A squirt gun would never be mistaken for a real gun, right? Dive into the thought-provoking world of Water. Gun. Argument and challenge what we choose to believe. A thought provoking and powerful piece in a docu-theatre style.
John Minigan
John is a recent Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellow in Dramatic Writing and New Repertory Theatre Playwriting Fellow.
He has had new plays commissioned and produced by Gloucester Stage Company, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Hey Jonté! Productions, and The Plumbing Museum.
His full-length plays have been produced by Circle Rep, Greater Boston Stage Company, Centastage, 6th Street Playhouse, Funky Little Theater Company, Clockwise, and others, and developed and workshopped by Urban Stages, New Repertory Theatre, the New American Playwrights Project, Portland Stage Company, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Actors' Repertory Theatre of Vermont, Dayton Playhouse, and the Orlando Shakespeare Theater and more. His short plays have been selected four times for the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Festival, for Orange Tea Theatre (Amsterdam), SoBe Arts, IMPACT 15 International Theatre Festival, MadLab, BARE Essentials and Best of BARE Essentials (London), the Boston Theater Marathon, Short + Sweet (Dubai, Los Angeles, Sydney, Delhi, and Queensland), the Snowdance Comedy Festival, Pick of the Vine, Seoul Players (South Korea), and Boston Play Café
He is a winner of the Judith Royer Award from The Kennedy Center/ATHE, the Louise Wigglesworth Award for Playwriting Excellence, the New American Voices Festival, and the Clauder Competition for New England plays. Queen of Sad Mischance was a finalist for the 2018 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, and The Maltese Walter was a finalist for the 2014 Heideman Award from the Actors Theatre of Louisville. His full-length comedy Noir Hamlet, most recently seen at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, was named a Best of Boston Theater for 2018 and a 2019 nominee for the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding New Script.
His short plays have won the KNOCK International Short Play Competition, the 8-Minute Madness Festival in New York City, the Rover Dramawerks Competition, the Longwood 0-60 Contest, and been selected for City Theatre Miami’s Summer Shorts and Little Fish Pick-of-the-Vine. He was also a winner of the 2014 Nantucket One-Act Play Contest, the 2015 Nor'Eastern Playwrights Contest, the 2015 Seoul Players' Short Play Festival and the Firehouse Center for the Arts New Works Festival in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2019.
John's work is also published by Applause (Best American Short Plays 2015-2016 and Go Out and Play), Smith & Kraus (Best 10-Minute Plays of of 2021, Best 10-Minute Plays of 2016, and Five-Minute Plays for Performance and Study as well as multiple Best Stage Monologues anthologies), True Acting Institute (Best Women's Monologues 2019), YOUTHPlays (Rising Sophomore), and New World Theatre (It's Academic and A Solitary Voice).
Two plays John devised with high school students were overall winners of the 110+ school Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild Festival. He is currently on the faculty of Emerson College and the Hanover Conservatory for the Performing Arts.
John lives in the Boston area with his wife, the dance scholar, teacher, and choreographer Lynn E. Frederiksen.
He is a Dramatists Guild Ambassador for Eastern New England and teaches Theater Education at Emerson College in Boston.
He has had new plays commissioned and produced by Gloucester Stage Company, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Hey Jonté! Productions, and The Plumbing Museum.
His full-length plays have been produced by Circle Rep, Greater Boston Stage Company, Centastage, 6th Street Playhouse, Funky Little Theater Company, Clockwise, and others, and developed and workshopped by Urban Stages, New Repertory Theatre, the New American Playwrights Project, Portland Stage Company, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Actors' Repertory Theatre of Vermont, Dayton Playhouse, and the Orlando Shakespeare Theater and more. His short plays have been selected four times for the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Festival, for Orange Tea Theatre (Amsterdam), SoBe Arts, IMPACT 15 International Theatre Festival, MadLab, BARE Essentials and Best of BARE Essentials (London), the Boston Theater Marathon, Short + Sweet (Dubai, Los Angeles, Sydney, Delhi, and Queensland), the Snowdance Comedy Festival, Pick of the Vine, Seoul Players (South Korea), and Boston Play Café
He is a winner of the Judith Royer Award from The Kennedy Center/ATHE, the Louise Wigglesworth Award for Playwriting Excellence, the New American Voices Festival, and the Clauder Competition for New England plays. Queen of Sad Mischance was a finalist for the 2018 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, and The Maltese Walter was a finalist for the 2014 Heideman Award from the Actors Theatre of Louisville. His full-length comedy Noir Hamlet, most recently seen at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, was named a Best of Boston Theater for 2018 and a 2019 nominee for the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding New Script.
His short plays have won the KNOCK International Short Play Competition, the 8-Minute Madness Festival in New York City, the Rover Dramawerks Competition, the Longwood 0-60 Contest, and been selected for City Theatre Miami’s Summer Shorts and Little Fish Pick-of-the-Vine. He was also a winner of the 2014 Nantucket One-Act Play Contest, the 2015 Nor'Eastern Playwrights Contest, the 2015 Seoul Players' Short Play Festival and the Firehouse Center for the Arts New Works Festival in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2019.
John's work is also published by Applause (Best American Short Plays 2015-2016 and Go Out and Play), Smith & Kraus (Best 10-Minute Plays of of 2021, Best 10-Minute Plays of 2016, and Five-Minute Plays for Performance and Study as well as multiple Best Stage Monologues anthologies), True Acting Institute (Best Women's Monologues 2019), YOUTHPlays (Rising Sophomore), and New World Theatre (It's Academic and A Solitary Voice).
Two plays John devised with high school students were overall winners of the 110+ school Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild Festival. He is currently on the faculty of Emerson College and the Hanover Conservatory for the Performing Arts.
John lives in the Boston area with his wife, the dance scholar, teacher, and choreographer Lynn E. Frederiksen.
He is a Dramatists Guild Ambassador for Eastern New England and teaches Theater Education at Emerson College in Boston.
Plays by John Minigan
As You Like It
cutting and notes by John Minigan from the original by Shakespeare
A one act annotated version of Shakespeare's love filled comedy.
- About 45 minutes
- 9 M + 4 F + 6 Any Gender
- Simple Set
- Recommended for High Schools & Middle Schools
- 27 pages
The Comedy of Errors
cutting and notes by John Minigan from the original by Shakespeare
A one act annotated version of Shakespeare's comedy about mistaken identity.
- About 60 minutes
- 5 M + 5 F + 8 Any Gender, + jailers, officers, and attendants, Doubling Possible
- Simple Set
- Recommended for High Schools & Middle Schools
- 41 pages
Much Ado About Nothing
cutting and notes by John Minigan from the original by Shakespeare
This one act annotated version of Shakespeare's comedy brims with wordplay, romance, and deceit.
- About 45 minutes
- 5 M + 4 F + 7 Any Gender, Doubling Possible
- Interior and Exterior
- Recommended for High Schools & Middle Schools
- 26 pages
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
cutting and notes by John Minigan from the original by Shakespeare
A one act annotated version of Shakespeare's comedy filled with unrequited love, disguises, and a shipwreck.
- About 45 minutes
- 6 M + 3 F + 6 Any Gender, Doubling Possible
- Simple Set
- Recommended for High Schools & Middle Schools
- 33 pages
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