Jennifer Rowland

Jennifer Rowland

Jennifer Rowland is a Los Angeles based playwright whose plays have been produced at Skylight Theater (“The Lost Child”), Pacific Resident Theatre (“The Indians are Coming to Dinner”), Powerhouse Theater (“The Contest”) and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (“The Contest”). Her plays have also been presented in Antaeus Theatre “Lab Results” Festival, (“Regular Joes”, directed by Jonathan Lynn, “Ditmas Park”,...
Jennifer Rowland is a Los Angeles based playwright whose plays have been produced at Skylight Theater (“The Lost Child”), Pacific Resident Theatre (“The Indians are Coming to Dinner”), Powerhouse Theater (“The Contest”) and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (“The Contest”). Her plays have also been presented in Antaeus Theatre “Lab Results” Festival, (“Regular Joes”, directed by Jonathan Lynn, “Ditmas Park”, directed by Michael John Garcés”), The Road Theater Summer Playwrights Festival, ( “The Cold Inside” and “One Good Death”), and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, (“The Cold Inside”- Andrew Carlberg, producer) Her plays have been developed at Antaeus Theatre Company’s Playwrights Lab, Rogue Machine Theatre and Pacific Resident Theater. Jennifer is an alumnus of Harvard College and American Conservatory Theatre’s Young Conservatory. She is currently a member of the New Perspective Theatre Company’s Women's Work Short Play Lab in New York, where her new play, “Brett & Ashley” will be produced later this year.

Plays

  • Brett & Ashley
    Brett and Ashley meet at the White House just before 9/11 and the national crisis seals their romance. 15 years later, an incident from the past threatens to upend everything they have achieved in their lives.
  • JAMAL (Ditmas Park)
    When 15 year old Tori goes to work as a summer intern for her god mother’s new boyfriend, Jamal, everyone is thrilled- until Tori's new stepmother discovers disturbing sexually explicit photos in his home office.
  • The House of Mirth
    The funny, tragic story of Edith Wharton's Lily Bart, an impoverished woman in turn of the century New York torn between society's constraints and her own desires. This pared down, theatrical version tells her story using 6 actors who play all the characters.
  • Daddy's Girl
    19 year old Josie Ricks adores her father, Joe Ricks; he’s a great guy. And that’s why she’ll stand with him, along with her mother and brothers, when he announces his candidacy for the Senate.
    But when Josie’e childhood friend implicates Joe in a compromising sexual encounter, Josie starts to see her father in ways she never did before.
    DADDY'S GIRL is the private, family drama behind a...
    19 year old Josie Ricks adores her father, Joe Ricks; he’s a great guy. And that’s why she’ll stand with him, along with her mother and brothers, when he announces his candidacy for the Senate.
    But when Josie’e childhood friend implicates Joe in a compromising sexual encounter, Josie starts to see her father in ways she never did before.
    DADDY'S GIRL is the private, family drama behind a public sex scandal.
  • The Changeling
    An estranged couple returns to their deserted cabin in the woods to pack it up. A storm moves in, a strange, mysterious child appears… could this be their lost child come home?
  • THE COLD INSIDE
    The Snow Queen kidnaps a boy and imprisons him in her frozen palace; a man steps in front of a bus at Washington Square and now lies motionless in a hospital room; a woman running from her recent past happens into the room when the man wakes. He does not remember anything about himself, his life or the accident. The woman is hurt and fragile, but the man’s suffering moves her and she reluctantly agrees to try...
    The Snow Queen kidnaps a boy and imprisons him in her frozen palace; a man steps in front of a bus at Washington Square and now lies motionless in a hospital room; a woman running from her recent past happens into the room when the man wakes. He does not remember anything about himself, his life or the accident. The woman is hurt and fragile, but the man’s suffering moves her and she reluctantly agrees to try to help him recover his memory and identity. As the two chip away at the mystery of the man’s life and secrets, the woman’s own life is revealed and they find themselves drawn together as well as torn apart by the bonds they share.
  • THE LOST CHILD
    An estranged couple returns to their deserted cabin in the woods to pack it up. A storm moves in, a strange, mysterious child appears… could this be their lost child come home?
  • HEARTBREAKER
    Post World War II San Francisco, Violet Fairfax, smart and talented wants nothing more than to please her father, a stern task master and self-made man who believes the world is a knowable and controllable place. But Violet’s mind is anything but, and try as she might, she simply cannot tame the mysterious and uncontrollable forces taking over her brain. For his part, Mr. Fairfax comes up against a power he...
    Post World War II San Francisco, Violet Fairfax, smart and talented wants nothing more than to please her father, a stern task master and self-made man who believes the world is a knowable and controllable place. But Violet’s mind is anything but, and try as she might, she simply cannot tame the mysterious and uncontrollable forces taking over her brain. For his part, Mr. Fairfax comes up against a power he cannot
    control. Tragically for them both, they each disappoint the person they love most in the world. The Andrews Sisters punctuate the wholesome can-do optimism of the time colliding with the frightening visions inside Violet's mind.
  • BREAKING AND ENTERING
    Beverly has important news to share with her son. So when her key doesn't fit in the front door lock, she pushes her way in through the open kitchen door. There on the stove is a piping hot lasagna! Yum! But ouch- too hot. She takes out some ice cream- but ouch- too cold! On the counter is a cake- just right. No one will notice if she takes a little slice, will they?
  • THE CONTEST
    A comic drama about a triangle of friends who reunite years after the results of an art school contest destroyed their relationships and undermined their professional careers.
  • THE INDIANS ARE COMING TO DINNER
    San Francisco, November, 1984. Morning in America, but chaos at the Blackburn residence. Harold Blackburn wants to impress some important Indian diplomats in his wrong headed quest to become ambassador. He expects his family to "show up and look interested" not caring that his daughter Alexandra has dreams of her own. A funny, sweet, and touching new play, “The Indians Are Coming to Dinner” serves up...
    San Francisco, November, 1984. Morning in America, but chaos at the Blackburn residence. Harold Blackburn wants to impress some important Indian diplomats in his wrong headed quest to become ambassador. He expects his family to "show up and look interested" not caring that his daughter Alexandra has dreams of her own. A funny, sweet, and touching new play, “The Indians Are Coming to Dinner” serves up dysfunction, enlightenment, opera, and some bad curry.
  • ONE GOOD DEATH
    The Blackburn Family patriarch dies - but he won’t go away! A companion piece to "The Indians are Coming to Dinner", "One Good Death" takes up with the San Francisco Blackburns 15 years after the end of "The Indians".