Deadclass, Ohio

The Goat Exchange is an NYC-based experimental performance ensemble creating work across theater, film, live art and installation. Now entering their tenth year as an ensemble, they have developed over twenty original productions to be staged everywhere from traditional theaters to museums, a swimming pool, a football stadium and a kitchen sponge. Their performances rework familiar texts alongside original writing and found or verbatim material through a collaborative devising process. Recent productions include Two Girls (Cherry Lane Theatre), Dad Don’t Read This (St. Luke’s Theatre, Greenwich House Theater, NYT Critic’s Pick), Time Passes (for Ellen Brody) (Target Margin, Mabou Mines), Deadclass, Ohio (The Tank), Sweet Bird (The Barn at Lee & Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival), and Escaped Alone (not not not not not enough oxygen) (Torn Page). Time Passes (for Ellen Brody) was recently named by The New York Times among the most “mind-altering theater moments” of 2026.

Eliya Smith, the writer of Deadclass, Ohio, is a playwright from Ohio. Her off-Broadway credits include Dad Don’t Read This (NYT Critic’s Pick, Phyllis Anderson Prize), Grief Camp (Atlantic Theater Company; Keene Prize Finalist, Venturous Grant), and Two Girls (Upcoming, Cherry Lane Theatre). Other recent works include Memonica (HERE Arts Center), Then We’ll Rest and Biography (both at ISLE Theater Company). She has also developed work with American Repertory Theater, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Ars Nova, Portland Theater Festival and the Working Barn Incubator Program. She is the resident playwright and a company member with The Goat Exchange, a proud member of EST Youngblood and is an MFA graduate of UT Austin.