Playwright Interview
Get to know...
Aly Kantor,
author of
TRACKS
Name: Aly Kantor
Pronouns: she/her
Aly Kantor is a playwright and performer from Long Island, New York, and a proud member of The Dramatists Guild. Her award-winning, internationally-produced work is boldly femme-forward, often queer-affirming, and delightfully subversive.
To date, Aly’s work has been staged in half of the United States, and she’s actively working on the other half! She also has several plays and monologues in print through Smith & Kraus and Applause Books. Aly’s play Blowhole was a 2025 semifinalist for the Blue Ink Award and a finalist for the Kaplan Competition, and her play Murdering Medea won the 2024 Telling Stories Prize. In 2026, she will be a member of the IATI Cimientos cohort in NYC. She is also a Creative Associate with EastLine Theatre, where many of her full-length plays have begun their artistic journeys. Aly’s stories, whether radical myth adaptations or ghostly thrillers, spark conversation and linger long after the curtain falls.To learn more about Aly’s work, visit www.alykantor.com, or find her on NPX.
Q&A With
Aly Kantor
We asked Aly a few questions about her show—TRACKS—her work as a writer, and her history. Check out the show + meet our amazing cast at our fourth annual First Flight Festival, opening Thursday June 25!
Can you share a quick teaser for your show? What's it about?
Hadley is approaching the end of a five-year study focused on a new treatment for major depression, and she's come a long way from the person she was when the trial began. When a familiar face from her past enters the exam room, she's forced to contend with the true costs of living with a mental illness under late capitalism. What does it cost to be altruistic, and what if the price is too high?
Where are you from?
Long Island, NY
When did you start writing?
Childhood! I was the poet laureate of my elementary school. I used to read an original poem over the school intercom every morning! (I’m sure it was very annoying)
Is there one thing or theme that keeps coming up in your work?
My plays tend to be about bodies and embodiment, including consumption (and being consumed), consent, and autonomy. I’m also interested in the ways in which those things are complicated by technology, for better or for worse.
What writing do you like to read or watch? Any particular influences on your work (or recommendations for other emerging artists)?
I love a weird play, especially an unapologetic genre play - give me sci-fi on stage any day of the week! Some of my favorite published playwrights are Alistair McDowall (Favorites: X and Pamona), Anna Ouyang Moench (Favorites: Sin Eaters and Mothers), and Kate Hamill (Favorites: her comedic literary adaptations).
What was the first play you ever saw, or best play that you’ve ever seen?
I honestly don’t remember the first play I ever saw, which is sad! And “best” is so subjective, but a production that’s still stuck in my head is INTAR’s production of Georgina Escobar’s “Then They Forgot About the Rest.”
Anything to promote? What are you working on now?
This year, I’m part of the Cimientos Festival at IATI Theatre in NYC! You can come and see a reading of my play, ‘They have become the forest,’ on the IATI mainstage on June 13th at 3:00 pm! It’s a queer campfire play - a radical retelling of two Greek myths.