Paul William Kruse tells Queer love stories. As a playwright and media artist from Western Wisconsin, his work flows from his Catholic roots and ever-evolving experience of family. Paul often writes collaboratively, drawing from his years of experience as a videographer and documentarian. He is a 2023–2025 Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and a cohort member of Audible’s third Emerging Playwrights Fund. His audio play Once Removed was an official selection at the 2022 Tribeca Festival. Paul’s plays have been produced by Adjusted Realists in Brooklyn, NY; Quantum Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA; the Vortex Theater in Austin, TX; and in high schools around the country. Paul has developed work at The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Yaddo, the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, and Middlebury College. Paul completed his MFA at UT Austin in 2020, where he was a fellow with the Michener Center for Writers. From 2012–2022, Paul was resident playwright with Pittsburgh’s Hatch Arts Collective, which he co-founded with Adil Mansoor and Nicole Shero.

updates

2023–2025—Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis
Jerome Fellow Paul William Kruse is also looking for ways that this opportunity will allow him to deepen relationships: “This fellowship is permission to deepen my relationship with the Midwest, the part of the country that made me. It’s a chance to continue to be present with my family of origin and to make lasting new relationships here.”

Spring 2023—Eelpout at the Fresh Fruit Festival in New York City
Directed by Rachel Wolther and produced by Sarah Todes / Neon Caviar, Eelpout is a fast-paced, surreal farce, where friends are lovers, fish can talk, and life’s mysteries beckon from the bottom of a frozen lake.

Summer 2022—Once Removed official selection Tribeca Festival
The audio production of Once Removed, produced by Hatch Arts Collective under the direction of Adil Mansoor with sound design, editing, and original music by Aaron Landgraf. It is an official selection in the Audio Storytelling category of Tribeca Festival 2022.

Spring 2022—Daddies from Audible Emerging Playwrights Fund
Directed by Adil Mansoor, Daddies is available now on Audible!
Joseph is having a comically rough year. His job sucks, his relationship ended, he’s plagued by prank phone calls, and he nearly lost his father to the virus. When his best friend asks him to donate his sperm so that she can start a family, Joseph just can’t understand why anyone would bring a child into this calamitous world. The only bright spot is an intriguing new online relationship with an attractive internet “daddy” that has him rethinking his isolation until a series of revelations have him facing even bigger decisions about his future.