Jeffrey Solomon

Jeffrey Solomon is a widely-produced playwright whose work lives at the intersection of entertainment, community building, education and social justice. He is the co-founder of Houses on the Moon Theater Company. His plays include Tara’s Crossing (Tenement Theatre, New York), Building Houses on the Moon (City Theatre, Pittsburgh) and De Novo, which he also directed at 59E59 Theaters, New York Theatre Workshop’s Next Door, and El Palacio Tecleño in El Salvador. The New York Times called De Novo “a powerful piece of political theatre... rendered tenderly human by its cast.”

Solomon is also the writer and performer of the solo play MotherSON, which premiered at HERE Arts Center. It has since played the Fourth Floor in Mumbai, the Barefoot Café in Colombo, Sri Lanka, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, London’s New End and Oval House Theatres, the Edinburgh Fringe, and Theatre Works in Melbourne. Time Out London named it a four-star Critic’s Choice, calling it “profound, witty... disarmingly funny and deeply moving... a tour de force.” The play earned him a Joseph Jefferson nomination for Best Actor (Bailiwick Rep, Chicago). At the National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival, it won the awards for Audience Favorite, Best Playwriting, and Best Male Solo Performer; at the Absolut Gay Theatre Festival in Dublin, it won Best Male Performance.

His other solo play The Santa Closet (formerly Santa Claus Is Coming Out), premiered off-Broadway at the Kirk Theatre on Theatre Row as produced by Penguin Rep and was revived by Houses on the Moon at Teatro Círculo. The New York Times called it “a delightful surprise,” adding that “Solomon portrays an amazing range of characters, all of them beautifully.” The play has also been seen at Diversionary Theatre in San Diego, Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles, and the Dublin International Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival. It received the Best of the Festival award at the National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival. Solomon wrote the television pilot for Jim Henson’s CityKids, which received an Emmy nomination for Best Children’s Special and an Ollie Award for Excellence in Children’s Programming. He went on to serve as a staff writer on the series.

He is a Moth GrandSlam champion whose storytelling has been featured on NPR’s “The Moth Radio Hour.” He is also the host, director and co-producer of the “Houses on the Moon Podcast,” available on all major podcast platforms. Today he is writing book and lyrics for his first full-length musical, Your Hands Are the Road: A Ride Upon the Stage through Queer American History. Produced by History UnErased and Houses on the Moon Theater Company, the musical brings LGBTQ history to life with support from the Library of Congress, inspired by documents in its archives. Solomon holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and lives in Los Angeles with his husband and son.