Conor McShane is a Chicago-based playwright, actor, and musician. His full-length plays include Euphonia (Intrinsic Theatre Co. May Play Podcast 2020), Miss Expanding Universe (Williams Street Rep LAB Reading Series 2018), The Letter G (Coffee & Whiskey Productions Script Pub 2017), The Painted Staircase (Ann Arbor Art Center 2014), With One Little Stone (Renegade Theatre Festival 2014), and Takeoff (Fancy Pants Theater 2013). His short plays include Umbrella Story (winner: best one-act, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region III; Public House Theatre's Twelve Ways to Play One-Act Festival 2015), Safe Keeping (Nothing Without a Company's New World Play Festival 2019), The Best Food on Earth (The Hot Dog Stand, Dandelion Theatre, 2016), ...And I Don't Feel Any Different (The Coat Check, Dandelion Theatre, 2015), and The Matrimony Experiment (Thorpedo Productions' Love in 90 Minutes, 2016; Tipping Point Theatre's Sandbox Short Play Festival 2014). He has written monologues for project BOUND dance and Prop Thtr. He is the co-founder of the monthly writing workshop the Wayword Writers Collective, and creator and host of First Time for Everyone, a podcast presenting writers' earliest works. He has also reviewed Chicago theatre productions for PerformInk and Chicago Stage Standard, and writes about horror movies for morbidlybeautiful.com. He lives in Chicago with his partner Leslie and their temperamental cat Cheena.
Plays
The 1850s. German-born inventor Joseph Faber is unveiling the most recent version of his life's work: an incredibly sophisticated "talking machine." Capable of speaking any word in several languages, it's the most advanced machine of its kind. The only problem is, audiences are mostly indifferent or, at worst, actively hostile. So when Faber is approached by up-and-coming showman P.T. Barnum with the chance to take his invention to London, he can't help but take the opportunity. The 1950s. A young woman named Allison struggles to settle into the life of a happy homemaker, a life she's not sure she even wants. Her husband doesn't understand her, doctors don't know what to do for her, and the specter of depression is ever-present. Euphonia charts these dual courses, weaving a narrative of unmatched expectations, familial love, and the struggle to be understood.
Seventeen year-old Amber thinks that running away from her stifling suburban life to the big, bad city of Chicago is going to solve all her problems. For her Uncle David, at whose apartment she arrives unexpectedly one night, the problems are just beginning. Over the course of several days, Amber and David engage in a battle of wills, as David tries to get Amber to open up about her real reasons for running away.
"Uncle" Lou Taminski is the host of the long-running children's program Uncle Lou's Workshop, which has educated kids on how to build things for decades. But flagging ratings have forced Lou and his crew--including his daughter/producer Elizabeth--to try out all kinds of new ideas to breathe life into the show. But Lou's newest plan is the most daring of them all: come out as gay on his show. This revelation comes as a surprise to pretty much everyone, Elizabeth included. As protests begin to pop up and pressures from the studio begin to mount, Lou and his crew must decide whether to back off or double down.
Successes
Conor McShane was one of five playwrights selected to participate in Theatre Above the Law's first 24 Hour Adaptation Festival in Chicago, IL! His 20-minute adaptation of The Secret Garden was voted second place for which play the audience wanted to see expanded to full-length.
Miss Expanding Universe was presented as a staged reading by Williams Street Rep in Crystal Lake, IL on February 12th, 2018.