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Jake ArkyJake Arky

Jake Arky—a native of Salt Lake City, he’s been a part of theatre for over a decade of his life. Theatrically trained in the University of Utah’s Youtheatre Conservatory, he began writing and producing original plays in his junior year of high school. He’s the two time recipient of the Utah Theater Association’s Best Original Play (The Copyboys Revolt ’03, The Game of Life, Love, and Tragedy, ’04) and the youngest playwright produced in Speaking Ring Theatre Co.’s 2003 new works festival in Chicago. Jake graduated with a B.F.A. in dramatic writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2008. He lives in San Diego where he is the company management assistant for the La Jolla Playhouse.

 

My Friend Dahmer

In the mid 1970’s, two young high school boys formed a friendship. One grew up to be a successful underground cartoonist; the other grew up to be Jeffery Dahmer, one of the most notorious serial killers in American history. Derf and Dahmer’s friendship starts out with harmless fishing trips and youthful soul searching, but evolves into Derf exploiting Dahmer’s violent need for attention. It ends with Dahmer’s first impulse to kill not long after the boys graduate from high school. The play is told from a present day perspective with Dahmer still in Derf’s mind and his question forever haunting Derf: where the two of them ever really friends? (The play is based off the graphic novel “My Friend Dahmer” Derf and is used with permission by the author.)