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Jayme McGhan

JAYME MCGHAN

  (1981 - )
Nationality:    USA
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    The Gersh Agency, NY  represented by Quinn M Corbin

Jayme McGhan's plays have been produced and developed across the country at such Theatres as Irish Repertory Theatre, the Kennedy Center, Washington Shakespeare Company, Stage Left Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, Mortar Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre, Hot City Theatre, TitleWAVE, Yellow Tree Theatre, Cockroach Theatre, Nevada Conservatory Theatre, Wordsmyth Theatre, CBETC, Forestburgh Playhouse, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, and Universities across the country. He is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and an Associate Artist at Stage Left Theatre. His plays include the Fisherman, Mother Bear, Hellfire, the Methuselah Tree, Autonomy, the Sweet Stuff, and Damn the River Deep. Four of his plays are published. He is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Concordia University, Chicago and is the former Regional Representative of the Dramatists Guild to the Twin Cities. Jayme holds an M.F.A in Playwriting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is blessed to be married to his beautiful wife, Julie. His work is represented by Quinn M. Corbin of the Gersh Agency, NYC.

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below is a list of Jayme McGhan's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Automomy         Cogs         Crimson Lake         Fisherman, The         Hellfire         In the Soundless Awe         Methuselah Tree, The         Mother Bear         Neighbours, The         Ragtown         Sweet Stuff, The

Automomy

Synopsis:
Professor Marney Rampart - Nobel Prize winner and atheist has written a book declaring there is no God. Upon publication she is due to debate on live television with a leading Evangelical theologian Rev Dr Townsing. Interest has been growing among the public and people start splitting into for and against groups. Meanwhile numerous interested parties are desperate to get hold on an advance copy. Marney has the only one and she is not going to let anyone see it

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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Cogs

Synopsis:
Fudd and Blue have worked for many years sharpening knives for a big conglomerate. the knives are used to cut hooves off horse; the hooves are made into glue; the glue is used to stick cozies on coffee containers that the workers drink to keep awake during their long shifts. Blue has had enough and plans to leave the Company - he also knows a secret about the CEO and plans to use it to bring the Company down. A plague erupts and kills off a lot of workers - so the remaining ones must work harder and longer and therefore the demand for coffee cozies goes up. Blue is not allowed to retire. So he and Fudd go on strike.

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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Crimson Lake

Synopsis:
Ally returns to her home in North Minnesota for the first time in ten years. It is the first time since her youngest sister went missing. In the meantime her Father has died. Ally meets her other sisters Lacey and Jolene and reveals to them what lies at the bottom of Crimson Lake

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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Fisherman, The

Synopsis:
Brothers Carl and Chucky, two avid fishermen and airplane mechanics, are forced out of their jobs and pensions by an airline bankruptcy, an all-too-eager union, and a padded judicial system. Chucky's daughter Jenny, a police officer and a talented fisherman in her own right, is worried that her Uncle Carl's anger towards the airline has become more than just empty threats. Carl is reminded of a past he is unable to escape when Mutt, his dead younger brother, begins to appear to him in their secret fishing spot. After a corporate jet, along with its seventeen airline executive passengers, is blown from the sky, Jenny is forced to confront her culpable uncle on the banks of the Minnesota River. the Fisherman is a both a warning and a plea for justice in the turbulent waters of corporate America.

Notes:
the Fisherman was originally created As A ten-minute play. It went on to be one of four National Finalists At the Kennedy Center for the National 10-Minute Playwriting Award, And was produced At NCT starring Michael Tylo. the play was then turned into A full-length.

1st Produced:
The Kennedy Center, Nct    2006

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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama, full time

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hellfire

Synopsis:
Dublin, 1737. Seamus Dillard, an Irish landowner of English descent, is given rule over a large parcel of land in Rathfarnham by Lord William Howell, an opulent and charismatic man. Much to the disliking of Millie, his wife, Seamus is taken under the Lord's wing and is shown the clandestine and bacchanal side of Dublin's elite. When Seamus learns of Howell's true plans for Ireland, he must decide whether to deny his loyalties and refuse his wife, or rise up against the Hellfire Club and lose his life?

Notes:
Hellfire is A new play And has yet to be released

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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Thriller, Full-Length

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  5-10

Further Reference:
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In the Soundless Awe

Synopsis:
July 30, 1945. The U.S.S. Indianapolis is hit by two Japanese torpedoes, killing three-hundred sailors in the initial blast and leaving nine-hundred men to drift helplessly in the Pacific Ocean. The survivors are discovered almost five days later. When rescue ships and planes finally arrive, they witness hundreds of large shadows lurking around small groups of broken men drifting aimlessly in the current. Only three-hundred and twenty-one sailors are pulled from the blood-filled water. Twenty-two years later, Charles Butler McVay III, the wrongly court-martialed and disgraced Captain of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, puts a gun to his head and pulls the trigger after decades of accusations, guilt, and ceaseless nightmares. He is perpetually haunted by specters below, human and otherwise, who beckon him to join them. In the Soundless Awe is a highly-theatrical, emotionally-wrought, and horrific imagining of the final nightmare of Captain McVay, the man at the helm of the worst Naval disaster in United States history.

Notes:
written by Jayme McGhan & Andy Pederson

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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Methuselah Tree, The

Synopsis:
Seven years from now, in the basement laboratory of a family home, Harris, a metaphysical scientist obsessed with spiritual death, will invent the world's first bionic soul. Once ingested, the device will seek out the soul within the body, destroy it, and replace it, ultimately erasing all transgression and leaving humanity completely free of sin. Harris' wife, Murielle, a sort of architect, has her own fixation with building massive towers. Jeremy, their young teenage son, is infatuated with the decapitation of small rodents and a strange specter, the Man in the Attic, who resides in the upper floor of the family home. the family soon witnesses the true nature and the awful effects of Harris' creation. Will Murielle's fight to regain her family and the love they once shared bare fruit? Or will the branches of love wither and die with their attempts to save themselves from the approaching darkness?

Notes:
the Methuselah Tree was A finalist for the 2006-2007 Playwrights Center Jerome Fellowship.

1st Produced:
Nct, Minneapolis Fringe Festival    2005

Organisations:
NCT, Higher Ground Theatre Co

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Serio-Comedy/Absurdist, Full-Length Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  1

Further Reference:
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Mother Bear

Synopsis:
Mother has a gang of long haul truckers who are all hijackers, dope peddlers and racketeers. A Union official wants to bring them into the Union. But how to you get allegiance from people who owe no allegiances to anyone or thing?

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Athenaeum Theatre, Studio One, Chicago    27 May 2011

Organisations:
Mortar Theatre

1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Neighbours, The

Synopsis:
Boss Barrington owns a motorcycle manufacturers. He attempts to kill his lead mechanic - but has an heart attack before he can do it. In hospital he reads "Walden" by Thoreau. After he recovers he goes to spend time alone by a lake. He peace is shattered when two other people seeking peace as well turn up in the same spot. then he hears that the whole area has been sold to be turned into a golf course

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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Ragtown

Synopsis:
May 2, 1931. the Tierney family, recent Irish immigrants from Kilkenny, make the dangerous move to Ragtown, a famed shantytown on the bank of the Colorado River erected to house the thousands of people waiting for work on the Boulder (Hoover) Dam. Ennis Tierney, a physician by trade, meets Harry "Tex" Merril, the "go to guy" for the International Workers of the World. In order to insure his spot on the dam, Ennis joins the wobblies, much to the distain of his eighteen-year old son, Brodan. Fear of devastating pay-cuts for the workers is soon a reality and the union decides to organize a strike. Brodan is approached by Bud Dawson, a United State's Marshall, and is made an offer to insure the strike does not happen. Tex is the only one who knows the name of the union organizer. If Brodan finds this man's name and turns it over, his family will be given a real home in Boulder City and his Father will be given his own clinic. Brodan becomes taken with Helen, Tex's young and haunted wife, and is able to procure the name of the Wobblie organizer with her help. As the strike approaches, the desperation increases, and Brodan finds himself torn between his father's wishes, his own desires, and the future of the thousands of workers on Boulder Dam."

Notes:
Ragtown was the recipient of the 2005 Las Vegas Centennial Grant. It was given An equity staged reading Off-Broadway At Irish Repertory theatre before being fully produced At NCT.

1st Produced:
Nct, Las Vegas    2006

Organisations:
Nevada Conservatory Theatre

1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama, full time

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Sweet Stuff, The

Synopsis:
Jerry, a construction framer, has the world's rarest blood; a truly universal type with advanced healing properties that baffle hematologists. Walter, a wealthy and successful broker, has a son with an incredibly rare form of hemophilia. When Jerry, out of fear for his family's well-being, denies the further use of his blood in scientific studies, Walter takes it upon himself to insure his son's survival. He kidnaps Jerry's daughter and holds her ransom for weekly payments of blood. But Jerry has different plans. the Sweet Stuff is a gut-wrenching exploration of social power and the real commodities that rule our lives.

Notes:
the Sweet Stuff was originally A 10-Minute Play And was A KC/ACTF finalist. It won the Author A National Achievement in Playwriting Award, Along with A fully paid trip to the Kennedy Center for the KC/ACTF National Finals. the play has since been turned in to A Full-Length, but has yet to be released in its new form.

1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Thriller, Full-Length

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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