Work
HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF
Named one of The New York Times’ Best Theatre of 2023
“Hilarious and unsettling” — Vulture
“Thrillingly kinetic and grounded in truth” — Chicago Tribune
Winner of the Yale Drama Series Prize
I wish girls fought more— beat the shit out of each other for fun.
In a DIY self-defense class, college students learn to use their bodies as weapons. The play explores self-defense as a channel for rage, anxiety, confusion, trauma and desire.
Playwright and Co-Director (with Rachel Chavkin and Steph Paul)
New York Theatre Workshop (2023)
Victory Gardens Theatre (2020)
Humana Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville (2019)
TWITCH
I need glasses or an exorcism.
When Pam’s son vanishes, she searches for him through phone calls, memories, strangers, psychics, missing-persons groups, animal shelters, and the TV. As the town begins to vanish around her, Pam’s search becomes a surreal reckoning with motherhood, grief, delusion, and the desperate hope that someone lost might still come home.
Written by Liliana Padilla
Directed by Jack Ferver
Produced by George Strus | Breaking the Binary
Starring Joslyn DeFreece
Edinburgh Fringe (2026)
Williamstown Theatre Festival (2023)
Breaking the Binary (2022)
COCKROACH
“The queer rom-com we need right now.” — HuffPost
A late-night hookup meant to fund top surgery begins to unravel, slipping into something surreal. Cockroach moves between intimacy, humor, and absurdity, exploring desire, vulnerability, and the unstable conditions of connection.
Co-Director and Producer
British Film Institute Flare Film Festival (2025)
New Orleans Film Festival (2025)
BORN 1000 TIMES
What has grown, died and transformed in my community? How do we share wisdom and grief?
Drawn from conversations with some of Liliana’s dearest friends, Born 1000 Times is woven with the collaboration of visual artist Mojdeh Rezaeipour into a collage of questions and space that we can hold in our hands to mark and ask where we are.
Published by New York Theatre Workshop - 2022
(W)HOLENESS
Every Monday in Pescadero, a sex addiction support group gathers to tell the truth—until their therapist doesn’t show. An overeager intern takes the reins, a wildcard newcomer blows up the room, and “safe space” quickly becomes something far more dangerous. (w)holeness is a dark comedy about sex, identity, and the unbearable question underneath it all: am I too damaged to be loved?
Colt Coeur Series (2019)
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Brown Swan Lab (2019)
Wagner New Play Festival, UC San Diego (2017)
