Crystal Skillman

Crystal Skillman

CRYSTAL SKILLMAN is an award-winning dramatist who writes for theater, film/television, and audio. Plays: NYTimes Critics Picks' OPEN (The Tank/AFO), GEEK (Vampire Cowboys), CUT (Theatre Under St. Marks), KING KIRBY (The Brick). Musicals: MARY AND MAX (Composer/Lyricist Bobby Cronin) and THIS SHOW IS MONEY (Music/Lyrics Gaby Alter). TV/Comic Books: ADVENTURE TIME (Boom! Studios), and EAT FIGHTER (WebToon).


Plays

  • KING KIRBY (co-written with Fred Van Lente) by Crystal Skillman
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    5–6
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    Genre: adventure, biography + 3 more
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    Keyword: comic books, Jack Kirby + 3 more
    Genre: adventure, biography, comedy, drama, science fiction
    Keyword: comic books, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Fantastic Four, Jewish history
    NOW A RIVETING AUDIO DRAMA with BROADWAY PODCAST NETWORK. NYTimes Critics Pick. A true life story about Jack Kirby, the man who co-created of the Marvel universe, King Kirby is an epic comic book story of the most famous cartoonist you never heard of. A real-life "Adventures of Kavalier & Klay", King Kirby asks what happens when an artist doesn't own his own legacy? Can he ever get it back?
  • OPEN by Crystal Skillman
    Recommendations: 9
    ·
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 6 more
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    Keyword: LGBTQ, magic show + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, fantasy, immersive, pantomime, political, tragedy
    Keyword: LGBTQ, magic show, magic, shadow play, Fantasy, Hate Crimes
    NYTimes Critics' Pick. Recently published with Dramatists Play Service, OPEN is a magic show without magic. A woman called The Magician seems to pantomime a myriad of tricks, but her act reveals she is attempting the impossible—to save the life of her lover, Jenny.  Impossible as it may seem, this Magician’s magic act may be our last hope against a world filled with intolerance and hate. 
  • PULP VÉRITÉ by Crystal Skillman
    Recommendations: 7
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    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy + 8 more
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    Keyword: Syria, cinema vérité + 3 more
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy, horror, mystery/thriller, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Syria, cinema vérité, Tarantino, documentary film-making, film industry
    Playwrights Center March 3rd 2021. Joy is an active member of the filmmaking collective Pulp Vérité when she is captured and held overseas for years until she escapes to the United States for the impossible: to bring her sister who is still a captive with ISIS home. "Pulp Vérité owns the naiveté of these young American filmmakers; with all we are currently politically facing, Pulp Vérité is a race against time."
  • RAIN AND ZOE SAVE THE WORLD by Crystal Skillman
    Recommendations: 12
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: adventure, comedy + 7 more
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    Keyword: global warming, cross-country + 1 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, drama, fantasy, movement/physical, musical, political, young audiences
    Keyword: global warming, cross-country, young adult
    Recently optioned ... news to come! Two Seattle teenagers embark on an impulsive motorcycle journey to join a group of oil protesters on the east coast. But as they follow a major pipeline across the country, what began as two young activists' longing to belong to something greater than themselves gives way to Rain and Zoe discovering that the true danger in this world might just be growing up.
  • THE SLEEPING WORLD by Crystal Skillman
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    NEW. When an unfinished play by the late Peter Abbey is discovered, his four closest friends - all fellow playwrights - meet in their old theatrical home to finish it. The content of the play, however, complicates matters, as they discover that the play is about them, their friendships, and what was lost eight, long years ago.
  • THE SECRET (Monologue) Part of PanAnimalia by Crystal Skillman
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 11 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy, horror, immersive, political, radio drama, satire, tragedy
    NEW. Over the mounting days, weeks, and ongoing months of Quarantine, we meet Luna, a housecat in the pandemic trying to piece together what is going for her human. Written from Luna’s perspective, this monologue keeps a sense of theatricality in the language of this feline understanding the importance of words and names, giving us a fresh, hopeful perspective on the struggles 2020 has brought us.
  • THE TEST by Crystal Skillman
    Recommendations: 6
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: Hate Crimes, Post Election + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: Hate Crimes, Post Election, teaching, teachers, high school
    An English teacher in a struggling high school readies her junior students for the most important test of their lives. But when a symbol of hate appears in her classroom, she and two students on either side of the recent election, find their lives forever changed.
  • ANOTHER KIND OF LOVE by Crystal Skillman
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: punk rock women band
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: punk rock women band
    In Another Kind of Love, A punk rock star comes back home to her former bandmates and sisters after 15 years in Seattle, for a one night gathering to honor their mother a legend in the rock world, seeking a relationship with her fifteen year old rock-star-to be niece... at the price of destroying the only family she’s got left. "A female-driven punk-rock masterpiece"! -Chloe Riley, Chicago Reader
  • (WILD) PETER & BOBBY by Crystal Skillman
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: LGBTQ, 20-somethings + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, political, romantic comedy
    Keyword: LGBTQ, 20-somethings, Relationships, diversity
    A savagely funny Chicago story that asks: will love ever meet our expectations, and how far will we go to hold onto it? Peter and Bobby graduated from Northwestern together, live together, work together, sleep together. But when one of them cheats with a woman, they dive into a world of wild sexual affairs that threaten what they once had. But through this cycle of destruction and repair, will they find a different kind of love?