Saviana Stanescu Curates Reading Series

The Underground Zero Festival will be starting early July. In addition to their regular lineup there will also be a reading series curated by Saviana Stanescu (PP06). And several of our published playwrights will be participating. On July 11 at 3:30om, Andrea Lepcio (PP03) will have her play, Me You Us Them read. Saviana's play, For a Barbarian Woman will be read on July 18 at 3:30pm. And Torrents by Robert Attenweiler (PP08) will be read on July 26 at 3:30pm. The readings are $5 each and would be a great opportunity to hear the latest works by a group of very talented folk.

And as part of their regular programming, the festival will present a new work by Alec Duffy (PP06) entitled Writer Journey. It can be seen July 14-15, 18-19. Everything is at PS 122.

Doyle and Bland at Ontological

Kevin Doyle ('06), recently back from a tour in Belgium, of which I hope I will hear more soon, will be premiering a new work, Behind the Bullseye, at the Ontological Theatre beginning July 1. This one is all about shopping "How we are able to buy what we want when we want." And it takes place in Brooklyn.

Eric Bland ('09) will also be at the Ontological with his latest piece, I Stand For Nothing. It will open on July 15. It's about contemporary New Yorker's struggle with individuality and authenticity.

These both sound fascinating and timely so try to catch them in these short runs.

There will be a podcast posted with these two talented playwrights very soon, so keep checking nytheatrecast for this.

Waterwell's Newest

Waterwell, the innovative company who creates as an ensemble, is published in Playing With Canons. Now they have a new production called #9 coming to 59E59. Tom Ridgley and Kevin Townley joined Martin Denton to talk about the company and this new production. It's really worth a listen. The show is about the effects of Web 2.0-type technologies on contemporary life. Tom and Kevin give great insight as to how the members of the company go about creating a show when all they have to start with is the topic. Download the podcast here.

Comments always welcome.

Freeman and Comtois Podcast

Just posted a new podcast in our Playwrights in Conversation series. Here we have Matt Freeman (published in Plays and Playwrights 2002 and in Playing with Canons) talking to James Comtois -- his play Nervous Boy is published in Plays and Playwrights 2007. James has a new play in the Brick Theater's Antidepressant Festival called Infectious Opportunity. Lots of interesting give and take between these two talented playwrights. And by the way, Matt also has a play in the festival called Glee Club.

Why Isn't Modern Drama Published?

This morning I read an article in the NY Times entitled "Submitting to a Play's Spell, Without the Stage." It was written by a book critic, Dwight Garner. Basically, it is a very superficial book review of four plays nominated for Tony Awards. What disturbed me the most was his admission of being "as guilty as anyone of avoiding the bound versions of new plays." Garner continues that of the last five years of Tony winners in this category, he has seen only one and read none.

The articles also touched on the years past when publishers filled the shelves with plays by Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Tennesse Williams, etc. It seems obvious that these sold or why would large publishing houses publish them. So what has happened in the past decade or so? Why has drama been given such short shrift from both publishers and readers?

In part, this is one of the reasons why ten years ago we decided to publish our anthologies of plays by emerging playwrights. People interested in theatre need to be able to read these works (and the works of established playwrights, too). There is nothing as much fun as a group of friends or family members reading aloud a play.

NYTE Small Press puts out a new anthology yearly. It is a tough sell to get it out to the public. We have never gotten even close to a mention in any book review in an outlet like The New York Times -- we get great reviews but always from individuals and these have helped publicize them immensely.

It is truly a shame that a book reviewer working for a very large newspaper has not checked out or even thought much about this lack of dramatic work being available in book form. Oh, and by the way, he liked all the plays he read.

Any thoughts?

Kelly McAllister's Burning The Old Man in Prague

Burning The Old Man by Kelly McAllister was published in Plays and Playwrigts 2006. Now and for a good long time you should be able to see it in Prague, performed in Czech. For those of you who might not be able to get to it, here are some photos, courtesy of Kelly.

And Kelly also sent a link to an interview he did to publicize this production. You can read it here.

A Special for the Graduate

It's that time of year -- graduation. For the past several years we have offered special pricing on some of our volumes as the perfect gift for the graduate with an interest in theatre. And we have had many takers -- it's a great gift and it won't cost that much to make a graduating senior happy.

This year we are offering either Plays and Playwrights 2008 or Plays and Playwrights 2009 for $15 each or you can get both for just $25. Shipping is free and we'll even direct ship to the recipient.

Check out this great offer soon. It only lasts til the end of July.

Visit our online shop to take advantage of this offer.

Visit NYTE Small Press website for lots of information about each of the books.