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Christopher Shinn

CHRISTOPHER SHINN

  (1975 - )
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Creative Artists Agency NY  represented by George Lane

Christopher Shinn was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and lives in New York. His plays have been premiered by the Royal Court Theatre, Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, the Vineyard Theatre, South Coast Rep, and Soho Theatre, and later seen regionally in the United States and around the world. He is the winner of an OBIE in Playwriting (2004-2005) and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting (2005), was a Pulitzer Prize finalist (2008), was shortlisted for the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play (2008), and has also been nominated for an Olivier Award for Most Promising Playwright (2003), a TMA Award for Best New Play (2006), a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play (2007), and a South Bank Show Award for Theatre (2009). In 2009, his adaptation of Hedda Gabler premiered on Broadway at the Roundabout (American Airlines Theatre) and he has also written short plays for Naked Angels, the 24 Hour Plays, and the New York International Fringe Festival (2002 winner, Best Overall Production). He has received grants from the NEA/TCG Residency Program and the Peter S. Reed Foundation, and he is a recipient of the Robert S. Chesley Award. He teaches playwriting at the New School for Drama.

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

         Coming World, The         Dying City, The         Everyone         Falling Away         Four         Hedda Gabler         Lakeera         Now Or Later         On the Mountain         Opening In Time, An         Other People         Picked         Sleepers         Teddy Ferrara         Two Worlds         What Didn't Happen         Where Do We Live
Coming World, The

Synopsis:
Ed, struggling to make ends meet, loses ten thousand dollars and calls on his ex-girlfriend, Dora, for help. On a New England beach at night, he explains his situation to her and tries to seduce her back into his life. After a terrible tragedy, Dora finds herself on the beach again-this time with Ed's twin brother, Ty, an introverted web designer. On the night of Ed's wake, they grieve a mysterious, unarticulated loss that threatens to destroy them both.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY and Methuen, London, 2006,    

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:  1            Female:  1            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:
-

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Dying City, The

Synopsis:
While the Iraq War rages on in the Middle East, Denise introduces her friend Tom to her new boyfriend, Jerry, at a bar. Over drinks, sparks fly as Tom and Jerry quickly find themselves at opposite sides of the political spectrum. A penetrating examination at the nexus of public and private spheres in the aftermath of 9/11.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Naked Angels (New York, NY, United States)     2004

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:
8-10 min Play/Drama. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  2 males, 1 female

Further Reference:
-

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Everyone

Everyone
No-one can forget the moment they heard the news. September 11th, 2001 sent shockwaves across the globe. It was a day that was supposed to change the world forever.Ten years on, a team of major writers and thinkers explore our responses to the defining event of our times in a new production from Headlong, creators of the multi award-winning ENRON. Rupert Goold's theatre company transforms a former trading hall into an immersive theatrical experience, taking you from the tranquil setting of St Katharine Docks on the River Thames to the bright blue skies of downtown Manhattan and beyond.

Notes:
part of Decade: Two towers. Ten years. Twenty plays. Ten years After 9/11, twenty international writers respond to the defining event of our times. Published here Are their individual plays, which woven together formed the basis of Decade, An immersive theatrical production from Headlong theatre company. the writers: Samuel Adamson, Mike Bartlett, Alecky Blythe, Adam Brace, Ben Ellis, Ella Hickson, Samuel D. Hunter, John Logan, Matthew Lopez, Mona Mansour, DC Moore, Abi Morgan, Rory Mullarkey, Janine Nabers, Lynn Nottage, Harrison David Rivers, Simon Schama, Christopher Shinn, Beth Steel, Alexandra Wood.

1st Produced:
Commodity Quay, St Katharine Docks, London E1W 1Az     01 Sep 2011

Organisations:
Headlong

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 piece

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Falling Away

Falling Away
the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) is a foundation stone of the English language. the KJV was composed as a collective project and written to be spoken. Sixty-Six Books has been created, in the spirit of the original, in the same way. Pulpit to print; stage to page; mediated through many forms oral and written, the KJV has, since its inception, been a fundamental part of written and spoken English.This is a work that has travelled to every continent of the globe. It has been shared as a melodic instrument of inspiration, illumination and mutual understanding; and it has also been wielded as a tool of colonial oppression. Sixty-Six Books is a fresh interpretation of the KJV for the new millennium, celebrating and challenging the traditions and achievements of this great work on the occasion of its 400th anniversary. the curators of this project have gathered together a formidable and inspiring line-up of the best established and emerging writing talent to produce a new version of the KJV for thetwenty-first century. Each writer has created anew a book of the KJV - as prose, poetry, Drama, performance, song, or ground-breaking digital form. Each writer has spoken back to the KJV with untrammeled inventiveness of the imagination. the voices of Sixty-Six Books, drawn from across five continents, innovate, transmute, transpose, reinvent and talk back to four hundredyears of history. All the works that make up Sixty-Six Books are written to be spoken. Culminating in major performance events at the Bush theatre and Westminster Abbey in 2011 in London, Sixty-Six Books is a contribution towards the mutual curiosity, tolerance, and force of collective enterprise and shared humanity that characterizes the international and ancient Arts of writing and spoken performance

Notes:
Part of Sixty-Six Books: 21st-century writers speak to the King James Bible. Play is A response to the King James Bible book of 2 thessalonians

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:
piece

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Four

Four
On the Fourth of July in Hartford in 1996, June, a sixteen-year-old white boy, meets up with a closeted, married black man he's met over the Internet. On the same night, in the same city, this man's sixteen-year-old daughter agrees to go out with Dexter, a twenty-year-old low-level drug dealer. In and around the city, on the American night of independence, these two couples get to know each other, moving from strangers to intimates. In lonely landscapes of movie theatres, fast food restaurants, darkened churches and public parks, they discover the limits of desire and the possibilities for transcendence.

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:
Play/Drama. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hedda Gabler

Synopsis:
This Broadway adaptation of Ibsen's timeless Drama presents a sympathetic, yet striking and powerful, Hedda in the classic tale of her struggle to find a means of escape from a loveless, ordinary existence. Beginning with the return from her honeymoon, Hedda finds herself bored of her husband, and longing for the days when she was free to exercise her wild and independent whims. With the return of an old flame and a proposition from an amorous judge, she begins a dangerous game, amusing herself by manipulating and destroying everyone around her in an attempt to regain control of her life.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Roundabout Theatre Company (Broadway) (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:
130-140 min Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  3 males, 4 females

Further Reference:
-

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Lakeera

Synopsis:
On 9/11 a High School student has a sexual encounter with a spooky classmate

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Town Hall, New York     2002

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:
Monologue play

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Now Or Later

Now Or Later
Election night in the U.S. and things are looking rosy for the Democratic Party. Holed up in a hotel watching the results flood in are the likely President-elect, his wife, advisors and twenty-year-old son John Jnr. Every speech, interview and photocall has been carefully controlled and meticulously orchestrated, all leading up to this big night. At the same time controversial photos of John Jnr are gathering momentum on the internet. Whilst his father's advisors work against the clock on damage limitation, it's up to Father and son to try and reach an agreement. Christopher Shinn's searching play examines religion, freedom of expression and personal responsibility.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Methuen Drama
Dramatists Play Service, NY   

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:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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On the Mountain

On the Mountain
A former rock-and-roll wild child, haunted by the suicide of a Seattle rock legend, struggles with the rebellion of her own iPod-obsessed teenage daughter. When rumors of the rock star's final, lost song bring a charming young man with questionable motives into the picture, an intriguing mystery begins to unfold.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
South Coast Rep, Costa Mesa, Ca     05 Jan 2005

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

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:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Opening In Time, An

Synopsis:
A retired teacher returns to her home town hoping to change her life

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

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Other People

Synopsis:
Stephen, a struggling playwright and web-site movie critic, invites his ex-boyfriend, Mark, to spend Christmas with him and his roommate, Petra, a poet and stripper. Mark, who's recently completed making an independent film and is fresh out of rehab, begins his life back in the real world by becoming friends with Tan, a street hustler with a penchant for public masturbation. Meanwhile, Petra begins to engage outside of work with one of her customers, a kind, lonely investment banker who'd rather hear her talk than see her strip. In the crucible of a tiny East Village apartment, Stephen, Mark and Petra struggle with questions of art, sex and each other as the impending New Year forces them to define how they want to live and love in a dark and confusing world.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY and Methuen, London, 2000,    

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. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Picked

Picked
Picked concerns a young actor who prepares for his life to change when a legendary director casts him as the lead in a big-budget Hollywood movie. But he is not prepared for what comes next, and everything he knows about himself will be called into question as he discovers what it means to be "picked."
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Vineyard theatre
108 East 15th Street, New York, NY 10003     20 Apr 2011

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

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:  1            Other:  1 man/woman (flexible casting)

Further Reference:
-

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Sleepers

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "the Backstage Book Of New American Short Plays 2004" published by Back Stage,    

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:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Teddy Ferrara

Synopsis:
It's Gabe's senior year of college and his future looks bright: He runs the Queer Students Group, he finally has a single room and he recently started dating a great guy. But when a campus tragedy occurs that makes national headlines it ignites a firestorm and throws Gabe's world into disorder. When new evidence surfaces, Gabe discovers that the events surrounding the tragedy aren't as straightforward as they seem, and he is forced to question popular assumptionsand his own life's contradictions.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play service, NY, 2013   

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:
LGBT full length

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Two Worlds

Two Worlds
In a quiet restaurant, Carla and Fred are experiencing a painful first date, while Nina and Tyler are at the next table, experiencing a painful reunion. A play that questions how to live in a world where people never change.

Notes:
In 1995, A group of writers, directors And Actors gathered on Manhattan's Lower East Side for what was supposed to be A one-time-only event: write, direct, produce And perform new plays with the span of 24 hours. More than A decade And just over 300 plays later, the 24 Hour Plays have been produced on Broadway, in London, Los Angeles, Chicago And Across the globe.

1st Produced:
The 24 Hour Plays (New York, NY, United States)     2002

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:
comedy Ten min

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  2 males, 2 females

Further Reference:
-

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What Didn't Happen

Synopsis:
When his lover, literary adversary and a sympathetic colleague gather at Dave Ardith's upstate retreat for a midsummer barbecue, the acclaimed author is forced to confront his demons-the novel he is loath to finish and the life he is loath to resume. Six years later, Dave's young protege, Scott-present on that fateful night-returns to the house, soul-searching and plagued by a mysterious regret.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

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:  5            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Where Do We Live

Synopsis:
You know how it is, we all live together, we all neighbours in an apartment in lower Manhattan, Stephen spends most of his time writing, looking out of his window and noticing his neighbours. He knows that the black family across the hall survive off benefits and drugs, but now there seem to be more mysterious comings and goings from their apartment. Across town his friend Patricia, works part-time in a bar where she serves right-leaning stockbrokers looking for the next break in the market. A political argument blows up when Stephen's boyfriend Tyler chats up white trash Billy in a club and brings him back to Stephen's party. Set in a post-September 11 world, this searching play asks to what extent is New York's liberal multicultural society under threat and how much should we care about the state in which our neighbours live.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY and Methuen, London, 2002   

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. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  2            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:
-

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