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 will mark their Off-Broadway debut in the spring at Atlantic Theater Company in association with Ensemble Studio Theatre. The world premiere was co-produced by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Alliance Theatre, and Geffen Playhouse, with a second production was presented at Berkeley Rep this fall.

Jake is half of American Sing-Song, a musical-theatre duo with playwright Nadja Leonhard-Hooper. Together as A.S.S., they create filthy-yet-heartfelt hour-long comedic musicals. Their latest, HOLE!, opened to rave reviews at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 2024, A.S.S. presented GERALDINE! at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest and HOLE! at both Ensemble Studio Theatre and Caveat.

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 won Best New Play at the 2025 Henry Awards. They are a 2024 Page 73 Writers Group member and 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 (Experimental Theatre Wing/New Studio on Broadway).

Plays in development include How to Draw a Triangle (Manhattan Theatre Club, The Recovery Project @ Florida Studio Theatre, NYSAF); Spin (Juilliard, LAByrinth Theatre Company); Salutations, I’m Creative Dave (Page 73); Trip Around the Sun (South Coast Rep, South Carolina New Play Festival); Sweet Jack (Acting Company); Family Weekend; and a hitherto untitled Denver Airport musical (Denver Center).

A longtime birthday-party clown throughout New York, Jake is developing CLOWNTOWN, a comedy series about their clowning career. They are also adapting How to Draw a Triangle into a coming-of-age film about emerging queerness and occupational therapy.

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.