Neil Cuthbert

Neil Cuthbert

Neil Cuthbert received his MFA in Playwriting from the Mason Gross School of the Arts, where his first play The Soft Touch (published by Samuel French) won the American College Theater Festival Award for Best New Play. A longtime member of the Ensemble Studio Theater in New York, his plays produced by the company include White People, The Perfect Stranger, First Thirty, The Smash, and Strange Behavior. He...
Neil Cuthbert received his MFA in Playwriting from the Mason Gross School of the Arts, where his first play The Soft Touch (published by Samuel French) won the American College Theater Festival Award for Best New Play. A longtime member of the Ensemble Studio Theater in New York, his plays produced by the company include White People, The Perfect Stranger, First Thirty, The Smash, and Strange Behavior. He has also served as EST's literary manager and moderated their weekly Playwrights Unit (in both New York and Los Angeles). As a screenwriter he has written scripts for Disney, Fox, Universal, Warner Brothers, Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, Orion, Samuel Goldwyn Films and others--his credits include Hocus Pocus and Mystery Men. For television he's written pilots and episodes for CBS, Showtime, and NBC. He is a member of the DGA, the WGAE, and PEN USA and is an assistant instructor in gu form t’ai chi ch’uan at the Ziran Martial Arts Studio. His recent plays include Preston, I Am The Boss, and Bar Play Night (a collection of short pieces).

For additional script samples and resumé visit www.ncuthbert.com.

Plays

  • Preston
    The great Hollywood director Preston Sturges dies while dictating his autobiography at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. Realizing that he is a ghost who cannot leave this world (or his hotel room) until he discovers the thing that’s holding him back, he plunges into his past, where he wrestles with his demons and makes peace with the major players in his life, including Howard Hughes, Isadora Duncan, numerous...
    The great Hollywood director Preston Sturges dies while dictating his autobiography at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. Realizing that he is a ghost who cannot leave this world (or his hotel room) until he discovers the thing that’s holding him back, he plunges into his past, where he wrestles with his demons and makes peace with the major players in his life, including Howard Hughes, Isadora Duncan, numerous ex-lovers and wives, and his mother. A comedy about coming to terms with failure, success, genius, love, and death.

  • I AM THE BOSS
    David, a young television executive, experiences a matrimonial meltdown when his broadcaster wife, Stacy, is possessed by the spirit of Joseph Stalin. As the infamous dictator plots to use Stacy’s career to achieve world media domination, David must confront his own moral turpitude as he struggles to find a way to get Stacy back. But the game changes when Stalin falls in love with being a woman… and with...
    David, a young television executive, experiences a matrimonial meltdown when his broadcaster wife, Stacy, is possessed by the spirit of Joseph Stalin. As the infamous dictator plots to use Stacy’s career to achieve world media domination, David must confront his own moral turpitude as he struggles to find a way to get Stacy back. But the game changes when Stalin falls in love with being a woman… and with David. A pair of Stalin hunting Russian monks, Stacy’s WASPy mother, and a gaggle of backbiting New York media types help bring the concoction to a boil.
  • White People
    The volcanic tensions between three generations of a middle class WASP family erupt on a Saturday in 1976. The father‘s drinking again, the daughter’s dancing at a topless joint, the son‘s writing a semi-pornographic science fiction novel in his pajamas, and the racist grandmother has come for lunch… on the wrong day. Mag, the peacemaker mother, tries to hold it all together, but the arrival of a handsome,...
    The volcanic tensions between three generations of a middle class WASP family erupt on a Saturday in 1976. The father‘s drinking again, the daughter’s dancing at a topless joint, the son‘s writing a semi-pornographic science fiction novel in his pajamas, and the racist grandmother has come for lunch… on the wrong day. Mag, the peacemaker mother, tries to hold it all together, but the arrival of a handsome, mysterious stranger detonates the blast, and she finally explodes. When the dust settles, the truth has been told, a new matriarch has emerged, and the family has survived and launched into a new generation. A dark comedy about racism, alcoholism, motherhood, hating the ones you love… and loving the ones you hate.