Sean Pollock

Sean Pollock

Sean Pollock (he/they) is a NYC based multidisciplinary writer, director, creative producer, creator, sometimes actor and sometimes costume/production designer from Mountain Lakes, New Jersey. He is a graduate of Ithaca College with a BA in Theatre Studies and Writing. He has also trained at the National Theatre Institute Theatremarkers Program at the Eugene O Neil Theatre (NTI), Directors Lab North (Toronto),...
Sean Pollock (he/they) is a NYC based multidisciplinary writer, director, creative producer, creator, sometimes actor and sometimes costume/production designer from Mountain Lakes, New Jersey. He is a graduate of Ithaca College with a BA in Theatre Studies and Writing. He has also trained at the National Theatre Institute Theatremarkers Program at the Eugene O Neil Theatre (NTI), Directors Lab North (Toronto), Directors Lab Chicago and Directors Lab West (Los Angeles). He is currently an MFA Candidate at The TV Writers Studio at LIU-Brooklyn, and has served as a Producing Apprentice at Soho Playhouse.

www.pollocksean.com | instagram: @seanp_yo

Plays

  • Virginia Tells It All
    FULL LENGTH. An unauthorized satirical continuation of a Nickelodeon TV show about a girl with red hair targeted at tweens that aired roughly from 2000-2005 that should go unnamed. The story focuses on Virginia: a single woman in her mid-twenties living in New York City who is a nanny by day and a writer by night. After four years of hitting the pavement as a writer in the city, she is finally offered a...
    FULL LENGTH. An unauthorized satirical continuation of a Nickelodeon TV show about a girl with red hair targeted at tweens that aired roughly from 2000-2005 that should go unnamed. The story focuses on Virginia: a single woman in her mid-twenties living in New York City who is a nanny by day and a writer by night. After four years of hitting the pavement as a writer in the city, she is finally offered a promising publishing deal with Simon and Schuster. However, as she approaches her quarter-life crisis, she seriously questions if New York is the only place she can "make it". A hilarious and dramatic blend of plays such as THIS IS OUR YOUTH, THE HEIDI CHRONICLES, & DOG SEES GOD, this play explores themes of queerness, feminism, politics in the Trump era, subcultures, relationships, friendships, and freak accidents.
  • Keep Your Enemies Closer
    FULL LENGTH. After a long battle with depression, former child actor Joel Pitcher mysteriously disappears overnight without a trace. As Joel's Disabled father, Henry, and estranged mother, Ellen, try to piece together Joel's disappearance with the work of a detective, Joel's younger teenage sister, Louise, counterbalances her grief by partying with her best friend next door, Chester, like it...
    FULL LENGTH. After a long battle with depression, former child actor Joel Pitcher mysteriously disappears overnight without a trace. As Joel's Disabled father, Henry, and estranged mother, Ellen, try to piece together Joel's disappearance with the work of a detective, Joel's younger teenage sister, Louise, counterbalances her grief by partying with her best friend next door, Chester, like it's 2006. But at some point, all parties have to end, and this one harbors a very unwanted, unexpected guest. KEEP YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER is a coming-of-age dramedy thriller set in the early aughts about toxic masculinity, Hollywood, child stardom, estrangement, betrayal, and the horror of the familiar. Inspired by a true story.
  • Land Of The Free, Home Of The Weird (working title)
    FULL LENGTH. Inspired by the plays of Roberto-Aguirre Sacasa, LAND OF THE FREE, HOME OF THE WEIRD is a thrilling collection of short plays with genres ranging from pulp horror, true crime, to science fiction inspired by New Jersey folklore intended to be staged in the style of THE COLORED MUSEUM/promenade style. Written for a diverse ensemble of 12, this play explores New Jersey at different periods in time...
    FULL LENGTH. Inspired by the plays of Roberto-Aguirre Sacasa, LAND OF THE FREE, HOME OF THE WEIRD is a thrilling collection of short plays with genres ranging from pulp horror, true crime, to science fiction inspired by New Jersey folklore intended to be staged in the style of THE COLORED MUSEUM/promenade style. Written for a diverse ensemble of 12, this play explores New Jersey at different periods in time from the 1700's, to the 70's-90's, to present day. NOTE: This play does contain triggering topics such as violence, drug use, mentions of sexual assault, suicide, murder, human/ritualistic sacrifice, gore, and white supremacy.
  • Superspreader
    TEN MINUTE PLAY. Loosely based on real events. Best described as AMERICAN PSYCHO without the graphic murder scenes, SUPERSPREADER centers on Kenny and Rudy, two high school best friends who live in Kenny's rent-controlled apartment inherited from his Bubbe in the East Village. While Rudy is partnered with Stephanie, a hard-working investment banker, Kenny is coming off the heels of a bad breakup and needs...
    TEN MINUTE PLAY. Loosely based on real events. Best described as AMERICAN PSYCHO without the graphic murder scenes, SUPERSPREADER centers on Kenny and Rudy, two high school best friends who live in Kenny's rent-controlled apartment inherited from his Bubbe in the East Village. While Rudy is partnered with Stephanie, a hard-working investment banker, Kenny is coming off the heels of a bad breakup and needs a rebound. So both roommates decide to turn their apartment into an underground nightclub so that Kenny can find a new girl and also so they can make a buck. While Stephanie initially agrees to their idea, she begins to get cold feet on the day of the party after receiving some troubling information. This is a cautionary COVID tale about our collective proximity to sociopathy, narcissism, eugenics/class genocide/exploitation of workers, and the fundamental disregard for human life.
  • The Peacock Agenda
    FULL LENGTH. Based on the groundbreaking novel of the same name by Marko Vignjevic, is an existentialist futuristic fiction piece about a society that has collapsed on itself and what it means to live under dogmatic oppression. It is presented here as a dramatic and thrilling play written for a diverse ensemble for theatre groups of all levels.

    In the not-so-distant future, an innocuous everyman...
    FULL LENGTH. Based on the groundbreaking novel of the same name by Marko Vignjevic, is an existentialist futuristic fiction piece about a society that has collapsed on itself and what it means to live under dogmatic oppression. It is presented here as a dramatic and thrilling play written for a diverse ensemble for theatre groups of all levels.

    In the not-so-distant future, an innocuous everyman, Ayda, a mortuary worker, lives in a dystopian society that openly embraces cannibalism where human flesh is sold by the pound and consumed by all. Ayda finds himself completely repulsed by this world around him and agonizes over his existence in the neo-fascist politics of his life.

    However, as luck would have it, he crosses paths with three unlikely partners in his private dissent: an older heiress, Draga, a suicidal taxidermist, Pavle, and a father-like figure, Balaban, whose unexpected intertwining forces them all to evaluate what their true values are in this sinister society and to challenge their perception of what their world should truly represent. After much turmoil, an unsuspecting offer reveals itself to Ayda which forces him to question everything that he believes in. Does he take it? Or does he reject everything?
  • Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
    FULL-LENGTH ADAPTATION. Alice is a daydreaming young girl. She finds schoolwork tedious and prefers stories with pictures and to live inside her imagination. One day, while enduring a completely uninspired history lesson by the riverside, she spots a large white rabbit carrying a large watch declaring he's late. She follows him through the forest and he leads her into a rabbit hole. As she ventures...
    FULL-LENGTH ADAPTATION. Alice is a daydreaming young girl. She finds schoolwork tedious and prefers stories with pictures and to live inside her imagination. One day, while enduring a completely uninspired history lesson by the riverside, she spots a large white rabbit carrying a large watch declaring he's late. She follows him through the forest and he leads her into a rabbit hole. As she ventures underground, she is lead to a menagerie of curious discoveries, characters and adventures. This extremely faithful adaptation of the charming Lewis Carroll classic is suited for fringe, community, and school groups with a flexible casting size for companies of all budgets.
  • Up In Flames
    FULL LENGTH. Up in Flames is a modern dramedy exploring race, privilege, and fatphobia within influencer culture against the backdrop of one of our generation's most meme-worthy cultural moments: the 2017 Fyre Festival. Flames... centers around Jade and Erin, two social media influencers and best friends, who seek cover in an emergency tent during The Fyre Festival, where they have found themselves in dire...
    FULL LENGTH. Up in Flames is a modern dramedy exploring race, privilege, and fatphobia within influencer culture against the backdrop of one of our generation's most meme-worthy cultural moments: the 2017 Fyre Festival. Flames... centers around Jade and Erin, two social media influencers and best friends, who seek cover in an emergency tent during The Fyre Festival, where they have found themselves in dire straights. But, when they are re-united with Erin's sister Arlene and her fiance Benji over the course of their already chaotic evening, no one is prepared for the secrets shared, Instagram tiles cracked, and the friendships that shatter. From New York City-based playwright Sean Pollock, comes a twisted Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf-inspired drama for millennials and zoomers.
  • American Juggalo
    FULL LENGTH. As a night at The Gathering of the Juggalos unfolds, a group of hardcore Insane Clown Posse (ICP) fans begin to question what being a Juggalo is really about and if their shared love of ICP is strong enough for them to create a chosen family that will stand the test of time. Adapted with permission from the 2011 documentary by Sean Dunne of the same name, along with found text from Brendan Jameison...
    FULL LENGTH. As a night at The Gathering of the Juggalos unfolds, a group of hardcore Insane Clown Posse (ICP) fans begin to question what being a Juggalo is really about and if their shared love of ICP is strong enough for them to create a chosen family that will stand the test of time. Adapted with permission from the 2011 documentary by Sean Dunne of the same name, along with found text from Brendan Jameison's I'VE BEEN DOWN (2011). Adapted from real people, testimony and events at the 2011 Gathering of the Juggalos, interviews conducted by the playwright at Webster Hall (2016), The Well (2017) and The Gathering Of The Juggalos (2018) with inspiration from Violent J's "Behind The Paint" and selected anecdotes from the playwright's real life experiences.
  • Ashiari Yashiki
    FIFTEEN-MINUTE PLAY. An adaptation of a Japanese folktale of the same name about a belligerent spirit named Ashiarai Yashiki that manifests in the form of a giant leg and insists on being washed. The story is retold in contemporary NYC through an absurdist lens with off-the-wall characters, non-sequiters, and multiple costume changes.
  • This Is A Play About Newscasters
    TEN MINUTE PLAY. A farcical, absurdist, surrealist reimagining of the infamous feud between newscasters Carol Erickson and Nicole Brewer of CB3 Philadelphia in 2013. Reimagined for a modern political context, this piece of theatre is a nightmare fever dream that is a crossover between The Eric Andre Show and Theatre of Cruelty, which examines the performative role of being a woman, a newscaster, and how to deal...
    TEN MINUTE PLAY. A farcical, absurdist, surrealist reimagining of the infamous feud between newscasters Carol Erickson and Nicole Brewer of CB3 Philadelphia in 2013. Reimagined for a modern political context, this piece of theatre is a nightmare fever dream that is a crossover between The Eric Andre Show and Theatre of Cruelty, which examines the performative role of being a woman, a newscaster, and how to deal with this never-ending sh*tstorm of bad news.
  • Trump Rally
    ONE-ACT. Based on the 2016 documentary of the same name by Sean Dunne. A docutheatre piece that is a glimpse inside the divisive and complex world of fanatical Trump supporters of varying identities (and protestors) using actual found text from a rally in Vegas in January 2016.
  • Jellybean Junkyard
    FULL LENGTH. A one-person play about a woman with a new gig to clean up an entire chemically infected junkyard on Staten Island...in less than a week. This dark, absurdist romp challenges perceptions of mental illness, addiction, and sexuality, and explores the possibility of self-acceptance in spite of our deepest flaws.
  • AFLIC (Awkward Fornication Leading to Immaculate Conception)
    ONE ACT. Co-written with Rachel Atkinson and Liz Bynum. Bernie is your typical teenage girl. Except for the fact that wears a swim cap at all times, has an imaginary friend, and a mother named Carol with a delusion that she is mother goose. She also struggles with her love for her classmate Chip by insisting she becomes pregnant after they slow dance together. After Bernie comes to the realization that her...
    ONE ACT. Co-written with Rachel Atkinson and Liz Bynum. Bernie is your typical teenage girl. Except for the fact that wears a swim cap at all times, has an imaginary friend, and a mother named Carol with a delusion that she is mother goose. She also struggles with her love for her classmate Chip by insisting she becomes pregnant after they slow dance together. After Bernie comes to the realization that her pregnancy isn’t legitimate, she begins to unravel--and at the same time, Chip begins to come into his own as well. Oh, and the Narrator is a pair of legs. A hilarious absurdist romp about maturity, sexuality and identity that is perfect for student performers.