Writer | Composer
Performer | Producer

Justin Gates

is a queer, horror-obsessed, and emotionally available writer, musician, performer, and producer based in Brooklyn, NY. He works in the mediums of musical theatre, film and TV, podcasting, and fiction to craft sincere, intimate works that steep themselves in beauty, oddity, humor, and sometimes the darker side of ourselves, putting queerness in all its forms at the center of compelling, multidimensional human narratives.

The Secret City

Musical theatre

The Secret City is a one-act folk/bluegrass concept musical, co-created with Colin Gallagher, about the creation of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the ordinary people who unknowingly helped usher the world into the Atomic Age. Through song, dance, direct address, oral histories, audience participation, and a little clowning, six performers transform into the scientists, soldiers, politicians, workers, and residents who shaped the Manhattan Project. Set against the backdrop of today, The Secret City asks what it really means to make history - and what our responsibility is.The Secret City had its first concert presentation at Arts on Site in NYC in October, 2024, directed by Katie Rose McLaughlin (Hadestown). Since then it has been a Semi-Finalist of the O'Neill National Music Theatre Conference, and Shortlisted for the Vineyard Arts Project.


janet

short film score

JANET is queer horror short written, directed by, and starring Emily Dayton Evans.


You're the Last One

Podcast

You're the Last One is queer horror podcast co-created with Celine Snippe (co-author) and David Tatasciore (sound design and mix). Directed, produced, scored, and featuring performances by Justin Gates, which garnered a nomination for Best Podcast Director at MN WebFest. Winner of Best Horror Podcast at Minnesota WebFest 2023, and Official Selection of Apulia, Baltimore, and Sydney WebFests 2024.

TRAILER #1 - You're the Last One

Tommy Baxter and his mother have returned to Silver Creek for the first time since - well, since before Tommy was even born. Though the odd little town welcomes them with open arms, and Tommy finds himself instantly befriended by a quirky gang of local teenagers, it isn’t long before he begins to suspect that something darkly familiar might be stalking through the shadows of his ancestral home.Filled with cryptic warnings, mislaid traps, underhanded allies, and dripping jaws, “You’re the Last One” takes inspiration from the classics and innovations in modern audio storytelling to immerse You, the Listener, in everything you love about a creature feature.

sawyer thompson

Musical Theatre

It's summer in the Town at the Tip of the Cape (“Paradise on Earth!”) and Sawyer Thompson is content with life as it is; tourists arrive for sun and sand, friends return for second chances, and they all revel in the beauty of never-ending vacation. But when tragedy comes to their postcard-perfect home, Sawyer and his friends suddenly have to struggle against new tides of loss, friendship, and change. A contemporary queer reimagining of the characters of Mark Twain, Sawyer Thompson is a funny, sad, second coming-of-age story that explores how we grow up: not all at once, but bit by bit.Sawyer Thompson has been a Semi-Finalist for the O'Neill National Music Theatre Conference, Finalist for the Florida Festival of New Musicals, Last Round Finalist for WoW's NoW New Works Festival, and most recently received a community workshop production at the Sacramento Staged Reading Series in California.

"Going in Circles" from SAWYER THOMPSON

The Place Between

Musical Theatre

Dr. Eve Whateley has just moved her family from San Francisco to her grandparents’ ancestral estate in Dunwich, MA. It’s a place lost in her childhood, somewhere she’d nearly forgotten about until receiving the call to come sort through the mass of antiquities bequeathed to her. But as she goes through the strange New England manse, with the help of an eccentric librarian from Miskatonic University, Eve finds herself pulled back into the past by the memories she uncovers… and, trapped in their secluded new home, her partner and children feel the tentacles of isolation begin to pull them apart.The Place Between is a Lovecraftian horror musical created with Celine Snippe and inspired by a collection of short stories by H.P. Lovecraft, including "The Dunwich Horror", "The Silver Key", "Pickman's Model", "Dreams in the Witch House", and more.

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