Kevin Daly

Kevin Daly

Kevin Daly lives in New Haven, Connecticut where he served as head of the Theater Program at Quinnipiac University for ten years. He received his MFA in Playwriting from Indiana University ('08). To date, he has written seventeen full-length plays.

Kevin is represented by Marta Praeger of The Robert A. Freedman Dramatic Agency.

His full-length drama, In Kings and Fools (a...
Kevin Daly lives in New Haven, Connecticut where he served as head of the Theater Program at Quinnipiac University for ten years. He received his MFA in Playwriting from Indiana University ('08). To date, he has written seventeen full-length plays.

Kevin is represented by Marta Praeger of The Robert A. Freedman Dramatic Agency.

His full-length drama, In Kings and Fools (a finalist for the 2011 Woodward/Newman Award) received a world premiere production in May 2017 as the winner of the Panndora’s Box New Works Festival in Long Beach, California. The script was initially developed at The Manhattan Theatre Club.

His full-length comedy, Where is Everybody? (finalist for the Reva Shiner Award ’16 and the Hope on Stage Award ’16) was the winner of the 2016 Neil Simon Festival New Play Contest. It later received a developmental reading at The Windy City Playhouse in Chicago.

His ten minute play, The Kitty Bomb was a finalist for the Heideman Award. It was presented at the William Inge Festival (’18) and the ATHE Conference (’18).

Kevin’s professional credits include the Manhattan Theatre Club, Aston Rep, Curious Frog Theatre Company, 5th Letter Productions, The Neil Simon Festival, Panndora Productions, The Windy City Playhouse, The William Inge Festival, and JET Ensemble Theatre. His plays have been named semi-finalists for the National Play Conference at the O'Neill ('10,’11,’13,'14), winner of the Neil Simon Festival New Play Contest (’16), runner-up for the Bottle Tree Inc. Playwriting Prize ('14), finalist for the Kitchen Dog Theatre New Works Festival (’14), finalist for the Woodward Newman Drama Award ('11, ‘15), finalist for the Reva Shiner Award (’16), semi-finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival (’12), and finalist for the Julie Harris Playwriting Award (’09).

Kevin lives with his partner Nina and their two young children, Benji and Summer.

Plays

  • Where is Everybody? (Solo Show) by Kevin Daly
    Cast: 
    1
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    Genre: comedy, tragedy
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    Keyword: solo show
    Genre: comedy, tragedy
    Keyword: solo show
    Twelve years ago Kevin Beeker missed his father's retirement party and he wants to tell you why.
  • The Box (one act psychological horror) by Kevin Daly
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, horror
    The Box, a psychological horror, centers on two estranged brothers and the ways in their past continues to repeat itself.

    For years Jackie McCord has been nervous that his brother Bobby would return to their childhood home. Bobby, who disappears for years on end, always resurfaces with a new woman. Someone he believes will replace the wife he lost years ago in a car accident. Today he’s...
    The Box, a psychological horror, centers on two estranged brothers and the ways in their past continues to repeat itself.

    For years Jackie McCord has been nervous that his brother Bobby would return to their childhood home. Bobby, who disappears for years on end, always resurfaces with a new woman. Someone he believes will replace the wife he lost years ago in a car accident. Today he’s returned with a young street performer from San Francisco and Jackie knows these visits never end well.
  • East Rock (full-length drama) by Kevin Daly
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: social issues, social justice
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: social issues, social justice
    East Rock centers on a middle age engineer whose world unravels when his adult son from a previous marriage moves into his home after being released from prison. The stipulations of his son’s parole, concerns from his predominantly white neighbors, and tensions within his household, all blend to confuse his understanding of how best to help his son.

    The play makes use of a single setting with...
    East Rock centers on a middle age engineer whose world unravels when his adult son from a previous marriage moves into his home after being released from prison. The stipulations of his son’s parole, concerns from his predominantly white neighbors, and tensions within his household, all blend to confuse his understanding of how best to help his son.

    The play makes use of a single setting with minimal design/tech requirements. There are seven characters (3m, 4f) with a variety of age ranges and ethnicities.
  • In Kings and Fools (full length drama) by Kevin Daly
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    8
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    Genre: drama
    Genre: drama
    IN KINGS AND FOOLS centers on a lower-middle class family as they prepare for their annual Labor Day weekend barbecue.  The patriarch (a retired shipping yard worker and a hard-nosed New Englander) and his wife are struggling to make sense of a younger son who has all but cut ties with them and an older son that is quickly becoming the neighborhood outcast. 

    This play represents both my best...
    IN KINGS AND FOOLS centers on a lower-middle class family as they prepare for their annual Labor Day weekend barbecue.  The patriarch (a retired shipping yard worker and a hard-nosed New Englander) and his wife are struggling to make sense of a younger son who has all but cut ties with them and an older son that is quickly becoming the neighborhood outcast. 

    This play represents both my best work to date and my script that’s most relevant to an American audience.  It’s an earnest look at a hard working lower-middle class family.  It’s about the inherent resistance to those who are not like us and about the absurdity of even trying to define “us” in a country described as a melting pot.
  • Trees by the Station (full length drama) by Kevin Daly
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: Immigrants
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: Immigrants
    Drama (full-length). Four actors (2m, 2f). Minimal set, tech, and design requirements.

    This is the story of Leo Teller, a Jewish Hungarian immigrant who moves to New Haven, CT. in 1965. As he attempts to build a new life for himself in America, his childhood friends from Hungary return as shadows on the wall. They haunt him. They remind him of a violin he stole from a classmate when he was...
    Drama (full-length). Four actors (2m, 2f). Minimal set, tech, and design requirements.

    This is the story of Leo Teller, a Jewish Hungarian immigrant who moves to New Haven, CT. in 1965. As he attempts to build a new life for himself in America, his childhood friends from Hungary return as shadows on the wall. They haunt him. They remind him of a violin he stole from a classmate when he was nine years old.

    Run time: 90 minutes
  • Where is Everybody? (full length comedy) by Kevin Daly
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy
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    Keyword: science
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: science
    A retiring high school physics teacher attempts to connect with his two adult sons by engaging in his oldest son's imaginative entrepreneurial ideas. The title of the play eludes to the Fermi Paradox, which asks why we haven’t seen signs of intelligent life in the universe despite the overwhelming statistical probability that we should. Through this lens, the play asks big questions about the universe...
    A retiring high school physics teacher attempts to connect with his two adult sons by engaging in his oldest son's imaginative entrepreneurial ideas. The title of the play eludes to the Fermi Paradox, which asks why we haven’t seen signs of intelligent life in the universe despite the overwhelming statistical probability that we should. Through this lens, the play asks big questions about the universe and our place within it.

  • The Kitty Bomb (ten minute comedy) by Kevin Daly
    Recommendations: 9
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy
    Genre: comedy
    Tommy Beeker attempts to pitch his wildly imaginative entrepreneurial ideas to his siblings.
  • This is Ours (full length drama) by Kevin Daly
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: drama
    Genre: drama
    Drama (Full-length). 3 actors (2m, 1f). Minimal set/tech requirements.

    Two forty-year-old cousins believe they’ve been cursed by the incestuous relationship of their parents. Each in his own way tries to test (and to some extent reverse) the curse while courting a seventeen year old escape artist from France. 

    FULL SYNOPSIS

    At rise Bobby McCord has returned to...
    Drama (Full-length). 3 actors (2m, 1f). Minimal set/tech requirements.

    Two forty-year-old cousins believe they’ve been cursed by the incestuous relationship of their parents. Each in his own way tries to test (and to some extent reverse) the curse while courting a seventeen year old escape artist from France. 

    FULL SYNOPSIS

    At rise Bobby McCord has returned to his childhood home after a six year absence. He brings with him an underage French prostitute. He hopes to convince her to stay and start a family. He views her as a potential replacement for the wife he lost in a car accident 11 years prior. She’s using him to get closer to San Francisco (where her son currently lives with an adoptive family).

    The home has been converted to a three-family apartment building by his cousin Jackie.

    Jackie tries to convince Bobby to separate himself from the young girl.

    Bobby argues that by marrying the girl, starting a family, and living in their childhood home he can beat the curse that has burdened his family for over forty years.

    He believes the curse is the reason both his parents are dead along with his first wife.

    (The “curse” was first presented to Bobby when his father admitted to having an incestuous relationship with his sister, from which Jackie was born.)

    Jackie doesn’t believe in the curse (though he grows more convinced each day).

    When speaking to Bobby doesn’t work Jackie attempts to convince the girl to leave on her own. She seduces him, he falls for her, and he tries to help her get to San Francisco.

    Bobby finds out and kills her before she can leave.




    THIS IS OURS by Kevin Daly © June 10, 2014
    Contact: 860.716.6700 / Kjdaly2000@yahoo.com
  • Half a Thousand Dollars (full length drama) by Kevin Daly
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    6–22
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: family, Jewish
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: family, Jewish
    In the HALF A THOUSAND DOLLARS, six actors (4m, 2f) take on multiple roles to recount the series of events that led to the destruction of a Jewish family in 1985.
  • A Hundred Years (full length drama) by Kevin Daly
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: drama
    Genre: drama
    A Hundred Years looks in on a family business.  The family sells staged hero experiences.  They target individuals with low self-esteem and offer them the opportunity to appear heroic as a way of making an impression on someone they hope to impress. The experiences scale in difficulty and cost from something small like chasing down a pickpocket to something large and dangerous like evacuating coworkers from a...
    A Hundred Years looks in on a family business.  The family sells staged hero experiences.  They target individuals with low self-esteem and offer them the opportunity to appear heroic as a way of making an impression on someone they hope to impress. The experiences scale in difficulty and cost from something small like chasing down a pickpocket to something large and dangerous like evacuating coworkers from a burning building. In recent years they've begun filming these experiences on smartphones and posting them to YouTube as a way of increasing the visibility of the heroic act.  

    The play centers on Rip, a young man who's developed a distaste for his family business, and his girlfriend Cat, who developed a keen interest during the early years of their relationship.  After growing bored with their normal lives away from the business she convinces him to return-- to which he only agrees after fear of losing her.  

    The jobs quickly reveal themselves to be much more dangerous and harmful than she remembered them.  People are getting hurt. The jobs are no longer exciting. They’re terrifying. 

    When an innocent person dies in a fire, Rip tries to explain that this is inevitable with his family business.  He explains that he didn't want her to be a part of it but that she needed to see it for herself to truly understand.  She doesn't agree-- she points to the jobs they did at the start of their relationship as examples of how they can work for his family without anyone getting hurt.  Rip is forced to reveal  that she never participated in the family business before.  The jobs she remembers working on were staged experiences designed to make Rip look good in front of her.  No longer able to trust him,  she leaves him.  In his frustration he hastily plans a dangerous job (a home invasion) that goes horribly wrong to end the play.  

    Before I wrote this play I spent a few days streaming YouTube videos.  I thought to myself, a hundred years from now people will watch us on YouTube.  Will they know that social media is a place where we become "characters" or will they view these videos as truthful representations of ourselves?  This play is my theatrical version of that question.