The Science of Leaving Omaha
Washington University , 2021
Palm Beach Dramaworks , 2023
"The Science of Leaving Omaha depicts a world in which the traditional vision of the American Dream no longer exists as a viable possibility in a huge swath of 20-somethings and their siblings." - Palm Beach Post
With
Geva Theater, 2019
Perseverance Theater, 2021
PlayPenn. Me & Gina Pisasale, 2018
“With” is an incredibly sweet, funny play that uses a morbid starting point as both a hook and a microscope with which to examine the ways relationships shape human lives. - Juneau Empire
Evie’s Waltz
The tensions beneath a casual family barbecue rise by gripping degrees in Carter W. Lewis’ new play, Evie’s Waltz. - San Francisco Chronicle.
Geva Theatre, 2009
Evie’s Waltz is a genuine thriller.
– Columbus Dispatch
The Magic Theatre in San Francisco, 2008
The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, 2008
The Storytelling Ability of a Boy
Occasionally, a play comes along that combines daring structure with compelling characters, gorgeous language, wit, and a riveting story. The Storytelling Ability of a Boy is such a play. – Palm Beach Daily News
Florida Stage, 2009
I’m sitting in the black box theater at Center Rep watching the grandchildren, or maybe great-grandchildren, of J.D. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield go through their painful dance. - Mercury News
Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, 2007
Florida Stage, 2008
Ordinary Nation
At a time when morality and ethics seem to be taking a back seat to expediency, it’s refreshing to hear someone ask why. - Riverfront Times
It’s full of heart – enlivened by big rhythms and ideas. There are moments in Ordinary Nation where you can read the entire national plight on a character’s face. – Florida New Times
It’s like “I Love Lucy” meets “The Big Lebowski”. - The Denver Post
Otterbein University, 2007
While We Were Bowling
Carter W. Lewis’ magnificent script takes a curved look at one suburban family in 1957, contrasting the televised ideal to the reality on stage with a poignant and tender gaze. - Williamstown Arts & Culture
Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, 2005
Studio Arena Theatre, 2004
Women Who Steal
The real beauty is the unlikely joy in Mr. Lewis’s worldview, which can be summarized as: Life is absolutely the worst, but let’s do our best to have a good time anyway. At two minutes after midnight, when Karen realizes her milestone birthday has arrived, Peggy tells her: “You’re 40 now. There’s absolutely no reason ever to be sober again.” – New York Times
Geva Theater, 2008
Put down those remotes people - you’ve got to go see this! – Austin Chronicle
Florida Stage, 2007
The Cha Cha of a Camel Spider
Florida Stage, 2011
“Wow-manship” neatly describes Carter W. Lewis’ latest play – The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider -- currently weaving its spell at its Florida Stage premiere. - ENV Magazine
She calls herself the Iambic Pen-terminator, and her words regularly spill into impromptu, half-completed slam-poetry riffs, which we soon realize is her way of dealing with her father’s death…and the crumbling world around her. – Palm Beach Times
Ostensibly a darkly comic rant about America’s use of mercenary private armies, it becomes instead, a surreal exercise in the transporting power of verbal poetry. - The Palm Beach Post.
Florida Stage Panel; Israel Horvitz, Chris Demos Brown, (Me), Andrew Rosendorf & Deborah Zoe Laufer.
The Americans Across the Street
Harlequin Theatre, 2012
Derek may have won a Pulitzer for the eloquence of his prose, but he’ll never win a prize for his social skills. His scotch-fueled rants at neighbors are interrupted when his estranged sister arrives with her perplexing daughter in tow. A year later, there are cupcakes, a cannon, a dead woman, and an all-encompassing moon. A smart comedy for those who’d like to be sentimental, but just can’t hack it. - Democrat & Chronicle
Golf with Alan Shepard
Seven Angles Theatre, 2005
Berkshire Theatre, 1994
Falcon Theatre, 2004
LA Theatreworks, 1992
If the two main protagonists from Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” were transported to a suburban golf course in Ohio and you added two more characters just like them, they could very well be the quartet of life-challenged curmudgeons that populate Carter W. Lewis’ “Golf With Alan Shepard.” - Variety
Lewis’ four old characters, friends and duffers for years, are such funny curmudgeons their putdowns and retorts makes this boys’ day out quite fun. New-Times
The Hummingbird Wars
With everyone’s foibles out on the table, it is easy to find yourself quickly drawn in to this compelling and relatable story. The pitch-perfect play had audience members laughing, gasping, and holding their breath in anticipation. – The Sonoma Voice.
Sonoma State College, 2015
For more than two decades, playwright Carter W. Lewis has been taking the social temperature of the nation, measuring the zeitgeist, and shaping his observations into entertaining, theatrical statements. - Palm Beach Post
Theater at the Arts Garage, 2014
The world premiere is hysterically funny…It starts with a broken water pipe and ends with the house literally breaking apart from bulldozers, the daughter holed up in a barricade of cardboard boxes mistakenly sent from a dish network company, her lover taking an assault rifle outside to kill the guy who has hacked into every cyber-related aspect of their lives, the wife convinced that she is literally disappearing out of ineffectiveness, and the father flashing back to a nightmarish episode in Afghanistan. - Palm Beach Weekly.
Soft Click of a Switch
Lewis’ lean, sardonic script keeps you off-balance and invested. – Seattle Times
During my tenure as Playwright-in-Residence at Washington University the plays below were generously commissioned and wonderfully produced by The Performing Arts Department.
Unlucky Nick, 2016
American Storm, 2002
Kid Peculiar, 2004
The Wash U Plays
The Science of Leaving Omaha, 2021
Civil Disobedience, 2007
Two strangers teetering on the edge of violence dubbed “The Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the Streets” at London’s Royal Court Theatre meet and figure out, using a library book, how to build bombs out of air conditioning parts. - Royal Court Theater, London
MAP Theatre, 2013
Soft Click of a Switch is a story ahead of its time, written in the days before the term Domestic Terrorist became common vernacular. Soft Click of a Switch is an exploration of the disaffected and disenfranchised, presenting its characters in three dimensions rather than as societal ogres shaped by media-framed sound bites. - Broadway World
Camden & Lilly, 2013