PENNY JACKSON
Novelist, Playwright, and Screenwriter.
PLAYS
My plays BEFORE, DIRECTIONS and DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE will be included in The New Playwrights Festival to raise money for The Shakespeare Globe in London. Although virtual, this will be my London theater debut!
10-Minute Plays
Oh, What A Night
2 M, 1 W
Jimmy, a college Junior who has recently been expelled from college, returns home to discover that his mother is away and his teenage sister is about to lose her virginity.
Canine Encounter
2W
The wife of a governor meets his “escort” for a brief encounter in a fancy hotel lobby.
Noon Encounter
1 M, 2 W
Martin discovers his first wife, who he had thought infertile, at his second wife’s gynecologist’s office.
Office Romance
1M, 1W
After a boozy Christmas office party, Jenny and Matt discover the dangers of office romance, Internet snooping, and the “It’s A Wonderful Life” and signficance of Shakespeare’s quotes.
Mind The Gap
1M, 2W
Greg and Ellen, two Americans, are bewildered by British culture when they attend the funeral of their grandfather in London.
We Were Very Merry
3F, 1M
A ten minute play that explores Edna Saint Vincent Millay's creative process in writing her famous poem, "Recuerdo" and her commitment to live a bohemian life.
Monologues
The Wedding Plan
1W
Nell, the daughter of a former hippie, plans a wedding that will shock her mother.
A Ticket to Paris
1W
Gina, the mother of an autistic son, confesses to her local priest that she wants to abandon her child and escape to Paris.
Before
1M
A teenage boy discoers his girlfriend has been cheating with him and his best friend gives him a gun. This play won first prize in a gun control drama competition sponsored by The University of Illinois.
Louise in Charlestown
1F
A drama about racism and forgiveness in Boston during the turbulent era of forced integration. Twelve-year-old Patty, an Irish-American girl, has a new best friend, Louise from Jamaica. Patty adores Louise and ignores her family’s warnings against their friendship. Inevitably, violence occurs, and Patty must grapple with the aftermath decades later. This show was selected by The United Solo Festival at Theater Row in New York City.
One-Act Plays
See Something, Say Something
2M, 1W
Set in a New York City subway a year after 9/11, a middle-aged Hispanic woman, a young Sikh doctor, and a working class Italian American man find a shared connection to the national trauma.
Stoli Santa
1M, 1W
Jenny and Matt discover the perils of office romance at a Christmas party.
Wally In Central Park
3M, 1W
Jory and Sam, two estranged siblings, must fulfill their late mother’s strange request of burying the controversial Wally in the middle of Central Park.
Science!
1M, 1W
Max, a high school Junior, must convince his lab partner, Rachel, to focus on their science project instead of planning on becoming the next Lady Gaga. A play about DNA, biology and a hidden bottle of vodka.
The Queen of Staten Island
1M, 1W
Richie, a former fireman, discovers Margo, a drunk and confused young woman who has been abandoned on The Staten Island Ferry after her bridal shower.
Last Call
2M, 1W
Brian, a young doctor, must convince his Irish Grandmother, Stella, to stop drinking at her favorite bar in Queens, New York, and move to an assisted living home in New Jersey. Stella, who loves to drink and loves her bar, has other plans.
Full Length Plays
Safe
2M, 2F
Two teenage girls in New York City, one anorexic, the other overweight, deal with parental abandonment and become involved with a mysterious and perhaps dangerous older man.
I Know What Boys Want
3M, 3F
“A tense and engaging show about a high school smartphone sex scandal.”
– TheEasy.com
Read the full review here
Bitten
3M, 1W
Set in a decaying Irish bar in Queens, New York, Stella, a 75 year old alcoholic, refuses to move into an old age home after she almost burns down her apartment. Brian, her grandson and doctor, has very different ideas about his grandmother’s future.
Read The Happiest Medium Review
Read Theatre Reviews limited Review
Booze In The Boroughs
7M, 5W
Five plays set in the five boroughs of New York City. Each is connected by a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka and a Russian émigré named Alexi.
Lay Me Down
1M, 3F
Gina and Rich’s marriage is severely tested when they realize that their son’s severe autism will probably never change.
Emerald Girl
3M, 3F
Dan Kaplan, a New York wedding videographer and frustrated science fiction writer, meets Maureen Murphy, a wild Irish young woman who is a Wiccan and spurned lover. Along with Matt’s Indian roommate, Rajiv, the three embark on a remarkable journey to find the father of Maureen's baby. Dan and Rajiv fall under the spell of Maureen, yet unknown to Maureen, Rajiv is writing a film based on their trip. A play. about love, illusion and magic.
*Winner of Oustanding New Play at Plane Connections Theater Festivity.
All Alices
5F 3m
Jessica, a poor teenager who loves Lewis Carroll, find hers dream job as working as an Alice at Wonderland, a theme park in Florida. Wonderland, with its theme of “fantasy is reality,” at first appears as a happy refuge where there are weekly parades, an eternal sunset and perfectly groomed grounds. Yet is Wonderland a place of fantasy and fun, or a darker place, on the wrong side of the looking glass, where all is illusion and even danger?
Going Up
2M
Two men are trapped in a hotel elevator. Jack, a claustrophobic auto salesman with a serious marital problem and Simone, a beautiful yet drug addicted transvestite. The elevator is not moving, Jack is a wreck and Simone must help him. A comedy about an unlikely connection in an unlikely place.
Doormen
This drama takes place in an Upper West Side building and involves the conflict between two doormen, Milo, a Bosnian Muslim and war refugee and Phil, a Serbian Christian also from Bosnia. Josh and Lydia, two teenagers who live in the building, become involved in the feud and soon find themselves in danger.
