Justin Lazor
Playwriting | Cleveland State University | Class of 2022
Six Bullets Faith brings violent humor, palm-reading, a talking bird, the struggles of elder care, Lucifer, audience participation and irreverence to the love story of two women passionate about faith, in all its forms. One of them has a chainsaw, the other a penchant for playing Russian Roulette, all while they work at a religious school for children. Both struggling with abusive pasts and addiction issues, they find refuge in "the secret hiding place where nothing can hurt you" as the universe is ripped apart, and amidst the quantum quandaries of recovery and the capacity or incapacity for love to overcome forces that can overwhelm the self. —Mike Geither
About Justin
Justin Lazor is a lifelong resident of the Cleveland area, as well as a lifelong student at Cleveland State University. In addition to currently being a 3rd year playwriting candidate in the NEOMFA program, he has also earned both a BA and MA at CSU. The first staged production of his work, a short play entitled "First to Die Wins," debuted in February 2020 at Convergence Continuum during the annual NEOMFA Playwrights Festival, and his full-length play "Six-Bullets Faith" was the headliner for the festival this year. Justin has also had several readings at Playwrights Local, including a Zoom reading of his one-act play "The Canvas," which is currently available to stream on the PL website. Justin also wrote the short film “Mary,” which is currently available to stream on vimeo and which was an official selection for the First-Time Filmmakers Festival in 2021. Justin is a two-time recipient of the Leonard Trawick Creative Writing Award and one of the winners of this year's Creative Writing Contest at Cleveland State. He is also currently an instructor in CSU's First Year Writing Program. Let’s see, what else? His favorite pizza toppings are anchovies and banana peppers, and his favorite animals are squirrels, bunny rabbits and, of course, spiders.
JUSTIN'S FAST FACTS
What are your favorite words? Why?
Floccinaucinihilipilification. I love this word because it is a really long and fancy sounding word that expresses something very simple, namely the act of determining something to be worthless, which are both things to which I can relate as a writer and a human.
Do you have any eccentric habits/strategies to get you started writing?
I like to steal interactions with my friends and then incorporate them into my writing, which is probably why I have so few friends…Oh, and I also like to dance a lot. Which is probably another reason why I have so few friends…
What’s on your nightstand right now?
A chainsaw. (That will only make sense to people who saw my thesis play. And those of you who didn’t, too bad for you…)
© 2021 NEOMFA
English Department
Cleveland State University
2121 Euclid Ave., RT 1815
Cleveland, Ohio 44115