Parker Jenkins

Parker Jenkins

Parker Jenkins (he/him) is an MFA Acting & Stagecraft candidate at the Actor’s Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York, NY. Previously, he studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with degrees in Dramatic Art (BA) and Psychology/Neuroscience (BS). As an actor, director, lighting designer, and playwright, Parker is drawn towards dynamic, experimental theatre that...
Parker Jenkins (he/him) is an MFA Acting & Stagecraft candidate at the Actor’s Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York, NY. Previously, he studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with degrees in Dramatic Art (BA) and Psychology/Neuroscience (BS). As an actor, director, lighting designer, and playwright, Parker is drawn towards dynamic, experimental theatre that challenges our perceptions and biases.

Plays

  • The Clowns, or A Horrific Glance into the Inner Workings of the Children’s Clown Entertainment Industry by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    6–15
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: clowns, Hostile workplace environment + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: clowns, Hostile workplace environment, workplace abuse, children's entertainment, entertainment industry, comedy, serio-comedy
    Kat, freshly moved to New York, hopes to make it big in the world of theatrical fame. As a young actor, she needs a side-gig, and stumbles across what seems like the perfect opportunity–WeAreClownz.com, seeking children’s entertainers, with a promise of $500 a weekend minimum. Kat quickly applies, unknowingly signing her soul away to one of the most crooked clowning agencies in all of New York, possibly even in...
    Kat, freshly moved to New York, hopes to make it big in the world of theatrical fame. As a young actor, she needs a side-gig, and stumbles across what seems like the perfect opportunity–WeAreClownz.com, seeking children’s entertainers, with a promise of $500 a weekend minimum. Kat quickly applies, unknowingly signing her soul away to one of the most crooked clowning agencies in all of New York, possibly even in all of the United States, or even the entire world. As she finds herself in the middle of a wasteland of abandoned dreams and stale cotton candy, Kat grapples with the question that every young starving artist must answer: what is the price of survival, and what is the price of her dreams? The Clowns, Or A Horrific Glance into the Inner Workings of the Children’s Clown Entertainment Industry is a story about the exploitation and toxicity that permeates the entertainment industry, and how everyone–clown or no clown–deserves to be treated as human.
  • The Castles We Destroy: An Unofficial Taylor Swift Musical by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    6–10
    ·
    Genre: drama, movement/physical + 2 more
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    Keyword: love, murder + 6 more
    Genre: drama, movement/physical, musical, tragedy
    Keyword: love, murder, infidelity, Taylor Swift, American musical, love triangle, grief, loss
    Abigail was a hopeless romantic from age fifteen. When she meets Clyde, everything changes. Then her best friend, Este, meets Peter. Their mutual friend and Este’s sister, Jess, also wants love, but finds it in the wrong place. Soon, this trio of girls finds out is that boys really only want love if it’s torture. Even sooner, something smells like infidelity, and it’s up to them to call them out… but things...
    Abigail was a hopeless romantic from age fifteen. When she meets Clyde, everything changes. Then her best friend, Este, meets Peter. Their mutual friend and Este’s sister, Jess, also wants love, but finds it in the wrong place. Soon, this trio of girls finds out is that boys really only want love if it’s torture. Even sooner, something smells like infidelity, and it’s up to them to call them out… but things quickly take a turn for the worst. Now, Abigail takes her fate–and her friends’ fates–into her own hands. THE CASTLES WE DESTROY is a story about the fickle nature of love, the lies we tell ourselves to hold onto a moment of comfort, and ultimately, how nearly every love story goes: what starts with love soon turns to lust, and ultimately, murder.
  • The Hardest Pills to Swallow by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: psychiatric medication, psychosis + 4 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: psychiatric medication, psychosis, Schizophrenia, Mental Health, adapting to change, family relationships
    Davie is happy with his life. He lives with Danny and Deja; they play card games and eat pizza every night. He visits his therapist and psychiatrist, Dr. Caddel; they prescribes Davie’s medication. He meets Demi, the girl who recently moved in; they’re starting to fall in love. Everything seems like it’s okay, until suddenly it isn't. THE HARDEST PILLS TO SWALLOW is a play about change, and the parts of...
    Davie is happy with his life. He lives with Danny and Deja; they play card games and eat pizza every night. He visits his therapist and psychiatrist, Dr. Caddel; they prescribes Davie’s medication. He meets Demi, the girl who recently moved in; they’re starting to fall in love. Everything seems like it’s okay, until suddenly it isn't. THE HARDEST PILLS TO SWALLOW is a play about change, and the parts of ourselves that embrace it and the parts of ourselves that fear it.
  • What We Choose To Breathe by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: coping with suicide, suicide + 5 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: coping with suicide, suicide, love, young adults, existential, escape, Freedom
    What We Choose to Breathe centers three young souls, smoking on a Manhattan rooftop, attempting to find an escape from the unrelenting weight of the mechanics of our society.
  • Watch Out for Bears! by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: true crime, mystery + 3 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: true crime, mystery, drama, thriller, absurdism
    It’s Jonathan’s birthday, twenty-five, the hump day of the twenties. It would be a good day, except his favorite professor, Dr. Havenstein, doesn’t show up for class. Turns out he’s been reported missing, exactly one month after the disappearance of another middle aged white man, which is also exactly two months after the disappearance of another middle aged white man, and three months after the disappearance...
    It’s Jonathan’s birthday, twenty-five, the hump day of the twenties. It would be a good day, except his favorite professor, Dr. Havenstein, doesn’t show up for class. Turns out he’s been reported missing, exactly one month after the disappearance of another middle aged white man, which is also exactly two months after the disappearance of another middle aged white man, and three months after the disappearance of another middle aged white man, and three years after yet another disappearance of (you guessed it) a middle aged white man. When Jonathan accidentally teams up with Lillian, a true-crime movie buff on a quest to find these five middle aged white men, they uncover a web of lies, delusions, and murder that involves a mortician, donuts, and… bears.
  • An Anatomist’s Guide to Self Destruction by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    4–30
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: mental illness, self-destruction + 6 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, movement/physical, tragedy
    Keyword: mental illness, self-destruction, anatomy, love, suicide, abstract, experimental, Depression
    Swallowing razor blades. Carving out your heart. Eating your own flesh. A series of short plays based on the eleven major systems of the human body, "An Anatomist’s Guide to Self Destruction" is an abstract look into the mental health struggle, the disparities of "invisible illness" treatments compared to physical ones, and how maybe things would make a bit more sense if medicine could...
    Swallowing razor blades. Carving out your heart. Eating your own flesh. A series of short plays based on the eleven major systems of the human body, "An Anatomist’s Guide to Self Destruction" is an abstract look into the mental health struggle, the disparities of "invisible illness" treatments compared to physical ones, and how maybe things would make a bit more sense if medicine could explain just why we self-destruct the way that we do.
  • The Paper Is Blue by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental
    ·
    Keyword: Depression, healing + 4 more
    Genre: drama, experimental
    Keyword: Depression, healing, mind, mental illness, Expressionism, abstract
    An intertwined dialogue between YOU and ME, THE PAPER IS BLUE is an expressionist look into the chaos of major depressive disorder, the mind, and trying to heal.
  • A Band-Aided Heart and Iced Green Tea by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    6–7
    ·
    Genre: drama, faith-based
    ·
    Keyword: queer, christianity + 5 more
    Genre: drama, faith-based
    Keyword: queer, christianity, religion, coming of age, sexuality, acceptance, young love
    “Any form of love with conditions isn’t actually love, it’s just fear disguised as love.”
    Cooper is the son of an evangelical pastor. Alex is the son of a choir director. When a runaway kiss happens over a glass of iced green tea, Cooper’s entire understanding of life, religion, and the life-long teachings of his father are thrown into question. A BAND-AIDED HEART AND ICED GREEN TEA is a queer love story...
    “Any form of love with conditions isn’t actually love, it’s just fear disguised as love.”
    Cooper is the son of an evangelical pastor. Alex is the son of a choir director. When a runaway kiss happens over a glass of iced green tea, Cooper’s entire understanding of life, religion, and the life-long teachings of his father are thrown into question. A BAND-AIDED HEART AND ICED GREEN TEA is a queer love story about identity, religion, and the minute differences between relationships based on love and those based on fear.
  • The Others by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    4–8
    ·
    Genre: drama, fantasy + 2 more
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    Keyword: horror, reflection + 3 more
    Genre: drama, fantasy, horror, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: horror, reflection, facing the past, dark, death and grief
    Jeremy and Roger began to play a special game when they were seven. They would run away in the dark, close the curtains, flip out all the lights, and listen. Listen for them, for The Others. And it was just a game... until it wasn't.
    THE OTHERS is a horror story about the monstrous ways that grief takes over our lives, and the way in which it makes the darkness feel much more comforting than the light.
  • Who We Are In The Woods by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: drama, science fiction
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    Keyword: suicide, metaphysics + 3 more
    Genre: drama, science fiction
    Keyword: suicide, metaphysics, quantum physics, coping with loss, death and grief
    On the twelve-year anniversary of their brother Keith's death, Joseph, Alondra, and Richard venture deep into the woods to find his favorite tree--a sanctuary outside space and time. As they work through their personal grief, Keith's sudden appearance throws their entire outlook on life into question.
    WHO WE ARE IN THE WOODS is a story about life, death, family, and quantum physics.
  • Everyone Dies at the End by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    2–7
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: apocalyptic, relationship + 2 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, science fiction
    Keyword: apocalyptic, relationship, reminiscence, self-realization
    With the world coming to an end at the hand of nuclear war, Freddy and Alex work through their past relationship on a Manhattan rooftop.
  • Murder at Camp Red Pine by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    7–15
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: satire, short story + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, horror, satire
    Keyword: satire, short story, metatheatre, dark, comedy
    An ode to the campiness of bad '80s horror, MURDER AT CAMP RED PINE is a story about a seemingly normal sleep-away camp deep in the woods, where campers gather around a campfire for Halloween night ghost stories--about the infamous Red Pine Killer. Split between reality and fiction, both characters inside this campfire story and the campers listening on are in for the fright of their lives.
  • we hunger and thirst by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: experimental, fable/folktale + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: change, young people + 7 more
    Genre: experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy, immersive, movement/physical, political
    Keyword: change, young people, Politics, high school, past, forgotten, strong, perseverance, abstract
    The time has come for change. We are hungry for acceptance, for love, for hope, for life; but we will not starve. In this experimental one-act, WE HUNGER AND THIRST follows a group of high-school drama students who experience the past, the present, and the hope of a future--all from the fearful confines of a locked-down drama classroom.
  • The Jolyne Monologues by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    5–9
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: suicide, Investigation + 8 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, immersive, tragedy
    Keyword: suicide, Investigation, monologue, high school, rotation, drama, teenagers, broken heart, experimental, memory play
    THE JOLYNE MONOLOGUES follows the family and friends of Jolyne, a seemingly normal high-school student who commits suicide. As her loved ones are interviewed in an attempt to uncover her motivations, we realize that each of then knew a different version of Jolyne that lives within their memories, which begs the question: who was the real Jolyne?
  • The Edge of Tonight by Parker Jenkins
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: adventure, fantasy + 3 more
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    Keyword: post-apocalyptic, Survival + 6 more
    Genre: adventure, fantasy, horror, mystery/thriller, science fiction
    Keyword: post-apocalyptic, Survival, horror, thriller, Fantasy, dark, futuristic, short
    In the middle of an apocalyptic, forgotten desert, Allyson and Bill take on the knowns--and unknowns--of futuristic survival.