ABOUT THE FOUNDER

Justin Rielly is the founder of Aspie Works, and a playwright & Artist-in-Residence at the Multi-Use Community Cultural Center (MuCCC) in Rochester, New York.   During his time with the MuCCC, Rielly participated in various roles as playwright, producer, director and performer. He is also a recipient of three TANYS adjudication awards for his writing and directing.

Outside of his Aspie Works projects, he wrote and produced the 2016 show A Holiday Trilogy for Black Sheep Theatre; he has also played the role of music supervisor for several projects, including BART/Hummingbird Company’s productions of Live Drawing, Augusta, Rounding Third & Sketching the Soul.

Before creating Aspie Works, Mr. Rielly wrote, produced and directed the 9/11 oral history drama American Enigma, before performing his one-man show about his high school life When We Were Young, We Wanted to Live at the inaugural Rochester Fringe Festival.  He followed those shows with the all-female ensemble show She Will Have Her Way.  Mr. Rielly also wrote the two-character drama Come Talk to Me, featuring fellow multi-talented theatrical artists Meredith Powell & Spencer Christiano.

Mr. Rielly has also participated in other MuCCC artists’ projects.  He wrote scenes for the John W. Borek Presents productions Unrehearsed, Jesus in India, PhotoPlay, Jokes and the Unconscious and Breakfast with Elvis, while also appearing in the latter four shows.  He also starred alongside Mr. Borek in his production Swimming To…

Outside of his MuCCC works, Mr. Rielly was also a writer in the Batavia-based group The Honesty Theater from 2010 to 2012.  He also wrote his first novel, The Lovely Nature of Yum-Yum, during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in 2012.  He was also the stage manager of GRRC’s production of the Leonardo da Vinci speculative drama Live Drawing, directed by Don Bartalo and performed in early 2015. He has also participated in Writers & Books’ 2 Pages/2 Voices, the Blackfriars Theatre’s 24 Hour Musical Theatre Festival, Everyone’s Theatre Company’s Evening of One Acts and Writers & Books’ The 24 Hour Plays at the Rochester Fringe Festival.

He is also a member of the Rochester Playwrights Guild and Dramatists Guild of America, and the host of The Justin Rielly Show, airing Sunday afternoons on WAYO 104.3 FM and wayofm.org.