top of page

jessica charles writes

plays

A SELECTION OF FULL-LENGTH PLAYS

Antiquated F*ckery

Tired of an industry that sees them as both too Black AND not Black enough, two queer BFFs decide to fuck the auditions and take the future into their own hands.  When producers call after their genderqueer Juliet & Romeo goes viral, their friendship is put to the test by Karens, capitalists, and ultimately each other.  Antiquated F*ckery is a dark comedy/Black queer reality that begs the question: how do we move forward if we’re still performing the past?

​

Hot Girls Making Out

Hot Girls Making Out Key Art.jpg

Hot Girls Making Out explores a "coming out journey" viewed through the lens of the effect that this journey has on queer people – the intention of the piece is to create a safe space to hold, question, and understand different LGBTQI+ lived experiences.

 

Jane is married to Mark but still in love with her best friend, Lauren, who just passed away.  Confronted by her longing, Jane wanders into a Better Place – the last lesbian bar in Manhattan – and finds new friends: Bec, Dru, and Lulu. A theatrical comedy with weight, Hot Girls Making Out explores the spectrum of queer identity and the experiences and choices one is allowed to make in understanding and expressing their identity. And as complex as this all might be, can we agree, “Who doesn’t like hot girls making out?”  

​

​

want more plays?

NPX PROFILE

"the genuine minstrel show!"

_the genuine minstrel show!_ v2.jpeg

In this dysmorphic minstrel show, in parallel worlds, Iris, a Black Popstar in 2024, and Jimmy, an Irish-American  minstrel in 1869, can only survive by the performance of Blackness. In this “peer” or rival to Mark Twain’s beloved “nigger-show,” “the genuine minstrel show!” is a darkly comedic play that explores American performance, Black representation, and survival. 

​​

  • Manhattan Beach Resident Artist – Black Lives Black Words International, 2025 

  • I AM SOUL Playwriting Residency, Finalist – National Black Theatre 24/26

  • WP Theater Lab, Semi-finalist – WP Theater, 2024

  • Honors Distinction, M.A. Text and Performance, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London '12-13

[THE BLACK WOMAN] and the Myth

A hurricane hits Harlem. A storm like no one has seen before. Eleven year-old girl, Malindy, goes missing in the storm. In one building, two apartments live modern-day versions of Her Stories’ nightmarish tales. Each inhabitant fears the worst as they fight the myths in their minds and the truth of what happens to missing girls. While lost in the hurricane, Malindy finds herself running, crawling, swimming and floating amongst the storm and from her Black Imagination – where the fairytales of Her Stories are true tales. As our little girl runs from the dangers of what seems to be the inevitable conclusion to all of the tales – [THE BLACK WOMAN]’s death – in this play, [THE BLACK WOMAN] has the agency to change her narrative.

​

[THE BLACK WOMAN] and The Myth is a play that utilizes three myths in Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales told by Virginia Hamilton. 

- The Mer- Woman out of the Sea as told by John Bennett and Araminta Tucker (1867)

- Lena and Big One Tiger as told by a woman from the Sea Islands (1890)

- Malindy and the Little Devil as told by Southern black folk tellers (1890)

​

  • New Works Lab Cycle 7, Finalist  – The Fire This Time, 2024

  • Development, SPACE on Ryder Farm, 2024

  • Staged Reading, LTC at Pregones/PRTT,  canceled due to COVID, (dir. Kim Brockington), March 27th, 2020

  • Development, Liberation Theater Company (LTC), 2020

bottom of page