Else Went

Else Went (born ) is an American playwright whose works An Oxford Man and Initiative have been nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2025 and 2026 respectively. The former is a play based on the life of Laurence Michael Dillon, the first transgender man to undergo phalloplasty. The latter, a five-hour-long production set in the early 2000s and based on Dungeons & Dragons, was praised for its recreation of instant messaging and was described by The Guardian as "emotionally immersive".

Career Went grew up in Cambria, California and went to a public school before attending Sarah Lawrence College, graduating in 2013. In 2020, Went was a MacDowell Fellow, during which time they conceived and wrote the play An Oxford Man, based on the life of Laurence Michael Dillon, the first transgender man to undergo phalloplasty. An Oxford Man was a finalist for the Carlo Annoni Playwrighting Prize in 2023, and was also shortlisted for the 2025 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, receiving a Special Commendation. The same year their play Degenerates was published in the The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays Volume 2. This play focuses on the experiences that transgender people may have when they engage with online incel communities.

In November 2025, Went's play Initiative premiered off-Broadway at The Public Theater. It was reviewed by The Guardian as a "coming-of-age epic of sorts" which "flies right by, as emotionally immersive as the Dungeons & Dragons games that enrapture most of its seven teenage characters". The New York Stage Review was also positive, describing it as "the dramatic equivalent of a group bildungsroman". The New York Times review was mixed, also praising its use of instant messaging, but less positive about the use of Dungeons & Dragons; the reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli compared the work less favourably to similar use in 2011's She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen. Initiative has been nominated for the 2026 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

Selected plays

An Oxford Man They are married to theatre director Emma Rosa Went.