Dark Comedy, Full-length

BRUISE & THORN

by  C. Julian Jiménez

Bruise and Thorn are Nuyorican, queer, and tired af of their jobs at a busted up laundromat in Jamaica, Queens. But not for long: Bruise is saving up to become a chef (like on Chopped!), and Thorn spits bars on street corners, one America’s Got Talent audition away from becoming the Boricua Nikki Minaj. When the laundromat’s basement turns out to be an illegal cockfighting ring, the cousins can’t tell if this is an opportunity to cash out and become their most fabulous selves—or a trap to keep them locked into what everyone expects them to be.

CASTING:

Character List(10+ Actors)

BRUISE - 22/MALE/NUYORICAN. Queer and fabulous, street smart and full of life. Thorn’s cousin.

THORN - 18/GENDER QUEER /NUYORICAN. Spits bars and has dreams of being the Boricua Nicki Minaj. Bruise’s cousin.

MRS . GALLO - 40+ FEMALE/PUERTO RICAN. She’s hot, but she ain’t a stereotype. Got that?

OLD FART - 50+ MALE, ANY ETHNICITY. He’s homeless? He sure hangs out at the laundromat a lot.

LIZARD - 23, MALE,      WHITE. Thorn’s bae. Think Justin Bieber without the music.

COW - ANY AGE and GENDER . Brown and white. They’re confused and maybe a bit aggressive at times. They’re trying not to become a burger, okay?

COCKS/ANIMALS - ANY AGE/GENDER (minimum of 4). Fierce Queer Ball/Vogue performers. They should be serving face and body.

Place: Jamaica Queens at Clean It Laundromat / Live Halal Food Shop / Cockfight Pit / Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell storefront.

Time: Now? Forever?

Reviews:

“On top of its well-realized performances, Bruise & Thorn counts a memorable authenticity among its best qualities; the work is very queer, very Latinx, very New York City.”—Juan A. Ramírez, New York Times

“Jiménez has never lacked creative ambition and is going after something important and rare with Bruise & Thorn: a depiction of queer life that does doesn’t fall back on fussy manners, but looks forward to total liberation.”—Zachary Stewart, TheaterMania

Author

C. Julian Jiménez

C. Julian Jiménez is a Queer, Puerto Rican and Dominican playwright. They hold an MFA in Acting from The Actors Studio Drama School at The New School. Playwriting awards include: New Dramatist Residency (Class of 2025), 2019/2020 Rita Goldberg Playwrights' Workshop Fellow at The Lark, 2017 & 2018 Pipeline Theatre Company PlayLab, 2018 LaGuardia Community College’s LGBTQ History Project Grant, 2015 Queens Arts Council Grant, 2009 Public Theater Emerging Writers Group, and 2014 Best New Work Motif Award. Productions include: Man Boobs (Pride Films & Plays, 2011), Nico was a Fashion Model (Counter-Productions, 2013), Animals Commit Suicide (First Floor Theater, 2015), Locusts Have No King (INTAR, 2016), Bundle of Sticks (INTAR, 2020), Alligator Mouth, Tadpole Ass (Theatre Rhinoceros, 2020), ¡Oso Fabuloso & The Bear Backs! (INTAR, 2021), and Ronald Reagan Murdered My Mentors (Fuse Theater Ensemble, 2023). They are a co-producer and co-writer of the hit web series, Bulk, and an Associate Professor and Chair of the Communication, Theatre, & Media Production Department at Queensborough Community College. Julian lives in Queens, NY with their husband Jeffrey and their cat Mozzer. [Go to FULL BIO]

Essay

THE NAME GAME - A Reckoning

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