Abraham Johnson

Abe Johnson writes Big Messy Queer Plays that center gray areas and strange transformations. Abe is a Resident Playwright with Triboro Producers Club, a two-time Lambda Literary Fellow (mentored by Phillip Howze and Luis Alfaro) and has produced/developed work with the Tank NYC (Frontera Series), Workshop Theater, Horizon Theater, Synchronicity Theater, Essential Theater, OutFront Theater, and Working Title Playwrights among others. Finalist credits include SPACE on Ryder Farms and the National Young Playwrights Residency.

Abe has served on the Artistic Council for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference (reader: 2019-2024), also reading for Playwrights Realm (2021-2023), the O'Neill Young Playwrights Festival, the Campfire Theater Festival, the Essential Theater, Georgia Theater...

Abe Johnson writes Big Messy Queer Plays that center gray areas and strange transformations. Abe is a Resident Playwright with Triboro Producers Club, a two-time Lambda Literary Fellow (mentored by Phillip Howze and Luis Alfaro) and has produced/developed work with the Tank NYC (Frontera Series), Workshop Theater, Horizon Theater, Synchronicity Theater, Essential Theater, OutFront Theater, and Working Title Playwrights among others. Finalist credits include SPACE on Ryder Farms and the National Young Playwrights Residency.

Abe has served on the Artistic Council for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference (reader: 2019-2024), also reading for Playwrights Realm (2021-2023), the O'Neill Young Playwrights Festival, the Campfire Theater Festival, the Essential Theater, Georgia Theater Conference, the AMPLIFY: Black Playwrights Festival, and the EXPLODE Theater Group.

When not playwriting or yelling about how awful the industry can be, Abe uses all pronouns, feels most powerful in overalls, and is a beginner bird-watcher.

Scripts

migration season

by Abraham Johnson

Synopsis

It's the annual Jekyll Island Youth Birdwatching Competition and high school seniors Sylvia and Lane are ready to absolutely DOMINATE for the 4th year in a row. Honestly? It's barely a competition when you're such iconic bestie-warbler-whisperers.

Except this year... the extra-credit lacrosse himbos can actually tell a stork from a seagull. Not to mention the arrival of an unexpected parent chaperone threatens...

It's the annual Jekyll Island Youth Birdwatching Competition and high school seniors Sylvia and Lane are ready to absolutely DOMINATE for the 4th year in a row. Honestly? It's barely a competition when you're such iconic bestie-warbler-whisperers.

Except this year... the extra-credit lacrosse himbos can actually tell a stork from a seagull. Not to mention the arrival of an unexpected parent chaperone threatens to destroy this duo's guaranteed glory. Over the course of the weekend, we'll ping-pong across the beaches and forests of Jekyll Island, tracking Sylvia and Lane's path to teen birdwatching glory while unraveling a dark mystery that shakes the core of this senior-year victory-lap weekend.

the pits

by Abraham Johnson

Synopsis

the pits follows the trio of Ben and Lucas (middle schoolers) and Mr. X (a first-year-teacher) as the three of them explore the internet, their bodies, and the new SEL class at school: Educating the Heart. Ben and Lucas’ friendship twists and turns throughout 8th grade and Mr. X confronts the anxiety of public education, until all three are forced to reveal the darkness that lurks in their internet history. Foul...

the pits follows the trio of Ben and Lucas (middle schoolers) and Mr. X (a first-year-teacher) as the three of them explore the internet, their bodies, and the new SEL class at school: Educating the Heart. Ben and Lucas’ friendship twists and turns throughout 8th grade and Mr. X confronts the anxiety of public education, until all three are forced to reveal the darkness that lurks in their internet history. Foul-mouthed, darkly intimate, and bittersweet, this is a play about existing in the modern classroom from both sides of the desk.

DEAD GAY BODY

by Abraham Johnson

Synopsis

Everything is perfectly fine at Ronald Reagan High School! Cheerleaders and football players hold hands in hallways. Teachers smile really, really, *really* big. And sure, there's a string of mysterious gay deaths, but let's focus on the positive right now!... No? Fine.

After a particularly public death of a particularly gay student ("Twinkie McBottoms") with a particularly public last statement ("I Hate...

Everything is perfectly fine at Ronald Reagan High School! Cheerleaders and football players hold hands in hallways. Teachers smile really, really, *really* big. And sure, there's a string of mysterious gay deaths, but let's focus on the positive right now!... No? Fine.

After a particularly public death of a particularly gay student ("Twinkie McBottoms") with a particularly public last statement ("I Hate Straight People"), Ronald Reagan High's Counselor is thrust into action, determined to create a safe space... for straight students to feel safe again. She will team up with the first gay student body president, a fragile football player, a garden-loving Principal, and even the audience to organize a "Diversity Day" that these heterosexuals will never forget. But first, we have to figure out: why are there dead gay bodies popping up all over school? And who the heck has even heard of Laramie, Wyoming?

WOOLF etc.

by Abraham Johnson

Synopsis

An old play within a new play about new plays and old plays, "WOOLF etc." follows four #multihyphenate #newplay #dedicated theater artists on their path towards trying to create something meaningful. This script dissects the threshold between the personal and performative, how to be as #marketable as Lucas Hnath, and questions how much of the canon we're willing to shred for a chance to stand on the periphary.

An old play within a new play about new plays and old plays, "WOOLF etc." follows four #multihyphenate #newplay #dedicated theater artists on their path towards trying to create something meaningful. This script dissects the threshold between the personal and performative, how to be as #marketable as Lucas Hnath, and questions how much of the canon we're willing to shred for a chance to stand on the periphary.

we're gonna win this year

by Abraham Johnson

Synopsis

Four parents sit on the sidelines of a pee wee football practice. Forever.

Four parents sit on the sidelines of a pee wee football practice. Forever.