Jeffrey Neuman

Jeffrey Neuman

Jeffrey Neuman is an award-winning playwright whose work has been performed at theaters, festivals, and universities across the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. His plays have been produced and/or developed by Denver Center Theatre Company, LaMaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Emerging Artists Theatre Company, Paragon Theatre, National Public Radio, Stage Left, FUSION Theatre Company, and the...
Jeffrey Neuman is an award-winning playwright whose work has been performed at theaters, festivals, and universities across the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. His plays have been produced and/or developed by Denver Center Theatre Company, LaMaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Emerging Artists Theatre Company, Paragon Theatre, National Public Radio, Stage Left, FUSION Theatre Company, and the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival, among many others.

As a dramaturg, Jeffrey has worked for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the Athena Project Festival, and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. He is also a musical theatre historian, whose original research was used as source material for the book Kander and Ebb (Yale University Press Broadway Masters series).

Jeffrey is a Heideman Award Finalist, cofounder of Colorado’s Rough Draught Playwrights, Director of Literary Development for Benchmark Theatre, and a Regional Ambassador for the Dramatists Guild of America. He is also the host of The Denver Post’s esteemed Pen & Podium literary series and an inaugural member of the Denver Center’s Playwrights Group. In 2016, he was celebrated with two True West Awards for his "tireless commitment to community-building" for Front Range and Colorado theaters.

Plays

  • The Headliners by Jeffrey Neuman
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 2 more
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    Keyword: vaudeville, gay + 3 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama, period
    Keyword: vaudeville, gay, LGBTQ, gender and sexuality, based on historical events and characters
    In August 1908, one hundred and seven years before the legalization of same-sex unions, two of the biggest stars in America stepped onto the stage of the Alhambra Theatre in New York City and thumbed their noses at gender roles, respectability, and the institution of marriage. Was it a performance? Was it a publicity stunt? Or, was it something much more personal for the two stars involved? The Headliners, a...
    In August 1908, one hundred and seven years before the legalization of same-sex unions, two of the biggest stars in America stepped onto the stage of the Alhambra Theatre in New York City and thumbed their noses at gender roles, respectability, and the institution of marriage. Was it a performance? Was it a publicity stunt? Or, was it something much more personal for the two stars involved? The Headliners, a play with music, asks us to consider the price of fame and the cost of celebrity as it intersects with gender and sexuality.
  • What You Will by Jeffrey Neuman
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: Sex, marriage + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: Sex, marriage, fidelity, infidelity, Twelfth Night, Shakespeare, Relationships, LGBTQ
    Adam is a forty-something gay man living a quiet but seemingly contented life. He’s married to a man he truly loves and runs a stationery shop, where he expertly designs custom wedding invitations. However, when he simultaneously meets two different individuals — a rather seductive married man in a gym steam room and a joyful, yet frenetic bride in desperate need of assistance — he begins to realize that...
    Adam is a forty-something gay man living a quiet but seemingly contented life. He’s married to a man he truly loves and runs a stationery shop, where he expertly designs custom wedding invitations. However, when he simultaneously meets two different individuals — a rather seductive married man in a gym steam room and a joyful, yet frenetic bride in desperate need of assistance — he begins to realize that marriage may have clear boundaries, but it certainly does not have very clear rules.

    WHAT YOU WILL brings together the disparate worlds of wedding invitations, anonymous sex, and Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT to explore the unspoken contracts we make in personal relationships and what happens when the terms of those tacit agreements come into question.


    REVIEWS FOR WHAT YOU WILL
    "4/4 stars. Denver playwright Jeffrey Neuman’s 'What You Will' at Benchmark Theatre is a witty, incisive and sometimes prurient reflection on loyalty, truth, marriage and relationships."
    -Claire Martin, The Denver Post

    "You’re likely to find yourself holding your breath and then tearing up at the answers, because the truths Neuman uncovers strike deep."
    -Juliet Wittman, Westword

    "It is too much fun to watch this story unweave to spoil it for the first time watcher by telling too much. Be warned – you will have strong feelings of the “woulda – coulda – shoulda” type before you walk out of the theatre on this evening."
    -Beki Pineda, GetBoulder.com

    "...the dynamics between characters and the universal issues that are highlighted are reason enough to go see the show."
    -Addison Herron-Wheeler, OutFront Magazine
  • Delivered by Jeffrey Neuman
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: homophobia, prejudice + 1 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: homophobia, prejudice, injustice
    Four people's lives collide when they witness a strange and disturbing occurrence. Based on real events, "Delivered" is a play about the dangerous crossroads of prejudice and complacency.
  • Dangling Participles by Jeffrey Neuman
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy
    ·
    Keyword: seduction, sex and unfinished business + 3 more
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: seduction, sex and unfinished business, grammar, one night stand, Sex
    A man and woman share an awkward and rather telling “morning after” conversation about grammar.
  • Exit Strategies by Jeffrey Neuman
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: family, alcoholism + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: family, alcoholism, guilt, secrets and lies
    Chance Gold, a moderately successful playwright, has spent the better part of his life distancing himself from his modest, quasi-Jewish upbringing and his unpredictably explosive family. Then, his father dies very unexpectedly and under rather nebulous circumstances. Armed with acerbic wit, a caustic BFF, and a lot of alcohol, he goes back to his childhood home, where he is forced to deal with his emotional...
    Chance Gold, a moderately successful playwright, has spent the better part of his life distancing himself from his modest, quasi-Jewish upbringing and his unpredictably explosive family. Then, his father dies very unexpectedly and under rather nebulous circumstances. Armed with acerbic wit, a caustic BFF, and a lot of alcohol, he goes back to his childhood home, where he is forced to deal with his emotional maelstrom of a mother, his inexplicably estranged sister and the realities of his father's death. At turns funny and heartbreaking, EXIT STRATEGIES not only explores the fine line between absurdity and pathos in family relationships, but also questions at what point the protective walls we put up around ourselves become a self-imposed prison.

    Reviews:
    "FUNNY, EMOTIONALLY RAW AND TRAGIC" (DENVER POST)

    "CAUSTIC, FUNNY, MEANINGFUL" (NORTH DENVER TRIBUNE)

    "ORIGINAL, FUNNY, OFTEN MESMERIZING" (WESTWORD)
  • Assisted Living by Jeffrey Neuman
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: Alzheimer's Disease, aging + 3 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: Alzheimer's Disease, aging, loss, Aphasia, memory
    A tense visitation occurs in an assisted living facility as an old man lies confined to a hospital bed, imprisoned by aphasia and robbed of his ability to communicate.
  • InSex by Jeffrey Neuman
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, romantic comedy
    ·
    Keyword: Sex, anti-bullying
    Genre: comedy, romantic comedy
    Keyword: Sex, anti-bullying
    Two praying mantises (or mantodea, if you want to get technical) enjoy a post-coital moment before tensions arise.