Rose Oser is a Brooklyn-based theatremaker. They currently serve as the Producing Director of National Queer Theater (NQT), where they co-lead the organization’s programming and strategy. Since joining NQT in 2023, Rose has helped grow the Criminal Queerness Festival, NQT’s flagship Obie Award–winning festival that features international and immigrant playwrights from countries that criminalize or censor queerness.

Before NQT, Rose worked at Z Space in San Francisco from 2017 to 2022. During their time there, Rose developed and produced innovative works such as the Problematic Play Festival, a theatrical experiment dedicated to staging and discussing plays that had been deemed too “problematic” to produce.

Additionally, Rose is the creator and host of poly poly oxen free, a live polyamorous dating show currently running in several U.S. cities. They are also the Resident Dramaturg at the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals, a member of Beehive Dramaturgy Studio, and hold a BA in Rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley.

National Queer Theater (NQT) is a New York-based nonprofit arts organization dedicated to celebrating the brilliance of generations of LGBTQ+ artists and providing a home for unheard storytellers and activists. Since 2018, NQT’s Criminal Queerness Festival has been the official theater event of NYC Pride and has partnered with esteemed institutions such as Lincoln Center, PAC NYC, and HERE Arts Center. The festival has featured artists from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Tanzania, Uganda, Jordan, Pakistan, Iraq, Russia, China, Mexico, Indonesia, Ukraine, Poland, and Cuba.

Across all its programming, NQT uses theater as a platform for social change, offering free arts education for LGBTQ+ youth in partnership with Hetrick-Martin Institute, playwriting classes for international LGBTQ+ writers, and a range of writing and performance opportunities for local LGBTQ+ artists.