Jeffrey Neuman

In August 1908, one hundred and seven years before the legalization of same-sex unions, two of the biggest stars in America stepped onto the stage of the Alhambra Theatre in New York City and thumbed their noses at gender roles, respectability, and the institution of marriage. Was it a performance? Was it a publicity stunt? Or, was it something much more personal for the two stars involved? The Headliners, a play with music, asks us to consider the price of fame and the cost of celebrity as it intersects with gender and sexuality.

Adam is a forty-something gay man living a quiet but seemingly contented life. He’s married to a man he truly loves and runs a stationery shop, where he expertly designs custom wedding invitations. However, when he simultaneously meets two different individuals — a rather seductive married man in a gym steam room and a joyful, yet frenetic bride in desperate need of assistance — he begins to realize that marriage may have clear boundaries, but it certainly does not have very clear rules.

WHAT YOU WILL brings together the disparate worlds of wedding invitations, anonymous sex, and Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT to explore the unspoken contracts we make in personal relationships and what happens when the terms of those tacit agreements come into question.

REVIEWS FOR WHAT YOU WILL
"4/4 stars. Denver playwright Jeffrey Neuman’s 'What You Will' at Benchmark Theatre is a witty, incisive and sometimes prurient reflection on loyalty, truth, marriage and relationships."
-Claire Martin, The Denver Post

"You’re likely to find yourself holding your breath and then tearing up at the answers, because the truths Neuman uncovers strike deep."
-Juliet Wittman, Westword

"It is too much fun to watch this story unweave to spoil it for the first time watcher by telling too much. Be warned – you will have strong feelings of the “woulda – coulda – shoulda” type before you walk out of the theatre on this evening."
-Beki Pineda, GetBoulder.com

"...the dynamics between characters and the universal issues that are highlighted are reason enough to go see the show."
-Addison Herron-Wheeler, OutFront Magazine

Four people's lives collide when they witness a strange and disturbing occurrence. Based on real events, "Delivered" is a play about the dangerous crossroads of prejudice and complacency.

A man and woman share an awkward and rather telling "morning after" conversation about, as the title suggests, grammar. As they flirtatiously share their love of words with one another, the banter quickly becomes a dance of subtext more than text. What exactly did these two people share the night before, and what (if anything) can they share in the future?

Chance Gold, a moderately successful playwright, has spent the better part of his life distancing himself from his modest, quasi-Jewish upbringing and his unpredictably explosive family. Then, his father dies very unexpectedly and under rather nebulous circumstances. Armed with acerbic wit, a caustic BFF, and a lot of alcohol, he goes back to his childhood home, where he is forced to deal with his emotional maelstrom of a mother, his inexplicably estranged sister and the realities of his father's death. At turns funny and heartbreaking, EXIT STRATEGIES not only explores the fine line between absurdity and pathos in family relationships, but also questions at what point the protective walls we put up around ourselves become a self-imposed prison.

Reviews:
"FUNNY, EMOTIONALLY RAW AND TRAGIC" (DENVER POST)

"CAUSTIC, FUNNY, MEANINGFUL" (NORTH DENVER TRIBUNE)

"ORIGINAL, FUNNY, OFTEN MESMERIZING" (WESTWORD)

A tense visitation occurs in an assisted living facility as an old man lies confined to a hospital bed, imprisoned by aphasia and robbed of his ability to communicate.

Two praying mantises (or mantodea, if you want to get technical) enjoy a post-coital moment before tensions arise.