Jake Cline


Journalist, Playwright, Editor

About Me


Hello. I am a Miami-based journalist and playwright. My writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Sierra Magazine, the South Florida Sun Sentinel and elsewhere.

As a member of the editorial team that covered the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida for the Sun Sentinel, I am a winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service. I left the newspaper in November 2018, and am currently employed as the publications director at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.

My plays include “Jenna & the Whale,” written with Vanessa Garcia (“The Amparo Experience”) and “Purple Hearts.” Both plays are in development with the producers of Broadway’s “The Inheritance,” “American Son,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Anastasia,” among other shows.

Finally, I live blocks from Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood with my wife and dogs. It’s a good place to be.

Journalism


A graduate of the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications, I have been an editor, reporter and critic for more than 25 years. I spent 21 years covering news, arts and entertainment at the South Florida Sun Sentinel as an editor and writer. In 2018, I was part of the editing team that supervised the newspaper’s coverage of the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. That coverage won us the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service.

I currently contribute book reviews, interviews and essays to The Washington Post, The Atlantic and other publications.

Playwriting


I currently have two plays in development. "Jenna & the Whale," co-written with Vanessa Garcia ("The Amparo Experience"), received a staged reading on Nov. 17, 2019, as part of Miami New Drama's New Play Lab, and a virtual reading on June 30, 2020 that was broadcast via Broadway on Demand. The play is being developed by the Broadway Factor, founded by the producers of "Hadestown," "The Inheritance," "Kinky Boots," "Mrs. Doubtfire" and other Broadway and off-Broadway productions. My previous play, "Purple Hearts," was given a staged reading on Oct. 22, 2018 by Zoetic Stage at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County and in June 2020 was workshopped by The Greenhouse at Florida International University in Miami.

I also am one of four playwrights in the 2019-2021 class of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs’ Playwright Development Program, which you can read about here.

My profile page on the National New Play Network’s New Play Exchange.

My Dramatists Guild member page.