Chad Kaydo

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.

Currently: Developing WHERE IS MISS STONE? with Clubbed Thumb as a finalist for the 2022 Biennial Commission. Recently: Readings of NARROWSBURG at the Quickening Room, and I COULD NEVER at Playhouse on Park....
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.

Currently: Developing WHERE IS MISS STONE? with Clubbed Thumb as a finalist for the 2022 Biennial Commission. Recently: Readings of NARROWSBURG at the Quickening Room, and I COULD NEVER at Playhouse on Park. Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Fresh Ground Pepper BRB Retreat. Chad’s short play THAT WAS FUN was presented at the 2023 Theater Masters Take Ten Festival and will be published by Samuel French/Concord Theatricals. Past: Primary Stages ESPA, HB Studio, and the New Group Playwriting Workshop. Not quite: Finalist for the Bushwick Starr Reading Series, semifinalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference.

As Playwright in Residence at the Brick, Chad produces community-building programs for early career writers and directors, including Quick + Dirty, a development series for short works by new collaborators.

In former lives, he was a journalist, magazine editor, and fashion copywriter, and lived with two standard poodles. (See above, re: queer.)

B.A. in English and a B.S. in Journalism, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. M.F.A. in playwriting, Hunter College.

Plays

  • I Could Never by Chad Kaydo
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: motherhood, feminism + 3 more
    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy, drama, experimental, tragedy
    Keyword: motherhood, feminism, marriage, Ancient Greek Myth, Ancient Greek Update
    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.
  • Narrowsburg by Chad Kaydo
    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: restaurants, LGBTQ + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: restaurants, LGBTQ, cancer, breast cancer, friendship
    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.
  • #'s by Chad Kaydo
    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: absurd comedy, corporate America + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, experimental, farce, satire
    Keyword: absurd comedy, corporate America, capitalism and late Capitalism
    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?
  • Untitled Dead Friend Comedy by Chad Kaydo
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
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    Keyword: death, Mourning + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: death, Mourning, medium reading, memory play, LGBTQ, friendship
    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?)
  • A Boy, A Bubble (a parable) by Chad Kaydo
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama, zoom
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    Keyword: LGBTQ, gay + 2 more
    Genre: drama, zoom
    Keyword: LGBTQ, gay, queer, illness
    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).
  • Retreat, or "A Curious Token" by Chad Kaydo
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama, political
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    Keyword: intentional community, gay + 8 more
    Genre: drama, political
    Keyword: intentional community, gay, queer, LGBTQ, fracking, Pennsylvania, gay politics, communes, 2020 Presidential Election, 2016 presidential election
    It has been two years since the 2016 election—and two years since Henry and Caleb left Brooklyn to start a technology-free intentional community on a Pennsylvania farm. (You might call it a “gay commune,” but they wouldn’t.) As everyone prepares for a vernal equinox party—with fireworks, skinnydipping, and a farm-to-table feast—Caleb feels drawn to return to his old life, writing for a progressive political...
    It has been two years since the 2016 election—and two years since Henry and Caleb left Brooklyn to start a technology-free intentional community on a Pennsylvania farm. (You might call it a “gay commune,” but they wouldn’t.) As everyone prepares for a vernal equinox party—with fireworks, skinnydipping, and a farm-to-table feast—Caleb feels drawn to return to his old life, writing for a progressive political magazine. Then an unexpected visitor presents an opportunity that forces the men to reconsider what they owe the community they’ve created and the one they left behind. Are they helping or hiding?
  • Staff Meal by Chad Kaydo
    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: restaurant
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: restaurant
    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.