Matt Pelfrey

Writer. Plays. TV. Film. Produced: Furious Theatre (LA), Artists Rep (Portland), Humana Fest '99 (ATL) Godlight Theatre (NYC), 59E59 (NYC), New Ohio (NYC), Lodestone Theatre Ensemble (LA), Moving Arts (LA), LA Theater Works, etc. Published: Samuel French, Broadway Play Publishing, Original Works, Smith and Krause. TV: SKINS (MTV) Awards: Backstage Garland Award for Playwriting, National 10-Minute Play Competition, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Nominated for LA Weekly playwriting award and Ovation Award. MFA Program Director at Point Park University.

Writer. Plays. TV. Film. Produced: Furious Theatre (LA), Artists Rep (Portland), Humana Fest '99 (ATL) Godlight Theatre (NYC), 59E59 (NYC), New Ohio (NYC), Lodestone Theatre Ensemble (LA), Moving Arts (LA), LA Theater Works, etc. Published: Samuel French, Broadway Play Publishing, Original Works, Smith and Krause. TV: SKINS (MTV) Awards: Backstage Garland Award for Playwriting, National 10-Minute Play Competition, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Nominated for LA Weekly playwriting award and Ovation Award. MFA Program Director at Point Park University.

Scripts

The Alligator Gospels

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

At a remote farmhouse in Texas, two sisters struggle to come to terms with the violent death of their parents years earlier. Outside, two men walk into the desert looking for a God who appears in the form of an Alligator. All four will be together when the world sheds its skin and the New Way begins.

At a remote farmhouse in Texas, two sisters struggle to come to terms with the violent death of their parents years earlier. Outside, two men walk into the desert looking for a God who appears in the form of an Alligator. All four will be together when the world sheds its skin and the New Way begins.

THIS HOUSE IS HAUNTED

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

In an old house in Pittsburgh, three adult siblings gather to go through their deceased father’s papers... But something else is in the house with them. They hear it moving in the floors above. They see it staring out a window. Is it their father's spirit trying to contact them? Or is it something darker? Something already lurking inside their hearts and souls? By the end of the evening, they will all be forced...

In an old house in Pittsburgh, three adult siblings gather to go through their deceased father’s papers... But something else is in the house with them. They hear it moving in the floors above. They see it staring out a window. Is it their father's spirit trying to contact them? Or is it something darker? Something already lurking inside their hearts and souls? By the end of the evening, they will all be forced to face the thing that haunts them all.

PURE SHOCK VALUE

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

“Think the Hollywood satire has been done to death? Think again. Playwright Matt Pelfrey sets the format's tired tropes of murderous Tinseltown greed among the most desperately delusional of wannabe edgy filmmakers and snarks them up with ever more outrageous sex, gore, movie jokes and violence. Only the second full-length play (and world premiere) staged by Killing My Lobster, "Shock" pulls off the rare feat of...

“Think the Hollywood satire has been done to death? Think again. Playwright Matt Pelfrey sets the format's tired tropes of murderous Tinseltown greed among the most desperately delusional of wannabe edgy filmmakers and snarks them up with ever more outrageous sex, gore, movie jokes and violence. Only the second full-length play (and world premiere) staged by Killing My Lobster, "Shock" pulls off the rare feat of becoming funnier and more acute the more over-the-top it goes.”
- ROBERT HURWITT, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE THEATER CRITIC

AN IMPENDING RUPTURE OF THE BELLY

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

Clay Stilts desperately wants to fortify his house in preparation for both his new baby and the apocalypse he’s convinced is just around the corner. Clay worries about everything; nuclear terrorism, avian bird flu, killer earthquakes, riots, even the possibility of smallpox crop dusters flying over Dodger Stadium. But when an escalating battle with a neighbor who refuses to curb his dog explodes in an impulsive...

Clay Stilts desperately wants to fortify his house in preparation for both his new baby and the apocalypse he’s convinced is just around the corner. Clay worries about everything; nuclear terrorism, avian bird flu, killer earthquakes, riots, even the possibility of smallpox crop dusters flying over Dodger Stadium. But when an escalating battle with a neighbor who refuses to curb his dog explodes in an impulsive act of violence, Clay’s world spirals out of control. AN IMPENDING RUPTURE OF THE BELLY is a darkly comic exploration of threats to our security, both real and imagined.

TERMINUS AMERICANA

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

After barely surviving an office rampage, Mac Winchell is thrust into a nightmare landscape populated by lost Marlboro Men, psychotic vagabonds, sinister corporate thugs and a strange cult known as “The Church of Christ, Office Shooter.” Mac attempts to escape this twisted reality by undertaking a quest that ultimately leads him into the darkest corners of the American Dream. A visceral and challenging...

After barely surviving an office rampage, Mac Winchell is thrust into a nightmare landscape populated by lost Marlboro Men, psychotic vagabonds, sinister corporate thugs and a strange cult known as “The Church of Christ, Office Shooter.” Mac attempts to escape this twisted reality by undertaking a quest that ultimately leads him into the darkest corners of the American Dream. A visceral and challenging examination of our violence-saturated culture.

“Matt Pelfrey’s “Terminus Americana” emerges as one of those rare works that actually gains clarity in light of recent catastrophes... indeed, with its emphasis on insane conspiracy theories and the American apocalypse, Pelfrey’s darkly comic play seems eerily prescient.”
-Los Angeles Times

FrEAk StOrm

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

Adam and Lynn are a week and a half away from their wedding day when they receive a late night visit from Ian and Gil, two of Adam's old friends. As a torrential downpour hammers Los Angeles, Ian tells Adam someone from their past is coming to hurt him and his fiance. What follows is a nightmarish spiral into the darkest corners of friendship and vengeance. "In the skilled hands of playwright Pelfrey, this...

Adam and Lynn are a week and a half away from their wedding day when they receive a late night visit from Ian and Gil, two of Adam's old friends. As a torrential downpour hammers Los Angeles, Ian tells Adam someone from their past is coming to hurt him and his fiance. What follows is a nightmarish spiral into the darkest corners of friendship and vengeance. "In the skilled hands of playwright Pelfrey, this is a classic, dramatic moral dilemma that goes...right to the guts...with primal force and power...Add Freak Storm to the list of fine works by Pelfrey." --BACKSTAGE (CRITIC'S PICK) "...[a] gripping morality play...Pelfrey's message should resonate as deeply as Dennis Yen's bone-shaking sound design and Cynthia Q. Ignacio's grisly props." --LA WEEKLY (RECOMMENDED!) "Pelfrey is undeniably talented, demonstrating a flair for bilious ribaldry." --L.A. TIMES. "The climactic scene with a garbage disposal is so shocking that some avert their eyes, others turn away, but all are riveted to the seats, wondering how it will resolve. You'll have to see the play to know what went down the disposal! Prepare to be shocked!... Freak Storm is really freaky..." --ENTERTAINMENT TODAY. "This domestic disturbance reveals very scary stuff about the world of men...Kipp Shiotani does a great job directing this unsettling drama, which benefits from outstanding performances and a lot of dark comic material from Pelfrey's bag of tricks." --KCRW RADIO

NOgoodDEED

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

NgD follows the stories of three flawed men who rise to heroism when called. But as the scalding hot lights of sudden fame become too much to bear, a downward spiral starts with no turning back. An unflinching look at media and madness, NgD brings the wildly theatrical world of comic books and graphic novels to the stage.

NgD follows the stories of three flawed men who rise to heroism when called. But as the scalding hot lights of sudden fame become too much to bear, a downward spiral starts with no turning back. An unflinching look at media and madness, NgD brings the wildly theatrical world of comic books and graphic novels to the stage.

COCKROACH NATION

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

Hank has visions of a world buried in trash.

Convinced society will collapse, and the only ones prepared for the new reality are the homeless, Hank attempts to get his family to join him at the end of a trash-strewn alleyway. His plan: get his wife and son to learn the survival skills necessary to thrive once it all falls down.

Hank has visions of a world buried in trash.

Convinced society will collapse, and the only ones prepared for the new reality are the homeless, Hank attempts to get his family to join him at the end of a trash-strewn alleyway. His plan: get his wife and son to learn the survival skills necessary to thrive once it all falls down.

WHEN THINGS GET BAD, AT LEAST WE HAVE EACH OTHER

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

A Zoom call to mom about a rat infestation has more twists and turns than a Zoom call to mom should have.

A Zoom call to mom about a rat infestation has more twists and turns than a Zoom call to mom should have.

MURDERABILIA

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

A man who sells artifacts from murder scenes.
A woman obsessed with American Carnage.
A brother ravaged by the death of his sister.
Welcome to a world where everything is for sale.

A man who sells artifacts from murder scenes.
A woman obsessed with American Carnage.
A brother ravaged by the death of his sister.
Welcome to a world where everything is for sale.

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

Based on the classic novel by John Ball. It's 1962 in Argo, Alabama. A dead white man is discovered and the local police arrest a black stranger named Virgil Tibbs. The police discover that their prime suspect is a homicide detective from Pasadena, California. As it happens, Tibbs becomes the racially tense community's only hope for solving a brutal murder that is turning up no witnesses, no suspects, and no...

Based on the classic novel by John Ball. It's 1962 in Argo, Alabama. A dead white man is discovered and the local police arrest a black stranger named Virgil Tibbs. The police discover that their prime suspect is a homicide detective from Pasadena, California. As it happens, Tibbs becomes the racially tense community's only hope for solving a brutal murder that is turning up no witnesses, no suspects, and no clues.

Will Elliott's THE PILO FAMILY CIRCUS

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

When Jamie is kidnapped by a trio of psychotic clowns, he's plunged into a horrific alternate universe run by the Pilo Family Circus, a borderline world between hell and earth from which humankind's greatest tragedies have been perpetuate. Yet, in this place --peopled by the gruesome, grotesque, and monstrous, where violence and savagery are the norm--Jamie finds that his worst enemy is himself. When he applies...

When Jamie is kidnapped by a trio of psychotic clowns, he's plunged into a horrific alternate universe run by the Pilo Family Circus, a borderline world between hell and earth from which humankind's greatest tragedies have been perpetuate. Yet, in this place --peopled by the gruesome, grotesque, and monstrous, where violence and savagery are the norm--Jamie finds that his worst enemy is himself. When he applies the white face paint, he is transformed into JJ, the most vicious clown of all. And JJ wants Jamie dead...

REASON FOR THE SEASON

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

Two parents, wilting under the pressure of Christmas, have a strange and volatile encounter with Santa.

Two parents, wilting under the pressure of Christmas, have a strange and volatile encounter with Santa.

A FEAST OF FAMINE

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

Two hitchhikers find themselves at a 24-hour diner in the middle of the night. What they discover are piles of dirty dishes, half eaten food, and a fry cook who might be going insane. A dark meditation on hunger and the nourishment we let go to waste.

Two hitchhikers find themselves at a 24-hour diner in the middle of the night. What they discover are piles of dirty dishes, half eaten food, and a fry cook who might be going insane. A dark meditation on hunger and the nourishment we let go to waste.

MONKEY

by Matt Pelfrey

Synopsis

When Willard's life falls apart, he moves under a bridge on the edge of town and lives like our primitive ancestors. This means wearing clothes made from animal pelts and eating only what he kills. His wayward son arrives at his campsite demanding he fulfills a long-ago promise, forcing Willard to either evolve to a new level of understanding and maturity or fall back down the evolutionary ladder.

When Willard's life falls apart, he moves under a bridge on the edge of town and lives like our primitive ancestors. This means wearing clothes made from animal pelts and eating only what he kills. His wayward son arrives at his campsite demanding he fulfills a long-ago promise, forcing Willard to either evolve to a new level of understanding and maturity or fall back down the evolutionary ladder.