Ean Miles Kessler is a playwright, theater educator, storyteller, and horse trainer. His jobs have run the gamut: he’s processed poultry, worked briefly at Fedex loading trucks, bartended in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and is currently a ranch hand in Montana, where he gentles mustangs. A Rutgers, BFA Acting graduate, Ean studied at Shakespeare’s Globe in England under Tony nominated director Tim Carroll. While at the Globe, Ean performed the title role in Hamlet on the Globe Stage. Off-Broadway Playwriting credits: Brotherly Love; King’s River; The Bcam; Beautiful Hands. Publications: Brotherly Love (“Shorter, Faster, Funnier,” by Vintage Books); Funny Valentine (“Plays for Two,” by Vintage Books). Ean is a graduate of the Playwriting Development Program in Miami, FL (class of 2020), headed by Sheri Wilner.
His play Beautiful Hands premiered at The Lion Theatre, on Theater Row in Manhattan, and was a semi-finalist in the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival (2011). Ean’s play Devil Lay Me Down received its world premiere in Manhattan at Theater for the New City. Ean’s work has been workshopped and developed by Naked Angels Theater Company, 1st Monday Reading Series Chicago Dramatists’ Saturday Series, and The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, among other institutions. Frankie Moon’s Long Gone was named as a finalist for the 2020 Carlo Annoni Prize in Italy, and a semi-finalist for Landing Theatre Company’s 2021 New American Voices Playwriting Festival. He was commissioned by Grace Arts in Miami to write Romeo y Julieta - La Tormenta, a retelling of Romeo & Juliet and The Tempest, written entirely in iambic pentameter.
As a theater educator, Ean was the Department Head of Theater at Conchita Espinosa Academy, in Miami Florida, during which time he was the founding Artistic Director of Blessed Unrest, CEA’s resident youth Shakespeare company. He was the Network and Education Director at Chicago Dramatists, where he currently teaches online. Over the course of his career, Ean has taught acting, theater, Shakespeare, and playwriting to students ranging from grade school to the post college level. Currently, Ean is a horse trainer and ranch hand in Montana, where he works hands-on with wild horses. He has been a member of the New York, Miami, and Chicago chapters of Naked Angels Theater Company, and has been a proud Dramatist Guild Member since 2012. Currently, Ean is working on his debut novel.