Chris Widney

Chris Widney

… is a New York City area playwright, book writer and lyricist who tries to spend as much time as possible wandering around in the mountains. Full-length plays, “Big, Fat And Ugly With A Moustache” (Perry Street Theatre, NYC), “Family Men” (Arden, Philadelphia), “The Normals” (Luna Stage, NJ), “Consumed” (Barter Theatre, VA). Other full-lengths, one-acts, musicals and screenplays have been presented, read,...
… is a New York City area playwright, book writer and lyricist who tries to spend as much time as possible wandering around in the mountains. Full-length plays, “Big, Fat And Ugly With A Moustache” (Perry Street Theatre, NYC), “Family Men” (Arden, Philadelphia), “The Normals” (Luna Stage, NJ), “Consumed” (Barter Theatre, VA). Other full-lengths, one-acts, musicals and screenplays have been presented, read, work-shopped and honored in theatres and contests around the world including The Actors Theatre Of Louisville, City Theatre, Miami and The Fire Rose Theatre in Los Angeles. He is co-author of a book about squash (the sport, not the vegetable), a member of The Dramatists Guild, the BMI Workshop, and a graduate of the Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU.

Plays

  • Daisy And Lou's Big Move To Jupiter
    Based on a true story.

    
NYC, 1960. Daisy wants a baby. But Daisy can’t have kids. And she can’t adopt because she makes a living as a high-priced call girl. And her boyfriend just punched her in the head. Clearly Daisy and Lou, her gay hairdresser and soulmate, are gonna need to think outside the box.
  • Dark Night Jam
    MUSIC BY: CREIGHTON IRONS.

    "Dark Night Jam" can be called a musical, a play with music, or a play about musicians who use music as their language.

    A piano player named Jack who never quite "made it" and is stuck teaching children at his old music school in New Jersey. But Jack also runs a monthly jam session where he and all his old pals get together to cut...
    MUSIC BY: CREIGHTON IRONS.

    "Dark Night Jam" can be called a musical, a play with music, or a play about musicians who use music as their language.

    A piano player named Jack who never quite "made it" and is stuck teaching children at his old music school in New Jersey. But Jack also runs a monthly jam session where he and all his old pals get together to cut loose and do their thing.

    As Jack battles a debilitating lack of self-worth, he ultimately comes to realize that he may already have it all in a dump of a club, on a Monday night, when the lights are low and nobody’s around for a very Dark Night Jam.
  • Stuck
    A tech entrepreneur sells his start up for twenty million dollars and can’t figure out why he’s miserable. After a fight with his girlfriend at a meditation retreat in Lake Tahoe, he takes off in his gym shorts to go run in the mountains and gets his foot caught between two large rocks. Stuck, with no warm clothes or way to communicate, the guy meets all sorts of characters including members of the Donner...
    A tech entrepreneur sells his start up for twenty million dollars and can’t figure out why he’s miserable. After a fight with his girlfriend at a meditation retreat in Lake Tahoe, he takes off in his gym shorts to go run in the mountains and gets his foot caught between two large rocks. Stuck, with no warm clothes or way to communicate, the guy meets all sorts of characters including members of the Donner party, a talking bear, and a man who may or may not be God, as he tries to not freeze to death.
  • Consumed
    1935, tuberculosis claims the lives of one out of every seven people. Thousands go to sanatoriums to sit perfectly still on porches in the freezing cold hoping to heal, waiting to die. But in upstate New York quick-talking, swing dancing party girl, Betty McCracken, just wants to have fun!
  • Greenville Tomorrow
    Todd and Marion, thirty-something African Americans, move from their tiny apartment in Brooklyn to a beautiful first home in lovely Greenville, South Carolina. As they settle in, however, hidden agendas emerge including a boss who’d like Todd to be the first African-American to participate in “some nice, friendly Civil War reenactments.” Mortified by the implications but still wildly in love with their new...
    Todd and Marion, thirty-something African Americans, move from their tiny apartment in Brooklyn to a beautiful first home in lovely Greenville, South Carolina. As they settle in, however, hidden agendas emerge including a boss who’d like Todd to be the first African-American to participate in “some nice, friendly Civil War reenactments.” Mortified by the implications but still wildly in love with their new home, Todd and Marion must examine their own relationship and ask how far they are willing to go to live the American dream.
  • Keepers
    An aspiring artist lives in his storage unit and paints. When a successful, young career woman begins storing next door neither one wants to be friends. Nonetheless, they are drawn to each other by an odd mutual interest in llamas.
  • Prepare For Impact
    Injured Iraq vet Johnny Hayes returns home to Indiana. Unable to find work in a bleak economy, he uses his “mid-East expertise” to start a dubious homeland security business. It may be just what the country needs. It may be a complete scam.

    In order to legitimize operations, Johnny courts millionaire industrialist Charles Bricker. As Johnny and Charles become buddies, Kelly, Charles’...
    Injured Iraq vet Johnny Hayes returns home to Indiana. Unable to find work in a bleak economy, he uses his “mid-East expertise” to start a dubious homeland security business. It may be just what the country needs. It may be a complete scam.

    In order to legitimize operations, Johnny courts millionaire industrialist Charles Bricker. As Johnny and Charles become buddies, Kelly, Charles’ twenty-five year old trophy wife, and Crystal, Kelly’s bratty, fifteen year old little sister, try to figure out exactly who is hustling whom.

    Are their relationships based entirely on commerce or is anything real?
  • The Semis Of Abu Dhabi
    Sammy Grunberger quits college to prove that he can make it as a professional tennis player.  But when the Futures Tour arrives for its stop in Abu Dhabi, Sammy discovers that online betting may have already changed the game - and he may not be good enough to do anything about it.
  • The Idea Man
    ZACK graduates from college and has absolutely no desire to do anything with his life. He returns to his parents' basement in Fair Lawn, New Jersey and gets stoned with his old high school buddy, CARL.
    NATALIE, ZACK'S "girlfriend" from college, returns from a three month search for the meaning of life in Central and South America. She, too, has found no answers. NATALIE...
    ZACK graduates from college and has absolutely no desire to do anything with his life. He returns to his parents' basement in Fair Lawn, New Jersey and gets stoned with his old high school buddy, CARL.
    NATALIE, ZACK'S "girlfriend" from college, returns from a three month search for the meaning of life in Central and South America. She, too, has found no answers. NATALIE joins ZACK and CARL in the basement.
    After categorically dismissing every career choice or job possibility as absolutely ridiculous, and because they all hate "Levis", the three decide to start their own company manufacturing the "Meanest Jeans" ever!
    When business thrives they must make adult decisions and re-evaluate priorities, relationships and their emotional attachment to a really big, monster truck.
    Music by Andrew Heyman.
  • These People
    Successful home exercise equipment manufacturer, Jerry Shurl, has been living with a secret. Monday morning he will “go away” for two years for tax fraud. He has one weekend to tell the truth and make everything wonderful with his seven-year-old daughter. Fortunately, during this trying time, Jerry knows he has the full support of his beautiful wife and all of his “absolute best friends” at the country club… Or does he?
  • Two People
    Two young New Yorkers, desperately searching for love, pass on the streets, in the subway, in bars and cafes but they never meet. 

After years of dating disasters, they finally see each other.
    Music by: Dimitri Landrain, Kevin Laursen, Andrew Heyman, Sebastian Fabal, Robert Edridge Waks, Niko Tsakalakos, Julian Blackmore, Zach Redler, Mark Evans, Bomi Lee, Sean Mahoney, Yui Kitamura, Creighton Irons.
  • The Guy Who Jumped Into The Zoo
    Based on a true story. A twenty-five year old man jumps from a monorail ride, over a barbed wire fence and into a cage with a four hundred pound Siberian tiger at The Bronx Zoo. When asked why, he says, "I wanted to be one with the tiger." Alone in an interrogation room, the Guy tries to convince investigators that he isn't crazy.
  • Jolly Wally
    Fed up with the day to day humiliation of their “act,” a walrus tries to convince her complacent walrus boyfriend to escape from the “SeaLife Aquarium” in Tallahassee.
  • Miss Stump's Got It
    The skills of the world’s greatest librarian are put to the test in a battle of little, old lady versus the Internet.
  • High Speed Disconnect
    Two self-absorbed, smartphone addicts speed through an entire relationship before their drinks even arrive.
  • Just Like Them
    The black market for exotic wildlife generates nearly $20 billion per year. When a species becomes extinct, its value skyrockets. In a basement in Ohio, a Chinese Salamander knows that his time is near. He looks to his cage-mate, a fun-loving, naive Panda, as his last chance to escape.
  • Match Point
    An aging American tennis player fights inner demons along with the new, adorable, Russian superstar as her whole life flashes before her during a single, match point.
  • Call Me Sasquatch!
    An upright walking bear from New Jersey tries to impress his young son by convincing the world that he is Sasquatch.
  • Why?
    A chicken questions her relationships, her role in society, her entire identity as she prepares to cross a road. And we finally find out, “why?”
  • I Hate Cats!
    A seemingly innocent cat-sitting gig turns ugly as man is pushed to the brink in a battle for power with two little kitties.