Jon Marans

Jon Marans

Jon Marans is a playwright, librettist, lyricist and story editor. He has written a brand new book for the Lerner & Loewe musical Paint Your Wagon which premiered at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in Seattle in June 2016 and then transferred to the Ordway Theater in August 2016. More production news to follow. Other works include The Temperamentals, produced by Daryl Roth and Stacy Shane, which ran for over...
Jon Marans is a playwright, librettist, lyricist and story editor. He has written a brand new book for the Lerner & Loewe musical Paint Your Wagon which premiered at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in Seattle in June 2016 and then transferred to the Ordway Theater in August 2016. More production news to follow. Other works include The Temperamentals, produced by Daryl Roth and Stacy Shane, which ran for over eight months Off-Broadway at the Barrow Group Theater and at New World Stages. The Temperamentals was nominated for the Lucille Lortel and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway play and Mr. Marans was nominated for the John Gassner Award. It was a 2012 American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book in Literature. The entire cast won the Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble and Michael Urie won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor. Mr. Marans’ play Old Wicked Songs was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama, won the New York Drama League Award (including play and both actors). It was first presented by the Walnut Street Theatre, then in NYC by the Barrow Group, and then moving (produced by Daryl Roth and Jeffrey Ash) to the Promenade Theater where it ran for a season. In England, Old Wicked Songs started at the Bristol Old Vic, transferring to London's West End at the Gielgud Theater starring Bob Hoskins and James Callis. The play has been produced throughout the U.S. and has been translated and produced in over a dozen countries. Other produced shows include A Strange and Separate People at the Penguin Rep in Stony Point, NY and Studio Theater/Theater Row, NYC (2014 American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book in Literature), Jumping for Joy at the Laguna Playhouse and the International Adelaide Theater Festival, the musical Legacy at the San Jose Rep (book by Jon Marans, lyrics by Ronnie Gilbert, music Jeff Langley & Henry Mollicone based on Studs Terkel’s book “Coming of Age”), The Irrationals at the Village Theater and ATA, NYC (book & lyrics Jon Marans, music by Edward Thomas), A Raw Space at the Bristol Riverside Theatre and A Girl Scout World at the Bloomington Playwrights Project. In film, Jon Marans and Yuri Sivo were hired by Universal Pictures/Tribeca Productions to write a political/war screenplay based on Roy Rowan's acclaimed book Chasing the Dragon which takes place in 1947 China, in the middle of their civil war. Mr. Marans was also a story editor for Stonebridge Productions, Michael Douglas' film production company. In television, Mr. Marans was a writer for Cookin' in Brooklyn and a writer/lyricist for the 1991 New Carol Burnett Show. Mr. Marans is a graduate of Duke University in mathematics with a minor in music. His play The Temperamentals is currently in film development with Daryl Roth Productions and his play Old Wicked Songs in film development with Avi Levy. Mr. Marans is a recipient of a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Plays

  • Fear Training by Jon Marans
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: music, diversity + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, musical, political
    Keyword: music, diversity, prejudice, female, singing, teaching, fear, harmony, humor
    At a community college in Silver Spring, Maryland, spring of 2022, Caitlin Harding, a strong-willed, always seemingly anchored music teacher, suddenly feels lost after the covid death of her anti-vaxxer husband. And yet she must go back to school and teach her adult sight-singing/ear-training class. She and her diverse group of students end up being forced to deal with fears of theirs above and beyond sight-...
    At a community college in Silver Spring, Maryland, spring of 2022, Caitlin Harding, a strong-willed, always seemingly anchored music teacher, suddenly feels lost after the covid death of her anti-vaxxer husband. And yet she must go back to school and teach her adult sight-singing/ear-training class. She and her diverse group of students end up being forced to deal with fears of theirs above and beyond sight-singing. "Spoiler alert": act one ends with shooting sounds heard down the hallway from the class. The second act deals with these adult ed music students now truly on edge. Their fears and truths come out in expected ways -- both truths of their past and Silver Spring Maryland's past as well.
  • Puzzle Board by Jon Marans
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller + 1 more
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    Keyword: memory, sexual abuse + 1 more
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller, tragedy
    Keyword: memory, sexual abuse, Haunted House
    In this dramedy, two strong-willed sisters from Jersey return to their old, run-down family home now that their parents have died. Finally they're ready to deal with the horrific events that happened there. Or did it? As this mystery unravels, "home sick" is really about memory: what we remember, what we think we remember, what we've made up, what we conceal and what we may have chosen or need to forget.
  • Old Wicked Songs (Pulitzer Finalist) by Jon Marans
    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: Vienna, Americans abroad + 3 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, political
    Keyword: Vienna, Americans abroad, World War II, classical music, Musicians
    1986 Vienna. Kurt Waldheim is running for the chancellorship of Austria despite his Nazi past. Stephen Hoffman, a young gifted American pianist has come to Vienna in hopes of regaining his shattered confidence. Much to his surprise, he discovers the unlikely teacher who is to help him--the eccentric Professor Josef Mashkan--a vocal coach. Mashkan tells his arrogant student he cannot expect to play the...
    1986 Vienna. Kurt Waldheim is running for the chancellorship of Austria despite his Nazi past. Stephen Hoffman, a young gifted American pianist has come to Vienna in hopes of regaining his shattered confidence. Much to his surprise, he discovers the unlikely teacher who is to help him--the eccentric Professor Josef Mashkan--a vocal coach. Mashkan tells his arrogant student he cannot expect to play the piano with passion and sensitivity until he learns to sing. Through studying Schumann's "Dichterliebe", the cycle of songs adapted from the love poems of Heinrich Heine, Hoffman slowly rediscovers his love of music.
  • The Cover Up by Jon Marans
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: Schizophrenia, family + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Schizophrenia, family, love, Hidden secrets
    Set in the summer of 1973 in Staunton, Virgina, in the middle of the Watergate hearings, everyone in the Taggert-Lipper family is in the middle of their own cover up. Seemingly innocent 18 year old Lissa owns an illegal blue box which allows her to make free calls around the world. At the same time, Portland (Lissa's mother) has invited her ex-husband whom she hasn't seen in five years to the...
    Set in the summer of 1973 in Staunton, Virgina, in the middle of the Watergate hearings, everyone in the Taggert-Lipper family is in the middle of their own cover up. Seemingly innocent 18 year old Lissa owns an illegal blue box which allows her to make free calls around the world. At the same time, Portland (Lissa's mother) has invited her ex-husband whom she hasn't seen in five years to the house. The reason: Lissa's older sister, Floye Marie, had a breakdown in college two years ago and became schizophrenic, hearing voices (specifically the voice of Richard Nixon.) Portland -- the mother -- has been helping Floye Marie get through these last two years of college -- covering up her mental illness to the university. However, unable to pass the final class, Portland now enlists Ronner, her brilliant pot-head ex-husband back into their lives to help tutor Floye Marie. During all of this Floye Marie -- who is still hoping to be the first female president -- literally conjures up Richard Nixon for guidance. The two of them hang out, play cards, talk about politics and the struggles of life which only increase for both of them as the Watergate hearings continue and Floye Marie's impending graduation hangs over her life.
  • The Wrath of Connie (2018 Eugene O'Neill Finalist) by Jon Marans
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    9
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: sexual harassment, adult + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, farce, political
    Keyword: sexual harassment, adult, gender politics, female empowerment
    THE WRATH OF CONNIE (a 2018 Eugene O'Neill Finalist) is a Front Page-like dark comedy taking place in 1991. The play revolves around beloved TV icon, African-American Connie Frederick, who had a television variety show in the '60s and '70s, but not much success since then. So the network hires a bunch of edgy, raunchy twenty-something mostly male writers to try and make Connie just as edgy and...
    THE WRATH OF CONNIE (a 2018 Eugene O'Neill Finalist) is a Front Page-like dark comedy taking place in 1991. The play revolves around beloved TV icon, African-American Connie Frederick, who had a television variety show in the '60s and '70s, but not much success since then. So the network hires a bunch of edgy, raunchy twenty-something mostly male writers to try and make Connie just as edgy and political and outrageous/offensive as they are. Connie clearly draws the line of comedy in a very different place than they do, and she draws the line between what is appropriate behavior between men and women in a very different place as well. The play is specifically set in the fall of 1991 right as Anita Hill testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee as to the inappropriate behavior of Clarence Thomas.
  • The Temperamentals by Jon Marans
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 3 more
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    Keyword: History, gay rights
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama, period, political
    Keyword: History, gay rights
    "Temperamental" was code for "homosexual" in the early 1950s, part of a created language of secret words that gay men used to communicate. THE TEMPERAMENTALS tells the story of two men—the communist Harry Hay and the Viennese refugee and designer Rudi Gernreich—as they fall in love while building the first gay rights organization in the pre-Stonewall United States.
  • Second House From the Top by Jon Marans
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: returning home, family + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: returning home, family, love, siblings, mother and daughter, mother and son, Alzheimer's Disease, brother and sister
    A mother, son and daughter furiously throw out what they can from their mother's house before her difficult demanding tyrannical husband returns from physical rehab. The place is a hoarder's paradise with all of the horrors that entails. As they are forced to be around each other and work together for the first time in years, their perceptions of each other start to change. The son, who hadn’t...
    A mother, son and daughter furiously throw out what they can from their mother's house before her difficult demanding tyrannical husband returns from physical rehab. The place is a hoarder's paradise with all of the horrors that entails. As they are forced to be around each other and work together for the first time in years, their perceptions of each other start to change. The son, who hadn’t been at the house for quite a while, sees that his mother is behaving differently but unsure if it’s her mind – or if as an older woman she is finally asserting herself. As more and more things are thrown out, it almost appears as if the mother is throwing things out not so much for her husband to return, but for her to finally take control and find peace and joy in her home.
  • A Strange and Separate People by Jon Marans
    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: Orthodox Judaism, homosexuality + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: Orthodox Judaism, homosexuality, clash over religious beliefs, marriage problems, autism, husband and wife
    A young modern Orthodox Manhattan couple finds their world shaken when a gay doctor's passion for his new religious beliefs challenges theirs and questions the meaning of love.
  • Shots That Pass in the Night, a twenty minute one act by Jon Marans
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: diversity, characters using a wheelchair + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, fable/folktale, romantic comedy
    Keyword: diversity, characters using a wheelchair, familial love in the time COVID
    An older man in a wheelchair -- accompanied by his daughter -- and an older woman in a wheelchair-- accompanied by her son -- arrive to get their Covid shots at Rite Aid: one at 10:30, the other at 10:45. Will any of these four people have a second shot to make things right?