Jessie Atkin

Jessie Atkin

Jessie Atkin's plays have been honored and produced as staged readings through Rochester New York’s Geva Theater’s Regional Writers Showcase and the Washington University in St. Louis A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Competition and Festival. Her play, "Generation Pan," won an honorable mention from the New England Theatre Conference's Aurand Harris Contest, and her piece, "Through the Words...
Jessie Atkin's plays have been honored and produced as staged readings through Rochester New York’s Geva Theater’s Regional Writers Showcase and the Washington University in St. Louis A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Competition and Festival. Her play, "Generation Pan," won an honorable mention from the New England Theatre Conference's Aurand Harris Contest, and her piece, "Through the Words of the Mother," was a semi-finalist in the Jewish Plays Project. She has had short stories published in The Rumpus, Daily Science Fiction, Space and Time Magazine, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in creative writing from American University.

Plays

  • Generation Pan by Jessie Atkin
    Cast: 
    13–20
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    Genre: adaptation, adventure + 1 more
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    Keyword: peter pan, neverland + 4 more
    Genre: adaptation, adventure, young audiences
    Keyword: peter pan, neverland, kids, young people, modern adaptation, gun violence
    What happened after the Darlings said goodbye to Neverland? A lot apparently. It's two decades into a new millennium and the new group of lost and confused kids that Reese Austen finds when she escapes an active shooter drill to Neverland have their own pirate captain dogging their steps. Fairy dust must be rationed after the loss of the last fairy, and Tiger Lily has a lot of wisdom to impart. But the...
    What happened after the Darlings said goodbye to Neverland? A lot apparently. It's two decades into a new millennium and the new group of lost and confused kids that Reese Austen finds when she escapes an active shooter drill to Neverland have their own pirate captain dogging their steps. Fairy dust must be rationed after the loss of the last fairy, and Tiger Lily has a lot of wisdom to impart. But the real questions don't surround Peter, but Reese and the kids she left behind. How do kids support one another when the world around them seems to have left them behind? And what power do young people have to impact each other and the world around them?
  • Through the Words of the Mother by Jessie Atkin
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: judaism, women + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, faith-based
    Keyword: judaism, women, competition
    Lilith, Eve, Miriam, and Esther all stumble out into a nameless void, unsure of who they are or where they have come from. The only clue they have is a disembodied voice that seems intent on making them compete with one another for the chance to leave the void, or at least the chance to find some answers. But the answers they find come from one another, even if their existences were separated by thousands of...
    Lilith, Eve, Miriam, and Esther all stumble out into a nameless void, unsure of who they are or where they have come from. The only clue they have is a disembodied voice that seems intent on making them compete with one another for the chance to leave the void, or at least the chance to find some answers. But the answers they find come from one another, even if their existences were separated by thousands of years. These iconic women have more in common than they could have ever imagined, and, in telling their own stories, in their own voices, they find they were always worthy after all.
  • Memories of a Revolution by Jessie Atkin
    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: Alzheimer's Disease, Sisters + 3 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: Alzheimer's Disease, Sisters, family, NASA, the Mercury Program
    One tense dinner party threatens the delicate balance of a family, as seen through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Carrie, standing on the brink of adulthood. A play about space, responsibility, and what it means to have a sister. But it isn't merely a diagnosed illness that can pull a family apart it's the unnamed illnesses that can fester under the surface. It's a difference of opinion, a...
    One tense dinner party threatens the delicate balance of a family, as seen through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Carrie, standing on the brink of adulthood. A play about space, responsibility, and what it means to have a sister. But it isn't merely a diagnosed illness that can pull a family apart it's the unnamed illnesses that can fester under the surface. It's a difference of opinion, a difference in remembering. Barbara may be forgetting the days of the week, but she has not forgotten how she raised her daughters, and it wasn't to hate one another. But some illnesses have no cure, and the question remains whether or not all wounds heal.
  • What Will You Tell Your Children? by Jessie Atkin
    Cast: 
    10–13
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: teenagers, Israel + 7 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: teenagers, Israel, Holocaust, writing, judaism, Anti-Semitism, bullying, young adult, family
    Set in the past, present and future, “What Will You Tell Your Children?” asks the infamous question, “Is it too late?” The play interweaves stories of modern-day anti-Semitism with a student trip to Israel, and it also focuses on one particular character’s struggle in dealing with the past horrors of the Holocaust. In this haunting and complex play, “never again” becomes more of a question than a fact, as...
    Set in the past, present and future, “What Will You Tell Your Children?” asks the infamous question, “Is it too late?” The play interweaves stories of modern-day anti-Semitism with a student trip to Israel, and it also focuses on one particular character’s struggle in dealing with the past horrors of the Holocaust. In this haunting and complex play, “never again” becomes more of a question than a fact, as every character tries to deal with the history and aftermath of history’s darkest hours.
  • Slow and Steady by Jessie Atkin
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: shiva, family funerals and deaths + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: shiva, family funerals and deaths, judaism
    Loss is hard but surviving as a family may be the real struggle. Shiva is about to begin, on Christmas Eve, and no one is ready. With the loss of their patriarch, the family finds itself without so much more than a loving husband, father, and grandfather. Absence continues to make itself known both through remembrances of the deceased and a lack of visitors. Adults retreat into old family dynamics, leaving the...
    Loss is hard but surviving as a family may be the real struggle. Shiva is about to begin, on Christmas Eve, and no one is ready. With the loss of their patriarch, the family finds itself without so much more than a loving husband, father, and grandfather. Absence continues to make itself known both through remembrances of the deceased and a lack of visitors. Adults retreat into old family dynamics, leaving the younger generation to pick up some pieces. Old hurts make themselves known as new ones pile up where comfort should be. Isn't this what love looks like? By the time the rabbi arrives for minyan, what have the Lieberman's found? A tortoise hibernating in the fridge and the clear understanding that they are all each other has, and they are going to need to learn to live, and love, together.