The Charioteer

a reading of a new play by Dan Giles

directed by Matt Dickson

featuring Mia Wurgaft and John Blake

Thursday May 14, 2026 at 7PM

Growing up, Charly’s older brother was her protector and role model, but they’ve barely spoken since he went away to college. When she tags along to a bewildering night out with his new friends, she discovers that Owen is deep into a political transformation that she doesn’t understand. Ten years later, he needs her help. But first, she needs answers. The Charioteer follows a brother and sister on the brink of catastrophe, learning how to fight with—and for—the people they love.

*co-produced by the cell (Founding Artistic Director Nancy Manocherian, Aristic Director Kira Simring) and Amanda + James

Dan Giles (Playwright) (he/him) is a Brooklyn-based playwright and screenwriter from Massachusetts. He is a recent alumnus of The Juilliard School’s playwriting fellowship, the Filmmakers’ Workshop at New York Stage & Film, and Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theatre. His plays include Mike Pence Sex Dream (Ensemble Studio Theatre, First Floor Theater), 1969: The Second Man (Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop), How You Kiss Me Is Not How I Like To Be Kissed (Haven Theatre), and Breeders (New Light Theater Project, Great Plains Theatre Commons). He’s the recipient of a NYSCA Support for Artists grant, the Clifford Odets Ensemble Commission from Lee Strasberg/NYU, an Alfred P. Sloan Screenwriting Award, the New Light New Voices Award, and the American College Theater Festival’s Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting. He is a graduate of Harvard College (AB in English) and Carnegie Mellon School of Drama (MFA).

Matt Dickson (Director) Recent: Garside’s Career (Mint Theater, Drama Desk nomination), Where Did We Sit on the Bus? by Brian Quijada (Steppenwolf), The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh (Playmakers Repertory Company, Ground Floor), The Charioteer by Dan Giles (Juilliard), Step Mom, Step Mom, Step Mom by Jahna Ferron-Smith, (InterACT), Smart by Mary Elizabeth Hamilton (Ensemble Studio Theatre). As an actor he has appeared on Broadway in War Horse, The Coast of Utopia (Lincoln Center Theater). He is a Drama League Fellow, a Jonathan Alper Directing Fellow (Manhattan Theatre Club), member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and SDC. B.F.A. from Boston University. mattjdickson.com