Schaeffer Nelson

It's 2004. Jason and Bryan— two white, Evangelical teenage boys— don’t have much experience being gay. But they know the same Christian music. And they have opinions about which men at church are the hottest. And they have time on their hands. Until it runs out.

- Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, 2024

Peter, a gay, small-town Minnesotan, is abandoned by his long-term boyfriend. Excruciating loneliness sends Peter on a downward spiral into the arms of a handsome stranger with a strange request: to transport a cadaver across the Canadian border. Against all his better instincts, Peter agrees. And must then fight for his life when he discovers the terrible truth about what they hid in the corpse.

Can be performed as a one-person show or by 2 actors.

Ayushi and Grace have just met. Both are from the Midwest. Both are pastor’s wives. Both are locked inside the basement pantry of a cannibal in a mouse costume. And today, food isn’t the only thing on his mind. If Ayushi and Grace are to survive, they must win a series of escalating mind games with their captor. They must discern what it means to become a good “little mouse.”

Some Reviews:

“Nelson is… an intriguing new voice — one who may not be easy to listen to but who should be heard…Nelson’s bizarre plot results in suspenseful moments that are genuinely unsettling.”- The Los Angeles Times

“This taut 70-minute psychological thriller is no joke… Nelson profoundly hints in Mice at the powerful hold of religious adherence and identity…a high-suspense game of life and death.”- LAist

“Mice holds you in a state of suspense from start to finish...” - Discover Hollywood Magazine

“Blithely violates taboos and sensibilities, unsettling us on a visceral level…” –Theatre Ghost

75 minutes, no intermission.

Irreverently comedic and increasingly tense, Kings of Israel retells the complex and dangerous relationship between King Saul and David, the first two kings of Biblical Israel. Over the course of a series of bedroom conversations, David questions where his loyalty to God ends and his relationship with King Saul begins-- and bloody choices draw near.

Some Reviews/Acclaim...

Editor's Pick, Best Productions of the Season, 2013-14- KC Metropolis

Best Production, Kansas City Fringe Festival 2014- Lee Hartman, KC Metropolis

"I was tickled by this provocative humanization of the Biblical legend, and find myself thinking more about it the morning after..." - KC Stage

"A TERRIFIC SHOW...This was not the version I learned in Sunday School...I would go back again!" - Best-selling novelist B.G. Thomas

55 minutes, no intermission.

Zachary Carol, a "pedophile rights activist", needs to get his taxes filed. Soon. As a vigilante closes in on him, Zachary must subject himself to the scrutiny of several tax professionals. Based on the 1990's infiltration of the gay rights movement by wicked men.

80 minutes, no intermission.

- Workshop reading, Launchpad, Ensemble Studio Theatre LA, 2017

A constellation of true romances from Kansas City’s LGBTQ communities. A gay immigrant who sought asylum in Brookside. A Parkville trans woman’s stunningly awkward first date. The racial politics of Kansas City’s separatist lesbian Womantown in the 90’s. With research and creative consulting by Cherae Clark.

Running Time: 60 Minutes, No intermission. 2-6 actors.

The year 2000. A Classical Christian school in the Midwest. A 6th Grade class. A beloved teacher. And a strange, new curriculum that beckons the children to an old evil. Based on something that happened. More than once.

Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission. 9 actors.