TAYLOR COOK
TAYLOR COOK
Playwright | Director
ABOUT
Taylor Cook is a theatre artist from Chicago. While attending the University of Iowa, he directed his one-act absurd comedy Spot’s Community, which was later selected for the Iowa City Community Theatre Competition. His ten-minute play Piddlekins was produced for the university’s annual Ten Minute Play Festival. After graduation, he directed a production of his rock musical Slaughter Song. In Chicago, Vivarium Theatre produced his surreal ten-minute play Gunthy for their Lost & Found Festival; it was later produced by Nylon Fusion Theatre in New York City. In 2016, his full-length play Mr. Bread Man was given a workshop production at Heartland Studio in Chicago. Most recently, he directed his one-act dark comedy The Death Worker at YippieFest. Taylor holds a BA in Theatre Arts from the University of Iowa.
PLAYS
MR. BREAD MAN
Full Length (2M, 3F)
Mr. Bread Man raises three women-- his “Subjects”-- in total confinement. They alternate between three roles: Guard, who makes the rules (such as no talking); Doctor, who prescribes the treatments (such as jumping jacks); and Prisoner, who follow the rules and treatments (which are usually unpleasant). The Subjects do their jobs to appease an apparently omniscient Watcher, who will supposedly reward them with unspecified “gifts.”
When a man suddenly arrives with his lips sewn together, the Subjects are terrified at first-- they’ve never seen someone from outside before-- but they soon decide that he must have disobeyed the Watcher, so they subject him to bizarre and horrific torments as they compete for the Watcher’s favor.
SPOT'S COMMUNITY
One Act (2M, 2F)
A young man attempts to bring the remnants of humanity together through the hallucinogenic powers of soda, while his brother struggles to pursue a musical career despite the apparent apocalypse. Two sisters attempt to join the Community: Tragedy, whom the brothers immediately fight over; and Prudence, whom nobody wants around. The siblings compete through rituals, dancing, singing, and drunkenness, while feral dogs terrorize the survivors outside.
PIDDLEKINS
Ten Minute (2M, 1F)
Dorothy and Herman lead a mysterious, but powerful Troupe whose members occasionally throw people out of windows. Herman feels threatened by a new recruit, so he tries to have the boy sent away. But Dorothy, who has taken a liking to the boy, decides that her husband isn’t man enough to lead the Troupe. She exploits Herman’s greatest weakness: his cat.
Brother, a touring musician with infinite sexual partners, lives in a mobile home with his Sister, an innocent recluse. Both share their darkest secrets and most depraved fantasies with a stuffed animal named Gunthy. When Gunthy falls ill, no amount of love, surgery, or punk rock can save him.
GUNTHY
Ten Minute (2M, 1F)
Lenigarius approaches an assisted suicide agency to end her stifled existence, but when she learns that they are hiring, she instead joins their team of professional killers. Her first client is her therapist, who knows enough about Lenigarius's dark secret to realize she'll do more than just kill him.
The Death Worker
One Act (1M, 2F, 1 either)
