Courtney Taylor

Courtney Taylor

Courtney Taylor is a playwright, director, and speechwriter from New York. She was a finalist for The Bechdel Project's 2022 Room of One's Own Residency, and is one of their inaugural Feminism Is For Everyone fellows. Her play No Entrance was a semifinalist for the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's 2023 National Playwrights Conference, and was a finalist for the 2023 Lanford Wilson New...
Courtney Taylor is a playwright, director, and speechwriter from New York. She was a finalist for The Bechdel Project's 2022 Room of One's Own Residency, and is one of their inaugural Feminism Is For Everyone fellows. Her play No Entrance was a semifinalist for the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's 2023 National Playwrights Conference, and was a finalist for the 2023 Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival. The play will receive a reading in March 2024 as part of the Neurodivergent New Play Reading Series.

Courtney was a member of Imaginarium Theatre Company's spring 2022 writing group, and directed a reading of her play The Warren Commission Spectacular through the theatre in June 2022. The play was also a semi-finalist for the 2022 J.L. Smith New Play Festival.

Courtney's play Lights in the Sky was published in The Coachella Review's winter 2018 edition, and has been performed by community and school theatre groups across the U.S. She received a 2019 Edward Guiliano Global Travel Fellowship to develop a new play titled Jenkins: An All-American Outing. Courtney also directed, costume designed, and acted in the first production of her farce Ask Not: The True Story of the Kennedy Assassination.

Plays

  • The Guy Who Killed Bigfoot by Courtney Taylor
    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
    The Guy Who Killed Bigfoot tells the story of Kennedy, a trans man in his twenties who was the subject of a viral video where he appeared to shoot Bigfoot. On the anniversary of the video, his ex Tammy tracks him down unexpectedly.
  • WEIRD GIRL SUMMER by Courtney Taylor
    Recommendations: 3
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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.]
  • Lights in the Sky by Courtney Taylor
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    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.
  • 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.
  • The Warren Commission Spectacular by Courtney Taylor
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    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.
  • BIRD by Courtney Taylor
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, experimental
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    Keyword: 20th century women's history, Surreal + 3 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, experimental
    Keyword: 20th century women's history, Surreal, complicated relationships, a political fantasy, presidential history
    A surreal drama about Lady Bird Johnson, the archetype of the political wife, and America in the 20th century, for four actors.
  • Opening Night by Courtney Taylor
    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.