Jenny Lyn Bader

Johanna Stern will become one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. But at the moment, no one has heard of her, or even of the name she writes under, Hannah Arendt. She is merely a graduate student with one book under her belt. Karl Frick is a young officer, recently promoted from the criminal police force to the political police force, a new division in 1933 Berlin. His first interrogation in this new job promises to be his most challenging one. A fantastical drama about one of our deepest thinkers, inspired by real events.

A play about the power of poetry, the poetry of power, and the perils of publishing. —And surely the world's first verse play set in the offices of an in-flight airline magazine.

Dr. Charlotte Kaplan, a cynical psychiatrist, is trying to figure out why all of her patients and friends are falling in love even more quickly than usual. Then she realizes they're all falling for the same guy. And then she encounters him herself. A comedy about compulsive seduction, love in the time of cyberspace, and meeting one's match.

A director asked me if she could read my easiest to produce short plays (without much in the way of furniture or transition time etc.) for a cabaret-style evening. It occurred to me that others may be interested in looking at these and share this collection here. These are not intended to all be performed in the same evening, there are 13 of them! But I do have several short play cycles I can share with you if that is your thing.

A new play by Jenny Lyn Bader & Martine Sainvil

A school goes into lockdown during the pandemic and the librarian moves in. But suddenly the books have changed. The Greek gods are having a zoom meeting, Tweedledee and Tweedledum are practicing social distancing, and Rapunzel is building a social media following — and that's just the beginning. An adventure-comedy for all ages, Strange Happenings runs 60 minutes and has a large, flexible cast.

Jenny Lyn wrote this Purim Spiel at the request of one particular synagogue — but Purim is coming soon and if your shul is looking for a 45-minute zoom entertainment complete with opportunities to drink, reach out!

A sex scandal threatens to bring down the White House, terrorists are sending letter bombs, and a woman who does not believe in women’s rights finds herself in the Oval Office — in 1919.

Have you ever had to share a table in a café with the wrong people? On one summer afternoon in June, the day of the summer solstice, three characters end up at the same café table. Minna enjoys eavesdropping, but this time is different — this guy is getting so many things wrong, she may just need to interrupt. Gary loves meeting new people, but it looks like his latest flirtation is getting sabotaged. Allie has come here for some peace but she’s unlikely to find any here.

It’s challenging to meet new people when they’re next to other people. COMMUNAL TABLE is a comedy about shared space, public conversation, and whether we can all just get along.

One sophisticated New York City teenager answers the door expecting her drug dealer — and instead finds her S.A.T. tutor. Things degenerate from there. A comedy about privilege, probability, and getting into Princeton.

Finalist, Ashland Women's Invitational 2016
Unproduced; available for world premiere.
What happens when the person you love asks you to give up everything you believe in?
Can truth survive in a world of fakes?
A scholar who proposes to his girlfriend is about to find out.

Relationships are never quite what they seem to be — especially in this play cycle about people who are invisible, missing, or barely there! Characters recover from heartbreak, meet their idols, and baby-sit under mysterious circumstances... but nothing goes as planned. These tender comedies celebrate love, revel in human connection, and offer a glimpse of the unseen: Don't believe your eyes.

Told from the point of view of the world’s most famous painting, this true-crime whodunit begins with the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre Museum. Police question everyone from Picasso to J.P Morgan but can't crack the case. Meanwhile the painting herself plots her escape — and along the way, tells us about the visionary artist Leonardo da Vinci, the apprentice who would become his lover, and the secrets behind the masterpiece. The portrait solves mysteries that have baffled fans and stumped scholars for centuries: Why Leonardo never delivered the painting to the man who commissioned it. Who she is. And why she’s smiling. Equally Divine is a time-hopping, gender-bending drama about art, inspiration, and becoming who we are.

A chief executive misses a corporate retreat only to discover that her assistant dominated the conversation there. Now she has a few questions but the assistant isn't talking — at least not in words.

Three short comedies inspired by these troubled times. In A VISIT TO THE RUST BELT, an east and a west coaster encounter a midwesterner in the wake of the election. In INAUGURATION, a romantic date in Washington DC unravels when politics arise in unexpected ways. WHITE HOUSE FAIRYTALE imagines an enchanted version of the current administration where the lessons of the Arabian Nights could offer a path to a better future.

A family reunion in the old country leads to new connections and an unexpected creation.