Courtney Taylor

Courtney Taylor

Courtney Taylor is a playwright and speechwriter from Massapequa, NY. Her work has been recognized by the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference (2024 semifinalist, Jenkins: An All-American Outing; 2023 semifinalist, No Entrance), the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival (2024 & 2023 finalist, No Entrance), the Terrence McNally New Works Incubator (2024 semifinalist,...
Courtney Taylor is a playwright and speechwriter from Massapequa, NY. Her work has been recognized by the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference (2024 semifinalist, Jenkins: An All-American Outing; 2023 semifinalist, No Entrance), the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival (2024 & 2023 finalist, No Entrance), the Terrence McNally New Works Incubator (2024 semifinalist, No Entrance), SheNYC Summer Theater Festival (2024 semifinalist, No Entrance), ScreenCraft's Stage Play Competition (2023 quarterfinalist, The Warren Commission Spectacular), and the J.L. Smith New Play Festival (2022 semifinalist, The Warren Commission Spectacular).

She was a finalist for Bechdel Project's 2022 Room of One's Own Residency, and is one of their inaugural Feminism Is For Everybody fellows. Courtney's work has been developed at Athena Project, Imaginarium Theatre Company, and The Apartment Players. She received a 2019 Edward Guiliano Global Travel Fellowship to research and develop her play Jenkins: An All-American Outing at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library.

Courtney's one-act play Lights in the Sky has been produced across the U.S., opened Off-Off-Broadway in 2019, and will return to New York as part of the Village Playwrights' Pride One-Act Festival in 2024. Her play No Entrance will receive its first public reading as part of the Neurodivergent New Play Series in March 2024.

Plays

  • WEIRD GIRL SUMMER by Courtney Taylor
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: contains LGBTQ characters, one act drama
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: contains LGBTQ characters, one act drama
    Marlowe moves into Nellie’s house after her parents kick her out. Mix in The Sound of Music, murder plans, the concept of fanfiction, and a TV night that goes wrong, and then right.

    [Trigger warnings: Themes of homophobia, discussion of domestic abuse and murder.]
  • Opening Night by Courtney Taylor
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, young audiences
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    Keyword: a short comedy
    Genre: comedy, young audiences
    Keyword: a short comedy
    An understudy for a production of Romeo and Juliet is called to fill a role...or four...just before the start of the show. A too-cheerful stage manager, and a techie who swears not to be interested, help the actor prepare.
  • The Guy Who Killed Bigfoot by Courtney Taylor
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: Bigfoot, Cryptids + 7 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, fantasy
    Keyword: Bigfoot, Cryptids, Cults, trans main character, childhood friends, long lost love, grief, set in the future, Caroline Calloway
    Kennedy, a trans man in his twenties who shot Bigfoot and went viral, is tracked down unexpectedly by his cryptid-hunting ex.
  • Jenkins: An All-American Outing by Courtney Taylor
    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: biography, comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: centers lgbt characters, 20th century American history + 3 more
    Genre: biography, comedy, docudrama/historic, experimental
    Keyword: centers lgbt characters, 20th century American history, presidential history, President Lyndon Johnson, meta comedy
    Two unspecified and unserious agents assemble the mostly-true story of White House aide Walter Jenkins, who was arrested just before the 1964 election for indecent gestures with another man in a Y.M.C.A. bathroom. This offbeat and off-the-rails journey explores, imagines, and interrogates the bonds between Walter, his little-known wife Marjorie, and Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson. The play twists inside-out...
    Two unspecified and unserious agents assemble the mostly-true story of White House aide Walter Jenkins, who was arrested just before the 1964 election for indecent gestures with another man in a Y.M.C.A. bathroom. This offbeat and off-the-rails journey explores, imagines, and interrogates the bonds between Walter, his little-known wife Marjorie, and Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson. The play twists inside-out around the stakes and problems that come from including Walter’s story in the larger history of LGBTQIA Americans.

    With singing, dancing, and experimental reveries, Jenkins: An All-American Outing cross-examines the tropes of queer biographical plays, creating something different – and messier – in its place.

    This script was developed in part through a 2019 Edward Guiliano Global Travel Fellowship from Stony Brook University.
  • Lights in the Sky by Courtney Taylor
    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: LGBTQ, UFOs + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, science fiction
    Keyword: LGBTQ, UFOs, friends to lovers, short play, one act drama
    Lights in the Sky tells the story of two best friends, Jack and Luis, who search for UFOs at night and confront their feelings for one another along the way. A pink lawn flamingo, and a call from an ex-girlfriend, change everything.
  • The Warren Commission Spectacular by Courtney Taylor
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: dark comedy, experimental + 3 more
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    Keyword: a political satire, experimental theatre + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental, political, satire, zoom
    Keyword: a political satire, experimental theatre, offbeat, comedy
    A party the night that the Warren Commission finishes their report on the Kennedy assassination takes a bizarre turn. Part weird history play, part chaotic comedy, all mildly true.

    A digital theatre adaptation of the script is also available.
  • Ask Not: The True Story of the Kennedy Assassination by Courtney Taylor
    Cast: 
    9
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: Farce, contains LGBTQ characters + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, farce
    Keyword: Farce, contains LGBTQ characters, Absurd Historical, historical comedy, based on historical events and characters
    Ask Not reimagines the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, riffing on conspiracy culture and queering history. Here, JFK's head just "did that" at the moment a gunshot sounded, prompting an off-beat cast of famous characters to cover-up and uncover the truth...when they're not scheming, singing, dancing, and taking a whole lot of drugs.