Taylor Sklenar

Taylor Sklenar is a playwright, poet, and theatre artist living in Ames, Iowa. He recently spent two years pursuing his MA in Theatre in Columbia, Missouri, where he served as the managing director of the Missouri Playwrights’ Workshop and the Mizzou New Play Series. He is the resident playwright at Minneapolis based theatre company, 2140 Productions, and the founder of Ames based theatre collective, Focal Theatre Lab which explores new and experimental work by local playwrights. His writing, which explores the intersection of science, ecology, and theatre, includes Of Madness and the Electric Dream, Dead Silence, Baby I’ll Turn the Sky Green for You, Inheritance, Fission, 500/501 and {AV:VR:RL}, and has been workshopped or produced at Tallgrass Theatre’s Iowa Playwrights’ Workshop...

Taylor Sklenar is a playwright, poet, and theatre artist living in Ames, Iowa. He recently spent two years pursuing his MA in Theatre in Columbia, Missouri, where he served as the managing director of the Missouri Playwrights’ Workshop and the Mizzou New Play Series. He is the resident playwright at Minneapolis based theatre company, 2140 Productions, and the founder of Ames based theatre collective, Focal Theatre Lab which explores new and experimental work by local playwrights. His writing, which explores the intersection of science, ecology, and theatre, includes Of Madness and the Electric Dream, Dead Silence, Baby I’ll Turn the Sky Green for You, Inheritance, Fission, 500/501 and {AV:VR:RL}, and has been workshopped or produced at Tallgrass Theatre’s Iowa Playwrights’ Workshop, StageWest Des Moines’ Scriptease, Theatre Cedar Rapids, Focal Theatre Lab, Minnesota Fringe, Scene One Theatre, the Missouri Playwrights’ Workshop, The William Inge Festival, and the Kennedy Center Undergraduate Playwrights Workshop.
Education:
BA, English & Performing Arts, BS Chemistry, Iowa State '16;
MA, Theatre, University of Missouri '19;
MFA Creative Writing & Environment, MS Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State '22

Scripts

500/501

by Taylor Sklenar

Synopsis

Two neighboring pigs in a CAFO clash in personality. But as they settle into their new situation, they both learn new things about life, love, and nature of confinement.
Cast: 3, flexible
15-17 minutes

Two neighboring pigs in a CAFO clash in personality. But as they settle into their new situation, they both learn new things about life, love, and nature of confinement.
Cast: 3, flexible
15-17 minutes

Baby I'll Turn the Sky Green for You

by Taylor Sklenar

Synopsis

Part One: In a ravaged 2051, a nurse tries desperately to keep her father on life support, despite her nihilistic sister’s desire to pull the plug. As the sisters quarrel, questions of their father’s past emerge, pushing their relationship to its breaking point.
Part Two: In 2019, the cast has transformed to play the older generation, and the decisions and secrets of the past come to life. An intriguing look...

Part One: In a ravaged 2051, a nurse tries desperately to keep her father on life support, despite her nihilistic sister’s desire to pull the plug. As the sisters quarrel, questions of their father’s past emerge, pushing their relationship to its breaking point.
Part Two: In 2019, the cast has transformed to play the older generation, and the decisions and secrets of the past come to life. An intriguing look at the responsibility that we have to other generations and the personal costs of action and inaction.
90-100 minutes
2F, 1M

Fission

by Taylor Sklenar

Synopsis

Fission takes us to a timeless city stretching sea to sea, where a homeless Prophet foresees an unstoppable nuclear holocaust. The Physician, hearing this, must sacrifice everything in an attempt to reach the brainless Politician and stop the inevitable. A poetic look the nuclear threat and the anxiety surrounding it.

Fission takes us to a timeless city stretching sea to sea, where a homeless Prophet foresees an unstoppable nuclear holocaust. The Physician, hearing this, must sacrifice everything in an attempt to reach the brainless Politician and stop the inevitable. A poetic look the nuclear threat and the anxiety surrounding it.

Two Lost Souls

by Taylor Sklenar

Synopsis

An existential goldfish must will herself into dying in order to escape her confines -- but can she succeed, or will she succumb to the bubbly personality of her bowlmate?

An existential goldfish must will herself into dying in order to escape her confines -- but can she succeed, or will she succumb to the bubbly personality of her bowlmate?

{AV:VR:RL}

by Taylor Sklenar

Synopsis

Simon, an awkward computer guru, hopes to escape the vicious world of his small town school after graduation. When he wins a state-of-the-art augmented reality headset he begins using this new technology to cope with strife at school and at home. However, as the family’s financial problems spiral, Simon struggles to keep touch with reality.

Simon, an awkward computer guru, hopes to escape the vicious world of his small town school after graduation. When he wins a state-of-the-art augmented reality headset he begins using this new technology to cope with strife at school and at home. However, as the family’s financial problems spiral, Simon struggles to keep touch with reality.

Enamored of an Ass

by Taylor Sklenar

Synopsis

A companion play to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Enamored of an Ass is predicated on the question "What if the women stopped putting up with the men's shit?" When Oberon releases Titania from his love spell, her frustration with Oberon’s mind games causes her not to throw herself back into his arms, but to choose Bottom instead. However, this relationship proves to be far from ideal. At the same...

A companion play to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Enamored of an Ass is predicated on the question "What if the women stopped putting up with the men's shit?" When Oberon releases Titania from his love spell, her frustration with Oberon’s mind games causes her not to throw herself back into his arms, but to choose Bottom instead. However, this relationship proves to be far from ideal. At the same time, Hermia and Lysander struggle to keep their marriage afloat, Hippolyta challenges Theseus to a duel for the hand he claims to have “won,” and the working class fairies begin to question their position. Enamored of an Ass questions the themes of patriarchy, class structure, and romanticized love which are inherent in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The OMNILVX Method

by Taylor Sklenar

Synopsis

When Jeanine, a graphic designer with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, gets dumped, her strange dreams lead her to a group of “like-minded people” who help her begin to fill a hole in her life. As she begins to get pulled deeper into this community, however, her rowdy sister’s bad feeling about the group lead her to try to extricate Jeanine from their grasp. As the organization begins to help her grow, she must decide if...

When Jeanine, a graphic designer with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, gets dumped, her strange dreams lead her to a group of “like-minded people” who help her begin to fill a hole in her life. As she begins to get pulled deeper into this community, however, her rowdy sister’s bad feeling about the group lead her to try to extricate Jeanine from their grasp. As the organization begins to help her grow, she must decide if her sister’s objections are stronger than the new community in which she is growing.

Of Madness and the Electric Dream

by Taylor Sklenar

Synopsis

After discovering a groundbreaking new technology, wind research scientist, Cam, is faced with opposition from her financially-minded boss. While she struggles to develop her new prototype, Nikola Tesla similarly contends with Edison for the chance to electrify the world. But what are they each willing to sacrifice in the name of progress?

After discovering a groundbreaking new technology, wind research scientist, Cam, is faced with opposition from her financially-minded boss. While she struggles to develop her new prototype, Nikola Tesla similarly contends with Edison for the chance to electrify the world. But what are they each willing to sacrifice in the name of progress?

Inheritance

by Taylor Sklenar

Synopsis

While still reeling from the impact of their parents’ sudden death four years previous, Joan and Denny are thrown to the brink of ruin when their life insurance money runs out. Joan, struggling to reconcile the roles of mother and sister, must try to galvanize the injured and unmotivated Denny to get a job while she tumbles down a rat-hole of memories and alcohol.

While still reeling from the impact of their parents’ sudden death four years previous, Joan and Denny are thrown to the brink of ruin when their life insurance money runs out. Joan, struggling to reconcile the roles of mother and sister, must try to galvanize the injured and unmotivated Denny to get a job while she tumbles down a rat-hole of memories and alcohol.

The Tragical History of One Christopher Marlowe

by Taylor Sklenar

Synopsis

A long time rivalry between the failing young playwrights Shakespeare and Marlowe intensifies when they both separately run into a mysterious old man in a bar and sell their souls for an unmatched skill with language. Several years later they run into each at the same bar and design to finish their quarrel using their words. After being tricked out his end of their contract, the old man – who has revealed...

A long time rivalry between the failing young playwrights Shakespeare and Marlowe intensifies when they both separately run into a mysterious old man in a bar and sell their souls for an unmatched skill with language. Several years later they run into each at the same bar and design to finish their quarrel using their words. After being tricked out his end of their contract, the old man – who has revealed himself as the devil – talks a defeated Will into finishing the feud with a knife, thus quenching the overreaching Marlowe.