Jonathan Caren

Jonathan Caren

Jonathan Caren’s plays include Canyon (IAMA, directed by Whitney White) The Recommendation (Windy City, The Flea, Old Globe, IAMA, Craig Noel Award for Best New Play, Ovation Best Play, NAACP nomination), Need to Know (Rogue Machine) Catch the Fish (Most Outstanding Play, NY Fringe). Dramatist Guild Fellow, and most recently Four Woke Baes (Edinburgh Fringe 2019, directed by Teddy Bergman).

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Jonathan Caren’s plays include Canyon (IAMA, directed by Whitney White) The Recommendation (Windy City, The Flea, Old Globe, IAMA, Craig Noel Award for Best New Play, Ovation Best Play, NAACP nomination), Need to Know (Rogue Machine) Catch the Fish (Most Outstanding Play, NY Fringe). Dramatist Guild Fellow, and most recently Four Woke Baes (Edinburgh Fringe 2019, directed by Teddy Bergman).

MacDowell Fellow, SPACE Fellow, NYSAF Founder’s Award Winner, Lecomte De Nouy Winner, Theater Publicus Prize for Dramatic Fiction. TV: The Sinner, Gypsy, Rise, a million little things. B.F.A, The Juilliard School.

Plays

  • Metanoia
    Where is God today? Are They in the profane or the sacred? Who do They care about? Ayelet runs into her old theater friend Dan. Only now Dan is preparing for life as a Jesuit. He unceremoniously left the theater after a scandal. Can he resurface with a newfound lease on life? Is he "allowed" to have God? Can he ever return to the theater world, or will these two old friends have to cheat on their...
    Where is God today? Are They in the profane or the sacred? Who do They care about? Ayelet runs into her old theater friend Dan. Only now Dan is preparing for life as a Jesuit. He unceremoniously left the theater after a scandal. Can he resurface with a newfound lease on life? Is he "allowed" to have God? Can he ever return to the theater world, or will these two old friends have to cheat on their respective communities in order to...commune? A play that asks us to rethink our relationship with the word 'God' in a crazy Godless world.
  • Four Woke Baes
    "****"* Edinburgh Fringe 2019, Guardian Recommended, Independent's Top New Play, **** in What's on Stage, The Stage, Spy In The Stalls, The Scotsman, Fringe Binge and many others.

    With three friends, Des is toasting his imminent marriage. Enter Emma: an intellectual writer on sex and free love, camping alone in the woods and now obliged to share riverside space with Des and...
    "****"* Edinburgh Fringe 2019, Guardian Recommended, Independent's Top New Play, **** in What's on Stage, The Stage, Spy In The Stalls, The Scotsman, Fringe Binge and many others.

    With three friends, Des is toasting his imminent marriage. Enter Emma: an intellectual writer on sex and free love, camping alone in the woods and now obliged to share riverside space with Des and his bros. She’s a spur to debate – about the compromises we make in monogamous partnerships; about the relationship between love and sex. Her radical honesty picks apart the little lies that bind their band together.
  • FIT
    Paul wants to get fit. Alena is a fitness instructor. They should be a perfect fit, shouldn't they? Paul and Alena do not see eye-to-eye when it comes to health and fitness. And then there's the problem of Alena's condition. Will either of them ever reach their ultimate goal of looking their best? Or will they have to settle for feeling their best? A look at the health and wellness craze in America.
  • Need to Know
    Lilly and Steven are smart, talented and charming. Their new neighbor is not. After moving into a new apartment, they meet the man they now share a wall with — Mark Manners, an aspiring fiction writer and longtime tenant of the building. Lilly and Steven proceed to “Google” stalk Mark have a field day mocking his website… only to realize the walls are thin and can hear everything they said about him. When...
    Lilly and Steven are smart, talented and charming. Their new neighbor is not. After moving into a new apartment, they meet the man they now share a wall with — Mark Manners, an aspiring fiction writer and longtime tenant of the building. Lilly and Steven proceed to “Google” stalk Mark have a field day mocking his website… only to realize the walls are thin and can hear everything they said about him. When they try to win back his affection, it backfires as Mark turns the tables and unlocks secrets about the couple they didn’t know about each other, and it dismantles their relationship. The play asks the question, “In the world of social media, how much do we need to know about each other’s lives? Or are there some secrets worth keeping, including those of the people closest to us?”