Meet The Playwrights of NY SummerFest: Derek Nicoletto Asks You to Brunch in Babel 

Derek Nicoletto

Derek Nicoletto is an actor, writer, singer/songwriter, and director. He makes his mark as a playwright this September with his short play, Brunch in Babel, as part of the New York Theatre Festival.  He is currently also writing a full-length play, From Tent to Treehouse, a musical, Telescope, and a film, “Lift.” As in Brunch in Babel, Derek always relies on his love for movement, action, and visuals in his storytelling.  In all his writing, Derek aims to create a musicality in the text.

In the music world, Derek has penned scores of pop/rock lyrics and songs for his own bands, other artists, and commercial projects.  Nicoletto has become a well-known voice in the independent music scene and a voting member of the Grammy Awards.  He toured the world with his visual art-meets-music project, Just Panic and Get It Over With, which began in a Soho gallery and ended a year later in Bari, Italy. Derek hosted several Rock Specials for MTV LOGO, at music festivals like Sirenfest, Summerfest, and South by Southwest. Derek Nicoletto’s song “Hell in Gramercy” earned the honor of “Best Rock Song” in the 2016 Out Music Awards.

This year, Derek has acted in a film in Paris, on stage in the Bronx and as an actor at the International Screenwriter’s Association’s event at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.  He won “Best Actor in an Indie Film” for his work in the short film “Paternal Instinct” in the 2018 New York Film Awards. Derek has trained at Atlantic Acting School, The Studio, UCB, Players Workshop of Second City, UCLA (screenwriting) and Indiana University and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association. Derek operates through his company, 7 Trick Pony Productions, a theatrical, film and music production company that has produced many of the above projects, including “Brunch in Babel” at the New York Theatre Festival on September 6, 7 and 9th at the Hudson Guild Theater.  Derek lives in Harlem with his husband, his ten-year-old son and a geriatric cat named Wilson.

Brunch in Babel is a short drama that addresses the lack of communication in today’s supposedly evolved society.  Set in a New York City diner, the patrons, smothering in their own egos, suffer from the inability to listen, and thus, to be heard. Finally, a God-like figure intervenes, realizing that an ancient decision has gone too far.  This figure acts in spectacular fashion to correct the course of history and rewire the patrons’ souls.