Chris Weikel (He/Him/His)

Chris Weikel (He/Him/His)

Chris Weikel was one of the first four students to graduate from the Rita and Burton Goldberg MFA in playwriting program at Hunter College, studying under Tina Howe and Mark Bly. Weikel participated in the Kennedy Center ACTF/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop in 2012. His play SECRET IDENTITY was featured during “Playwright’s Week” at the Lark Play Development Center in 2012, and produced by TOSOS in residence at...
Chris Weikel was one of the first four students to graduate from the Rita and Burton Goldberg MFA in playwriting program at Hunter College, studying under Tina Howe and Mark Bly. Weikel participated in the Kennedy Center ACTF/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop in 2012. His play SECRET IDENTITY was featured during “Playwright’s Week” at the Lark Play Development Center in 2012, and produced by TOSOS in residence at The Flea in 2019. His PENNY PENNIWORTH, which according to The New York Times "deserves to become a staple" was produced by Emerging Artists Theatre Company (EAT) in 2009 and 2010. It was recently mounted by Titanic theatre Company in Boston and has been published by Dramatic Publishing. His PIG TALE: AN URBAN FAERIE STORY was produced off-off-Broadway by The Other Side of Silence (TOSOS), as well as at the Absolut Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival in 2009. Weikel is a judge-at-large for the New York Innovative Theatre (NYIT) Awards and a regular contributor to Drunken! Careening! Writers! at KGB. He was a 2008-09 Dramatist Guild Fellow, the 2007 recipient of the Robert Chesley Award for emerging gay playwrights, the 2008 recipient of the Irv Zarkower Award, a 2011 recipient of the Rita and Burton Goldberg Award from Hunter College, a 2013 NYFA Fellowship grantee, and the 2014 recipient of the NNPN Smith Prize Commission for political theatre. The resulting play, THE WORD FROM KAMPALA was workshopped by InterAct Theater in Philadelphia in 2016. In recognition of his longstanding collaboration with New York’s oldest and longest producing LGBTQ+ theatre company, Weikel and TOSOS were recipients of a 2018 Dramatists Guild Writers Alliance Grant. He is the recipient of the 2021 Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award. Chris is a proud member of DGA and AEA.

Plays

  • Secret Identity
    JT is a 16-year old comic book nerd with something huge to hide, and that something flies, wears spandex and battles evil. A teenager must deal with the constant humiliation of the school bully, his changing ideas of who he is sexually and creatively, all the while trying to balance his relationship with his real-world best friend and the increasingly intrusive fictional characters he’s created to help him...
    JT is a 16-year old comic book nerd with something huge to hide, and that something flies, wears spandex and battles evil. A teenager must deal with the constant humiliation of the school bully, his changing ideas of who he is sexually and creatively, all the while trying to balance his relationship with his real-world best friend and the increasingly intrusive fictional characters he’s created to help him through the day. When adolescent fantasies come in heroic proportions it's hard to keep them under wraps.
  • Penny Penniworth
    Chris Weikel’s Off-Broadway hit PENNY PENNIWORTH is a labyrinthine romp through 19th century English literature as presented by a severely short-staffed theatre troupe with Royal Shakespeare Company pretensions, who decide to produce a “lost” Dickens epic. The eponymous Penny, a down-on-her-luck Dickensian waif, deprived of her fortune and her country estate by the untimely death of her hapless father (Her...
    Chris Weikel’s Off-Broadway hit PENNY PENNIWORTH is a labyrinthine romp through 19th century English literature as presented by a severely short-staffed theatre troupe with Royal Shakespeare Company pretensions, who decide to produce a “lost” Dickens epic. The eponymous Penny, a down-on-her-luck Dickensian waif, deprived of her fortune and her country estate by the untimely death of her hapless father (Her father’s name is actually Hapless, as it happens), must go off to London and navigate her way among unscrupulous suitors, incorrigible urchins and anonymous benefactors. After throwing herself on the mercy of the family solicitor, Mr. Bunting (of the firm Bunting Bunting and Swagg, naturally) Penny and her mother are sent to live with the slightly deranged Miss Havasnort to cater to her every whim. Penny soon becomes prey of the roguish Rupert Stryfe, Heir to the House of Stryfe. What is an innocent young girl to do? The play is a tour-de-force for four actors who portray a cavalcade of comic characters in a gender-bending tale of true love thwarted, wealth, deception, abduction and true love regained. As Neil Genzlinger of the New York Times wrote: “Chris Weikel, the playwright, knows that Dickens is practically his own parody; his story about a young maid who loses love and then, through a preposterously circuitous journey, finds it again is exaggerated only ever so slightly from what Dickens might have written.” Genzlinger went on to declare that PENNY PENNIWOTH “deserves to become a staple.” Frank Scheck of the New York Post wrote that PENNY PENNIWORTH “is sharp, fast and funny, especially for those who've suffered from one Dickens adaptation too many.” And Fern Siegel of The Huffington Post called it “clever” & “witty” and went on to say “Playwright Chris Weikel lampoons British accents and famous literary characters with expertise”
  • The Word from Kampala
    Jane and Jeremy are unexpectedly visited in their suburban Ohio home by old friend from their days serving as missionaries in Africa. The visit brings them face to face with a troubling connection between their religious work, their estranged son Paul, and Uganda’s restrictive anti-gay policies. The couple must confront the far-reaching unintended consequences of their past actions in a deeply personal way.
  • Dead Man's Chest
    When commitment-phobic Brian digs up a magical sea-chest which transports him back in time to meet Captain Kidd, he is confronted with terrifying choice between a bloodthirsty pirate crew and a wedding ring.
  • Pig Tale: An Urban Faerie Story
    Johnny & Dave have been dating casually until one night Dave turns into a pig—literally -- tail, snout, the whole nine yards. Does this mean it’s over? What happens when the morning after suddenly threatens to become ‘happily ever after’? Can passion survive?
  • Nelly
    Tom, a.k.a. Nelly, is a youth of considerable talents. Unfortunately, the ability to drop an elegant curtsey will get a lad only so far in London at the turn of the 18th century. Or will it? Tom might be merely an errand boy with hopelessly romantic notions, but Nelly is a lady with prospects. She may yet claw her way out of the demi-monde and forever leave behind the world of pick-pockets, mollies,...
    Tom, a.k.a. Nelly, is a youth of considerable talents. Unfortunately, the ability to drop an elegant curtsey will get a lad only so far in London at the turn of the 18th century. Or will it? Tom might be merely an errand boy with hopelessly romantic notions, but Nelly is a lady with prospects. She may yet claw her way out of the demi-monde and forever leave behind the world of pick-pockets, mollies, soldiers, boy-whores and (heaven forfend) actors. But first she must answer the question: “Tell me, gentle hob'dehoy! Art thou Girl, or art thou Boy?”
  • Embrace
    Two men garbed in traditional uniforms of masculinity are clinging to each other for solace. Through a series of flashbacks we find out how these relative strangers, Brad a financial executive and Billy, a United States Marine find themselves in this moment.