Neal Reynolds has written sixteen ten-minute plays, one full-length play, and two full-length screenplays.
One of the ten-minute plays, an intense philosophical drama entitled The Relativist, was one of five winners (from nearly one hundred submissions) of the prestigious Chicago Dramatists ten-minute play contest. It was performed (along with the other four winning plays) by professional actors on November 15, 2003.
The Relativist went on to be produced by the Lincoln Square Theatre as part of their first NIGHT CAPS evening of ten-minute plays, which ran four weekends (12 performances) in June of 2006. One of the other plays, the highly comedic and theatrical Being Anna's Boots, was performed June 27-29, 2003 by the Theatre of Western Springs.
His full-length screenplay ARRANGED was a finalist in the 2006 joint Illinois Film Office/Chicago Film Office screenplay competition.
In addition, he has also written many economic, political, and philosophical essays, six of which have been published in area newspapers (including the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-times, and Pioneer Press).
He also wrote twenty (paid) free-lance theatre reviews for Pioneer Press during the years 2001-2003. (The twelve northwest suburban editions of the newspaper that carried each review had a combined paid circulation of fifty thousand. The reviews were also posted on their web site.)
He has taken many playwriting, screenwriting, and directing classes (at Chicago Dramatists) taught by well-known theatre and film professionals.
He has attended hundreds of productions in both Chicago and the suburbs, starting with the original Chicago production of Evita in 1981 at the Shubert Theatre. He attended almost every Steppenwolf production from 1987 to 2002, starting with Lanford Wilson's Burn This.
During the same time period he attended (and often assisted with) virtually every production at Palatine's Cutting Hall Theatre,starting with MOS's La Cage aux Folles. He has also attended (and assisted with) many other northwest suburban productions at Schaumburg's Prairie Center for the Arts and at other venues as far away as Elgin and Woodstock.
He has performed on stage at Cutting Hall Theatre several times, making his debut in Village Theatre's production of The Silver Whistle.
After being graduated as valedictorian from a far south suburban high school, he briefly attended a well-known engineering school just long enough to secure a day-job as an "old fashioned" (pre-internet) computer programmer. Though he's met with some success, including two patents (#4,903,219 and #5,150,461), he's always considered the primary purpose of his day-job to be the support of his true passions of theatre, writing, film... and liberty.