I love comedy and I love drama but, mostly, I love mashing them together until they resemble something like life.


“…an unqualified pleasure…Staples script is full of subtlety and laugh-out-loud lines.”

Quinton Skinner, City Pages

“We cringe at his honesty, and yet we lap it up.”


Shannon Prather, Pioneer Press

“…the writing is beautiful…”


Paul Gilchrist, Theatre Red, Sydney

Selected plays

VIGORISH
After a traumatic incident at a Las Vegas sportsbook, bookmaker Ben begins to question his life. He starts studying Judaism with Rabbi Sim and considers leaving for Israel to become a rabbi.  But leaving would mean walking away from Casey, his old-school mentor and father figure, and Zoe, a sharp-tongued cocktail waitress with whom he shares a complicated relationship.

IN CAMERA
A law student secretly arranges a hotel-room encounter with a married congressman, convinced she can expose him and derail his political career. But when the evening refuses to unfold as planned, what begins as a sting operation becomes something far more complicated: an intimate battle over power, desire, ambition, truth, and who gets to control the story. In Camera is a darkly funny drama about politics, loneliness, and the dangerous thrill of being truly seen.

WHY ACTORS CAN’T LOVE
Three years after a painful breakup, Patrick, a fledgling writer, finds himself face-to-face with Chloe, the actress who inspired his most recent essay. Spoiler alert: it's not a flattering portrayal, and she's pissed. But what begins as a confrontation becomes a funny and unexpectedly tender reckoning about love, ambition, and having to finally say goodbye.