The Theatre School > About > Faculty & Staff > Theatre Studies > Carlos Murillo

Carlos Murillo

  • cmurill2@depaul.edu
  • Chair of Theatre Studies, Head of Playwriting
  • ​​

  • Theatre Studies
  • 773-325-4982

Carlos Murillo is an internationally produced playwright, director and educator. His plays include I Come from Arizona, Killing of a Gentleman Defender, Augusta and Noble, The Javier Plays (a trilogy that includes A Thick Description of Harry Smith, Your Name Will Follow You Home, and Diagram of a Paper Airplane), Mayday Mayday Tuesday, dark play or stories for boys, Unfinished American Highwayscape #9 & 32 (Or the Broken Tractor Graveyard), Mimesophobia (Or Before and After), A Human Interest Story (Or the Gory Details and All), Offspring of the Cold War, The Patron Saint of the Nameless Dead, Schadenfreude, Near Death Experiences with Leni Riefenstahl, Never Whistle While You're Pissing and SubterraneansHis plays have been produced widely throughout the U.S. and Europe including Theatre Excelsior in Bucharest, Romania, The Children’s Theatre of Minneapolis, the Vigshinhaz in Budapest, Hungary, the Edinburgh Fringe, the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville, the NYC Summer Play Festival, En Garde Arts, Soho Rep, The Hangar Theatre Lab, Theatre @ Boston Court, Circle X, Son of Semele, Actors Express, Walkabout Theatre, Collaboraction, Adventure Stage, Red Eye in Minneapolis, and elsewhere.

His work has been developed at The Public, NY Theatre Workshop, Disney Live Entertainment, The Goodman, Steppenwolf, South Coast Rep, Portland Center Stage, Madison Rep, the Sundance Institute, The Playwrights' Center, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Chautauqua Conservatory, Annex Theatre, UC Santa Barbara, and others.

His work has been published by 53rd State Press, Dramatic Publishing, Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Smith & Kraus, and Theatre Forum International Theatre Journal (UCSD Department of Theatre and Dance). dark play or stories for boys appeared in New Playwrights: Best New Plays of 2007 (Smith & Kraus).  American Theatre magazine called his published trilogy, The Javier Plays  “an absolutely extraordinary achievement.” He is also a contributor to BOMB magazine.

From 2007-2014, Carlos was a resident playwright at New Dramatists. Carlos was the recipient of a 2015 Doris Duke Impact Award for his work in theatre. He also received a 2016 Mellon Foundation National Playwright Residency Program fellowship. Other awards include: a Jerome Fellowship at The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, grants from the Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund, the Minnesota State Arts Board, two National Latino Playwriting Awards from Arizona Theatre Company, and an Otis Guernsey Award from the William Inge Theatre Festival. He has received commissions from Oakland Theatre Project, Oregon Shakespeare Festival American Revolutions, The Goodman, The Children's Theatre of Minneapolis, Steppenwolf, Berkeley Rep, The Public Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, South Coast Rep, En Garde Arts, Disney Live Entertainment and Transylvania University.​

As a director, Carlos staged the Chicago premiere of Julia Cho's Durango at Silk Road, and Stage Left's production of Maria Irene Fornes' What of the Night?  He has staged productions and workshops of his own work in New York , Chicago and Minneapolis. He has also staged plays at The Walker Arts Center/Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, The Public Theatre New Work Now! Festival, and others.

For The Theatre School, productions he has directed include: Killing of a Gentleman Defender, Honey Girls, Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind, Jason Grote's 1001, Nilo Cruz's A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, David Edgar's Pentecost, ​ the world premiere of Ike Holter's Good Worker, and numerous others.  

He has been a guest artist at The Kennedy Center Summer Playwriting Intensive, the University of Iowa, Playwrights Workshop, Arizona State University, Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, UVA Wise and others. 

Carlos serves on the Board of Directors of MacDowell, the oldest artist in residence program in the United States. 

Visit his website: www.carlosmurillo.net.​​

​​