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Jane Shepard

JANE SHEPARD  (1958 - )

 Nationality:    USA
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    n/a

Jane Shepard is the recipient of the Robert Chesley Playwrighting Award (2004); the Berrilla Kerr Playwrighting Prize (2003); several New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships (in both screenwriting & playwrighting); a Jane Chambers Award for her play COMMENCING; and a Sloan Foundation Grant (2003) for her one-woman show on growing up with learning disabilities, the IDIOT'S GUIDE TO the BRAIN. Her most recent play GLASS JAW, in which she also appeared, was produced at the Barrow Group in December. Her play STRANGE GRACE, which was heard in the Public Theater's NEW WORKS NOW! series and workshopped at New York Stage & Film, featuring actors Stephen Lang (Broadway's A FEW GOOD MEN) & Alicia Goranson (TV's "Roseanne"). Her bilingual Drama EATING the DEAD premiered at Centerstage in 2003, the same year her comedy DUCKS CROSSING opened the season at Vital Theatre, where it was called, "the best time you can have in the Theater in New York right now." (NYTheatre.com.) Her newest play GLASS JAW has just completed a workshop at the Barrow Group. A former member of the renowned Circle Rep Lab, other productions around town include ONE MOLECULE at Circle in the Square; LONG DISTANCE at Soho Rep; COMMENCING at HERE (Jane Chambers Award); FIONA'S MANE at the Women's Project; NINE at the Circle Rep Lab (moved to Currican Theatre); as well as PRELUDE TO WALKING at Synchronicity Space; GOD IS A DYKE at the Westbank; and A RAGE OF CHAOS, a one-man reflection on AIDS featuring Michael Warren Powell, which received numerous stagings and was featured at the Carmel Festival for the Performing Arts. Her work has also been produced at Estrofest in Atlanta, Goddess Theater in Boulder, and Vox Humana Theatre in Los Angeles. In film, Jane's screenplay FREAK CITY was produced as a Showtime Original Movie featuring Natalie Cole, Samantha Mathis, Johnathan Silverman, Peter Sarsgaard, and Academy Award winners Marlee Matlin & Estelle Parsons. the scrpt was nominated for a Writer's Guild Award (2000). She made her producing & directing debut with the 40-minute featurette NINE. Premeiring at the New York Independent Feature Film Market, this 40-minute Drama screened festivals across the country and received the Honorable Mention from Rochester Film Festival. A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Shepard also appears frequently as an actress, and is an award-winning filmmaker, nationally published cartoonist, and composter. Her collection of short plays KICKASS PLAYS FOR WOMEN can be found at www.kickass-plays.com, and her short work GOD IS A DYKE appears in New Monologues For Women By Women (Heineman Books.) Her visual art can be found at JaneShepardArt.com

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

         Commencing         Eating the Dead         Fiona's Mane         Friends Of the Deceased         Glass Jaw         God Is A Dyke         Juice         KickAss Plays For Women         Last Nickel, The         Long Distance         Nine         Rage of Chaos, A         Strange Grace         Subway

Commencing

Synopsis:
the beautiful Kelli can't wait for the blind date her office mates have set her up with, until it turns out to be one very disappointed lesbian named Arlin. Mutually appalled, yet appalingly intregued, they commence to pull the screws loose on both straight & gay women's culture, to find the common ground underneath in the search for love and identity.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Billy Rose Productions

1st Published:
Kickass Plays For Women (Lulu Publishing), 1996   -

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:  -            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Eating the Dead

Synopsis:
A mystical, funny and transcendent Drama about five messed up people who all end up in a garage in Mexico on the Day of the Dead. Shay returns to the garage to save her sister, who is partying to her own demise, and to reclaim the sexy Spanish painter she abandoned. Aphim has followed to reclaim Shay and the drugs she stole from him. And Reynaldo is the Mexican spiritualist who brings a spritual perspective to a night in which they will confront one another and their own demons. In English with some Spanish.

Notes:
A vibrant theatrical tapestry that uses paint, sound, & shadow puppets to help convey this heightened story About the value of digesting the past in order to embrace life.

1st Produced:
showcase at Centerstage, NYC    2003

Organisations:
Live Theater Company

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:
Drama with humor Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Fiona's Mane

Synopsis:
Fiona is a white woman with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Shaquay is a black man 59 days into recover. A delay in subway trains become the vehicle for two strangers out of their isolation, and across a quirky bridge of contrasting lives and common need.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
the Westbank Cafe    1996

Organisations:
the Lab Theater Company

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:
Drama One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Friends Of the Deceased

Synopsis:
An embittered widow lies in wait at her husband's grave for the appearance his mistress, and encounters a soulful teen. Unable to extract a confession from the girl, the widow offers to buy one, and finds that she has purchased a deeper truth.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Kickass Plays For Women (Lulu Publishing), 1996   -

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:
Ten Min

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Glass Jaw

Synopsis:
the edge-of-your-seat account of a young social worker who arrives to pay a home visit to an unstable client, but once he discovers the man is harboring a sister with Dissociative Identity Disorder, he finds he must join their games in order to escape alive.

Notes:
A particularly theatrical play which uses sound & lighting to maximum effect to give us A sense of the worlds the sister And brother inhabit, And A touching story on the values of reality And imagination in living A full life.

1st Produced:
the Barrow Group's Studio Theater, NYC    1996

Organisations:
the Barrow Group

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:  -

Further Reference:
-

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God Is A Dyke

Synopsis:
When the unthinkable occurs, we often ask ourselves, "How could God have let this happen?" How does one find faith in the world when it offers us its worst? Life lessons from a butch Brooklyn dyke whose tender search for meaning finds philosophy in a dented garbage can.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
the Westbank Cafe    1996

Organisations:
the LAB Theater Company

1st Published:
Monologues For Women By Women (Heinemann Publishers), 2004   -

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:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Juice

Synopsis:
Set in a post-trial conference room, we witness the lament of a convicted man who has committed the lesser crime but received the greater sentence. It is not until we meet the other convict that we glean it is not a court of law, but a post-death trial in which their eternal fates have been sealed. And it is not until he meets his fate that the pedophile at the center of this story truly understands his crime. Because he must meet his victim: an 11-year-old girl, with no one to turn to in making sense of the chaos of life, except him.

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:
Drama One Act

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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KickAss Plays For Women

KickAss Plays For Women
Award-winning new playwright Jane Shepard comes to print with four powerful short plays for women. Edgy, original, and with a darkly funny humanity, here are four pieces that give new muscle to actresses, providing roles of exceptional range. All successfully produced on the New York stage, each play features two-woman casts, with age-open roles, in work that explores our tender, brave, and sometimes brutal search for meaning. Includes both comedy and Drama, with a variety of settings and running times. An excellent introduction to the playwright, KickAss Plays For Women is a vital text for actresses of any age, or anyone hungry for compelling new plays. Nine (2f) Two women held in a life-threatening situation and the mind games they play to keep one another alive. Held in a cell and chained apart, their only currency is words, and balance of power is everything when a single word becomes the hanging point between life and death. Commencing (2f) the beautiful Kelli can-t wait for the blind date her friends have set her up on. Until it turns out to be one very disappointed lesbian named Arlin. Mutually appalled, yet appallingly intrigued, they proceed to pull the screws loose on both straight and gay women-s culture, to find the common ground beneath in the search for love & self. Friend of the Deceased (2f) An embittered widow lies in wait at her husband-s grave for the appearance his mistress, and encounters a soulful teen. Unable to extract a confession from the girl, the widow offers to buy one, and finds that she has purchased a deeper truth. the Last Nickel (2f and 2 pupeteers) theatrical, funny & touching, It-s another long night for Jamie, with an obnoxious sister & a trio of sardonic puppets to keep her awake. Tinged with fun & sisterly nostalgia, the merriment comes inevitably to focus on the cause of Jamie-s self destruction, and the loss that has brought her to the edge.

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:
four short plays One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Last Nickel, The

Synopsis:
It is another late night for Jamie, whose sleep is constantly disrupted by her persistently obnoxious sister Jo and a trio of sardonic puppets, all merrily and unturningly bent toward confronting the source of Jamie's self destruction. A touching tale of sisterly love and loss.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
One Dream theater    1996

Organisations:
One Dream

1st Published:
Kickass Plays For Women (Lulu Publishing), 1996   -

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:
Long One-Act, Drama One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Long Distance

Synopsis:
-

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:
Ten Min

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Nine

Synopsis:
Two women held in a life-threatening situation and the mind games they play to keep one another alive. Held in a cell and chained apart, their only tool is language; ideas are the currency in trade; and balance of power is everything when a single word becomes the hanging point between life & death. A full scope of emotions is played out in their competitions, which are alternately funny, fragile & fierce. Illuminates the strength of the human spirit, and the psychological cost of survival.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Circle Rep Lab    1994

Organisations:
Circle Rep

1st Published:
Kickass Plays For Women (Lulu Publishing), 1996   -

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, Drama One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Rage of Chaos, A

Synopsis:
the lone survivor of a group of friends now dead from AIDS returns to the site of their favorite weekend getaway, and struggles to strike a balance between the irresistable ghosts of the past, and the desperate need for meaning in the present. A funny, moving tour-de-force for one actor, and a story for anyone who has experienced loss and learned the healing power of love.

Notes:
A reminder of the entire generation of young men we lost to AIDS.

1st Produced:
Wings Theater, 154 Christopher Street, Basement, New York, NY 10014    1994

Organisations:
the Lab Theater Company

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:
funny Drama One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Strange Grace

Synopsis:
Bob is the gentle philosopher who runs a remote roadside. Macy is the suicidal biker who picks the cafe as her final stop. And Win is the free spirit who blows in to rekindle Bob's heart. their efforts to prevent Macy's suicide reawakens a previous tragedy for the older couple. One which has kept them forever apart. In witnessing the older couple's dilemma, the younger woman begins to find purpose. Written in response to the Columbine High School shootings, this play explores the futility of violence at a time when grieving is the true act of courage.

Notes:
A play that Appeals to A broad range of Age groups, this is An exciting story that Also inspires discussion on the causes of violent rampage, And the healing power of love.

1st Produced:
Read at the Public theater; Workshopped at New York Stage & Film    -

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:
Drama with humor Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Subway

Synopsis:
A subway platorm is no place to make love, and so Darcy & Alice, who came to have sex, won't be coming tonight, unless Darcy will discuss the trouble she claims not to have, and any life or death that involves; and only if Alice can come to terms with her sexuality, whatever that may be, which probably won't get figured out by the time she gets home to her husband, but could happen in time for these two to realize that the mess they're in makes a perfect place to figure out what they're doing together.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
the Producer's Club    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:
Long 1-Act, comedy One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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