Jessica Moss

All Jane wants is to perform comedy. But she is struggling even to get stage time in the court of King Henry VIII, in 1533. Despite the support of her friend Anne Boleyn, Jane can’t break into the boys club of Tudor nightly entertainment – King Henry would rather see acts like Carl the Funny One, who makes wry observations about contemporary life, but who also is known to publicly masturbate. But Carl the Funny One has a degree of power, and an interest in Jane: which he uses to put her in a humiliating and upsetting situation. When the event goes public, the court is divided, and as Carl makes half-hearted non-apologies, Jane still can’t get onstage – until she and Anne have finally had enough. In a world where you are inherently seen as less-than, what kind of justice is possible? How can you ever be seen as funny when you’re not really seen as a person? Inspired by the very short Wikipedia entry about Jane Foole, or Jane The Foole, the only female court jester ever depicted, and current events.

In the wake of scandals and declining follower counts, a wellness-centred collab house of female influencers has been told they must welcome an AI influencer into their fold as a replacement for one of their members. As everyone tries to stay in the house and justify their authenticity, it becomes evident that there is more than one robot here.

CAM BABY. COMEDY. 90 MIN. 4M, 2F. Matabang and Joseph secretly web-cam girls who rent a room in Joseph’s apartment, and share the footage with the Brobonic Union, their secret society of friends. Joseph’s having moral misgivings, but can’t bring himself to possibly lose the friendship of Matabang. When he rents a room to Clara, who fails to live up to their beauty standards, the operation is in jeopardy: until Clara starts dating Tim and suddenly everyone wants to watch. Touching on issues of privacy, consent, identity, lookism, and the value of women, ‘Cam Baby’ is a fast-paced ensemble comedy about the selves we create and the stories we watch

WE'LL MAKE IT TOGETHER. COMEDY - DRAMA. 120 MIN. 2M, 2F.
A theatre artist enlists her best friend to work on a show together, but fears that her career and her relationship will be torn apart by her struggle with mental illness. 

I WILL MISS YOU WHEN YOU'RE GONE. COMEDY DRAMA. 85 MIN. 4F.
A lonesome country song about grief and bureaucracy. Celeste tries to contact her dead mother Theresa, but instead is haunted by Evelyn. Evelyn jumped off the top of her office building, run by Robin. Robin just wants to get these files in order, until the spirit of Theresa shows up. A comedy about sad things for four women and a roomba. 

Colleen is a stand-up comic who's never hit the big time, which the voices in her head never allow her to forget. Jen is a med student hell-bent on perfection. Maya is Jen's girlfriend...or she was, until she fucked it up. And Lois is a talent agent with a cosmic understanding. When the voices in Colleen's head leak out and begin to infect other characters with insecurity and panic, the only thing to do is to steal someone's identity. Imposter! is a shared anxiety attack about self-doubt, self-hatred, and reinvention for four actors.

A GIRL LIVES ALONE. COMEDY DRAMA WITH FOLEYING. 110 MIN. 5F, 3M.
Marion moves to New York in the wake of a break-up and a murder takes place in her walk-up apartment building. As her life starts to feel like she's trapped in a Hitchcock movie, or maybe a TV show were young girls get killed every week, Marion can't stop listening to the old-timey suspense podcasts her ex made; and the lives of the other tenants, particularly the foley artist who lives upstairs, start to push in on her walls, making the dangers of being a girl living alone seem more and more prevalent. Does living close to others keep us safe, or put us in danger? And can you keep it down up there?  An ensemble comedy and a mash-up of Hitchcock, radio horror, and Law and Order SVU about murder, fear, and how well you really know your neighbours.

Next to Him examines the relationships between three people: Ash and Peter, tenth grade students at a private boys’ school in Toronto, and therapist Eva, Ash’s mother. Peter needs help: anyone can see that. He’s aggressive, manipulative, angry; but he’s also a talented actor, funny…special. Both Ash and Eva are drawn to help him in different ways, against their better judgment: Eva secretly becomes Peter’s therapist, while Ash plays a strange and addictive torture game with him in the school locker room. As Peter’s intimacy with both of them grows, the mother and son find themselves moving farther apart from each other. And while they wanted to help, their actions might be dangerous, might be hurtful, to everyone involved. What's help, anyway? And what does it mean to special?

Zara wants to save the planet, but to her boyfriend Matty, that looks like reading a lot of depressing think-pieces and throwing out all of their stuff. When Jocelyn, who works for in the fulfillment centre for a Large Corporation That Will Not Be Named, falls in love with Matty's order and mails herself to him, their relationship is put to the test. Suddenly, no one's who they used to be, all these boxes keep appearing, and a weird robot who is named Alexa (for no reason, no reason at all) seems to be encouraging murder. Have you ever wanted to stop climate change but also wanted to buy a new hat and have it delivered right to your door from a nefarious company that hurts local business and releases fossil fuels? And can we love each other under late-stage capitalism? (The answer is "no".)

Two dirtbags, completely incapable of throwing a dinner party, throw a dinner party to try to prove to their best friends/mortal enemies that they are not dirtbags.

ONE ACT. 25 MIN. Four liberals try to do good. Whatever that means.

OPEN. COMEDY-DRAMA. ONE ACT, 30 MIN. 1M, 1F.

Late at night, Jeannie asks Alistair if they should have an open marriage. A contemporary comedy-drama about identities inside and outside of relationships.

This is a collection of ten short plays about feeling blue at all times of year. Each play takes place at a different season/holiday/month. Inspired by the fact that I think I have seasonal depression in every season.

There's a lot of small cast (2-4 people, mostly 2) scenes, that are also good for scene work for classes, and the whole shebang works well for a big cast!

Fresh Start - January/ New Year's Eve
February - February/Valentine's Day
March Madness - March
Cruelest Month - April
Spring Cleaning - Spring
Heatwave - Summer
Howl - September/Fall
Ghostie - October/ Hallowe'en
Pumpkin Pie - November/ Thanksgiving
Solstice - December/ Longest night of the Year

Uh hi.

Yeah.

Welcome to...this play that we're doing. Our Town. We're gonna show you some...well, like, I'm just going to show you around our rehearsal. We go up in a month. We're not ready. But here we are.

(The cast of a high school production of Our Town rehearses).

Wesley is smart: real smart. She loves to learn, and exceling in school comes easily to her. And so her brain is her best friend (don’t tell that to her other best friends, Cameron and Parker). She loves her brain so much that she’s determined to become a professor of neuroscience, which is the study of the brain, don’t you know. She takes learning very seriously, unlike Cameron, who only ever wants to dance, and Parker, who keeps asking Wesley if she’s definitely going to Cameron’s birthday party this weekend.

But when her teacher Mr. Snook says that there will be a lockdown drill the next day, suddenly Wesley and her brain start feeling a little… strange. In a way she can’t really explain or understand. And when her parents argue that night (they’re doing a lot of that lately), when Papa is trying to explain how the world keeps getting hotter (so hot that things go on fire?), Wesley and her brain can’t sleep. Her brain either feels like it’s talking too much or not enough: sometimes he’s full of opinions, and other times he’s empty; and other parts of her body start feeling weird, too. WHAT'S GOING ON?

A Zoom play for 13 actors, exploring loneliness and connection. Most scenes are 2-3 characters. Realistic scenes for high school/early university or college-aged actors.

I feel we may be coming to the end of our time with Zoom plays, but, if you are ever interested in this, it's a very flexible piece, and I'm happy to work with you to fit the play to your group. Characters can be cut, names can be changed to reflect actors, etc.

CALEB AND RITA. TEN MINUTE PLAY. COMEDY. 1M, 1F.
Terri is meeting Caleb. Andrew is meeting Rita. Or they’re supposed to.
Are you…? Oh, sorry.
On the internet, and in real life, anyone can be anyone.

BREAK IN. TEN MINUTE PLAY. COMEDY. 1M, 1F.

Teddy has broken in to Roberta's house. It was not the night to break into Roberta's house.

Nate and Maggie love each other…right?
So they should move in together…right?
Was this apartment always that small?
But Nate and Maggie still love each other….right?

A group of women are determined to make their dreams a reality. And they're not about to let Cleo's husband stand in their way.

KINSEY. MONOLOGUE. COMEDY/DRAMA. 4 MIN. 1F.
Kinsey is 14 and today sucks.

Remember when we as a society were like... sending celebrities to space?

HOW ARE WE DOING? TEN MINUTE PLAY. COMEDY. 2M, 2F. Four friends deal with how to go on when the world seems to have fallen apart.

Jonathan Swift is the greatest satirist of all time! He goes to his publisher to reveal his most incredible work yet!

TEN MINUTE. A former bookworm wants to get back into reading... but she knows the books are mad.

TEN MINUTE. I would just find it very difficult to forgive my family if they performed badly on Family Feud.

An artistic director is haunted by ghosts of the theatre for choosing to do A Christmas Carol, yet again.

It's too hot.
It's too hot to live.
It's too hot to love.
So what hope do Jackson and Moira have?

P IN V. TEN MINUTE PLAY. COMEDY-DRAMA. 1M, 1F.

Two best friends discuss heterosexual love making. Gross.

Two exes. That was the past. We're all adults here. Besides, it's just dinner.