THE LOOKBACK WINDOW to Be Adapted for Stage by Making Our Space

The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice will inaugurate IN THE MAKING: A New Play Commission, an eight-month development initiative from Making Our Space Theatre Co.

Making Our Space Theatre Co. has commissioned author Kyle Dillon Hertz to adapt his acclaimed debut novel, The Lookback Window, for the stage as the inaugural selection of IN THE MAKING: A New Play Commission. Deepening Making Our Space's commitment to the development of ambitious new stage works after last season's THE LAST STOP reading series, IN THE MAKING is designed to support a writing process through sustained artistic collaboration from script inception through workshopping and refinement, culminating in a final staged reading for the public and industry professionals. The commission is funded in part by the NYSCA/A.R.T. Creative Opportunity Fund.

As a company invested in platforming unique perspectives and telling timely, challenging stories, MOS was drawn to Hertz's blistering and unapologetic writing. The Lookback Window confronts the lasting impact of childhood sexual abuse with unflinching honesty, tracing memory, survival, and healing to ask what it means to reclaim one's own story. Since its publication in 2023, The Lookback Window has earned widespread critical acclaim: 'Hertz has managed to tell a story of queer healing with all the narrative force of a thriller and the searing fury of an indictment. It's an achievement of language, of style, in which the process of finding one's way back to the world is considered at least in part as an act of learning to 'speak the unspeakable,'' (The New York Times). The novel was named a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and was shortlisted among the year's best books by Vanity Fair, People, CrimeReads, and Debutiful.

Development of the play will be helmed by MOS Director of New Works Spencer Whale (Broadway's Lempicka), working alongside dramaturg Dezi Tibbs (Oh, Mary!). MOS will pull back the curtain on the process through behind-the-scenes footage, updates, invite-only readings and discussions, along with educational content exploring the story's themes. Says Whale, 'IN THE MAKING reflects our company's deep desire to create support structures that help artists develop work they'd otherwise face barriers toward completing and to include an artistic community in that process. We couldn't dream of a better way to kick off this program than by collaborating with Kyle to adapt The Lookback Window into a new form with new constraints and new possibilities. We have the utmost confidence he'll develop a play that's every bit as funny, vulnerable, and cathartic as his novel, and we hope you'll follow along with us.'

Additional details regarding the development process, creative team, public presentations, and future production plans will be announced in the coming months.

ABOUT MAKING OUR SPACE THEATRE CO. 

Making Our Space Theatre Co. is a New York City-based, artist-driven theatre company founded by actors in 2023 on the belief that cost should never dictate quality, and that access to this industry shouldn't depend on who you already know. What began as a challenge to the overpriced, for-profit model of talent showcases has since grown into a fiscally sponsored theatre company dedicated to inclusive, accessible storytelling and to creating real opportunity and community for artists the industry too often overlooks. Making Our Space Theatre Co. is powered by Producer Hub and sponsored by Actors Federal Credit Union. 

KYLE DILLON HERTZ (PLAYWRIGHT)

Kyle Dillon Hertz (he/him) is the author of The Lookback Window, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and one of the year’s best books according to Vanity Fair, People, CrimeReads, Debutiful, and Passport. His work has appeared in Esquire, Interview Magazine, and Time, and has been supported by residencies at Yaddo and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. A graduate of NYU’s MFA program, he teaches fiction at The New School. He is currently adapting The Lookback Window for film, serving as both screenwriter and executive producer. 

SPENCER WHALE (DIRECTOR)

Spencer Whale (he/him) is a New York-based director and playwright focused on developing subversive new works and unearthing fresh, queer readings of classics. He’s Director of New Works for Making Our Space Theatre Co., and his original play Cuck, Cuck, Bull was a 2025 O’Neill NPC Semifinalist. Recent projects include MOS’s inaugural production of Bathsheba Doran’s Kin and the premiere of Justin Halle’s end-of-days comedy Vile Isle at The Tank. Spencer made his Broadway debut as Assistant Director on Lempicka, directed by Rachel Chavkin, and honed his new play development practice as Directing Fellow at Manhattan Theatre Club and Directing and Producing Fellow at City Theatre. He received his MFA in Directing from Columbia University, where he studied under Anne Bogart and assisted her on SITI Company’s farewell tour revival of The Medium. Other favorite projects include Sam Morrison’s Hello, Daddy! and Quentin Crisp: The Last Word.

DEZI TIBBS (DRAMATURG)

Dezi Tibbs (they/she) is a writer and dramaturg living in New York City. As a Black, trans theater artist, she’s fascinated by intersectional identities, representation onstage, and the sociopolitical implications of the stories we choose to tell and how we choose to tell them. Dezi received their MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University, where they developed a theatrical framework inspired by Erving Goffman's The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Credits as a freelance dramaturg include the Broadway smash hit Oh, Mary!, as well as collaborations with Tony Award nominees Lileana Blain-Cruz and Max Vernon and writers Erin Courtney and Truth Future Bachman. Dezi's work has been featured on stages nationwide, including the Lucille Lortell Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Powerhouse Theatre, Joe's Pub, Lincoln Center, Wilma Theater, Breaking the Binary, the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and the Utah Shakespeare Festival. As a journalist dedicated to highlighting the role of representation in the theater, she is a frequent collaborator with American Theatre and TDF Stages.