Nick Malakhow

FULL LENGTH: Ben and Jasmine are the only two Black teachers at Penn Valley, a private Quaker school. Jasmine is passionate and boundary pushing, while Ben has worked his way up the ranks at the school to be Diversity Dean thanks to his “agreeable” nature. A racially charged discipline decision ignites a divide at the school and in Jasmine and Ben’s collegial relationship.
Current Draft: 2/1/2024

FULL LENGTH: Overwhelmed by the world of hook up apps and dating profiles, Jason, who is blind, goes looking for love in person at a gay bar. While smoking outside, he strikes up a conversation with the charming and self-deprecating Robbie. Despite the protestations of his overprotective and anxious sister, Jordan, Jason initiates a whirlwind romance with Robbie that tests whether both men are ready to be fully seen by someone else.
CW: ableism, Self-injury

FULL LENGTH: Markey and Pete are unlikely friends, the studious Markey with dreams of college and a life beyond the southeastern PA countryside, and the volatile Pete with drunkenly crafted fantasies about being the next Kurt Cobain. Brought together by their shared feelings of alienation in their mostly white and more than vaguely racist little town an hour and a half from Philly, the boys’ relationship fractures when Markey announces to Pete he’s hoping to graduate early and get out of the styx ASAP. We see these two boys first at that critical juncture, and then almost ten years later after they are reunited in the wake of a startling event that dredges up a connected trauma from their past.
CW: discussion of sexual abuse, suicide
(NEW DRAFT: 7/20/2024; I always welcome feedback)

FULL LENGTH: At Dunston-Hall Academy, Raymond Castillo, a returning junior, and Sasha Gomez, a new sophomore, meet and bond over being two of the "scholarship kids" at a mostly white boarding school, the stupid stuff their white hallmates say, feeling like fish out of water both at home and at DHA, and their passions for music and art. Their growing friendship is tested, however, when they must navigate a series of personal tragedies, uncomfortable revelations, and betrayals as the fall semester unfolds.
CW: sexual harassment, grief
(CURRENT DRAFT IN PROGRESS; I always welcome thoughts and feedback)

FULL LENGTH: Carina and Ale meet on the Beehive, an online pro-recovery support group for people with eating disorders. Dissatisfied with the steps they are or aren’t taking in their own lives, they decide to meet IRL after connecting through private messages. Will they find in one another what they think they’re looking for--a sympathetic and in the flesh human to help them on their own paths to recovery?
CW: mental health, eating disorders, addiction

FULL LENGTH: Lia wakes up on her couch to find that she's dead--or at least she thinks she is?--and is haunting her bereaved son, Isaac. She follows Isaac as he goes on a journey to learn about his secretive mother and tries to stop him from discovering demons from her past, but Lia is the one who is thrown for a loop when she realizes that following Isaac is unearthing truths she never knew. Current draft: 1/9/24

FULL LENGTH: Gabby De Los Santos starts to splinter from ally and fellow outsider Taj when budding connections to the chaotic, charismatic Beth and brooding, volatile Jordany bring out her latent wishes to belong and be desired in her diverse but divided New Jersey suburb.
CW: sexual assault + harassment + homophobia + toxic masculinity and misogyny

FULL LENGTH: Shawn is pretty sure his one-night-stand with the troubled Derrick can't get any worse after Derrick passes out and then pukes on his own bedroom floor. Things get even more interesting, however, when the concerned Shawn reaches out to Derrick's so-called "Emergency Contact" in his cell phone and finds out that it is Derrick's ex-boyfriend, Manny, who still has a key, a nearby apartment, and is all too eager to come over and save the day.
CW: Mental health; suicide

Like teens all over the world, Alonso and Ruben are forced into remote learning in March of 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. Icy acquaintances at their bougie prep school, they forge an unlikely friendship when new-in-town Ruben realizes he lives just around the corner from agoraphobic Alonso in Hackensack, NJ. A story about processing grief, forging connection, coming to terms with identity, and caring for one’s mental health in unsettled times. CW: self harm, anxiety, discussion of suicide, family member death UPDATED DRAFT AS OF 7/1/24

The diverse board of Springfield’s yearly Pride celebration is just putting the final touches on planning three days before Pride when a video drops on social media of their Grand Marshal--the city’s first gay politician--putting down Black Lives Matter protesters. The video ignites a heated conversation in the boardroom about who Pride is for, intersectional queer activism, and whether there can or should be any consensus or unity in the fight for queer liberation.

TEN MINUTE: In the mid-1950’s, psychologist Evelyn Hooker conducted a comparative study of 60 gay and straight men in her home which, ultimately, helped to pave the way to the broad acceptance that homosexuality was not a pathology or mental illness. In this imagined scene, David, who was promised anonymity as part of this study, nervously contemplates whether or not to follow through on his meeting with Dr. Hooker when a second man unexpectedly arrives.

TEN MINUTE: Two men, each with walls of their own, strike up a conversation in front of a gay bar. Jason, who is completely blind, is anxious that his disability will make him an unappealing partner, while Robbie is too self-deprecating and self-conscious to exist in what he perceives to be an image-driven bar scene. Jason and Robbie connect over feeling subjected to preconceived notions in their daily lives, and find comfort in one another’s abilities to push past first impressions. This is the first 10 minutes of a full length play, SEEING EYE.

TEN MINUTE: Gabby tries to convince Taj to make the trek to Nutley to go to a party. Taj is unimpressed with Gabby's interest in her "edgy" (and entirely Caucasian) new friends, and sees his fellow outsider buddy drifting away as she primps and spritzes and preps to impress her new friends...and a potential love interest.