Eric Pfeffinger

Used to be a newspaper cartoonist. Left that to become a playwright. If this playwriting thing doesn’t pan out, may investigate something in the burgeoning buggy-whip industry. Read my bio, visit my New Play Exchange page, or follow me on Twitter.


News

Coming Monday to the Groundlings theater in Los Angeles: a special one-night-only performance of my play Human Error.

Our musical May We All recently opened on the same weekend at theaters in both Florida (where I was born) and North Carolina (where I lived as a preschooler). Who says you can't go home, sorta?

You can read the Relentless Award winning Picket Plays, including mine, on the American Playwriting Foundation’s website, if that’s your thing.

My short play Your New Bob opened this weekend at First Run Theatre in St. Louis.

Grateful to have been selected by the Ohio Arts Council as a recipient of a 2024 Individual Excellence Award for playwriting.

Congratulations to the Normandale Theatre Program on their opening of Human Error.

Happy to report that the Purple Rose production of Human Error was nominated for Best New Script in Encore Michigan’s Wilde Awards, and for Best Play in BroadwayWorld’s Michigan Awards.

My short play Melto Man and Lady Mantis was a semifinalist for the Pharmacy Theatre’s Clinical Trials festival.

Thanks to the Toledo Blade for the article about my award.

Happy to have my new short play Love Your Work selected by the American Playwriting Foundation as one of the winners in their Relentless Award's Picket Plays.

Opening tonight: my comedy Fourteen Funerals at Actors Collaborative Toledo.

Coming next month: my new short play Reply All premieres at the Pittsburgh New Works Festival.

My new short play Friday is Trash Day is Friday will be produced next month by The Magnetic Theatre as part of their 4th Annual One-Act Play Festival.

Honored to be serving again as a fiction judge for the Ohioana Book Awards.

My play Human Error is currently running at Stage Left Theater in Spokane.

Honored to have participated as a panelist in the Dramatists Guild’s End of Play National Kick-Off event.

Sold-out crowds, great reviews, gale force laughter — the production of my Human Error currently running at the Purple Rose is crushing it.

Thanks to the Purple Rose Theatre Company for the terrific online reading of my play Fourteen Funerals. Who knew Zoom could be such an effective comedy delivery system.

Two of my shows — Fourteen Funerals in New York State and May We All in Tennessee — were nominated in Broadway World’s annual regional theater awards.

Thanks to American Lives Theatre for producing my play Ballad of the Disappointing Daughter as part of their Short & Stout Short Play Festival.

Recently got the chance to write a few words about Sondheim for The Dramatist, the magazine of the Dramatists Guild.

My play Lost and Foundling was produced by the Manitoba Theatre for Young People as part of the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival.

If you’re someone who plans ahead, now’s the time to set aside some time in Spokane next year for Stage Left Theatre’s production of my play Human Error.

Our musical May We All was nominated for Best Original Script (hey, that was my part!) in Memphis’s Ostrander Awards.

Recently enjoyed having the opportunity to serve again as a Fiction judge for the Ohioana Book Awards.

My play Fourteen Funerals, in its world premiere production at Butterfly Effect Theatre Company, has been nominated for a Henry Award from the Colorado Theatre Guild in the category of Outstanding New Play or Musical.

May We All, the musical for which I cowrote the book, opens this week in Nashville.

My play Fourteen Funerals is currently running at Bridge Street Theatre and the reviews are terrific.

My play Lost and Foundling recently enjoyed a run at the Patapsco Theatre in Maryland.

My new play The Apologist’s Stone has been named a finalist in Red Bull’s 2022 New Short Play Festival.

Thanks to City Theatre in Miami for including my play Melto Man & Lady Mantis in their “Critter Shorts” reading this weekend.

My new play Fourteen Funerals opens tonight at the Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado. This cast and creative team are amazing. Check it out.

My one-act play Ballad of the Disappointing Daughter was a semifinalist for Eclectic Full Contact Theatre’s Patchwork Play Festival.

I Have a Story: Plays from an Extraordinary Year just came out from Dramatic Publishing, and it includes the short play First Nether which I cowrote with Nathaniel Wiley.

Tickets are now on sale for the Nashville premiere of May We All, the musical I’ve been writing the book for.

My play for young audiences Lost and Foundling is once again slated for a performance by Storybook Theatre in Kansas City, MO.

The Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado (BETC) has named me its Generations New Play Development Program winner for 2021.

Just published: volume 5 of Red Bull Shorts: The Best of Red Bull Theater’s Short New Play Festival, featuring my play Something This Way Comes.

Opening tonight: my play Human Error, streaming online from the University of California Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts.

Starting this weekend you can catch my play Human Error in New York courtesy of the Stella Adler School of Acting.

My play Human Error opens tomorrow night at Front Porch Improv in Savannah, Georgia!

Our show May We All has some semi-sorta-kinda firm dates for its premiere. See you in Nashville in 2022!

Starting tomorrow you can see my short play Melto Man and Lady Mantis, alongside some other great plays, courtesy of City Theatre’s “Critter Shorts.”

I’ve been invited to be a screener and a judge for the Ohioana Book Awards.

Honored and humbled to have received a Toledo and Lucas County Arts Relief Grant from The Arts Commission.

This weekend my play Human Error is getting a reading online from the Great River Shakespeare Festival.

If you’d like to hear me being kind of gloomy, I lend my voice to the “Pandemic Playwriting, Part 2” episode of The Subtext podcast.

Happy that my short play The Truth About Tiny Tim is being included in Pocket Sandwich Theatre’s “Twisted Dickens: A Very Quarantine-y Christmas.”

This week, my short play Something This Way Comes will be presented by City Theatre as part of its National Award Virtual Reading Series.

Niles West Theatre is including my play Your New Bob in their 2020 Festival of One-Act Plays — check it out!

Pleased to report that my TV pilot script Checked Out has been designated a quarterfinalist in the Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest. Is the heady thrill of semifinalist-dom in its future? Watch this space!

Thanks to the Rutgers-NJIT Theatre Program for including my short play Something This Way Comes as part of their Directors’ Project 2020.

The Purple Rose Theatre Company is doing a reading of my play Human Error.

I have a piece in the new anthology Theater Artists Making Theatre With No Theater. Proceeds from the book go to help artists in need; consider getting yourself a copy!

My short play Be Good will be included tonight among City Theatre’s slate of Spooky Shorts.

Excited to be working on the new musical May We All with a talented team of collaborators.

My play Barrenness just had a terrific reading at the Toledo Repertoire Theater.

My play Something This Way Comes is one of 25 Finalists in the 2020 City Theatre National Award for Short Playwriting Contest.

My play Peaches was a finalist for the 2020 Trustus Playwrights’ Festival.

My play Human Error is currently getting great reviews in its groundbreaking online production from North Coast Repertory Theatre.

My play Peaches was a semifinalist for the Ashland New Plays Festival.

Delighted to contribute some monologues from my plays to Actors Collaborative Toledo for their ACT Monologue project.

My one-minute play Haddocks’ Eyes was included in a reading of the One-Minute Play Festival’s Coronavirus Plays by the talented people of the Kitchen Theatre Company.

My play Peaches advanced to the final round of the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference.

My new short play Let Go was declared one of the winners of Annexus Theatre Company’s QuaranTENs project.

I contributed a new super-short play, Haddocks’ Eyes, to the One-Minute Play Festival’s “The Coronavirus Plays” project.

You can hear my voice — along with those of several other playwrights — on the “Coronavirus Edition” episode of the podcast “The Subtext” from American Theatre magazine.

My new play Peaches was a finalist for PlayPenn.

I’m currently working on a new play, Fourteen Funerals, alongside some fantastic artists at the HBMG Foundation’s National Winter Playwrights Retreat in Colorado.

My play Hunting High was a semifinalist for the Landing Theatre Company's 2020 New American Voices Playwriting Festival.

My play for young audiences Pink Think was a finalist for the Purple Crayon Players’ 12th Annual PLAYground Festival of Fresh Works.

My play They Work For Me was a semifinalist for Normal Ave’s NAP Series.

My play I’m Chris Hansen will be produced (again!) by the Actors Workout Studio in L.A. in January as part of their show Taboo II.

My new short play In the Same Country is now running at the Fonseca Theatre in Indianapolis as part of (deep breath) A Very Bryan Chrystmas 13: How the Grinch Culturally Appropriated Christmas.

My play Human Error was produced by Catwalk Theatre Company in Arvada, Colorado.

I had two one-minute plays — Rite of Spring and The Heart Beat — in Know Theatre of Cincinnati’s 5th Annual One-Minute Play Festival.

Red Bull Theater did a terrific job with my play Something This Way Comes as part of their 2019 Short Play Festival: The Evil Plays.

My play Lost and Foundling is scheduled to be produced at this school in Australia.

My new play Something This Way Comes is a finalist for Red Bull Theater's 2019 Short Play Festival.

My play Human Error is slated for production at North Coast Repertory Theatre in 2020!

Recently had the pleasure of being the guest on the podcast Glenn Klein Onlineand almost certainly said many things I'll later regret.

My play Human Error opens later this month at the Public Theatre in Maine.

Was honored to receive a 2018 Merit Award from the Toledo Art Commission.

My short play Melto Man & Lady Mantisis published in The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2018, edited by Lawrence Harbison and published by Smith & Kraus.

A couple episodes of my webseries Mommy Blogger will be featured tonight as part of the New York Women in Film & Television screening series.

It's an honor and a privilege to have my play Joan Henry named a finalist for the Interact Theatre's New Play Development Award.

Tonight in Princeton, NJ, the Pegasus Theatre Company opens my play Human Error.

Opening tonight in North Hollywood, the new Actors Workout Studio show "Taboo" includes my short play I'm Chris Hansen.

On Monday in Coral Gables, City Theatre is including my short play Be Good in a play reading at Books & Books -- check it out!

My play Human Error has returned to the University of Central Florida's Pegasus Playlab for another run.

Mother Judger, the show I've been writing with the talented folks of The Refinery NYC, is now a Scary Mommy original series. More bite-sized parenting fails are forthcoming!

I've got two new plays. Thirsty and Messaging, in the latest One-Minute Play Festival at the Know Theatre of Cincinnati.

My new short play Fucking Narcissuswas a finalist in the Red Bull Theater's 8th Annual Short New Play Festival.

The new mural on the outside of the Drake in Philadelphia -- home to the InterAct, PlayPenn, and others -- includes 42 lines from plays connected with those companies, including one of mine.

My play Human Error opens tomorrow as part of the Pegasus PlayLab at the University of Central Florida.

My short play Melto Man and Lady Mantis is a finalist for the City Theatre National Award for Short Playwriting Contest.

Honored to report that I'm a recipient of an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council.

My short play Melto Man and Lady Mantis opens soon at City Theatre in Miami as part of Summer Shorts 2018.

My play Human Error starts previews tonight at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts with a dynamite cast under the brilliant direction of Shelley Butler. Cool ad for the show here,

In February Lost and Foundling, my play for young audiences, will be produced by Storybook Theatre in Lees Summit, MO.

Tonight at Zinful in Perrysburg, OH: Glacity presents "The Art of Wine and Words," wine tastings paired with readings of some of my short plays. Because my work is frankly best experienced while drinking.

My play Human Error has a reading tonight at Hudson Stage Company in Armonk, NY, directed by the phenomenal Jessi Hill.

The Things They Merried, my short play about the War on Christmas, opens this weekend at the Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis as part of their A Very Phoenix Xmas 12.

My play Human Error opens this weekend for a special limited run at the Toledo Repertoire Theatre. Coverage here and here.

"Phone," the latest episode of my webseries #MotherJudger, is up at Funny or Die.

My play Human Error is included in this week's PlayFest at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater.

Two of my projects, Mommy Blogger and #MotherJudger, are featured in theNYWIFT Fall Shorts Festival.

This week, City Theatre in Miami did a reading of my short play Be Good.

My play Human Error just had its educational theater debut at Hope College under the direction of the magnificent Richard Perez.

A webseries I'm writing, #MotherJudger, is an official selection at the Independent Television Festival.

My new short play Your New Bob is a finalist for the Heideman Award at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

I'm writing two webseries that are currently in the process of being released: #MotherJudger with my pals at The Refinery -- our episode "Dad" is also up at Funny Or Die -- and Mommy Blogger. Very funny projects with very funny collaborators -- check 'em out!

I have two plays, The Jazz Ensembleand Cincinnati Ranked the 11th Most Mosquito-Infested City in the US, that will be included in Cincinnati's 3rd annual One-Minute Play Festival at the Know Theatre.

My short play That Thing That Time was selected as a finalist in the annual City Theatre National Award for Short Playwriting contest, and will be presented as a staged reading at their CityWrights weekend in Miami.

My short play Doctor, There's a Government in My Uterus was produced as part of the Political Arts Festival at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

A couple of my plays -- Too Like the Lightning and Doctor, There's a Government in My Uterus -- are being made available for performance royalty-free as part of the Protest Plays Project.

My short play Melto Man and Lady Mantis will be included as part of the41st Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

An update: I'm one of the five finalists for the Seattle Public Theatre's Emerald Prize!

I've been nominated, in very good company, for the Seattle Public Theatre's new biennial Emerald Prize.

My short play Melto Man and Lady Mantis is going to be produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of "The Tens."

My play Human Error will be included as part of the Colorado New Play Summit.

There's a reading of my play Human Error this weekend at the Hope Summer Repertory Theatre in Holland, Michigan.

My short play Melto Man and Lady Mantis has been designated a finalist for the Heideman Award by Actors Theatre of Louisville.

My short play The Continued Adventures of Super Dan and Super Kelli will be produced in Chicago in July by Hobo Junction Productions as part of their "Hobo Robo 9: Hobo's Heroes."

My extremely short plays Choke and You Said You'd Be Here For Me will be part of the One-Minute Play Festival at the Know Theatre in Cincinnati in July.

There's a reading of my play Human Error at the Toledo Repertoire Theatre on June 22.

I was named a finalist for the playwright residency at Road Less Traveled Productions. More coverage of the announcement here.

Here's a nice interview with me in the Toledo Blade.

I say a few things about the genius of Young Jean Lee.

I've been selected to receive an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council for 2016.

My short play That Thing That Time will be produced in January at Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of THE TENS.

Am excited to be involved in this film project.

My short play Be Good will be produced as part of the Directors' Fest at James Madison University.

My play Human Error will be developed as part of Playwrights Week 2015 at the Lark.

My short play The Occupier's Tragedywill be published by Steele Spring Stage Rights in an anthology of the Best of Red Bull Theater's Short Play Festival.

My play Lost and Foundling will be produced next month by Storybook Theatre in Lees Summit, MO.

Some swell pieces about my play Human Error at PlayPenn in American Theatre, the Toledo Blade, and Nicholas Wardigo's super-cool blog.

My new short play Melto Man and Lady Mantis has been selected for publication as part of Evil Genius: Essays, Monologues and One-Act Plays from Smith & Kraus.

Just found out that my new short play That Thing That Time is a finalist for the Heideman Award at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

My full-length play Assholes and Aureoles will be produced next season by the Glacity Theatre Collective.

My short new play Too Like the Lightningwas named a finalist in the Red Bull Theater's Short New Play Festival.

I've been invited to participate as a playwright in the One-Minute Play Festival in Cincinnati.

My play Barrenness is a semifinalist for the Trustus Playwrights Festival.

Very happy to be one of the six playwrights invited to participate in PlayPenn this summer.

Coming up soon in Chicago: DePaul's production of my family-friendly comedy The Day John Henry Came to School.

Nice mention of my play Assholes & Aureoles in this retrospective best-of-the-Fringe article in Indianapolis Monthly.

This weekend I'll be playwright-in-residence at the University of Toledo, advising student writers as they generate material for their 24-Hour Play Festival.

My short play The Things They Merriedwill be produced by the Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis as part of A Very Phoenix Xmas 9: Flashing Through the Snow.

My play They Work for Me is a finalist for the Source Festival 2015 in DC.

My play With Her Old Boyfriend There Were Patterns has been published in the new volume The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2014, edited by Lawrence Harbison and published by Smith and Kraus.

There's a profile of me, written by the delightful Faye Sholiton, in the current issue of The Dramatist magazine.

Happy to learn that my short play Broker's Holiday is a finalist for the Heideman Award from Actors Theatre of Louisville.

I was recently awarded an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council.

I'm currently writing a screenplay for Relativity.

My short play This Meeting Will Change Your Life will be presented by the good folks at The Aesthetic of Waste in San Antonio as part of their show The Most Important Night of Theatre You Will Ever Attend.

My play They Work For Me was a semifinalist for the O'Neill Playwrights Conference.

I've been invited to contribute a couple of scripts to the One-Minute Play Festivalat the Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis.

Am currently in Louisville for Actors Theatre of Louisville's production of The Occupier's Tragedy.

Pink Think, my play for young audiences, has been selected for development by New Plays For Young Audiences.

Recently delivered an interactive TED talk on writing and collaboration at the TEDxYouth conference in Toledo.

My short play The Occupier's Tragedywill be produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville in January.

I wrote three new linked comedy sketches to be performed in October as part of The Main Street Radio Players at Seven Lively Arts in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I've been named a semifinalist for Page 73's 2014 development programs.

The three plays I wrote as part of HowlRound's "Here and Now" project have been published by Indie Theatre Now.

I was recently named a semifinalist for the Downstage Left residencies at the fantastic Stage Left Theatre in Chicago.

Was pleased to find out that my play Joan Henry, or The Mythical Power of the Tool was a finalist for the Lark Play Development Company's Playwrights' Week.

Just found out that my short play The Occupier's Tragedy has been selected as a finalist for the Heideman Award from Actors Theatre of Louisville.

My play Lost and Foundling is being produced in July at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, courtesy of the talented performers of the Manitoba Theater for Young People’s Summer Studio Teen Co.

nice piece about the slate of plays, including mine, at the Source Festival.

My short play With Her Old Boyfriend There Were Patterns runs as part of the Source Festival in DC through June 30.

review of Some Other Kind of Person. It's "very funny!"

Some Other Kind of Person runs through June 23 at the InterAct Theatre company. Here's an article about the show, and here's an interview with me.

My short plays Tiny Baby and The Truth About Tiny Tim will be produced this weekend at Ohlone College .

My new short play The Broker's Holidaywas designated a finalist in the Red Bull Theatre Short New Play Festival.

Just found out that my play Barrennessis a semifinalist for the Ashland New Plays Festival.

Am working on my play Pink Think at the terrific Write Now conference in Tempe even as we speak.

My short play With Her Old Boyfriend There Were Patterns will be produced this summer as part of the 2013 Source Festival in DC.

My new play for young audiences, Pink Think, was selected as a semifinalist for the estimable Write Now program.

Coming up in the new year: my short play Doctor, There's a Government in My Uterus will be produced by Box Wine Theatre in Minneapolis.

The Theatre [502] reading of Accidental Rapture is upon us.

Glad to report that the InterAct Theatre's planned 2013 production of my play Some Other Kind of Person is the recipient of a grant from the NEA.

Happy to have been designated a finalist for the Interact Theatre's 2012 20/20 Commissions program.

My new short play Doctor, There's a Government in My Uterus will be presented by The Disreputables later this month as part of their SLUT festival. Good times.

My latest comic strip for the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library blog can be seen here.

Audiences in Louisville might get to see a reading of Accidental Rapture this year before the world ends, thanks to the good people of Theatre [502].

The HowlRound "Here and Now" project, collecting regionally specific short plays by geographically diverse American playwrights, just wrapped up. Read the concluding post here. Links to all the series plays, including my Ohio-centric ones, can be found here.

My short play Sharctoteachergator has been published in Dramatic Publishing's Original Middle School Scenes and Monologues. Check it out.

My play SOME OTHER KIND OF PERSON has been slated to be produced by the InterAct in Philadelphia as part of its 25th season. Read more here.