Jeremy Kareken

Jeremy Kareken

Australia, Singapore, Shanghai, Budapest, Ireland, New York City, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Playwrights Center, Center Stage Baltimore, and on Broadway. The EST Next Step Fellowship, the Walter Dakin Fellowship at the Sewanee Writers Conference, the Hamptons Film Festival's screenwriting conference, the Playwrights Center/Guthrie Theater's Two-Headed challenge, and the 25th Annual Samuel...
Australia, Singapore, Shanghai, Budapest, Ireland, New York City, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Playwrights Center, Center Stage Baltimore, and on Broadway. The EST Next Step Fellowship, the Walter Dakin Fellowship at the Sewanee Writers Conference, the Hamptons Film Festival's screenwriting conference, the Playwrights Center/Guthrie Theater's Two-Headed challenge, and the 25th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Awards, Outer Critics Circle's John Gassner New Play Award.

He's written the dramatic adaptation of the comic book writer Peter Bagge's The Bradleys, and co-authored the adaptation of John D'Agata and Jim Fingal's The Lifespan of a Fact.

"a terrifically engaging Broadway drama" "A New York Times Critics Choice." - Jesse Green, NYTimes

"Terrifically funny dialog." "The debate at the heart of this play transcends comedy and demands serious attention." - Marilyn Stasio, Variety

"constructed with elegance and precision on all fronts ....The Lifespan of a Fact gives you the satisfying rush of a good mystery or a crossword puzzle." "...the people around me cheered." - Sara Holdren, NY Magazine and Vulture

"Truly Scintillating," "invigoratingly taut, "The exchanges have the vigorous back-and-forth zing of a sweaty squash match, not to mention a stinging relevance to so much of what's been happening for years now in American social, cultural and political discourse. It's hard to imagine this pithy play ever being more timely or more ideally cast, and the dynamic of the three actors is thrilling to watch." "in the poignant closing moments of the play, all the arguments about journalistic integrity and what's permissible in literary nonfiction are suddenly eclipsed by the more powerful force of human tragedy — a truth that demands to be respected." David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

"Whatever happened to the smart, well-wrought stage comedies of yesteryear? They’re not dead yet—in fact, a new one just opened on Broadway." "admirably compact ...rib-bustingly funny... Messrs. Kareken, Murrell and Farrell skillfully modulate into a darker key as Jim and his colleagues grapple with what it means for journalists to make stuff up in a fact-challenged world." "Prediction: The three-person cast, short running time (90 minutes, no intermission) and simple scenic demands of “The Lifespan of a Fact” will make it the hottest regional-theater hit since 'Venus in Fur.'" - Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal

Plays

  • The Snatchening
    Miles comes home from an extended stay at an inpatient psychiatric facility to find Becky, his ex-wife, troubled by their son's behavior. Seemingly overnight their son has become functional and compliant. As they and two therapists get involved, they become aware of a dangerous new psychiatric protocol that no one seems to have prescribed, and a malevolent entity that seeks to alter our humanity.
  • Amazon to Zambezi
    The British Library. The Duke of --- has completed the latest in a series of histories of his family, and he must to deliver it into the right hands.
  • Skip
    Two men wait for a football game to start, while confronting the limits of identity in a pitiless and empty cosmos.
  • 80 Cards
    A play on a deck of cards. No rehearsal necessary, only a stack of 3x5 cards, a couple rubber bands - and a deep existential fear of death and the nature of identity. The easiest monolog to perform in history. Instant 10 minute play - just add actor.
  • The Lifespan of a Fact
    NOTE: Rights are now handled by Dramatists Play Service. https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=5959

    Based on the true story of D'Agata's essay What Happens There, The Lifespan of a Fact follows Fingal, who has a small job: to fact-check articles for one of the best magazines in the country. His boss has given him a big assignment: to apply his skill to a groundbreaking...
    NOTE: Rights are now handled by Dramatists Play Service. https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=5959

    Based on the true story of D'Agata's essay What Happens There, The Lifespan of a Fact follows Fingal, who has a small job: to fact-check articles for one of the best magazines in the country. His boss has given him a big assignment: to apply his skill to a groundbreaking piece by legendary author D'Agata. But now Fingal has a huge problem: D'Agata made up a lot of his article. What starts professional quickly becomes profane. Co-written with David Murrell and Gordon Farrell. Script on request, inquire about rights. On Broadway Autumn 2018.
  • The Red Wool
    A comedy about the birth of poetry, and the awakening of a national conscience.

    Public sex, castration, illiteracy, bad poetry — if you think Trumpian America is bad, wait until you see 9th century BCE Assyria. Selardi, the upwardly mobile slave girl, recruits the palace scribe to overthrow the bloody King Ashurnasirpal II while his Queen, the lusty Melissu plots her own vengeance. All...
    A comedy about the birth of poetry, and the awakening of a national conscience.

    Public sex, castration, illiteracy, bad poetry — if you think Trumpian America is bad, wait until you see 9th century BCE Assyria. Selardi, the upwardly mobile slave girl, recruits the palace scribe to overthrow the bloody King Ashurnasirpal II while his Queen, the lusty Melissu plots her own vengeance. All narrated by the jazzy (and strangely baritone) Eunuch.
  • CoVid
    It's the meeting of a children's park finance committee - moved online because of an outbreak of Covid-19. Keep your grandparents away from my kids and vice versa! Just because we can't go to a theater doesn't mean we can't have theater! This is written to be produced on Skype or Google Meet or any video conference program.
  • Farblondjet
    1997, and the Catskills are falling down. A recently divorced neuropsychologist must contend with his Jewish identity and religion as he travels with his father to a crumbling Catskill resort hotel. During his excruciating visit with his father, he accidentally meets and falls for a woman he cannot have.
  • The Bradleys
    Babs Bradley tries to grow up totally normal, and totally not be a skank, but still be cool, and like not a dork or anything like her brother Butch, a greaseball stoner space case like her other brother, Buddy. But Mom and Pops Bradley make it so hard sometimes. And they're gross. Based on the comic series by Peter Bagge. For mature teens and kids who don't mind mildly salty and inappropriate language.