was featured at the festival as one of the three one-night-only readings in the Judith Champion Reading Series.

D.A. Mindell is an MFA candidate in playwriting at Columbia School of the Arts. His work has been featured at the Next Stage Festival at Second Stage and the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Plays Festival. His play Harold and Babs was commissioned and staged by the Fair Play Initiative at Florida Atlantic University.