WRITER
Michael has written several plays and is currently developing several screenplays.
His work tends to lean into the absurd and darkly comedic.
Sometimes he's "remixing" the classics, sometimes creating unhinged new worlds, sometimes exploring the dark underbelly of Southern New Jersey.
Often using the F word.
piss.jpg (Working Title)
Written & Performed By
Justin Jager & Michael Gardiner
Director: Daniel Yaiullo
Stage Manager/Sound Designer: Dot Scuotto
Lighting Designer: Sara Hansen
Voice Over: Alexandra Brokowski
Press Representative: Jay Michaels
Promotional Photographer: Kyle Watkins
Producers: Matt Bader, Faith Pasch
Associate Producer/Social Media: Danielle MacMath
Produced by Diamond Mesh Inc.
as part of the Manifestival at
The Paradise Factory Theater
July 17, 2026-August 9, 2026
Instagram: @piss.jpg_workingtitle
piss.jpg Will Return....Soon!!
Rave
Reviews!
About the Show:
“The Next Great American Drama,” piss.jpg (Working Title) might be described as “The Gen Z Waiting for Godot.” It might not. There will be no further questions at this time.
…
OKAY! We have some answers. (No questions). piss.jpg (Working Title) is an hour-long romp set entirely in a kitchen. But this isn’t your grandfather’s realism. Featuring a kitchen sink that would make Arthur Miller climax and Eugene O’Neill smile. The enormity and profundity of what these two men explore and discover (and feel!) on the American Stage is literally impossible to explain and to do so would likely risk a global economic collapse.
Written by and starring the dynamic duo of Justin Jager and Michael Gardiner, the play navigates the liminal space between existential dread and high-energy chaos.
"Deranged Masterpiece"
–Jack Cere, Independent Arts Movement
“Absurd, unhinged, and delightfully stupid.”
–Stephen Kearley, The BroadGAYS
"Anyone who wants to see how absurdism should be done should rush to see PISS.jpg!"
–Bill Eisenring, Showtones
Fast, physical, and fabulously strange, piss.jpeg (Working Title) finds unexpected humanity within a gleefully illogical world."
–Yani Perez, TheatrePizzazz
“piss.jpg (Working Title) plucks fragments from the sort of plots and dialogue that might be found in midcentury drama, adds them to its postmodern comic blender, and comes out with a superb show that's as hard to sum up as it is easy to recommend.”
Other Plays:
FRANKENSTEIN UNLEASHED:
Full Length. 2m, 2f, 1 boy. Flexible Casting & Set.
Frankenstein Unleashed is a wickedly in-your-face tragicomic riff on Mary Shelley’s classic novel, exploring what happens when Victor Frankenstein actually completes his work on The Creature’s “Bride.” Infusing bold humor, classical allusions, and a fair dose of all-out gore, Michael Gardiner’s new play ponders nothing less than what it means to be “alive.”
Workshop: The Black Box, 2021.
ALL HOPE IS LOST:
Full Length, Dark Comedy. 5 Actors.
Flexible Casting & Set.
Somewhere between a Grimm fairy tale and a bright kid's TV show, the impossibly optimistic and innocent Hope embarks on a bizarre odyssey of self-discovery. As she meets a multitude of freakish characters, she begins to question: can hope truly flourish in an absurd and mean world?
THE CRAB WIFE:
One-Act. 3m, 1f. Flexible Casting & Set.
In a dingy seaside village, a suicidal crab-fisherman gets a new lease on life when he catches the love of his life in a net. Hint: she's a crab.
Workshop: The Black Box, 2021.
There's more work in development... but for now... shhhhhh....
