Geo Decas O'Donnell

Geo Decas O'Donnell

Geo (Geoffrey) Decas O'Donnell in a writer and performer.

They grew up on Cape Cod working at his family’s A&W Restaurant, doing lots and lots (and lots) of community theatre, and swimming in the ocean; studied acting and ensemble creation at the School of Theatre within the College of Fine Arts at Boston University; spent a couple of decades making ensemble devised work, writing plays...
Geo (Geoffrey) Decas O'Donnell in a writer and performer.

They grew up on Cape Cod working at his family’s A&W Restaurant, doing lots and lots (and lots) of community theatre, and swimming in the ocean; studied acting and ensemble creation at the School of Theatre within the College of Fine Arts at Boston University; spent a couple of decades making ensemble devised work, writing plays, riding his bicycle, bartending, building a chosen family, and falling in love in New York City; now he writes plays and other things, teaches theatre, has a family and a garden, still rides his bicycle, has reignited a passion for making cardboard and paper mache art & puppets, bakes bread, and occasionally devises, in Philadelphia.

Geo co-founded the award winning, ensemble-based company CollaborationTown (CTown). As part of CTown he has been creating, performing, and producing ensemble-devised theatre since 2003. Most recently CTown's all-ages puppet musical, Riddle of the Trilobites had a run at The New Victory Theater in NYC (Feb 2020). Past CTown productions include: Family Play (1979 to Present) (named one of The Advocate’s 10 Best LGBT Plays of 2014), and The Momentum (2012 GLAAD National Media Award nomination).

(All my plays that I'd write about in my bio are listed on the writings page-- check them out, send me a message if interested)

Geo's won some awards and received some residencies too: The Foundry Writer’s Group (Class of 2022); FringeNYC Excellence Award for Outstanding Playwriting (The Deepest Play Ever, 2006); FringeNYC Excellence Award for Outstanding Production (The Momentum, 2010) Otto Rene Castillo Political Theatre Award, 2014; multiple residencies at Robert Wilson's WaterMill Center and with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (Swing, Process and Work Space grants). They have developed work for La MaMa, ETC, and The New Ohio Theatre. Geo also teaches theatre and devising; currently at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia.

Geo has designed the sets for 6969, Help Me To Make It and FAMILY PLAY (1979 to Present) and studied playwriting with Paula Vogel, Charles Mee, and Jeffrey Jones.  

Plays

  • Moss & Kay's Fabulous Adventure; Or: Objects Becoming More Distant From One Another at Ever-Increasing Speeds by Geo Decas O'Donnell
    Cast: 
    8
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: queer, metatheatrical + 7 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, farce
    Keyword: queer, metatheatrical, LGBTQIA+, absurd, Ridiculous, heartfelt, cosmic, layers, multiverse
    A big, queer, meta-theatrical adventure about entering middle age, embracing change, and making art.

    Moss & Kay meet in the audience of a play. Kay is there to support a friend, and Moss is there because their ex wrote it — about them. As the play begins, the story Moss was expecting is not the story being told; Kay has some ideas about how to fix that, so the two of them take matters into...
    A big, queer, meta-theatrical adventure about entering middle age, embracing change, and making art.

    Moss & Kay meet in the audience of a play. Kay is there to support a friend, and Moss is there because their ex wrote it — about them. As the play begins, the story Moss was expecting is not the story being told; Kay has some ideas about how to fix that, so the two of them take matters into their own hands. What follows is an adventure about memory and relationships, about making art and working in restaurants, about letting go and meeting the next day.
  • On the Formidable Ambiguity of the Foreseeable Future, We Rise by Geo Decas O'Donnell
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: queer, LGBTQ + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy
    Keyword: queer, LGBTQ, death, absurdism, identity, self-help, thirty-somethings
    Declan's identity was stolen so the government deleted it, his boss gave him a new one but it feels kinda wonky. Audra just found out that her mom has been paying people to be friends with her since high school, she's in her 30s. In the midst of all this, they get sucked into the popular self-help movement, HOPE'S SPRING ETERNAL, as it starts to take control of the nation. Soon enough, they'...
    Declan's identity was stolen so the government deleted it, his boss gave him a new one but it feels kinda wonky. Audra just found out that her mom has been paying people to be friends with her since high school, she's in her 30s. In the midst of all this, they get sucked into the popular self-help movement, HOPE'S SPRING ETERNAL, as it starts to take control of the nation. Soon enough, they're in too deep and the only way to stop the insanity is to stop Hope. Fortunately, the laws of attraction brought her right to them.
  • and the green grass grows all around, all around, and the green grass grows all around by Geo Decas O'Donnell
    Cast: 
    10–12
    ·
    Genre: comedy, experimental + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: queer family, metatheatrical + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, experimental, movement/physical
    Keyword: queer family, metatheatrical, community, LGBTQIA+, Mary Oliver, nature, changing neighborhood, ridiculous theatre
    Eddie & Kaveh and their two young adult children are a family of do-gooders living in an unraveling city; the neighborhoods have privatized and with some violent clashes erupting, their peaceful, hippie enclave has become a paranoid, fenced off place. A new neighborhood director of stick-togetherness, Ashes, has made it their mission to get the family to stop their do-gooding and focus on the neighborhood....
    Eddie & Kaveh and their two young adult children are a family of do-gooders living in an unraveling city; the neighborhoods have privatized and with some violent clashes erupting, their peaceful, hippie enclave has become a paranoid, fenced off place. A new neighborhood director of stick-togetherness, Ashes, has made it their mission to get the family to stop their do-gooding and focus on the neighborhood. Role-playing exercises spiral out of control, Ashes creates a weekly serial drama based on them, and the family wrestles with if they should pack it up and leave, or stay.
  • From Skull To Ghost by Geo Decas O'Donnell
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: rising sea levels, memory + 8 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, movement/physical
    Keyword: rising sea levels, memory, death, suicide, queer family, LGBTQ, radical faerie, Lesbian, gay, nonbinary
    Set in a rapidly sinking Brooklyn, From Skull To Ghost is a lamentation on loss and time passed in a vanishing world. A massive sea-wall is being built up Fourth Avenue to keep the rising tides at bay and a chosen family has gathered in their bar to mourn the loss of one of their own. As the toast what they have lost, this group of friends, all whom live on the other side of this wall, must decide what to do...
    Set in a rapidly sinking Brooklyn, From Skull To Ghost is a lamentation on loss and time passed in a vanishing world. A massive sea-wall is being built up Fourth Avenue to keep the rising tides at bay and a chosen family has gathered in their bar to mourn the loss of one of their own. As the toast what they have lost, this group of friends, all whom live on the other side of this wall, must decide what to do and where to go while the water laps at their ankles. Some leave, others get trapped in that final night when they were together. And who keeps knocking at the door?
  • MUTANT WATER BABIES by Geo Decas O'Donnell
    Cast: 
    6–12
    ·
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy + 7 more
    ·
    Keyword: Dystopia, genderfluidity + 7 more
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy, experimental, farce, movement/physical, musical, political, satire, tragedy
    Keyword: Dystopia, genderfluidity, clean water, Brechtian, epic, queer, mutants, environment, ritual
    A Radical Faerie inspired, ritualistic retelling of The Bakkhai by Euripides.

    created with and music by Nicholas Williams

    The walled City-State of New York City was one of the only places with clean drinking water until a mysterious parasite infected the upstate reservoir.  Was it all the mega-fracking? Ms. Pipes denies that connection, but she's also an aggressive mouth...
    A Radical Faerie inspired, ritualistic retelling of The Bakkhai by Euripides.

    created with and music by Nicholas Williams

    The walled City-State of New York City was one of the only places with clean drinking water until a mysterious parasite infected the upstate reservoir.  Was it all the mega-fracking? Ms. Pipes denies that connection, but she's also an aggressive mouth piece for the administration.   THEN! The parasites starts turning all the city residents into mutants! This annoys the Mayor because she works hard to keep her militarized City-State running smoothly.   After listening to a self-help tape, a long forgotten deity returns and teams up with a pair of teenage mutants to save everyone (But also maybe punish them? It's hard to say).  
  • The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos by Geo Decas O'Donnell
    Cast: 
    8–12
    ·
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy + 8 more
    ·
    Keyword: Mother Courage, Macbeth + 7 more
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy, drama, melodrama, movement/physical, musical, parody/spoof, satire, tragedy, verse
    Keyword: Mother Courage, Macbeth, Shakespeare, epic, puppets, Brechtian, Dystopia, anti-fascist, resistance
    A rag-tag group of clowns are hiding out in a bunker creating and rehearsing an 800 play cycle ad infinitum. Every night they risk it all and raise a flag outside of the bunker: SHOW TONIGHT! .... LO! An audience appears! The clowns get the audience seated and begin with play one: THE CATHARSIS OF PATHOS. The epic drama follows the antihero Mother LaMadre and her children as they drag their wagon through the...
    A rag-tag group of clowns are hiding out in a bunker creating and rehearsing an 800 play cycle ad infinitum. Every night they risk it all and raise a flag outside of the bunker: SHOW TONIGHT! .... LO! An audience appears! The clowns get the audience seated and begin with play one: THE CATHARSIS OF PATHOS. The epic drama follows the antihero Mother LaMadre and her children as they drag their wagon through the Fifth World War and the post-post-apocalyptic wasteland that is New Europe. Together they must navigate all the pitfalls of the dramatic art of drama to find the few remaining books that the art-abolishing Evil Empire has yet to destroy, and maybe... just maybe... find a way to replace violence with art. Meanwhile, failed artist Dalvador Salí sells his soul and becomes the Zombie King of the Evil Empire, he then sets out to deconstruct the world into nothingness - but he needs all the books to do that. Equal parts satire and homage to epic theatre and the struggle for greatness. This play would be great for universities and colleges due to its large cast size.
  • Amid Pilgrims by Geo Decas O'Donnell
    Cast: 
    6–10
    ·
    Genre: adventure, experimental + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: queer, Dystopia + 3 more
    Genre: adventure, experimental, fable/folktale, science fiction, tragedy
    Keyword: queer, Dystopia, Utopia, landscape, empire
    A landscape play about a civilizations last few gasps. A rapid series of quick glimpses of humanity in the collapse of an empire.
    Could work as an audio play, well suited for colleges/universities.