Chad Kaydo

Chad Kaydo is a queer playwright from Ashtabula, Ohio, who writes intimately observed plays obsessed with friendship, mortality, and the existential questions hidden in the quotidian.

Recently: I’M REPEATING MYSELF at the Brick, directed by Carsen Joenk, produced by The Omnivores and RHONDA. Workshops of NARROWSBURG with Stage Left/Working Theater, WHERE IS MISS STONE? with Clubbed Thumb, and #’s at the 2025 Great Plains Theatre Commons New Play Festival.

Chad was in the Clubbed Thumb 2024-2025 Early-Career Writers’ Group, and his work has been supported by Fresh Ground Pepper, HB Studio, Playhouse on Park, the Quickening Room, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Theater Masters.

As Playwright in Residence at the Brick, Chad produced and hosted Quick + Dirty, a development series...

Chad Kaydo is a queer playwright from Ashtabula, Ohio, who writes intimately observed plays obsessed with friendship, mortality, and the existential questions hidden in the quotidian.

Recently: I’M REPEATING MYSELF at the Brick, directed by Carsen Joenk, produced by The Omnivores and RHONDA. Workshops of NARROWSBURG with Stage Left/Working Theater, WHERE IS MISS STONE? with Clubbed Thumb, and #’s at the 2025 Great Plains Theatre Commons New Play Festival.

Chad was in the Clubbed Thumb 2024-2025 Early-Career Writers’ Group, and his work has been supported by Fresh Ground Pepper, HB Studio, Playhouse on Park, the Quickening Room, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Theater Masters.

As Playwright in Residence at the Brick, Chad produced and hosted Quick + Dirty, a development series for short works by new collaborators. In former lives, Chad wrote for the J.Crew catalog, reported on hundreds of parties as editor of an event magazine, and lived with two standard poodles. (See above, re: queer.) He is a product of public schools and the son of two public school teachers.

He is one-fifth of the playwrights collective The Omnivores.

M.F.A., Hunter College.

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Scripts

I'm Repeating Myself

by Chad Kaydo

1
Cast Size
6—10
Genre
comedy,
experimental

A strange summer provokes questions about family, mortality, porn algorithms, and whether or not you’re still single because you're “too picky.” I’M REPEATING MYSELF wonders how we get over a lifetime of tiny wounds to take care of the people we love...and maybe ourselves too.

I’M REPEATING MYSELF is designed to have a group of actors portray the playwright's friends and family—as well as multiple versions of...

A strange summer provokes questions about family, mortality, porn algorithms, and whether or not you’re still single because you're “too picky.” I’M REPEATING MYSELF wonders how we get over a lifetime of tiny wounds to take care of the people we love...and maybe ourselves too.

I’M REPEATING MYSELF is designed to have a group of actors portray the playwright's friends and family—as well as multiple versions of the playwright himself—across boundaries of age, race, and gender, mixing queer irreverence with earnest, emotional immediacy.

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#'s

by Chad Kaydo

6
Cast Size
7
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
experimental,
farce,
satire

An existential workplace comedy (with math) about a group of coworkers who must rate their teams (and themselves) with numbers from 1 to 12 by EOD. How will they hold on to jobs they hate while the rules keep changing?

An existential workplace comedy (with math) about a group of coworkers who must rate their teams (and themselves) with numbers from 1 to 12 by EOD. How will they hold on to jobs they hate while the rules keep changing?

Narrowsburg

by Chad Kaydo

Cast Size
3
Genre
dark comedy,
drama

When Spencer goes to the Catskills to help his friends M and Richie reopen their restaurant in the summer of 2021, they spend late nights trash-talking customers while trying to avoid their deepest fears and regrets. A play about bitchy Yelp reviews, bears vs. otters, and keeping your friends alive.

When Spencer goes to the Catskills to help his friends M and Richie reopen their restaurant in the summer of 2021, they spend late nights trash-talking customers while trying to avoid their deepest fears and regrets. A play about bitchy Yelp reviews, bears vs. otters, and keeping your friends alive.

Where Is Miss Stone?

by Chad Kaydo

Cast Size
10
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama,
mystery/thriller

Miss Barbara Stone is missing. Well, maybe not missing, but she didn’t show up at school today, and everyone is worried. Or at least curious. Where did she go?

Miss Barbara Stone is missing. Well, maybe not missing, but she didn’t show up at school today, and everyone is worried. Or at least curious. Where did she go?

I Could Never

by Chad Kaydo

2
Cast Size
3
Genre
adaptation,
dark comedy,
drama,
experimental,
tragedy

Isn’t it horrible? What she did? Can you even *imagine* doing that? Three women reckon with the dark myths we tell ourselves…while their husbands golf.

Isn’t it horrible? What she did? Can you even *imagine* doing that? Three women reckon with the dark myths we tell ourselves…while their husbands golf.

A Boy, A Bubble (a parable)

by Chad Kaydo

2
Cast Size
4
Genre
drama,
zoom

The Boy has never been touched. He’s 16, deeply annoyed by his parents (and everyone at school), and maybe in love with his best friend, Kyle. He’s also trapped in a plastic bubble, living most of his life on a screen, because of a problem with his respiratory system, or his immune system, or…something. When Kyle starts hanging out with another guy from school (and touching him in ways the Boy can only imagine)...

The Boy has never been touched. He’s 16, deeply annoyed by his parents (and everyone at school), and maybe in love with his best friend, Kyle. He’s also trapped in a plastic bubble, living most of his life on a screen, because of a problem with his respiratory system, or his immune system, or…something. When Kyle starts hanging out with another guy from school (and touching him in ways the Boy can only imagine), the Boy must renegotiate his relationships with his friend, his super-protective parents, and his own body. What will it take for him to break free? A BOY, A BUBBLE explores the limits of screen-to-screen relationships, physical and emotional intimacy, and how we protect the people we love (and ourselves).

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That Was Fun

by Chad Kaydo

Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy

Justin and Sam are friends, but Sam is really loud and annoying, it’s like why are they even friends? But what if they break up and it kinda changes...everything?

Justin and Sam are friends, but Sam is really loud and annoying, it’s like why are they even friends? But what if they break up and it kinda changes...everything?

Staff Meal

by Chad Kaydo

1
Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy,
drama

At a Catskills restaurant slowly opening up In July 2021 after the Covid shutdown, three restaurant workers have a quick meal between shifts. While the phone keeps ringing with reservations, they talk about food and plans for the future, and quietly worry about the restaurant’s co-owner.

(STAFF MEAL is a short play that shares a character and the setting of the full-length play NARROWSBURG.)

At a Catskills restaurant slowly opening up In July 2021 after the Covid shutdown, three restaurant workers have a quick meal between shifts. While the phone keeps ringing with reservations, they talk about food and plans for the future, and quietly worry about the restaurant’s co-owner.

(STAFF MEAL is a short play that shares a character and the setting of the full-length play NARROWSBURG.)