Charlie O'Leary

Charlie O'Leary

Charlie O’Leary is a playwright, lyricist, and librettist. He is an alumnus of the 24 Hour Plays: Nationals, the BMI Workshop, the Brooklyn Generator, Crashbox Theatre Company's Write Play Launch, the Fornés Playwriting Workshop, the Project Y Playwrights Group, and the Road Theatre Company’s Under Construction Playwrights Group. His plays and musicals have additionally been developed and presented by the...
Charlie O’Leary is a playwright, lyricist, and librettist. He is an alumnus of the 24 Hour Plays: Nationals, the BMI Workshop, the Brooklyn Generator, Crashbox Theatre Company's Write Play Launch, the Fornés Playwriting Workshop, the Project Y Playwrights Group, and the Road Theatre Company’s Under Construction Playwrights Group. His plays and musicals have additionally been developed and presented by the Artist Co-op, CAP21, the Dare Tactic, Dartmouth College, Dixon Place, Dreamwell Theatre, the Flea Theater, the Fresh Fruit Festival, the Habitat, the Iowa New Play Festival, Jersey City Theater Center, Loading Dock Theatre, Middle Voice at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, the PIT, Pipeline Theatre Company, the Players Theatre, the Samuel French OOB Festival, Shuga Pie Supreme, the Tank, and the University of Notre Dame. His short works have been published by Methuen Drama, Smith & Kraus, and Theatre Now New York, with licensing by Music Theatre International. He has been a finalist for the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition, the DVRF Playwrights Program, the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Sanguine Theatre Company's Project Playwright, the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, and the Woodward/Newman Drama Award, as well as the recipient of a New York Innovative Theatre Award and an Iowa Arts Fellowship. His song “A Date” (music by Helen Park) was a selection of the BMI Workshop Smoker; his songs have also been performed at places like 54 Below, Don’t Tell Mama, the Duplex, and the West End Lounge. MFA: Iowa Playwrights Workshop.

Plays

  • Basically Children
    In a Midwest college town, two freshmen flirt, find themselves, and debate the intricacies of queer life. But when one of them connects with the town’s mayor on a dating app, their conceptual discourse leads to dire consequences. A new gay play about an old gay myth.
  • Ridgway
    Decades ago in Western Pennsylvania, a gay love affair ended with a murder in the woods - or so it’s rumored. But when a white podcaster returns home with his Latino boyfriend to investigate, the past and present start to look eerily similar. A ghost story about who can live safely in rural America.
  • An Axemas Story
    It’s Christmastime in Tree Town, and all the trees are dying to look their best. But after a string of disappearances, Small Paul (the puniest tree in town) and Noel (who the narrator forgot to cast) begin to question Tree Town’s relationship with the venerated Farmer Todd. Will this unlikely duo crack the case before the annual Christmas Pageant? An R-rated meta musical parody of holiday specials and horror...
    It’s Christmastime in Tree Town, and all the trees are dying to look their best. But after a string of disappearances, Small Paul (the puniest tree in town) and Noel (who the narrator forgot to cast) begin to question Tree Town’s relationship with the venerated Farmer Todd. Will this unlikely duo crack the case before the annual Christmas Pageant? An R-rated meta musical parody of holiday specials and horror films, set on a Christmas tree farm and told from the perspective of the trees. Also, it’s the 80s! Music by Anthony De Angelis; lyrics by Patrick Spencer.
  • Humiliation Play
    A college freshman plays kinky sex games with an older grad student. A radio journalist attempts to extract a story from a cagey gay escort. Flip a coin, heads or tails, but choose carefully: Loser gets humiliated. The first play in Shame Cycle, a trilogy of plays concerning gay male sexuality and fetish practices during the early decades of the internet.
  • The Last King
    Libby is locked in battle with her history teacher over her final paper topic, an ancient civilization that falls outside the curriculum. But as the lens of history shifts, it seems like everyone is missing something obvious. A high school comedy about how we look at the past.
  • The Switch
    A gay playwright adapts the 2003 Jamie Lee Curtis star vehicle FREAKY FRIDAY into a solo show. Warning: contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence.
  • The Allies
    Andy has traveled from Indiana to New York for the weekend to visit his friends from high school. Law school bro Kevin is happy to play host, but when Andy's long-buried feelings for Kevin begin to surface in disconcerting ways, everyone is forced to question how good of an ally - and a friend - they really are. A bro comedy of manners about identity politics, violent self-loathing, and our collective...
    Andy has traveled from Indiana to New York for the weekend to visit his friends from high school. Law school bro Kevin is happy to play host, but when Andy's long-buried feelings for Kevin begin to surface in disconcerting ways, everyone is forced to question how good of an ally - and a friend - they really are. A bro comedy of manners about identity politics, violent self-loathing, and our collective obsession with straight masculinity.
  • Effective
    The overworked, underpaid staff at a failing educational music publishing company strives to keep the business afloat, even as management seems to be actively undermining them. A workplace satire that tests how far capitalism can bend us before we break.
  • The Exposure Game
    In 2005, two high school freshmen explore the bounds of their friendship while one of them solicits explicit photos from an anonymous man online - with consequences that reverberate for decades. A play about what it means to know and be known in the digital age. The third play in Shame Cycle, a trilogy of plays concerning gay male sexuality and fetish practices during the early decades of the internet.
  • Rail
    Winnie and Jace have been getting close ever since their classmate jumped in front of a train – but we don’t need to talk about that. Actually, it’s sort of weird that you brought it up. Was anyone even friends with him anyway? A play about teenagers who hang out in basements.
  • The Exposed Bone Workshop Collective Ensemble Studio "Not Just Your Average Theatre Company" Theatre Company Presents: "When Pigs Fly!" A Reading Series of Hot & Spicy New American Plays Written by the Artistic Director
    Everybody loves a new play reading, and everybody loves a straight white man. With Artistic Director Martin Reinsen (Tisch ’16), you get both! A play about plays (and privilege), EXPOSED BONE asks: Guys, why are we doing this? Music by Karl Hinze.
  • Two Star Motel
    For small-town punk rock band Two Star Motel, 2001 was the best. And the worst. Taking place over the course of a single concert (and an entire year), TWO STAR MOTEL explores what it meant to be a young and angry at the beginning of the millennium. Music and lyrics by Patrick Spencer.
  • The Doctors
    The cupboards are empty, the oven is fake, the doctors are having a dinner party - and someone is writing a book. A comedy of manners about doctors; a dinner party play about memory; a memory play about pain.
  • Findom (a decade)
    Across space and time, ten men exchange insults, pleasure, power, and cash. A contemporary take on LA RONDE about the online intersections of sex and capital. The second play in Shame Cycle, a trilogy of plays concerning gay male sexuality and fetish practices during the early decades of the internet.
  • Broken! (i didn't mean for this to happen)
    Obama has just taken office, 4chan is still funny, and a group of online friends are meeting for the first time at a Super Smash Brothers tournament in New Jersey. But as the years tick by and the group grows closer offline, their online worlds start to violently fracture. A history play about Melee bros, gamer girls, and the demise of the old internet.
  • Rekidk (short)
    In 2007, when I was a closeted fifteen-year-old, I had a minor brush with YouTube fame. A short multimedia cringe.