Jonathan Alexandratos

Jonathan Alexandratos is a New York City-based playwright. Jonathan began work on their M.F.A. in Playwrighting at Queens College (CUNY), graduating in 2011. During their time in graduate school, they co-founded Playsmiths, a playwrights' lab in which holds weekly readings of writers' work and provides them with feedback. In school, Jonathan studied with playwrights Richard Schotter and Tina Howe. Howe nominated Jonathan's play *Molding Plastic* for the Rita and Burton Goldberg Award and the Irving Zarkower Award for best new play. In 2012, Jonathan's play *Chain Reaction*, a two-act comedy about the building of the atomic bomb, was produced in the NY International Fringe Festival. Since then, Jonathan has received commissions from the Abingdon Theatre Company and Truant Arts for the...

Jonathan Alexandratos is a New York City-based playwright. Jonathan began work on their M.F.A. in Playwrighting at Queens College (CUNY), graduating in 2011. During their time in graduate school, they co-founded Playsmiths, a playwrights' lab in which holds weekly readings of writers' work and provides them with feedback. In school, Jonathan studied with playwrights Richard Schotter and Tina Howe. Howe nominated Jonathan's play *Molding Plastic* for the Rita and Burton Goldberg Award and the Irving Zarkower Award for best new play. In 2012, Jonathan's play *Chain Reaction*, a two-act comedy about the building of the atomic bomb, was produced in the NY International Fringe Festival. Since then, Jonathan has received commissions from the Abingdon Theatre Company and Truant Arts for the creation of new work. These commissions have resulted in two well-received plays: *Shepherd* (a piece about the bond between military dogs and their human partners) and *Teeth* (about a woman, born without a mouth, who finds her voice). Their play *Breaking/Orbit* was performed at the 2013 Pop Culture Association Conference in Washington, D.C. and the 2013 Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska. They are a member of Mission to (dit)Mars, a Queens-based writers' collective that commissions new plays from its members each season. Jonathan created *Duck*, a full-length animal allegory about the nature of abuse, culture, and individuality, which received a workshop production in Strasbourg, France. As a member of the Ingram New Works Lab at Nashville Repertory Theatre (2015-2016), Jonathan wrote WE SEE WHAT HAPPEN, a play about Jonathan's grandmother's immigration from Greece to the U.S. in 1951 as told by bootleg superhero action figures. They are a huge geek: a lover of action figures and comic books, and always finding ways of incorporating those things into their theatre.

read more

Scripts

Turning Krasniqi

by Jonathan Alexandratos

2
Cast Size
6—12
Genre
comedy,
drama,
young audiences

*Turning Krasniqi* is the story of Hannah, a high schooler in Kentucky who wants to come out as burrnesha, a masculine-aligned gender in his ancestral home of Albania. According to ritual, Hannah needs 12 village elders to do this. Since high schools don't have village elders, he opts to recruit 12 leaders of various school groups instead. However, since Hannah has spent almost four years of high school talking...

*Turning Krasniqi* is the story of Hannah, a high schooler in Kentucky who wants to come out as burrnesha, a masculine-aligned gender in his ancestral home of Albania. According to ritual, Hannah needs 12 village elders to do this. Since high schools don't have village elders, he opts to recruit 12 leaders of various school groups instead. However, since Hannah has spent almost four years of high school talking to nearly no one, this is a tall order. He's also fighting a deeply conservative principal, an impending graduation, and the more uncomfortable notes of a tradition he's not entirely sure of. This coming-of-age comedy won the 2020 Parity Award from Parity Productions, and received a workshop at the AMT Theatre in New York City (Nov. 2022).

read more

WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE THIS

by Jonathan Alexandratos

4
Cast Size
4
Genre
adventure,
biography,
dark comedy,
drama,
experimental,
movement/physical,
period,
political,
tragedy

In this magical play in three parts, we follow refugee O as she escapes Albania, through Greece, to the U.S. with her arranged husband Fotos. Through dance, puppetry, queerness, survival, non-binary ghost rabbits, and a mysterious strawberry that exists in O's brain, we answer the question: Where is home when home is destroyed? WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE THIS was created with a generous New Works Grant from the...

In this magical play in three parts, we follow refugee O as she escapes Albania, through Greece, to the U.S. with her arranged husband Fotos. Through dance, puppetry, queerness, survival, non-binary ghost rabbits, and a mysterious strawberry that exists in O's brain, we answer the question: Where is home when home is destroyed? WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE THIS was created with a generous New Works Grant from the Queens Council on the Arts.

read more

We See What Happen

by Jonathan Alexandratos

10
Cast Size
6
Genre
adventure,
biography,
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama,
experimental,
fantasy,
immersive,
movement/physical,
political,
tragedy

Jonathan had a beautiful solo play about how perfect his Greek Granny's immigration to the U.S. was. However, when Granny shows up with four of Jonathan's old superhero action figures in tow, he learns that his sugarcoated solo play couldn't be more wrong.

Jonathan had a beautiful solo play about how perfect his Greek Granny's immigration to the U.S. was. However, when Granny shows up with four of Jonathan's old superhero action figures in tow, he learns that his sugarcoated solo play couldn't be more wrong.

Duck

by Jonathan Alexandratos

5
Cast Size
6
Genre
adaptation,
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama,
experimental,
fable/folktale,
political,
tragedy

Carl Duckett is the only teenage duck in Sheep's Meadow (a town populated by, you guessed it, sheep). As he tries to blend in, he is pulled on a quest to embrace his own identity. This play uses animal allegory as a way to discuss themes of abuse, isolation, and marginalization within small towns.

Carl Duckett is the only teenage duck in Sheep's Meadow (a town populated by, you guessed it, sheep). As he tries to blend in, he is pulled on a quest to embrace his own identity. This play uses animal allegory as a way to discuss themes of abuse, isolation, and marginalization within small towns.

Teeth

by Jonathan Alexandratos

2
Cast Size
4
Genre
comedy,
drama,
experimental,
fable/folktale

A woman named * has no mouth. Her husband, a plastic surgeon, has given her one. However, her husband has not given her a mouth, so much as he has given her a mouthpiece. As he tries to control * more and more, * finds her own voice and uses it to end her husband's abuse.

A woman named * has no mouth. Her husband, a plastic surgeon, has given her one. However, her husband has not given her a mouth, so much as he has given her a mouthpiece. As he tries to control * more and more, * finds her own voice and uses it to end her husband's abuse.

Shepherd

by Jonathan Alexandratos

2
Cast Size
2
Genre
biography,
comedy,
docudrama/historic,
drama,
experimental,
faith-based,
political

A discharged Marine, Cordero, adopts Zeto, the German Shepherd that saved his life in Afghanistan. As the trials of civilian life mount, they learn that they need each other just as much as they did in the military.

A discharged Marine, Cordero, adopts Zeto, the German Shepherd that saved his life in Afghanistan. As the trials of civilian life mount, they learn that they need each other just as much as they did in the military.