Raised in Brooklyn, Tom Lysaght graduated from Harvard University and has written some 30 plays in both English and Spanish — published by Samuel French, and produced from villages in the Andes to Off-Broadway (Nobody Don't Like Yogi, starring Emmy Award-winning actor Ben Gazzara as Yogi Berra, toured nationally and was inducted into the permanent collection of the Billy Rose Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center). Lysaght was founding director and resident playwright of El Teatro de Pan y Paz in rural Peru, where he wrote “circus drama” plays about economic and health challenges — utilizing masks, stilts, and 15-foot high puppets — for open-air performances. As manager of Radio Bahá’í of Lake Titicaca, he developed radio scripts that complemented these live performances. After the tsunami of 2004, he made three trips to the villages of southern India to help launch similar community development theater. He has also made seven trips to South Africa.
A chapter from Lysaght's memoir, Till Your Father Gets Home, can be read on his web site above. His short non-fiction has been anthologized by George Ronald, Ltd. and Kalimat Press. In 2017, One Voice Press published his "Twin Witnesses" a 35-page excerpt from his historical novel about the violent struggle for the Persian throne in 1848. Published in 2019, "Persian Passion" portrays how a little-known messianic movement, declaring the emancipation of women, sweeps Iran and sets in motion the 1848 "Year of Revolution" in Europe. "It evokes the spiritual passion and political complexity of mid-nineteenth century Persia in beautiful prose," writes Rainn Wilson (of "The Office"). "I can’t recommend it more highly.” Rainn Wilson's interview with Tom about his historical novel as well as his theater work can be heard on the following link:
He has received writing fellowships from MacDowell, the Edward Albee Foundation, Scotland’s Hawthornden Castle, the Israeli Center for the Arts, the Millay Colony, Waves of Three Seas in Rhodes, Omi International, Byrdcliffe, and the Montalvo Center. He holds an M.F.A. in fiction and playwriting from the University of Montana.
