Full-length plays
THE NEW ABNORMAL (2020) - A and B are self-quarantining at home during the pandemic. The tension of having to spend so much time together leads them to argue about things mundane and serious. The surreality of the situation and the heightened stakes also highlight how different their personalities are and threaten the future of their relationship. This play is a full-length version of my short play of the same name, which received the 2020 Segora One-Act Play Prize.
SAM AND RICK (2017) - A two character play that recounts the true story of the unlikely friendship between acclaimed author Samuel Beckett and Rick Cluchey, an inmate in San Quentin Prison who was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. A prison production of Beckett's masterpiece WAITING FOR GODOT changed Cluchey's life, leading him to found a drama workshop for inmates that brought him considerable acclaim and eventually the commutation of his sentence and parole. Released from prison, Cluchey founded a theater company for ex-cons and eventually made his way to Paris, where he met Beckett. A long friendship and numerous creative collaborations ensued. This is a remarkable story of individual redemption and the transformational power of theater. Adapted from a play Rick Cluchey wrote in 2008. (Reading, Blank Theatre, Los Angeles, November, 2019; Reading, Mark Taper Forum, December 2017)
PARALYZED (2015) - An embittered, wheelchair-bound actor writes a stirring autobiographical play about his disability that deeply moves his agent, attracts the attention of Broadway’s biggest producer and introduces him to a beautiful, wheelchair-bound actress. But he faces difficult choices and compromises to actually get the work mounted on the Great White Way. (2019, Players of Gramercy Park "Playwrights Take the Stage" Winner; 2018 JET Theater Festival of New Plays; Finalist, 2017 Colonial Players Promising Playwright Award; Semi-finalist,2016 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference; Third Prize, 2015 Ohio State-Newark New Play Contest; Semi-finalist, 2015 McLaren Memorial Comedy Playwriting Competition)
POWER PLAYS (in development since 2014 with director Barry Ivan) - A full-length comedy-drama that follows an everyman named Mark through a series of episodes, from young adulthood to middle age, that force him to seize or relinquish power. These darkly-comedic scenes witness Mark struggling with his love life; tangling with America's hot-button political issues (gun ownership, sexual harrassment, NSA spying); and wrestling with his sexuality.
STORAGE LOCKER (2014) - MAN and WOMAN, a married couple, have won the bidding on an abandoned storage unit, hoping to find something so valuable inside that it will land them on easy street. As they begin to go through the unit's contents, they're interrupted by OLDER MAN, a sickly septuagenarian who tries to purchase the locker from them, employing a variety of tactics to get his way. OLDER MAN ultimately reveals a personal connection to the locker but is still rebuffed by MAN and WOMAN, who discover something secreted away in the back of the unit that is so unexpected it will indeed change their lives forever. (2016 IATI Theatre Mainstage; Third Prize, 2014 Robert J. Pickering Award for Playwriting Excellence)
SURVIVORS (formerly THE LOST TRIBE) (2013) - Los Angeles, 1998. Henry Cohen, a World War II refugee who owns a small barber shop on gentrifying Fairfax Avenue, is devastated when his rent is tripled. His son Josh suggests it’s time for him to retire. Instead, Henry raises prices and hires a second barber, Isaac Roth, a widower from the neighborhood. Henry’s wife Ruth, a Holocaust survivor, grows suspicious of Isaac, who is from Bucharest, her hometown, and seems evasive about his earlier life. After Ruth confronts Isaac about his history, dark secrets from the past come to light, casting a long shadow on the present. (Second Prize, 2014 Jewel Box Theatre Playwriting Competition; Semi-finalist, 2013 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference; Finalist, 2013 Colonial Players Promising Playwright Award; 2010 Texas Nonprofits Theaters New Play Project; 2010 Long Beach Playhouse New Works Festival; Semi-finalist, 2010 Princess Grace Award; 2009 Arts Club of Washington National Playwriting Award; Semi-finalist 2009 Playwrights First Award)
UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT (2012) - After spending a drunken night with NFL quarterback NOAH WOODWARD, cocktail waitress KAYLIE ROBBINS rebuffs his sexual advances the following morning and discovers that his romantic pillow talk was manipulative and insincere. Upset by his deceit and lies, she leaves. But they will meet again – first in her attorney’s conference room and then in a court of law – after she accuses him of a serious crime. (Winner, 2017 Detroit New Works Festival; Finalist, 2014 Woodward/Newman Drama Award; 2014 Blank Theatre Living Room Series; 2012 Last Frontier Theater Conference)
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REQUEST A PDF, PLEASE EMAIL jeffardy@outlook.com