Playwriting alumnus Jeffrey James Keyes ’10 has been selected to join Pipeline Theatre Company’s PlayLab Class of 2023. Keyes is one of only three participants in the 2023 class; he was selected from over 300 applicants.
Pipeline’s PlayLab is a playwriting group that supports and fosters artists’ growth. Specifically, it intends to help artists develop their biggest, wildest ideas into daring and imaginative new plays. Each playwright begins with an ambitious project proposal that, through PlayLab’s monthly meetings and workshopping events, is developed into a new script. The year-long program also features three workshops geared toward the presentation of works-in-progress, for which Pipeline supplies the writers with access to space and collaborators to realize their visions. Pipeline says that, in addition to the goal of developing the PlayLab writers’ new projects, the program is meant to expand the artistic networks of emerging playwrights.
Keyes’s initial concept is called The Great American Holiday Crafting Show. It proposes a theatrical work centered on crafts, storytelling, and healing. Characters Orange and Clove roll up their sleeves and dig into holiday crafting exercises while swapping stories, unpacking holiday baggage, and discovering hope in the holiday season.
Jeffrey James Keyes is an interdisciplinary writer and artist. He co-authored the 2016 New York Times bestseller, Killer Chef, with James Patterson. His plays have been developed and featured at SoHo Playhouse, the Old Vic/Old Vic New Voices, 59E59, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Rogue Machine Theatre. Keyes contributes travel and lifestyle articles to Metrosource Magazine, Passport Magazine, ManAboutWorld, and Q Digital. He also writes and produces short films and has recently started working on virtual reality projects. Keyes is an inaugural recipient of the 2021 PEN America L’Engle Rahman Prize for Mentorship. Additionally, he received the Artists’ Patron Fund’s 2019 Gold Award and wrote the script for Digital Arrest, which claimed the top prize in the Creative Technology category of the NYC Media Lab 2019 Demo Expo. Prior to attending Columbia, Keyes received his B.A. from Fordham University.
