MARK JACKSON
THEATER MAKING ARCHIVE
Here you can download resume materials, full scripts, and other shiny things, as well as buy books.
Resume Materials:
Visit my NNPN New Play Exchange profile
Some Howlround articles I've written
A Theatre Bay Area article I wrote
An article about my work in American Theatre magazine
In the hit 2016 Shotgun Players production of Hamlet, seven actors learned all the roles. Each night, in front of the audience, they drew from Yorick’s skull the characters they would play, then had five minutes to get ready before show time. Playing HAMLET Roulette explores what eventually emerged as the production’s true subjects: failure, expectation, possibility, and democracy. In these pages, the production’s director, actors, designers, and audience explore the wide ranging implications of these subjects both in and out of theatre. How might a critical consideration of creative experiences with failure expand our expectations of what is possible in our democratic societies? Published in 2017 from EXIT Press.
“Shotgun’s HAMLET roulette is not a concept at all, but in more daring fashion a series of aesthetic and social demands... The demand that we recognize people, not as equals—that’s too close to interchangeable parts—but as individuals.”
“A savage and free-wheeling adaption... Ibsen was a master at giving his supposedly respectable audiences a taste of their own trash, and Jackson has the same nasty impulse here to skewer the bourgeoisie on the corpses of their children.”
On a weekend getaway to the new summer home Joie and Freddie have built in the mountains north of San Francisco, their disabled son, Erik, is lured into the river by a mysterious Rat Wife and drowns. Freddie’s sister, Andi, arrives with news of a shocking family secret, and Andi’s hopeful suitor, Bernie, is as surprised as anybody when everything turns upside down – including San Francisco itself. Freely adapted from Ibsen’s Little Eyolf, this new play grapples with marriage, family, class, nature, technology, and how our expectations can derail our deepest hopes and wishes. Originally produced by Aurora Theatre Company. Published in 2017 by EXIT Press, with a foreword by actor Mariah Castle.
Hi-Res B&W rehearsal shot by Pak Han
Hi-Res Color Headshot by Robbie Sweeny
(as of yet) Unproduced Scripts:
The scripts posted here may vary from their latest drafts. These plays are fully copyrighted. They are available here strictly for perusal only. For inquiries about productions, readings or workshops, or for any other use of these plays in part or in whole, please click on over to the CONTACT page on this website. Summaries of the plays may be read here. Many thanks!
Jenny Jenny GO GO GO. A contemporary play adapted from the Iphigenia myth. 4 or 3w, 3m. Multiple locations.
Liliom. Adaptation of Ferenc Molnar's play. 4w, 4m. Multifunctional set.
Lulu Monster Tragedy. Adaptation of Wedekind's Lulu plays. 2w, 1m. Single set.
The Rats. American adaptation of Hauptmann's city tragicomedy, Die Ratten. 6w, 4m. Multifunctional set.
Who Is Heiner Müller Or The End of History. Original play. 2m, 2 boys, 1 girl. Single set. Included in Cutting Ball Theater's 2015 Risk Is This... Festival.
Produced Scripts:
These plays listed below are all available in the published volumes also found on this webpage. For inquiries about productions, readings or workshops, or for any other use of these plays in part or in whole, or for information on plays not listed here, please click on over to the CONTACT page on this website. Summaries of the plays may be read here. Many thanks!
American $uicide (Encore Theatre Company, 2007) The American hunger for spectacle and public adoration. 4w, 4m. Multiple locations.
BANG! (The Play Café at Edinburgh UK, 2004. Art Street Theatre, 1999) Ain't no room for divas on the Fringe. 4w, 2m. Single set.
Brave (PCPA, 2003. Art Street Theatre, 1998) Bad choices in a time of social flux. 3w, 3m. Multifunctional set.
The Death of Meyerhold (The Studio Theatre, Wash. DC, 2005. Shotgun Players, 2003) The death of free thinking in politically ambiguous times. 2w, 9m, 1 girl. Multifunctional set.
Faust Pt1 (Shotgun Players, 2009) Book smarts in conflict with personal responsibility. 2w, 4m. Multiple locations.
The Forest War (Shotgun Players, 2006) An ancient play for modern times. 5w, 8m, 1 boy. Multifunctional set.
God's Plot (Shotgun Players, 2011) Religion, politics, theater, and the origins of the American character. 2w, 8m, musicians. Multiple locations.
I Am Hamlet (Art Street Theatre, 2002) Hamlet sets the record straight. 1w, 1m. Single set.
Io Princess of Argos (Encore Theatre Company, 2002. Art Street Theatre, 2001) Fate versus freedom. 2w, 2m, musicians. Single set.
Little Erik (Aurora Theatre Company, 2016) Contemporary adaptation of Ibsen's Little Eyolf. 3w, 2m, 1 boy. Multifunctional set.
little extremes (Art Street Theatre, 1995) Talk to the people you love more or bad things will happen. 2w, 2m. Bare stage with minimal props.
Mary Stuart (Shotgun Players, 2010) When personal and national politics collide. 2w, 6m. Multiple locations.
Messenger #1 (Hunger & Thirst, NYC, 2017. The Catamounts, Denver CO, 2012. Art Street Theatre, 2000) National, class, family and news media politics collide. The Oresteia from the messengers' point of view. 3w, 3m. Multifunctional set.
R&J (Art Street Theatre, 1996 & 1997) Woah! Slow down and things might go differently. 3w, 2m. Bare stage with minimal props.
Salomania (Aurora Theatre Company, 2012) WW1, infamous dancer Maud Allan, and a crime of the century. 2w, 5m. Multifunctional set.
Published in 2012 by EXIT Press, THREE PLAYS is the second collection of my plays and includes God's Plot, Mary Stuart, and Salomania, with a foreword by Patrick Dooley, artistic director of The Shotgun Players.
“While these plays are wildly entertaining, what distinguishes them is that they have some of the most important questions of our time—what is freedom? what is terrorism? what does it mean to live in a democracy?—woven into their fabric. ”
Published in 2010 by EXIT Press, TEN PLAYS is the first collection of my plays. The volume includes American $uicide, BANG!, Brave, The Death of Meyerhold, Faust Pt1, The Forest War, I Am Hamlet, little extremes, Messenger #1 and R&J, with a foreword by critic Rob Avila.
“TEN PLAYS is a testament to the tenacity of vision… What these plays have in common is an audacious commitment to the illimitable possibilities of live theater.”