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Sensitive Guys
- GenresPlays
114 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2021
22 people want to read
About the author
M.J. Kaufman
4 books5 followersMJ Kaufman is a playwright and television writer from Portland, OR. Their plays have been seen at the Public Theater, WP Theater, National Asian American Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, Colt Coeur, Williamstown Theater Festival, InterAct Theater, Yale School of Drama and numerous other theaters and schools around the country as well as in Russian in Moscow and in Australia. Their work has been developed by the Lark Play Development Center, the Playwrights Realm, Page73 and New York Theater Workshop among others.
MJ received the 2017 Helen Merrill Emerging Writers Award, 2013 ASCAP Cole Porter Prize in Playwriting, the 2013 Global Age Project Prize, and the 2010 Jane Chambers Prize in Feminist Theatre. MJ has held residencies at the New Museum, MacDowell Colony, and SPACE on Ryder Farm and is currently a resident playwright at New Dramatists.
MJ has been a member of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers’ Group, WP Theater Lab, a core playwright at InterAct Theatre and a playwriting fellow at the Huntington Theater. An alum of Wesleyan University and Yale School of Drama, MJ has taught playwriting at Fordham University, Wesleyan University, SUNY Purchase College, the University of the Arts and as a teaching fellow at Yale College.
MJ curated the 2016 and 2017 seasons of Trans Theater Fest at The Brick and, along with Kit Yan and Cece Suazo, founded Trans Lab Fellowship, a program to support emerging transgender theater artists.
MJ has also written for Netflix.
MJ received the 2017 Helen Merrill Emerging Writers Award, 2013 ASCAP Cole Porter Prize in Playwriting, the 2013 Global Age Project Prize, and the 2010 Jane Chambers Prize in Feminist Theatre. MJ has held residencies at the New Museum, MacDowell Colony, and SPACE on Ryder Farm and is currently a resident playwright at New Dramatists.
MJ has been a member of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers’ Group, WP Theater Lab, a core playwright at InterAct Theatre and a playwriting fellow at the Huntington Theater. An alum of Wesleyan University and Yale School of Drama, MJ has taught playwriting at Fordham University, Wesleyan University, SUNY Purchase College, the University of the Arts and as a teaching fellow at Yale College.
MJ curated the 2016 and 2017 seasons of Trans Theater Fest at The Brick and, along with Kit Yan and Cece Suazo, founded Trans Lab Fellowship, a program to support emerging transgender theater artists.
MJ has also written for Netflix.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 2, 2023
Wow this was bad
December 22, 2021
A fantastic play! Would kill to perform in this someday
Thoughts:
-characters are rendered with complexity and nuance
-would love to see this staged, the doubling in the cast is really interesting
-the ending leaves me wanting more, but in a good/effective way
-there are lots of moments where the characters correct each other's language/wording. I feel like this accurately reflects an aspect of social justice work/progressive space. It also feels like it speaks to the overall theme in the play of focusing on appearing to be making change/"doing the work" without actually doing much. Surface vs. substance.
Themes/questions:
-sexual violence on college campuses (how fighting sexual violence on a college campus can feel impossible, there are so few options to actually make change and it often feels like the administration doesn't actually care)
-what does getting justice for survivors actually look like? (the balance between wanting meaningful change and accountability while also trying to change/dismantle the prison system and policing)
-privilege
-gender, sexism
-"take a break" (Tracy asks for a break from her relationship, Dean tells Leslie to take a break from school, one person in the men's peer education group tells another to take a break from the group)
-paying lip service vs. doing the work
-what does it look like to actually dismantle the patriarchy? how can the survivor support group actually make change on their campus? how does the men's group enable sexual violence? in what ways is the group complicit?
Thoughts:
-characters are rendered with complexity and nuance
-would love to see this staged, the doubling in the cast is really interesting
-the ending leaves me wanting more, but in a good/effective way
-there are lots of moments where the characters correct each other's language/wording. I feel like this accurately reflects an aspect of social justice work/progressive space. It also feels like it speaks to the overall theme in the play of focusing on appearing to be making change/"doing the work" without actually doing much. Surface vs. substance.
Themes/questions:
-sexual violence on college campuses (how fighting sexual violence on a college campus can feel impossible, there are so few options to actually make change and it often feels like the administration doesn't actually care)
-what does getting justice for survivors actually look like? (the balance between wanting meaningful change and accountability while also trying to change/dismantle the prison system and policing)
-privilege
-gender, sexism
-"take a break" (Tracy asks for a break from her relationship, Dean tells Leslie to take a break from school, one person in the men's peer education group tells another to take a break from the group)
-paying lip service vs. doing the work
-what does it look like to actually dismantle the patriarchy? how can the survivor support group actually make change on their campus? how does the men's group enable sexual violence? in what ways is the group complicit?
March 22, 2023
Sensitive Guys is a really challenging play, and I'm glad I read it now as part of the Trans Rights Readathon. This play is a satire comedy about sexual assault on college campuses and student activism, that calls for women or non-binary actors performing all of the character roles regardless of the characters' genders. This play really picked up on a lot of things I noticed during my time in college involved in a student group that aimed to address and prevent sexual assault on our campus. This play really effectively skewers folks who get involved in social justice work for the wrong, self-serving reasons. I'm not sure the play goes as far as it should, but it covers an important topic very dexterously.
February 17, 2023
*TW: SA
September 2, 2023
“What’s like the trick? To being a good guy?”
Ended a bit too quickly and simply for my taste. Still a great concept. And it has the bones of a powerful piece!
Ended a bit too quickly and simply for my taste. Still a great concept. And it has the bones of a powerful piece!
January 27, 2025
Parts were powerful, but the end was abrupt and the conceit of double casting didn’t seem to pay off.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews