J.C. Pankratz

J.C. Pankratz

J.C. Pankratz (they/them) is a proud queer, non-binary, transgender playwright and educator writing genre-defying work about gender, class, trauma, and magic. Their plays are Mortals (Pridefest at The Tank), Eat Your Young (workshop production, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre), Little Kingdom (2nd Place, Mark Twain Playwriting Award; Distinguished Achievement, Paula Vogel Playwriting Award), Seahorse (2021 FMM...
J.C. Pankratz (they/them) is a proud queer, non-binary, transgender playwright and educator writing genre-defying work about gender, class, trauma, and magic. Their plays are Mortals (Pridefest at The Tank), Eat Your Young (workshop production, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre), Little Kingdom (2nd Place, Mark Twain Playwriting Award; Distinguished Achievement, Paula Vogel Playwriting Award), Seahorse (2021 FMM Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language), and Redeemer Mine (Finalist, O’Neill Playwrights Conference). Beloved collaborators also include CompanyOne, Kitchen Dog Theater, and Lily + Joan Theatre Company. They are a 2023 Core Apprentice with the Playwrights’ Center, a 2023 Visionary Playwright with Theatremasters, and a Writing Fellow with the Playwrights' Realm.

They recently graduated with their MFA from Boston University, and have interned at New Dramatists and Clubbed Thumb.

Plays

  • Eat Your Young by J.C. Pankratz
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: adventure, comedy + 5 more
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    Keyword: wilderness, Therapy + 4 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, drama, horror, movement/physical, science fiction
    Keyword: wilderness, Therapy, teens, monsters, horror, blossoming romance
    Lucia, Jelly, Ginger, and Quinn are four mismatched teens enrolled together in a new-age
    wilderness therapy program. Living in the wild proves to be tough, but their ridiculous,
    out-of-touch counselors are tougher, and the ground beneath their feet won’t stop
    cracking open. As supernatural forces make a devastating appearance, the quartet must
    band together and reckon with monsters—...
    Lucia, Jelly, Ginger, and Quinn are four mismatched teens enrolled together in a new-age
    wilderness therapy program. Living in the wild proves to be tough, but their ridiculous,
    out-of-touch counselors are tougher, and the ground beneath their feet won’t stop
    cracking open. As supernatural forces make a devastating appearance, the quartet must
    band together and reckon with monsters—manmade and otherwise. This deeply chaotic,
    funny, evocative play explores truth, trans identity, and the defiant power of imagination.
  • Little Kingdom by J.C. Pankratz
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: double casting, masculinity + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, movement/physical
    Keyword: double casting, masculinity, trans identity, college students, rehearsal
    It’s the last show of the year, and seniors Angel and Francesca find themselves doublecast as Eddie Polish in the emotionally-charged 1940’s American classic The Trolley Problem at their historically all-women’s college. In three rehearsal sessions, Angel and Francesca scuffle and collaborate in equal measure to emulate their hero, a golden age era actor known as Il Montalbano. What begins as toying with the...
    It’s the last show of the year, and seniors Angel and Francesca find themselves doublecast as Eddie Polish in the emotionally-charged 1940’s American classic The Trolley Problem at their historically all-women’s college. In three rehearsal sessions, Angel and Francesca scuffle and collaborate in equal measure to emulate their hero, a golden age era actor known as Il Montalbano. What begins as toying with the trappings of masculinity turns into swagger competitions and debates on the very nature of acting in this physically charged romp.
  • Egg Tooth by J.C. Pankratz
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: dancing, ballet + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, movement/physical
    Keyword: dancing, ballet, birds, peacocks, trauma
    After a perilous production of The Nutcracker, Julee stops dancing, stops eating—and lays an egg. Life barges into her studio apartment nest in the form of her worried best friend and her obsessive memories of rehearsal, both of which refuse to leave her in peace. Julee keeps building her nest, hatching day inches closer and closer, and everyone must reckon with what it means to break through into a new life.
  • Seahorse by J.C. Pankratz
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    1
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: artificial insemination, trans masculinity + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: artificial insemination, trans masculinity, costumes, queer family, grief, 'til death do us part
    Reuben is a trans man continuing his attempts to conceive a child after the death of his husband. In processing his grief and hope, Reuben turns his insemination endeavors into moments of self-recognition by donning different costumes and persona for each try. (Juliet, Zeus, and St. Francis all make appearances.) Instead of a funerary parade, this one-person play seeks the purpose of life for the living, for...
    Reuben is a trans man continuing his attempts to conceive a child after the death of his husband. In processing his grief and hope, Reuben turns his insemination endeavors into moments of self-recognition by donning different costumes and persona for each try. (Juliet, Zeus, and St. Francis all make appearances.) Instead of a funerary parade, this one-person play seeks the purpose of life for the living, for the dead, and for the not-yet-arrived.
  • Redeemer Mine by J.C. Pankratz
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    4–5
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: Sisters, Cults + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, horror, mystery/thriller, tragedy
    Keyword: Sisters, Cults, religion, ghosts, family, dark comedy
    Gloria returns home after her sister is caught cremating their mother, the prophet of the local small-town doomsday cult, in the backyard of their Wyoming farmhouse. Gloria must sift through the mess, reconnect with her sister, and figure out just where the rest of the family went. 2015 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist.
  • God and the Painter by J.C. Pankratz
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: god, art + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, movement/physical, science fiction
    Keyword: god, art, Painting
    God demands a portrait. God wants something nice. Jamie wants something real.
  • Bombyx Mori by J.C. Pankratz
    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: friendship, work + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, experimental
    Keyword: friendship, work, life, death, interns, bugs
    An unmotivated intern and a silk moth figure out the finer points of life and death while on a lunch break.
  • Music for Vultures by J.C. Pankratz
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    A mother meets with her son to discuss end-of-life arrangements, and reveals her plans have much to do with her pet turkey vulture.
  • Honest to God by J.C. Pankratz
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, science fiction
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    Keyword: magical realism
    Genre: dark comedy, science fiction
    Keyword: magical realism
    Nina returns to her old town of Altoona, Iowa after her mother dies and leaves Nina her childhood home. One night, she wakes to a fire in the backyard that won’t go out: a burning bush of biblical proportions. As Altoona slowly learns of this phenomenon, townspeople shack up on Nina’s property, waiting for the next sign from God. Nina, growing more and more claustrophobic, must face her own issues left long...
    Nina returns to her old town of Altoona, Iowa after her mother dies and leaves Nina her childhood home. One night, she wakes to a fire in the backyard that won’t go out: a burning bush of biblical proportions. As Altoona slowly learns of this phenomenon, townspeople shack up on Nina’s property, waiting for the next sign from God. Nina, growing more and more claustrophobic, must face her own issues left long dormant in this little town.
  • Joyless Eye by J.C. Pankratz
    Cast: 
    5–7
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: Moon Landing, Vietnam War + 5 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, period, science fiction
    Keyword: Moon Landing, Vietnam War, PTSD, romance, alternate universes, ghosts, astronomy
    Set in an alternate history where the ’69 lunar landing fails, “Joyless Eye” follows ex-VA nurse Myra Ann Combs as she tends a lingering obsession with the moon and struggles with homelessness, unemployment, PTSD, and a girlfriend who is quickly losing her patience. Help comes in the form of the spirit of comet astronomer Caroline Herschel, who appears in Myra Ann’s motel room with simple, inspired purpose: to...
    Set in an alternate history where the ’69 lunar landing fails, “Joyless Eye” follows ex-VA nurse Myra Ann Combs as she tends a lingering obsession with the moon and struggles with homelessness, unemployment, PTSD, and a girlfriend who is quickly losing her patience. Help comes in the form of the spirit of comet astronomer Caroline Herschel, who appears in Myra Ann’s motel room with simple, inspired purpose: to build a telescope. But the more time and energy Myra Ann spends pursuing the moon, the harder her memories pull her back into the past, loosening her grip on reality and causing her to confront, at the end of all things, why she must continue to build.