Vince Gatton

Vince Gatton

Vince Gatton is a New York-based actor and writer. His short plays have appeared in mtp’s annual CHERRY PICKING at the Wild Project in NYC, at the Fine Arts Association in Willoughby, Ohio and The New American Theatre in Los Angeles; IN THE WHOLE HISTORY OF HI-Q and BETTER were finalists for the National Short Playwriting Award at City Theatre in Miami; JAM won Best Play in the 2015 LIC Short Play Festival; and...
Vince Gatton is a New York-based actor and writer. His short plays have appeared in mtp’s annual CHERRY PICKING at the Wild Project in NYC, at the Fine Arts Association in Willoughby, Ohio and The New American Theatre in Los Angeles; IN THE WHOLE HISTORY OF HI-Q and BETTER were finalists for the National Short Playwriting Award at City Theatre in Miami; JAM won Best Play in the 2015 LIC Short Play Festival; and BETTER won the 2018 Samuel French OOB Festival and was recently published by Samuel French. His full-length play ALEXANDRIA was the winner of Sanguine Theatre Company’s Project Playwright 2018 and was a semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Award. WAKE, his first full-length play, was a finalist at Dayton Playhouse’s FutureFest, Boomerang Theatre Company’s First Flight Festival, and Vintage Theatre Productions’ Mystery/Thriller New Play Festival.

He received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Play for David Johnston's Candy and Dorothy, which he also performed at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre in Cape Cod. Other notable acting credits include Leigh Fondakowski’s SPILL at Ensemble Studio Theatre; Cock and Clean Alternatives at the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca; I Am My Own Wife and Fully Committed at Barrington Stage Company; I Am My Own Wife again at Coachella Valley Rep (Desert Star Award Nomination) and Two Turns Theatre Company; Taylor Mac’s The Hot Month at Boomerang Theatre Company; and The Temperamentals at New World Stages, standing by for Michael Urie. Vince was a founding Board Member of New York Shakespeare Exchange, with whom he’s appeared in King John, Titus Andronicus, ShakesBEER, and The Sonnet Project.

You can catch him being himself on a certain re-run of Jeopardy, in the documentary Married and Counting, and in the Pippin episode of Encore on Disney+.

Plays

  • Protocols by Vince Gatton
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: isolation, siblings + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: isolation, siblings, family, covid19, shelter in place, Social distancing, Quarantine
    Two siblings on a video call attempt to manage a crisis.

    ***This short piece was written in response to a call for new scripts for our current Covid-19/social-distancing/quarantined moment. Student actors (and any actors, really) can no longer do scene work face-to-face; so some educators called for scripts that would incorporate video calls/physical distance as a given circumstance of the story...
    Two siblings on a video call attempt to manage a crisis.

    ***This short piece was written in response to a call for new scripts for our current Covid-19/social-distancing/quarantined moment. Student actors (and any actors, really) can no longer do scene work face-to-face; so some educators called for scripts that would incorporate video calls/physical distance as a given circumstance of the story. That was the one requirement: that there be a reason this scene or play is taking place via this technology and not in person.

    This is what I came up with in response to that prompt.
  • You Have Earned Bonus Stars by Vince Gatton
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: road trip, plus size actor + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, tragedy
    Keyword: road trip, plus size actor, morality, mass shooting, LGBTQ, nightmares, ethics, consequences of violence, great roles for women
    [FULL LENGTH] Danielle has survived a shocking act of workplace violence; her quiet older co-worker Jimmy has not. A small act in his final moments becomes a clue that sets Danielle off on a quest on his behalf, a quest that sends her down a rabbit hole of secrets, lies, and questions about her own place in the moral universe – and the state of the moral universe itself.

    You Have Earned Bonus...
    [FULL LENGTH] Danielle has survived a shocking act of workplace violence; her quiet older co-worker Jimmy has not. A small act in his final moments becomes a clue that sets Danielle off on a quest on his behalf, a quest that sends her down a rabbit hole of secrets, lies, and questions about her own place in the moral universe – and the state of the moral universe itself.

    You Have Earned Bonus Stars is a comedy about tragedy, an exploration of the judgement we all face – from the great beyond, from each other, and from ourselves.
  • ALEXANDRIA by Vince Gatton
    Recommendations: 7
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: drama, faith-based + 2 more
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    Keyword: religion, Christian + 6 more
    Genre: drama, faith-based, political, tragedy
    Keyword: religion, Christian, apocalypse, culture clash, southern, LGBTQ, gay marriage, great roles for women
    [FULL LENGTH] In a small town library in the Deep South, two librarians share an unlikely close friendship, despite being on opposite sides of the culture war. But when a young runaway, global events, and the Sweep of Human History come crashing through their front door, what will it take for that friendship to survive?

    Alexandria is a play about relationships that cross deep divides of belief...
    [FULL LENGTH] In a small town library in the Deep South, two librarians share an unlikely close friendship, despite being on opposite sides of the culture war. But when a young runaway, global events, and the Sweep of Human History come crashing through their front door, what will it take for that friendship to survive?

    Alexandria is a play about relationships that cross deep divides of belief and conviction: what those relationships are worth, and what they cost.

    *** Winner - Sanguine Theatre Company's Project Playwright Festival
    ** Semi-finalist, Princess Grace Award
  • Better by Vince Gatton
    Recommendations: 6
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
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    Keyword: class, factory + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: class, factory, women, resentment, blue collar
    [SHORT] Two women working along the line of a poultry-processing plant in Arkansas share many things, including their views about personal improvement; but when those views unexpectedly diverge, old cracks break wide open.

    **Winner - Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival
    *Finalist - City Theatre National Award for Short Playwriting
  • Hey by Vince Gatton
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: Adolescence, coming of age + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, fantasy
    Keyword: Adolescence, coming of age, gay, LGBT, rural America, blue collar, closet, great parts for young actors, Underwear
    [SHORT] A boy's quest for a safe harbor leads him unexpectedly into the most terrifying danger of his young life. A comedy (sort of?) about shopping for underwear.
  • Status Update by Vince Gatton
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: mother, son + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: mother, son, teenagers, parent, loss, death, Violent Femmes, music, memory, punk rock
    [SHORT] In a sunny suburban kitchen on a Saturday afternoon, a mother's last nerve is getting trampled on by her teenage son's loud music. But underneath their argument over iTunes, a sudden loss and an unspoken fear are waiting to be revealed.

    Status Update is a play about youth, middle age, the relentless passing of time, and the small acts of love that make up our days.
  • JAM by Vince Gatton
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    4–5
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: absurdist, office + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, horror
    Keyword: absurdist, office, violence, absurd comedy, Black comedy
    [ONE ACT] A malfunctioning piece of office equipment brings out the worst in a diverse group of co-workers.

    *** Winner, LIC Short Play Festival
  • WAKE by Vince Gatton
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller
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    Keyword: ghosts, LGBTQ + 5 more
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: ghosts, LGBTQ, gay, marriage, HIV/AIDS, African American, storytelling
    [FULL LENGTH] Dan and Eric have a new marriage license, a new baby, and a new house in the country. As they settle into this new life, Dan is having what seem to be sleepwalking episodes. A ghost story told by a young visitor leads Eric to suspect that Dan's sleepwalking incidents are actually something far more sinister -- but are they what he thinks they are? Or are there other forces at work?
    ...
    [FULL LENGTH] Dan and Eric have a new marriage license, a new baby, and a new house in the country. As they settle into this new life, Dan is having what seem to be sleepwalking episodes. A ghost story told by a young visitor leads Eric to suspect that Dan's sleepwalking incidents are actually something far more sinister -- but are they what he thinks they are? Or are there other forces at work?

    WAKE is a ghost story for the post-AIDS generation, a play about marriage, expectations, and the power of narrative to both heal and harm.
  • Neon Glowing New by Vince Gatton
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: teenagers, rave + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: teenagers, rave, gay, family, millennium, dad
    [ONE ACT] On the eve of the millennium, a teenage girl attends her first rave and envisions a potential future that rejects the rules and restrictions of her parents' middle class values. But she soon finds that the freedom the rave promises is not just for her, in ways she finds deeply threatening.
  • In The Whole History of Hi-Q by Vince Gatton
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy
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    Keyword: teenagers, Trivia + 4 more
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: teenagers, Trivia, loser, competition, Vocabulary, intelligence
    [SHORT] One the eve of the last tournament of the year, three high school trivia nerds must confront the real reasons for their losing streak.
  • Hair Tuck, Half Smile by Vince Gatton
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    5–7
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 4 more
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    Keyword: Katie Holmes, Scientology + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, fantasy, melodrama, mystery/thriller, parody/spoof
    Keyword: Katie Holmes, Scientology, Dawson's Creek, celebrity, dreams
    [SHORT] A series of nested dreams, exploring how our celebrity obsessions both flatter and condemn us.

    Might as well be titled: What We Dream About When We Dream About Katie Holmes