Two big honors, and — "Boom" — playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb is on a roll

Peter Sinn Nachtrieb loves writing plays, and he loves marine biology.

That he has found a way to successfully integrate the two passions speaks to the creative mettle of this rising San Francisco playwright, whose seriocomedy "Boom" opens next week at Seattle Repertory Theatre.

"Boom," according to its 34-year author, is about "this gay marine biologist who posts a Craigslist ad for what seems like casual sex, and what happens when a female journalism student answers the ad."

In his review of the play, New York Times critic Ben Brantley lauded Nachtrieb's "gift for darkly funny dialogue and an appealing way of approaching big themes sideways." And Time Out New York's Adam Feldman deemed the work "essentially a dark-themed, light-toned allegory of survival and change."

Though "Boom" at the Rep will be Seattle's first exposure to his talent, Nachtrieb's on a roll. A roll that picked up velocity in 2006.

"Oh my God, what a year that was," declared the writer, who exuded both humility and unbridled enthusiasm by phone from his San Francisco home. That was the year Nachtrieb pocketed two big theatrical honors for his raucously grisly comedy of manners, "Hunter Gatherers."

The Will Glickman Prize (voted by San Francisco drama critics) and the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award (full disclosure: I was a juror for the latter) came with enough cash attached to buy Nachtrieb time to focus on "Boom," which debuted at New York's Ars Nova earlier this year.

That meant Nachtrieb no longer had to pick up odd writing and acting jobs to support his playcrafting — though he still enjoys the occasional gig performing in "interactive murder mysteries at private parties."

Actually, things began taking off for Nachtrieb a couple years earlier, when his first full-length play, a comedy about youthful narcissism titled "Meaningless," won raves in its Chicago premiere.

He's mainly been hailed as a sharp observer of his own generation's foibles, but Nachtrieb says his scripts are often inspired by aspects of science. That's not always evident, but in "Boom," biology is a paramount theme.

"The scientist character is based on experiences I had off the coast of Panama, as a research assistant to a marine biologist," noted Nachtrieb, who double-majored in marine biology and theater as an undergrad at Brown University.

"We were on this spit of sand in an archipelago that's one of the least-populated places in the world. We just watched fish spawn for four months."

That piqued Nachtrieb's fascination with the complex processes of evolution. He also cites Stephen Jay Gould's book "Wonderful Life" as a prime influence on "Boom."

"The big question Gould asks is how much of the evolutionary changes over billions of years is a gradual survival of the fittest thing, and how much is based on big events, completely out of our control, that can radically alter our lives."

In "Boom," what at first seems to be a casual date evolves into something far more momentous, due to a possible pending disaster.

The play is also being presented this fall at theaters in Cleveland and Washington, D.C. But the Rep production, staged by the Rep's acting artistic director Jerry Manning and co-starring one of Seattle's acting treasures, Nick Garrison, has special significance.

It will mark the first run of a Nachtrieb script at a large-scaled West Coast theater — though not likely the last.

"The Rep people have been so friendly," said the author, who will be in Seattle for the opening. "I've been talking to them a lot, and e-mailing every day with them."

Now Nachtrieb is hard at work on another play, "T.I.C. Trench Coat in Common," commissioned by San Francisco's Encore Theatre."It's my privacy-voyeurism-exhibitionism-teen angst play," he said. "It's basically a teenage girl's blog about an apartment building turned into a play. If I can pull it off, it's going to be great."

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com