Harry Jordan: Butcher by Day, Playwright by Night
In 2014 after moving to their new location at 52 Church St, the Domino Theatre revived Come Play by the Lake, their annual festival showcasing one act plays put on by local talent. In this new era of the festival, no playwright has produced more shows than Harry Jordan, who will be participating once again this year with his new show: Acorns. I had the chance to speak with Jordan about how he got so involved with the festival, and what his newest show is really about.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
From the Domino Theatre website, it looks like you’ve written for the festival four times before?
This is my sixth one. Sixth time’s the charm! The first one that I did was one about my grandkids [Grandpa, Tales of His Grandchildren, 2018]. Actually, before this I was writing murder mystery dinner plays and having a lot of fun with that, and somebody who was associated with Domino Theatre said to me, “You wrote this play? Well you should enter the one act play festival.” So right away my first thought was to write one about my grandkids and myself because I’ve actually done a little bit of standup comedy regarding my grandkids.
From there I wrote another play about two old guys just sitting there. It was called The Chit Chat [2019], and then after that I got more involved. I started getting people for sound and lighting, and stuff like that. Then a buddy of mine, [Steve Furster], started directing my plays for me so they started getting better and better, and the more I went along, the more my writing improved.
I have a YouTube show called Meat T.V, and I did one based on that. As a butcher, I know how to cook, I know how to cut meat, there’s a bit of science behind the meat, so I came up with Steakmund Freud, Pork Belly, all these different characters… and we did a show based on that. It was called “Who Killed Thrilla McGrilla” [The Meat TV Reunion Special, 2022] which was a lot of fun.
Then last year I did The Evolution of Morals, Principles, and Values which was about a guy who has a daughter who is dating a guy who the father doesn’t like. I’ve actually turned that into a full length play that I’ll be showing in March.
How do you know when you have a good idea for a play?
When I sit down in front of a computer and write it. I have so many things that I’ve started writing on my computer, and you might get ten pages before it just peters away. There was a book I was writing and I ended up taking 30,000 words out of that book and I started a whole new book on those 30,000 words.
I’ve written eight books, and it all started one day; I’m a butcher, and a lady came into the shop that I worked at – I lived on Basswood at the time as well—and she said to me, “Are you the Basswood Butcher?” I was like, “What a great title!” … It took me 16 years to write that book, but I started it and knew what I wanted it to be. It was the first one I started and the last book that I released. And then I started writing plays.
These ideas from the past shows seem to come from all over, but Acorns is actually about your parents?
In 2011 I actually released a short book about their travels around the world and the funny situations they found themselves in. In 2015, when I started writing plays, I said to them that if I can figure out a way to write it as a play, I will. It took me 10 years, but just after Christmas I came up with it and I wrote this in four days. Then [Furster] and I have been fixing it up. Then the actors have come in and we’ve fixed it up even more. I had the whole thing completely written, like I said, in four days, and now we’ve just been perfecting it.
I’m not gonna tell you too much detail… people have got to come see the show, right?
So this play took you four days, but your first book took you years. Do you find there is a typical timespan, or do some projects just move pretty fast?
My first book that I released was [Meat Harry: A Meat Lover’s Guide to Buying and Preparing Beef, Pork, and Poultry], that took me four years. I wrote a book about my grandson and my adventures together—he was only one when it came out. It took me a year. My granddaughter’s book took me a year and a half, my parent’s book maybe a year. It just depends, if the story’s there, it’s there. The Evolution of Morals, Principles, and Values took me two years. I just couldn’t come up with an ending for it.
You mentioned earlier that over the years, the team you have working on your shows has grown; what’s the team size for Acorns?
This has six actors. Two older actors [Phil Perrin and Judy Tetlow], two younger actors [Ashley Miller and Jago Garrett], and—well I say “middle aged,” but I’m 63 and the actress that’s playing opposite me [Judy Bayette] is roughly the same age… Then I have lighting people [Mya Steenbakkers], directors [Furster], stage managers [Sam Delyea], so I think there are 11 people involved in this.
So what I did was the young couple are just starting out, talking about starting a family, buying a house, and one day wanting to travel. So that was a way for me to bring in a video tape of one of the adventures my parents had, so they watch the video and talk about it. The older couple talk about their lives together when they were younger, and the things that they did. And then you’ve got the middle aged couple who is getting ready to retire and start travelling. So it’s all about travel.
It’s a lot of fun. I trust [Furster] with all my plays. He’s the only one other than myself that I’ve let direct any of them. He does a good job, I think he understands me, and he tries to keep it the way I would want it to be.
Was there anything you wanted to note for our readers?
People should just come out and see what local people are doing. Enjoy what the Domino Theatre’s put on for you. Come out, support us—we don’t get anything out of it other than something fun to do. Gets us through the winter, gets us here today. We get to do the play, have a little afterparty, and then that’s it. Start looking at the next one.
Harry Jordan has been a butcher for 46 years, and started writing in 1998 with his first book “Meat Harry” and has written seven more since then. In 2015 he started writing for theatre and has since written 18 plays.
‘Acorns’ will be presented by Domino Theatre as a part of the Come Play By The Lake One-Act Festival on July 5, 2025. More information about the festival and tickets can be found here.
