Jordan Ramirez Puckett
Play Showcase
Below are the descriptions of my full-length plays.
Transitional Love Stories
Transitional Love Stories |Synopsis
From the outside, Alex and Daniel appear to be in a happy, heterosexual, monogamous marriage. But no matter what universe you’re in, each version of this couple is hiding a critical piece of who they are and what they desire. TRANSITIONAL LOVE STORIES is a fully immersive, multi-universal play about the choices we do and don’t have control over.
Transitional Love Stories |Production History
Written at The New Harmony Project, 2021
Developed as part of The Playwrights' Realm Working Program, 2021
En Las Sombras
En Las Sombras |Synopsis
En Las Sombras is the mythical tale of Xenia and Luz, two children travelling with their mother to God's Gate, beyond which is the promise of safety and a life free from hunger and suffering. When Xenia and Luz are separated from their mother, it becomes clear that the gods may not be quite so ready to share the riches that lie beyond. This myth asks us to consider why we've allowed our gods to become so powerful and what we can do to stop them.
En Las Sombras |Production History
Staged Reading, PlayFest, Orlando Shakes, 2021
Staged Reading, Tantrum East, 2021
Winner, Darrell Ayers National Playwriting Award, KCACTF, 2021
Distinguished Achievement, Latinx Playwriting Award, KCACTF, 2021
To Saints and Stars
To Saints and Stars |Synopsis
10-all astronauts prepare for launch... 9-months and Zoe will be a mother... 8-years old, a promise made we never wanted to break... 7-months, my one way ticket to Mars... 6-million hours staring up at the stars... 5-seconds left until launch... 4- years old when we first met... 3- decades of friendship and love... 2-peas in a pod until... 1-mission liftoff
In To Saints and Stars, Sofía’s life flashes before her eyes. In the face of death on the first manned mission to Mars, Sofía re- examines her lifelong friendship with Zoe and the age old conflict between science and faith.
To Saints and Stars |Production History
Staged Reading, Headwaters, Creede Repertory Theatre, 2021
Staged Reading, UCF Pegasus PlayLab, 2021
Staged Reading, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, 2020
Staged Reading, San Diego Repertory Theatre, 2019
Staged Reading, Ohio University, 2019
A Driving Beat
A Driving Beat |Synopsis
2,000 miles, a cross-country car ride
adopted son and mother travel side by side
white woman, brown boy in the same space
9 states to the hospital, the teen’s birthplace
4 days, if all goes according to plan
5 nights, of doing all that they can
to find his birth mom, identity, or home
but by the end of their journey
will any answers be known?
A Driving Beat |Production History
Shortlist, Yale Drama Series Prize, 2022
Finalist, National Playwrights Conference, The O'Neill, 2021
Staged Reading, Athena Project, 2019
Distinguished Achievement, Hip Hop Theatre, KCACTF, 2019
Distinguished Achievement, Paula Vogel Award, KCACTF, 2019
Staged Reading, San Francisco Playhouse, 2018
Staged Reading, Ohio University, 2018
Written at National Winter Playwrights Retreat, 2018
Las Pajaritas
Las Pajaritas (formerly Pajarita) |Synopsis
Lita, Anita, and Taylor are three generations of Chicana women who live in the same apartment together. And as much as they can fight about everything from religion to dating, there isn’t anything that one wouldn’t do for another. But there will always be a division in their relationship because Lita’s and Anita’s brown skin and Taylor’s white skin have affected how they are each able to move throughout the world. And when Taylor returns from her first year at college, she finds that something has shifted in her childhood home. Lita goes missing for days on end with flimsy excuses for her absence. Anita and Lita whisper in the middle of the night about a secret that must be kept from Taylor at all costs. And the truth is a far too common example how America’s poorest populations are being exploited around the country.
Las Pajaritas |Development History
Workshop, Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series, 2018
Distinguished Achievement, Latinx Award, KCACTF, 2018
Finalist, Parity Productions Annual Commission, 2017
Staged Reading, The Custom Made Theatre Co., 2017
Workshop Production, Acting Out INK Fest, 2016
Workshop at San Francisco Playhouse, 2015
Written at Wildacres Residency, 2015
Restore |Synopsis
What happens when young raw passion goes terribly wrong? Five characters grapple with how to find justice in the aftermath of an unthinkable event.
Restore |Development History
Staged Reading, Harold Clurman Laboratory Theatre, 2018
Workshop Production, Waukengan Theatre Festival, 2016
Winner of the Christopher Brian Wolk Award, 2015
Workshop Production at Acting Out INK Fest, 2015*
Originally Commissioned by San Francisco Playhouse, 2013
*Winner of Best Ensemble and Best Actor
Featuring Eric Geller, Francesca Manzi, Gail Friedland, Alison Quinn, & Wes Swihart
Photograph by Daniel J Sliwa Photography
Featuring Keith Burkland*, Molly Noble*, and Carlye Pollack
Photogarphs by Lauren English
* Member of AEA
Inevitable |Synopsis
What would you do if you could stop time? In Evelyn’s desperate attempt to make sense of her life she grasps at the impossible: halting the inevitable ticking clock. But the cost of this seeming impossibility may be destroying the family she has worked a lifetime to create. Fantasy and memory collide in this family drama that examines questions central to the human experience. What does it mean to die? And when you do, what is the legacy that you want to leave behind?
Inevitable |Press Quotes
"Inevitable packs a powerful dramatic punch... Jordan Puckett is definitely a talent to watch"- Huffington Post
"Honest, heartbreaking and sometimes funny, Inevitable has a lot going for it: a smart script, great acting, minimalistic stagecraft and a thoroughly captivating story."- Art Animal Magazine
"[The playwright] does well at capturing the idiosyncratic rhythms of time-tempered marital conversation between Evelyn and Carl, and the hurtful time bombs planted within mother-daughter interchanges."- San Francisco Chronicle
"Genuinely touching, particularly in the palpable bond between Burkland’s Carl and Noble’s Evy, and much of their dialogue is clever and sweet." - The Idiolect
Inevitable |Production History
World Premiere, San Francisco Playhouse Sandbox Series, 2013
Developed at Northwestern University, 2011
Inevitable | Interview
To learn more about the play and my writing process, read my interview in San Francisco Magazine here:
http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/two-premieres-one-conversation-jordan-puckett