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 (with The Omnivores and RHONDA). Workshops of 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 produces and hosts Quick + Dirty, a development series for short works by new collaborators. (You should come...

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 (with The Omnivores and RHONDA). Workshops of 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 produces and hosts Quick + Dirty, a development series for short works by new collaborators. (You should come.)

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 theater 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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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.

#'s

by Chad Kaydo

5
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.

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?

Untitled Dead Friend Comedy

by Chad Kaydo

Cast Size
5
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy

Michael and his best friend Daniel want to tell you about how Daniel went to see a medium to talk to their friend Kat, who died ten years ago (or was it nine?). She didn’t say anything that important, but...should they tell Kat’s husband? And shouldn’t they be doing more to help raise her kid? And what about all that stuff Michael never said to Kat near the end? UNTITLED DEAD FRIEND COMEDY is a metaphysical...

Michael and his best friend Daniel want to tell you about how Daniel went to see a medium to talk to their friend Kat, who died ten years ago (or was it nine?). She didn’t say anything that important, but...should they tell Kat’s husband? And shouldn’t they be doing more to help raise her kid? And what about all that stuff Michael never said to Kat near the end? UNTITLED DEAD FRIEND COMEDY is a metaphysical, metatheatrical (vague) memory play about friendship, loss, and what we owe the people we say we love...even after they’re gone. (And are they ever really gone?)

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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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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.)