Gregory Abbey – 2025 Pilot Finalist (Half-Hour)

Tread the Boards is a half-hour dramedy that combines the emotional volatility of The Bear with the artistic struggle and comedic anarchy of Birdman. It’s a sharp, character-driven ensemble piece, but at its heart lies the charged and intimate mother-daughter dynamic that fuels the story week after week. How many times will you go back to someone, desperate for their love, attention and respect if they just might not be capable of giving it to you? Well, if that person is your mother, the answer is a very, very long time.

This isn’t a show about Hollywood or celebrity. It’s about the theater. So we’ll be on the stage, in the orchestra, backstage, in cramped dressing rooms and theater alleys. Outside the theater we’ll visit casting rooms, rehearsal spaces, and late-night subways. Because much of our main cast is in their 20s we’ll also be in many, many dive bars and of course the funky, eclectic apartments where our characters live, love, fight, and dream.

What will keep audiences coming back to Tread the Boards week after week? Because we all have dreams. Dreams we’ve achieved. Dreams left unfulfilled. Dreams we’re scared to even acknowledge because not achieving them would be too painful. We’ll tune into Tread the Boards to watch the actors and artists that make up Moxie Rep chase their dreams. And in them, hopefully, see a reflection of ourselves.

Gregory is a writer, actor and filmmaker who grew up in the midwest. Which means he’s skilled at forced politeness and backyard soccer. He’s written several pilots, directed short films and created the web series Marriage and Other Tragedies (inspired almost entirely by arguments with his wife). His one-hour drama tv pilot, Shark – a poignant story about an 18-year-old pool prodigy and her schizophrenic father – won the North Fork TV Festival and Tracking B, and was a finalist in the PAGE Awards and Screencraft (Top 15 out of 2,150 entries), as well as a semi-finalist at Slamdance (top 8).

As an actor Gregory has appeared on Law & Order: SVU, FBI, Bull, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Good Wife, Blue Bloods, and most recently the film The Friend with Naomi Watts. He holds a BFA in acting from Rutgers University and an MFA in Television Writing from Stony Brook University.

In his free time, Gregory enjoys running in Central Park, watching the NY Knicks, spending time with his family and eating potato chips. (Preferably in that order).

Email: gregorycapecrystal@gmail.com

Instagram: @gregoryabbey