Jeff McMahon

Jeff McMahon, associate professor in the School of Film, Dance and Theatre, presented an evening of his recent monologues at the Dixon Place Lounge in New York City July 12. The evening included performances by ASU students and alumni.

Theatre alum Heather Lee Harper performed one of McMahon’s new monologues, “The Welcome,” and alum Toussaint Jeanlouis presented a new short piece he is developing called “Cotton: Comfortable is Uncomfortable,” which explores the threaded relationship between a slave and slave master. ASU student Brandon Ferderer reprised his performance of McMahon’s short monologue “(Ob)scene.”

In the fall of 2016, McMahon wrote “(Ob)scene,” a short monologue in response to the mass killing by a lone gunman in the mostly Latinx/LGBTQ Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. In the monologue, he takes the point-of-view of the shooter, the unstable and deeply disturbed young man who decides he is going to embark on this killing spree as a perverse extension of his theatrical training. The monologue was selected for “After Orlando: An International Theatre Action,” a collection of scripts from more than 70 playwrights. Selections from the series were presented in more than 50 theatres throughout the world, royalty-free. McMahon’s monologue was selected for several of those evenings, including as part of the Phoenix presentation of “After Orlando” in January when it was performed by Ferderer and directed by School of Communications Associate Professor Amira De la Garza.

Following the July 12 event, McMahon will make a film of “(Ob)scene.” A film alum, J. Miguel Munguia, will be editor on the project, and Steven Reker will be scoring the film.