"The Lookback Window" : A Workshop Reading

An exclusive first look at NY Times Editors’ Choice novelist Kyle Dillon Hertz’s first draft of his novel’s stage adaptation. Join Making Our Space Theatre Co. for an exclusive first look at The Lookback Window, a new play by acclaimed novelist and New York Times Editors’ Choice author Kyle Dillon Hertz, adapted from his own novel. Praised by The New York Times for its “narrative force of a thriller” and described by Vanity Fair as “impossible to ever stay away from,” The Lookback Window is a visceral, unflinching story of queer trauma, survival, and healing. About the Story Growing up in suburban New York, Dylan lived through the unfathomable: three years as a victim of sex trafficking at the hands of Vincent, a troubled young man who promised to marry Dylan when he turned eighteen. Years later, the long shadow of Dylan’s trauma still looms over the fragile life in the city he’s managed to build with his fiancé, Moans, who knows little of Dylan’s past. Then a groundbreaking new law—the Child Victims Act—opens a new way forward: a one-year window during which Dylan can sue his abusers. But for someone who was trafficked as a child, does money represent justice—does his pain have a price? As Dylan is forced to look back at what happened to him and try to make sense of his past, he begins to explore a drug and sex-fueled world of bathhouses, clubs, and strangers’ apartments, only to emerge, barely alive, with a new clarity of purpose: a righteous determination to gaze, unflinching, upon the brutal men whose faces have haunted him for a decade, and to extract justice on his own terms. Synopsis adapted by excerpting from the official Simon & Schuster book description. About the Workshop Reading Presented as part of In the Making: A New Play Commission, this workshop reading marks the very beginning of the novel's journey from page to stage. Under the mentorship and direction of Spencer Whale, and with dramaturgy by Deziré Tibbs, Kyle is making his first foray into playwriting, and we're inviting audiences into the process at its earliest stage. What to Expect This is a workshop reading, not a fully staged production. You'll hear the first draft of the play brought to life by a cast of actors, with scripts in hand. It's an opportunity to experience a brand-new theatrical work while it's still taking shape, and to be part of a creative process that usually happens behind the curtain. In true MOS fashion, we invite you to come grab a drink, experience some new risky theatre, mingle and meet potential future collaborators, and be among the very first audiences to see where The Lookback Window goes next. Tuesday, December 8, 2026 @ 7PM Speyer Hall | Lower East Side, NYC CAST TBA Content advisory: This work explores themes of childhood sexual exploitation and trafficking, sexual violence, trauma, and substance use.