←Recommendations of Tracy Jones

The best comedies have something deeply serious at their core, and Stephen Kaplan’s TRACY JONES is a fine example of that. The cringe-comedy is masterfully done, but it’s the universal themes of loneliness and desire to be someone else that gives this play its heft. A great showcase for some talented actors with range, I imagine this is a piece that audiences will be thinking and talking about long after they’ve left the theater. Well done!

Tracy Jones was one of eight (out of several hundred) selected by the Bechdel Group for our Fall 2019 Workshop Season. The audience appreciated the comedy and were intrigued by the universal issues around personal identity. Other feedback from our audience included statements that the writing was very alive and gave a sense of location and time (particularly impressive, as our reading was held in an empty black box). Themes and questions brought up in discussion included: sense of belonging, generational differences, and the struggles of competition versus collaboration.

Edward Albee meets Samuel D. Hunter. A wonderful play about the lengths we will go to to connect with others. The snappy, fast-paced dialogue and bordering-on-absurd premise has the ability to make you laugh one minute and hold back tears the next. Kaplan also does a great job of playing with the expectations of both the audience and the characters. By turns hilarious and pathetic, we root for them to connect while cringe at their faltering attempts to do so. I can't wait to see this play onstage!

The strain of melancholy running through Stephen Kaplan's "Tracy Jones" gives this play its heart; it's beating, breaking heart. Kaplan beautifully balances offbeat humor with aching sentiment, and the result is a poignant comedy that touches one deeply.

This play may seem light, but the weight of its themes and Kaplan's writing shows a much heavier and poignant work by the end. Who we are, how we are, what determines that and what do we do with it are all essential questions when figuring ourselves out. Kaplan uses an absurd premise to peel the layers in which these questions affect our mental health and the importance of companionship during the journey.

We need to connect with others. In "Tracy Jones," Stephen Kaplan dramatizes how sometimes the people we connect with aren't who we expected or wanted -- and sometimes those expectations make us behave worse than we normally would.

The central struggle of this play is universal and understandable. Kaplan's characters are layered, interesting, and have their own need and voice. There's humor, longing, cruelty, warmth, and a deft touch of hopefulness. Actors, directors and audiences will long remember "Tracy Jones."

Update: Excellent performances in The Bechdel Group's virtual reading of "Tracy Jones" in October 2021 made the script even richer.

What a lovely, sweet, funny and sad play about trying to find connections and what happens when you don't or can't. Most of what I love about this play is the language and the details, and the detailed language. Kaplan's choice of words and characters, along with his timing of comedy and revelations is exquisite.

If you think that farce can be nothing more than merely brain candy, read this play by Stephen Kaplan. When a woman is clutching at straws to find connection with the rest of the world, she invests her life savings into a party for unfamiliar guests who share her name. There are wild antics, slapstick and cartoonish characters, but there’s something more here... Kaplan shows us a deep yearning to share our lives, to truly share them, with people beyond our social media interfaces. Even if you’re not a Tracy, come to the party anyway.

Tracy Jones throws a party to connect with her tribe - others named Tracy Jones. Lonely, disillusioned with life and desperate to forge connections, she throws caution to the wind and invests heavily - in herself. Kaplan layers the play with such high spirits, you root for all. Can life change in a back room of a Wing Joint? Possibilities are everywhere and Kaplan's characters discover their humanity, their foibles and their next steps amid a backdrop of hot sauces and boneless wings.

There's a heartache in this play that I felt deeply. There's a longing for authentic (even if temporary) companionship (with others who share your name), communication (with the help of party games) and community (in a party room at Bar 'n Grill). Our protagonist, bored by her job and unfufilling life, becomes a clever stand-in for many of us, disenchanted fools of capitalism.
There's a hopefulness, an optimism that I love in this play.
You may find kinship with Tracy and may get inspired to host your own party!
Easy to produce. Check it out.