Photo by Jake Holt.
Originally from Austin, Gary is a Brooklyn-based writer/director of film and theatre.
Gary was a 2020 Outfest Screenwriting Lab Fellow for his feature screenplay Our Last Summer (formerly Last Summer with Ira.) His three short films Sunset, Next Level Shit and Last Summer with Uncle Ira have played around the world and won awards and accolades from Rhode Island to North Dakota.
His theatre work has appeared on stages around the country, including his plays Diaspora TX, Song to the Moon, Love in Pine and the musical At First Sight. As a member of The Amoralists, Gary co-developed the ‘Wright Club playwright development lab. In Austin, he was Artistic Director of Tutto Theatre Company, during which time he received the B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Director for The Dudleys!: A Family Game and the Austin Critics' Table Award for Best Drama for Spirits to Enforce, which he also directed. Gary is an alumnus of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater workshop.
Gary attended Yale University, from which he has a BA in Theater Studies. At Yale, he directed eight productions and slept very little.
He currently operates under the banner Gaily Forward. Previous work featured under the name Band of Others.
Awards & Honors
2020 Outfest Screenwriting Lab Fellow for Our Last Summer (formerly Last Summer with Ira.)
In 2017-2018, Sunset received honors from the Rhode Island International Film Festival, the East Village Queer Film Festival, the FM LGBT Film Festival, and the Corvallis Queer Film Festival.
In 2019-2020, Next Level Shit won awards from the Rhode Island International Film Festival, Macon Film Festival, Wicked Queer Boston, Dayton LGBT Film Festival, Out on Film Atlanta, Cinema Diverse Palm Springs and the CMG Short Film Festival.
In 2020, Last Summer with Uncle Ira received Best in Show from the Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival.
In 2011, The Dudleys!: A Family Game by Leegrid Stevens won 8 B. Iden Payne Awards, including Outstanding Director of a Comedy for Gary Jaffe.
In 2011, Gary’s production of Spirits to Enforce by Mickle Maher won the Austin Critics’ Table Award for Best Drama.
2020 Richard B. Sewall Cup for Scholarly Achievement with Creative Promise at Yale University.
“Straight? I prefer gaily forward.”
My banner is a reference to a stupid joke where someone says “take a left and go straight for ten blocks…” and you respond, “Straight? I prefer gaily forward!” But it’s also a reference to the Yiddish newspaper The Daily Forward, which championed progressive causes that changed the world. So that’s my work: playful with gravitas, very gay, and always looking Forward!
Logo designed with Lee-Sean Huang’s expertise and guidance.