Spenser is an award-winning (now L.A.-based) theatre director, playwright, and filmmaker whose work walks the tightrope between social commentary and popcorn entertainment, provoking conversations around the working class, forgotten corners of our complicated history, and characters who find themselves pushed to the margins.
Most recently, he made his West Coast directing debut with Philip Dawkins’ Le Switch, in an “ingeniously-staged” (Stage Scene LA) production that received critical raves across the board and made Stage Raw’s Top 10 list for the Fall season.
But before that, Spenser spent nearly fifteen years creating acclaimed work in Chicago’s legendary theatre scene, where he received the Michael Maggio Directing Fellowship from The Goodman Theatre. During his time with the organization, he helmed Stateville Voices, associate directed a broadcast of Adam Rapp’s The Sound Inside, and worked alongside Tony-winning director Robert Falls on the World Premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s Swing State, which transferred Off-Broadway, was nominated for the Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle Awards, and is now on Audible.
A founding ensemble member of the acclaimed Broken Nose Theatre, Spenser directed the Midwest premiere of Michael Perlman’s At The Table. This four-star production received four
Jeff Awards including Best Production and Best Director, was named “One of the Year’s Best” by Chicago Tribune, Newcity Stage, and Time Out Chicago, and was hailed as “One of the Best Shows of the Decade” by the late great critic Kris Vire. It would go on to be remounted and extended three times. Other notable productions include the U.S. premieres of Beth Steel’s Labyrinth (“superbly directed,” Picture This Post) and Jessica Swale’s Blue Stockings (“incendiary never-mind-reading-this-get-a-ticket-now-caliber production,” Chicago Reader), as well the World premieres of Shannon O’Neill’s May the Road Rise Up and The Kelly Girls, the latter of which won the Jeff Award for Best New Play. He was also co-creator of Bechdel Fest, an annual event featuring hot-off-the-press new works that all pass the now-infamous criteria created by cartoonist Alison Bechdel.
During the pandemic, Spenser embraced the virtual medium. Commissioned by Interrobang Theatre Project, his digital play The Spin was declared “wickedly satirical” by the Chicago Tribune, who said it “deserves to be remembered [as] a prima-facie example of off-Loop formative invention,” while the Chicago Reader called it “crackling with snarky and sinister wit” and Rescripted named it “searingly relevant and disturbingly hilarious.” He would direct a second production with Street Corner Arts in Austin, Texas; that iteration went on to receive three B. Iden Payne Awards including Best Director.
As a writer, his second play Plainclothes received the M. Elizabeth Osborn Award from the American Theatre Critics Association, who also named it a finalist for the Harold & Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award. At this moment, Spenser is under his second commission with South Coast Repertory. His first, the Elizabeth George Commission, led to the writing of A Million Tiny Pieces, a fast-flying ensemble comedy which has since been developed at both the Pacific Playwrights Festival and the Colorado New Play Festival. In addition to his play Merge and audio drama Primer (which has since been adapted for the stage), he is also the Book Writer on Ghost Army: A New Musical, in collaboration with songwriters Sarah Mangum and Danny Wirick.
As a filmmaker and screenwriter, his television pilot Knox County Nights was a Finalist at the Austin Film Festival and is currently under development with A+E Studios. His debut short film, I’m Pretty Sure My Therapist Thinks I’m a Bad Actor, played at festivals across the country, winning Best Writing in a Comedy at the Oscar-qualifying Micheaux Film Festival and Best Comedy Short at Atlanta’s FunnyAF Festival.
He has taught and guest lectured at the National Society of Arts and Letters, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the Acting Studio Chicago, the New Plays From the Heartland festival, and has written dozens of monologues for The Vagabond School’s on-camera intensive.
He is proud to be represented by both William Morris Endeavor + Heroes and Villains Entertainment.