Playwright · Screenwriter · Professor · Queer Jester from Amish PA
(they/them/theirs/she/her/hers)
NYC/LA
under construction!
i'm cleaning up the chaos you'll find below--proceed w caution
Camilla Jones
CMS
FULL-LENGTH PLAYS
Dark Comedy (90 min)
Amish childhood best friends Sadie Smucker and Willa Stoltzfus share a run-down trailer, crystal meth addiction, and queer romantic tension thick as a good milkshake. The teens have spent their Rumspringa together higher than Heaven, but today face their rite-of-passage choice: surrender this forbidden love, or flee Lancaster County and be shunned forever. With 24 hours until the autumn baptism ceremony, six twisted interrelated sinners must…come clean. This ensemble-oriented dark comedy sheds electricity-powered light on the rural drug epidemic and navigation of repressed identity. BYOBonnet.
Development
• Fringe Festival Production, The Wild Project NYC, May 2022
• MFA Student Production, Columbia University, NYC, April 2022
• Workshop & Staged Reading, Chain Theatre NYC, Jan-March 2022
• Reading, Yonder Window Theatre, NYC, Aug 2021
• Reading, Columbia Theatre Summer Series, July 2021
Recognition
• Finalist, New Works Lab, James Madison University, April 2023
• Semifinalist, American Blues Theatre Blue Ink Playwriting Award, Jan 2023
• Finalist, Lanford Wilson New American Play Award, March 2023
• Finalist, Emerson Stages Workshop, Oct 2022
• 2nd Round Finalist, Austin Film Festival Playwriting Competition, Sept 2022
• Finalist, Fulton Theatre Stories of Diversity Play Festival, July 2022
• Semifinalist, Lanford Wilson New American Play Award, April 2022
• Finalist, Bay Street Theatre New Works Festival, March 2022
• Semifinalist, American Blues Theatre Blue Ink Playwriting Award, March 2022
• 2nd Round Finalist, Austin Film Festival Playwriting Award, Oct 2021
• Winner, Yonder Window Theatre Company Ascending Playwright Award, Aug 2021
Experimental Biopic (100 min)
Ageless androgynous artist Diane Arbus is on a quest to find and capture the universal human experience. Across a vignette series homaging her/their obsessive “box of 10 photographs” and blurred with childlike nostalgia, the voyeur known for exhibiting Coney Island “freaks'' falls from Upper West Side privilege through 1930s-60s bohemia, before developing into a sensational spectacle her/themself. Identity, inclusion, and meaning are pursued until, when sensing light imbalance, the B&W fairy leaps. From there, can viewers participate beyond our frames? Prose arranged from real quotes, burlesque cabaret, audience interaction, and confining walls (the fourth, and set) expose Arbus’s “terribly terrific” fantasies, seasons, and early end.
Development
• Staged Presentation, Diane Arbus 50th Anniversary Commemoration, Westbeth Artists Gallery, NYC, Oct 2021
• Reading/Community Event/Talkback, Eastend Arts Council, Wallace Stegner House Residency, Canada, Feb 2020
Recognition
• Finalist, Emerson Stage New Play Workshop, Oct 2021
• Independent Study with David Henry Hwang, Spring 2021
• Finalist, Athena Project Play Series, Aug 2020
Farcical Rom Com (100 min)
During a summer abroad at Delhi University, two obliviously privileged, queer NYC college students discover Shaadi.com, a popular Indian matchmaking app like Tinder, but run by singles’ parents. To “help” their Indian-American bestie find true love—and pay off their student loans with the dowry money—Sienna and Jensen pose as his parents to arrange a traditional marriage, taking the concept of "chosen family" a step too far. But when eligible bachelorette Ridhi falls instead for Sienna, as her own mother Pia reckons with her stance on same-sex marriage, all five ensemble characters become entangled in the Red Thread of Fate. A sendup of both Hollywood and Bollywood rom-com tropes, White Bitches in Delhi explores the savior complex, internalized stereotypes, commodified diversity and identity, and when it's time to BeReal.
Development
• MFA Thesis Production, Columbia University, April 2023
• Workshop, Yonder Window Theatre Company, Oct 2022
• MFA Student Production, Columbia New Works Festival, Sept 2021
Recognition
• Semifinalist, Pipeline Theatre Company PlayLab, Feb 2024
• Semifinalist, Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Jan 2024
• 2nd Round Finalist, Austin Film Festival Playwriting Competition, Sept 2023
• Finalist, Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellowship, Sept 2022
Where A Kid Can Be A Kid
Comedy (90 min)
In the bitchin’ year 1992 at a Chuck E. Cheese nestled in a New Jersey strip mall, two bickering parents set the table for their son’s 10th birthday party. Unfortunately, both the establishment and marriage are deteriorating into gritty nostalgia. Mom’s a pantsuit flaunting career woman; Dad’s fooling around in garages for something called Yahoo. Their fun and games are complicated by a closeted, gabagool-loving Manager, who's struggling to rebrand the original mascot, chainsmoking Rick Rat, into family-friendly “Charles Entertainment Cheese.” In this first scene of a first draft, we observe a headless rat-man, animatronic dance number, and peek into the couple's past, during a bygone time when kids could be kids.
Development
• MFA Student Production, Columbia University Collab Festival, Dec 2021
~Dramedy~ (90 min)
After a melodramatic college breakup, writer Carrie leaves NYC for London to navigate the Kubler-Ross Model (DABDA), from Denial to Acceptance. An ensemble of initial strangers explore maturity, independence, mental health, & commitment both in Real Life and their imaginations – while maintaining pristine social media presence. Optional audience interaction (digital response, characters' social media, Buzzfeed quiz style polls and voting)
Development
• Fringe Festival Production, NY Theater Festival, Hudson Guild Theater NYC, Oct 2019
• University Production, Penn State School of Theatre, Dec 2018
• Workshop & Staged Reading, Wonderlust Theatre Company, May 2018
Recognition
• Penn State Honors College Grant Funding Recipient, 2018
how'd i get here? (original title: Sacred Trauma)
Docutheatre/Personal Narrative (90 min)
College freshman Elaine finds herself in the ER after frat formal. From the sexual assault forensics Q&A unfold surreal flashbacks and imaginary characters embodying her existential wonder around identity and purpose. Plots braid together as Elaine battles a lifetime of indecision, supported by rediscovered childhood friends.
Development
• Staged Reading, State College Community Theatre, Webster’s Bookstore, Nov 2018
• University Production (Director/Producer), Tempest Productions, The State Theatre, March 2018
• University Production (Director), Penn State Schreyer Honors College, Carnegie Cinema Theatre, April 2018
Recognition
• Grant Funding by Penn State Schreyer Honors College and Recognition at Big 10 Honors Colleges Conference, May 2018
Zoom film version of 61 Inches and a Thousand Trillion Tons
Produced by Overdue Theatre Company
Presented by The Main Santa Clarita Stage-to-Screen Film Festival (March 2022) and Tetrad Short Play Film Festival (March 2022)
ONE ACT PLAYS
Czech/English Contemporary Adaptation (30-40 min)
Inspired by Czech playwright and political protester Vaclav Havel and his Vanek Plays, this three-part piece considers activism today. Released from jail, a femme-identifying version of Havel begins waitressing at a local bistro struggling to survive and adapt to contemporary consumers. There, she’s visited by petty, privileged pals.
Development
• Professional Production, Vaclav Havel Legacy Symposium, University of Toronto (postponed due to pandemic)
• Zoom Production, Untitled Theater Company #61, Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, April 2021
• Residency & Reading, Prague Performing Arts Academy, Czech Republic, Nov 2019
Recognition
• Print Publication, Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, Nov 2020
• 1st Place Vaclav Havel Playwriting Competition, VHLF & NYU Tisch, July 2019
Choreopoem (30-40 min)
A series of poetic vignettes told by various interconnected travelers. The individuals (and some spirits and saints) cross paths over time and cosmos, influence one another indirectly, and explore themes of success and burnout; love and family; and fate. Their parallels unite them and, ultimately, lead them all “home” - whatever that means.
Development
• Short Film, Over Due Theatre Company, Stage-on-Screen International Fest, The Main Santa Clarita CA, March 2021
• Short Film, Over Due Theatre Company, Tetrad Festival, March 2021
• University Production, Iowa State University, May 2020 (cancelled due to pandemic)
Recognition
• Awarded Residency, Wallace Stegner House, Eastend, SK, Canada, Jan-March 2020