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Jason Grote

JASON GROTE

  (1971 - )
Nationality:    USA
facebook     email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    Antje Oegel International  represented by Antje Oegel

Jason Grote is a playwright and television writer based in Brooklyn. His plays include 1001, Civilization (all you can eat), Maria/Stuart, Hamilton Township, Darwins Challenge, Box Americana, and This Storm Is What We Call Progress. He is a staff writer for the NBC/Dreamworks show, "Smash," produced by Steven Spielberg, Theresa Rebeck, and Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, premiering in January 2012. Current projects include a commission from aCT/Seattle about Stalin and Shostakovich, and a musical adaptation of 1001 with composer Marisa Michelson. a resident playwright at New Dramatists since 2006, his work has been produced and developed at the Museum of Modern art, the Sundance Theatre Lab, Playwrights Horizons, the ONeill Theater Center, the Denver Center Theatre Company, New York Theatre Workshop, Portland Center Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Robert Wilsons Watermill Center, Page 73 Productions, ensemble Studio Theatre, Voices of Change  Festival for New American Plays (Theater Bielefeld, Germany), Clubbed Thumb, the Civilians, the Foundry, MaSS MoCa, the Luminato Festival, Soho Rep, the Lark, the Glej Theater (Slovenia), Salvage Vanguard, HeRe, the Contemporary American Theater Festival, Baltimore CenterStage, Collaboraction, Theatre @ Boston Court, and elsewhere. He was the 2006 P73 Playwriting Fellow. His plays have been published by Samuel French and Playscripts Inc., and in the Back Stage Book of New American Short Plays 2005 (edited by Craig Lucas), and his comics debut will take place in the upcoming Significant Objects anthology from Fantagraphics, edited by Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker. He occasionally blogs at Hilobrow.com, voted one of Time magazines top blogs of 2010.

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below is a list of Jason Grote's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         1001         (Anti)Gone         All You Can Eat         Box Americana: A Wal-Mart Fantsaia         Cats         Christmas Carol, A         Civilization (All You Can Eat)         Darwin's Challenge         Hamilton Township         Hylan Blvd         In His Bold Gaze, My Ruin Is Writ Large         Island Of Never Giving Way On Your Desires         Kawaisoo (the Pity Of Things)         Maria/Stuart         Moloch And Other Demons         Myth America         New Jersey Book Of the Dead, The         Prometheus Rendered         Shostakovich         Southridge High School Forensics Team Presents: Assorted Tales Of Robin Hood, The         This Storm Is What We Call Progress         Three Classics

1001

1001
1001 spins themes and variations from the classic 'a Thousand and One arabian Nights' to explore the incarnations of love, sex, religion, cruelty and war from ancient Baghdad to the post-9/11 era. Playwright Jason Grote combines savage wit, political insight, Borgesian time-warping, and theatrical ingenuity in a dazzling tour de force that Sheherezade herself would envy.

Notes:
Developed in 2004-05 Soho Rep Writer/Director & Phase 2 Labs And Colorado New Play Summit; read At Baltimore Centerstage And Last Frontier Conference (Valdez, AK)

1st Produced:
Denver Center Theater    2007

Organisations:
Developed at Soho Rep

1st Published:
Samuel French, Inc - New York (2009) >>>
Chapbok, Denver Center theater, 2007   978-0573663888

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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(Anti)Gone

Synopsis:
antigone is charged with the crime of burying her brothers -- even though the war left no bodies for her to bury. Haemon could take over the kingdom if he ever stops playing video games and trying to kill his father. and airline pretzels and huge corporate deals cannot satisfy erisycthon's hunger. In this postmodern take on antigone,daily life becomes mythic in the urban non-landscape of malls, highways, and airports.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Williamstown Theatre Festival (Workshop) (Williamstown, Ma, United States)    2005

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
30-45 min Comedy/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  2 males, 2 females, 2 either (5-22 actors possible: 3-12 males, 2-10 females)

Further Reference:
-

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All You Can Eat

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    2006

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Box Americana: A Wal-Mart Fantsaia

Synopsis:
In the extensively researched Box Americana: a Wal-Mart Retail Fantasia, the Ghost of Sam Walton is resurrected with his own personal chorus of Chinese workers to sing the praises of consumer Utopia. Located at Wal-Mart 24-2-128, the economic epicenter of Sprawlville, USA, the play takes place at a moment when the world's largest employer is defending itself against the largest class-action lawsuit in American history for gender discrimination. It follows Kelly, a delusional but passionate cheerleader for the Wal-Mart ideology, and Danae, an African American mother escaping the double threats of Hurricane Katrina and her violent, impoverished past. they both seek a future of advancement based on merit and hard work, but when push comes to shove with this corporate behemoth, they discover that the Promised Land is a swamp of inequity and empty rhetoric. Inspired by DUKeS V. WaL-MaRT, the largest class action suit in history (info available at walmartclass.com), and described in Liza Featherstone's book SeLLING WOMeN SHORT

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Working Theater, NYC    2006

Organisations:
the Working Theater

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  some doubling

Further Reference:
-

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Cats

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Summerworks Short Play Event    2006

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
short play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Christmas Carol, A

Synopsis:
Seven years have passed since Marley's Christmas death, and Scrooge has not changed a bit. But, on this particular Christmas, the shrimp boats lower their nets. Marley pushes his face against hers. She screams and flees back to Scrooge; on her cheek stands out in red the marks of two rows of teeth.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
part of the Baby Jesus One-act Jubilee: Second Coming, A selection of world-premiere yuletide-themed plays

1st Produced:

Organisations:
the Brick Theater

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Civilization (All You Can Eat)

Synopsis:
the filming of an ironically racist TV commercial kicks off this burlesque of America's love/hate obsession with food. a feral pig on a rampage, mass choreography, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson using hip-hop to sell snacks, auto-erotic asphyxiation, chaos theory, and the search for love, meaning and hope during the 2008 presidential election - all braided together to devastating effect

Notes:
This is part of Clubbed Thumb's Annual Summerworks Festival. In Civilization (all You Can eat)

1st Produced:
HERE Arts Center - Mainstage
145 6th aVenue, New York, NY 10013    19 Jun 2011

Organisations:
a commission of Clubbed Thumb

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Darwin's Challenge

Synopsis:
the young Charles Darwin sets out for a voyage on the HMS Beagle - but when he arrives at the Island of Galapagos, he finds himself transported to a 21st century reality TV show entitled Darwins Challenge. Hijinks ensue. Is humanitys survival based on our ruthlessness and cunning, or our compassion and intelligence?

Notes:
Recipient of eST/Sloan grant

1st Produced:
Ensemble Studio Theatre    -

Organisations:
ensemble Studio Theater

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Farce

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hamilton Township

Synopsis:
an autobiographical play set in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, in which the teenage author saves a prostitute from the legendary Jersey Devil. as a toxic storm rages outside, the old lady sleeps, soundly, on her couch. Jason and Babydoll wait, trapped in her home, with a full case of the hags wine coolers. Neither is sure why theyre there. they only know whos pulling the strings: the nameless, hard-rockin hedonist who orchestrated their very special evening. Based on a true story, Hamilton Township marries memoir, horror, punk rock and a New Jersey suburb to tell a story about adolescence, the nature of evil - and the worst party in the history of ever

Notes:
developed in 2005-06 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab

1st Produced:
Salvage Vanguard    May 2008

Organisations:
Soho Rep

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  1 either

Further Reference:
-

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Hylan Blvd

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
24-Hour Plays, Atlantic Theater    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
short play

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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In His Bold Gaze, My Ruin Is Writ Large

Synopsis:
a comedic, free adaptation of Racine's Phaedra, combining the original story with Hitchcock, Iggy Pop, Mixed Martial Arts, and Slavoj Zizek.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
24-Hour Plays / The Orchard Project (Hunter, NY, United States)    2006

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
10-25 min Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  2 males, 3 females (5-8 actors possible: 2-3 males, 3-5 females)

Further Reference:
-

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Island Of Never Giving Way On Your Desires

Synopsis:
the secret origin of Roosevelt Island.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Sanctuary: Playwrights Theater For Six Nights.    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in Knock the journal of antioch University, Seattle,    -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
short play

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Kawaisoo (the Pity Of Things)

Synopsis:
a tragicomic meditation on groceries and catstrophe. ellie takes us on a tour of a suburban grocery store in the wake of a personal - and national - trauma.

Notes:
One-woman show, 20 min. long; winner of Swamp King, produced At NYU, the Makor, the American Living Room @ HeRe

1st Produced:
Chashama    2002

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Back Stage Book of New American Short Plays 2005   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
short Tragicomedy Tragedy

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Maria/Stuart

Maria/Stuart
Up-and-coming cartoonist Stuart fights to keep the lid on his mother's and aunts' simmering angst. But the family's secrets channel themselves into a bizarre shapeshifter that guzzles soda, communicates by fax, and spouts old German verse. Friedrich Schiller's classic tale of warring queens inspires this gothic romp through the weirder side of suburban America.

Notes:
Based on "Maria Stuart" by Friedrich Schiller

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
comedy

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Moloch And Other Demons

Synopsis:
Paradise Lost meets Fast Food Nation in this fable of a late-capitalist Hell. Mahu works in a meat plant that turns undesirables into fast food consumed by Moloch, an elder-demon. When an invasion from Heaven shatters his family, his daughter Dawn escapes - only to encounter Hobbididence and Modo, two aWOL soldier-angels hiding at the edge of a nuclear blast zone.

Notes:
also Appeared in Hell Festival; developed/read At Salvage Vanguard, Circle X, the Makor, the Ohio, New Dramatists

1st Produced:

Organisations:
American Living Room Festival

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  some doubling

Further Reference:
-

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Myth America

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
written by Arthur Kopit, Theresa Rebeck, Israel Horovitz, Rachel Axler, Ian Cohen, Brian Dykstra, Jason Grote, Julien Schwab, Matthew Paul Olmos, Saviana Stanescu, And Lloyd Suh.

1st Produced:
TBG Theatre, NY    2007

Organisations:
Personal Space theatrics

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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New Jersey Book Of the Dead, The

Synopsis:
Diana tries to unionize her workplace (a call-center in Jersey City), but faces OMNIVORe - a powerful computer surveillance program that invades her personal life and her dreams.

Notes:
Staged readings At the Flea, the Playwrights' Center of San Francisco, Coe College (Cedar Rapids, Ia); winner of DramaRaMa, Reva Shiner Award, Coe College Playwriting Award, runner-up for Princess Grace, semifinalist (top 5%) for Cesterfield Writers' Film

1st Produced:
The Bloomington Playwrights' Project    2004

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  1

Further Reference:
-

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Prometheus Rendered

Synopsis:
Blending the modern and the mythic, this free adaptation of aeschylus' Prometheus Boundshows us a Prometheus subjected to the torture techniques used by U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Culture Project (Impact Festival) (New York, NY, United States)    2006

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
10-25 min Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  1 male, 1 female, 2 either (4-6 actors possible: 1-5 males, 1-4 females)

Further Reference:
-

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Shostakovich

Synopsis:
The life of Russian composer Shostakovich

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Historical play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Southridge High School Forensics Team Presents: Assorted Tales Of Robin Hood, The

Synopsis:
Southridge High School has lost the annual forensics competition for the past ten years, but things really go haywire when the entire team is suddenly transported to Sherwood Forest midway through their performance of Robin Hood. as they act out their roles of Robin Hood, Maid Marian, the Sheriff of Nottingham, and the Merry Men, the real life Dramas of love triangles, competitiveness, social and class distinctions unfold and further complicate things, turning the classic story of peasants vs. the aristocracy into a battle between the nerds vs. the jocks. (This play was specially commissioned by Playscripts for high school actors.)

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Keen Teens At The Kirk Theatre (New York, NY, United States)    2009

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
25-35 min Comedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  4 males, 2 females, 4 either (8-10 actors possible: 4-8 males, 2-6 females)

Further Reference:
-

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This Storm Is What We Call Progress

Synopsis:
Part urban romantic comedy, part Kabbalistic horrorshow, part allegory for Israel and Palestine that doesn't quite add up, part cautionary tale about power, and part historically inaccurate look at Hannah arendt and Walter Benjamin. a young man stumbles into a dusty old recording studio run by an enigmatic old woman and her beautiful assistant. Here he is drawn into an ancient and powerful world of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalistic ritual and discovers that he may be something more than he had ever imagined.

Notes:
Developed in 2003-04 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab

1st Produced:
Rorschach Theater    Jun 2008

Organisations:
Soho Rep

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy/Drama Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Three Classics

Synopsis:
Three Classics combines the modern with the mythic in three adaptations that view classic stories through the lens of a post-modern, urban non-landscape. In(anti)gone, the aftermath of war is explored in a world of shopping malls, highways, and airports. Racine's Phaedra is combined with Hitchcock, Iggy Pop, Mixed Martial Arts, and Slavoj Zizek in In His Bold Gaze, My Ruin is Writ Large. the final play, Prometheus Rendered, is an examination of the Prometheus myth using the torture techniques employed by U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay. To purchase this book of three plays, click "add to Shopping Cart" above. To perform an individual play, click on its title below:

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Various Comedy/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  Various

Further Reference:
-

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