Jake Brasch
Jake Brasch (he/they) is a queer, sober, Jewish clown from Colorado and a recent graduate of the Playwriting Program at The Juilliard School. Their play The Reservoir marked their Off-Broadway debut at Atlantic Theater Company, in association with Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Project. The world premiere was co-produced by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Alliance Theatre, and Geffen Playhouse, with another production presented at Berkeley Rep last fall.
Jake is half of American Sing-Song, a musical-theatre duo with playwright Nadja Leonhard-Hooper. Together as A.S.S., they create and perform filthy-yet-heartfelt comedic musicals. Their latest, HOLE!, opened to rave reviews at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and is set to make its London premiere at Soho Theatre and its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons in 2026. In 2024, A.S.S. presented GERALDINE! at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest. Their new musical HOMO ERECTUS has been developed by The Vineyard Theatre and Ars Nova.
Jake is the recipient of Vineyard Theatre’s 2025 Paula Vogel Award, the Kennedy Center’s 2024 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, and the inaugural Terrence McNally Recovery Commission. The Reservoir was nominated for Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Lortel awards, and won Best New Play at both the 2025 Henry Awards and the 2025 Suzi Bass Awards. They are a 2024 Page 73 Writers Group member, a 2023–24 Alliance/Kendeda Finalist, and a proud graduate of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood. Jake holds commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, The Acting Company, Denver Center, and the EST/Sloan Project. They earned a BFA from NYU Tisch, where they trained at the Experimental Theatre Wing and New Studio on Broadway.
Plays in development include How to Draw a Triangle at Manhattan Theatre Club, The Recovery Project @ Florida Studio Theatre, and NYSAF; Spin at Juilliard and LAByrinth Theatre Company; Salutations, I’m Creative Dave at Page 73; Trip Around the Sun at South Coast Rep and South Carolina New Play Festival; Sweet Jack at The Acting Company; Family Weekend at the O’Neill Theatre Center and Alley Theatre; and a hitherto-untitled Denver Airport musical at Denver Center.
A longtime birthday-party clown throughout New York, Jake is developing CLOWNTOWN, a comedy series about their clowning career.
A pianist and composer, Jake has written music and lyrics for several films, musicals, plays, and podcasts, and is developing a Grotowski-based physical dramaturgy pedagogy for playwrights.
They have three brothers, 24 pairs of glasses, and live in Brooklyn with Marvin, their sourdough starter, and their brilliant husband, Tyler.
