Jordan Elizabeth Henry

—-semifinalist, O’Neill npc 2024 —-

therapy is hard; julianna should know - she’s been in and out for years. why’s she at it yet again? it’s this… flash. that’s the only thing to call it - not a memory, just like a… blip. she can’t get past it, no matter what she tries: she drinks. she runs. she sings karaoke. she gets sober. she gets married. nothing seems to work. her half-sister, gwyn, is young - like younger than a 16-year-old should be. it's her birthday and she’s scored a fake id! her crush is back from college! everything’s going so friggin well! she takes hunter back to her place, but that's when she starts feeling... weird. she's just not used to taking shots! that must be it. except there's this... blip that keeps blipping in her mind about that night. she puts the thoughts away - but of course julianna always knows how to worm the truth out of her little sis. and when she does - when the scenes come crashing back; when the feeling of his hands against her skin...; the smell of him...; the way she couldn't breathe... that's when julianna says she has a plan: they'll get her justice. (or they'll get revenge.)

__FINALIST__
O'Neill NPC 2023
Title Wave Play Festival 2023
Normal Avenue's NAPSeries 2023

__SEMIFINALIST__
Dramatist Guild Foundation’s Virtual Playwriting Workshop 2023
American Blues Theatre Blue Ink Award 2024

Birdie & Lin are getting married, and Lin is about to Meet The Parents, Mona & Mal, for the first time. Birdie's therapist, Sy, has been encouraging her to reveal her recent Autism diagnosis with Lin, but Birdie's hesitating -- Lin's daughter, who was killed in a car accident at age 3, was Autistic and never spoke. Will Lin feel compelled to Take Care Of Birdie, when all Birdie wants is autonomy? Or will Lin see Birdie as Not Autistic Enough? Meanwhile, Birdie keeps dreaming of The Woods, following a trail of breadcrumbs that take her deeper into her childhood and closer to the Wolf at the door.

Allison has just dropped out of college after her torrid affair with a professor ended in a pregnancy, and then a miscarriage. Listless and confused, the one thing that's crystal clear is that she wants to be a mom - more than Anything. (Probably.) When she meets the charismatic Terry, a fertility specialist running a clinical trial in an idyllic Appalachian holler, she feels a sense of purpose and belonging for the first time in her life. Terry just makes her feel ---so good--- about herself; and when such a good person sees good in you, well, it's hard to tell them No. Never one to make friends easily, Allison struggles to find her place in this new community. But Dom, Terry's partner, sees something familiar in Allison and decides, against her own better judgment, to take the newcomer under her wing. As Allison's fertility journey continues, more about this community comes to light, and Allison finds herself in a free fall toward a life she didn't anticipate. As Terry's plans begin to come together, Allison's less sure of what's really going on. But it's not like anything dangerous could possibly happen here - Terry's such a good person, and she only brings good people into the fold.

When Dom makes a shocking discovery, the situation begins to unravel and a sudden shift in weather threatens the community.

One Act (50 minutes): aggie and max argue about some things that don't matter, eventually getting around to a few things that do.

In the early 1900s, Anna Catherine Wiley, an impressionist painter from Knoxville, Tennessee, rose rapidly to fame and descended just as quickly as a number of personal and professional losses culminated in a "mental breakdown" in 1929 that landed her in an institution where she would die 30 years later, having never painted again. ... Or at least that was the story as it was known to the few surviving family members, artists, and historians who still know Wiley's name. But there's more to the story than the art community knows.

Jordan Elizabeth Henry was awarded the Ohio Arts Council's Artists with Disabilities Grant for FY 2022 to develop this piece.

As a sudden and intense storm descends on a cabin in the woods in northern Maine, four people are unexpectedly brought together.

Tacoma, Washington, 2010, after the state passed Death With Dignity. Billie, a sober Autistic woman teetering on the edge of the wagon, is a hospice nurse with a new patient: Chuck, a woman in the final stages of ALS. As the anniversary of the death of Billie's brother, Kosmo, approaches, Nathan, Kosmo's partner, is cartwheeling through Autistic burnout, totally devoid of executive function and hope. Meanwhile, their friend, Des, demands answers about her relationship with Nathan as Chloe just happens to wander into their lives and disrupt everything.

A play about connection, detachment, and the power of having a witness to your life.

In a secluded town in the far north, a mysterious Chamber beneath the sea ice is about to be permanently flooded. Once the main source of revenue for the small adjacent town, it has been abandoned for years after a half-forgotten tragedy. Julian, a woman riding the tides of her mania and depression, has returned home to write a book with her best friend, Hector, about the loss of her twin sister, Lucy, at a young age. But Julian has ulterior motives that she's hiding from Hector and her older sister, Catherine - and it all hangs on the mysterious Chamber beneath the ice.

NOTE: can be produced in black box and/or with limited set pieces

Roni and Zeke, both actors trying to find their "big breaks", have spent the last three months as bitter enemies after a night of passion turned sour. Now that they're forced to work together after landing roles in the same play, they agree to put their differences behind them and build their stage chemistry. But they both, of course, have their own plans to seek revenge, and only time will tell who will end up on top.

NOW AVAILABLE FROM NEXT STAGE PRESS!
Riley has returned to the place she was raised to bury her grandfather, who did the raising. Her sister Shae's been cleaning house, making arrangements, silently spinning out. When their grandfather's will reveals that Riley and Shae could be millionaires if Riley agrees to live in the house for a year, things get... complicated. As the sisters hash out old wounds, a secret begs to be unearthed -- a secret Shae wants buried, but Riley is ready to resurrect it.

adam & cara.
cara & adam.
who even remembers how long they've been friends? how many fights have they had? how many times have they woken up in bed next to each other with no memory of the night before?
it's nothing special, really --- just 2 people trying to talk to each other but failing again & again. it's a comedy!

TEN MINUTES: Sue has lived with her Aunt Jeanie since her mother disappeared when she was a little girl. With the aid of her vivid imagination, Sue holds a special communion with her absent mother. But where did her mother go? And when will she come back?

A woman tells a spooooky story.

She's just trying to get ready for a meeting when she is rudely interrupted by a handsy male coworker.

She's feeling confident today: she's got her Confidence Outfit, her Confidence Coffee, her Confidence Hair. She's ready to start her workday. That is, until she gets sidetracked by a male coworker.

Sylvia tries to reprocess a childhood trauma.