School’s Out

May 27, 2012

Here we are again at the end of the school year. Vacation time is a great time to get some extra reading in on contemporary drama. Spread the word to students and graduates about the choices to be found on NYTE Small Press.

Purchase one or more of our print anthologies.  They’re small enough to fit in a backpack and that makes them easy to take to the beach or the lake or just for a ride on the subway.

Several of our anthologies are available as kindle/nook books for easy reading on your smart phone or tablet (apps are easily available free).  Download them and they are accessible anytime you want to take a look.  Read while you eat, wait for an appointment or late at night curled up in a chair.

Take a look at our newest book, CINO NIGHTS and meet eight new playwrights.

As an added special this year we published a great book PRODUCING ON A SHORT SHOELACE – thoughts and real life examples from acclaimed producer/director/teacher Terry Schreiber for those starting out on a producing venture either alone or with a theater company. 

Enjoy the summer.


Cino Nights–newest anthology from NYTE Small Press

May 19, 2012

As you know, The New York Theatre Experience, Inc. (NYTE) has been publishing the Plays and Playwrights series for a dozen years. We are proud to continue our print publication program with Cino Nights, a collection of new works from Rising Phoenix Rep’s remarkable, audacious, and entirely admirable series of fully produced, one-night-only plays by some of America’s cutting edge playwrights. The book will retail for $19 but you can be one of the first to receive it and PAY ONLY $15 by ordering now. And shipping is free.

As Daniel Talbott, artistic director of Rising Phoenix Rep put it so well… “I want to do this project to honor the work of the original writers of the Caffe Cino and to try to create something together that has nothing to do with our careers, with reviews, with money, or with anything other than the work and the play itself.”

The eight playwrights whose works appear within these covers – Mando Alvarado, Courtney Baron, Jessica Dickey, Emily DeVoti, Kristen Palmer, Gary Sunshine, Adam Szymkowicz, and Lucy Thurber – possess strong, compelling, individual voices and by any measure are among the leading theater artists of their generation. I hope you will enjoy sampling their work here.

Be among the first to receive this book after its publication, before it hits the stores by visiting our secure online shop at http://shop.nyte.org/books.aspx. This special offer expires June 20, so don’t delay. And thank you for supporting our nonprofit, NYTE Small Press, and the playwrights we have been able to bring to print.


SEVEN DEVILS PLAYWRIGHTS CONFERENCE ANNOUNCES 2012 PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS

May 18, 2012

This item from Jeni Mahoney

id Theater returns to McCall, Idaho for the 12th Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, June 11-23, sponsored by the Alpine Playhouse. Playwrights, actors and directors from around the country will travel to McCall and, working with local artists and students, develop ten new plays that will be presented to the public free of charge. Since 2001, the Conference has developed more than 100 new plays by some of the most exciting voices in American Theater.

The Conference will feature the work of 2012 Guest Artist, and award-winning playwright, Kara Lee Corthron whose new play Listen for the Light will be developed and presented as a staged reading at the Conference on Friday, June 15th.

Five writers, whose plays were selected from more than 470 open submissions from all over the country will have their work developed and presented at the Conference. Samuel Brett Williams (Revelation), Tira Palmquist (Ten Mile Lake) and Brian Quirk (Warren) will have their plays presented as fully staged readings; and Brian Watkins (General Store) and Thomas Newby (Kingdoms of Rot) will have their work presented as seated readings. Four plays by students at McCall-Donnelly High School will also be presented as staged readings at the Conference.

All Conference events are free and open to the public at all times. More information about schedules, events and travel can be found at: www.idtheater.org/7devils/. To reserve a space in the free
playwriting workshop email: jeni@idtheater.org.


Cutting It Up: A Theater Workshop

May 9, 2012

This item from Julia Lee Barclay

a one-day workshop – design and led by Julia Lee Barclay
Saturday, May 12, 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm
at  the Brecht Forum
451 West Street (West Side Highway, at Bank Street, one block north of West Eleventh Street)

In this beginning workshop, we will break down both the basic elements of how we communicate with each other and the (mostly unspoken/hidden) rules which govern that communication. Working with verbal and gestural clichés relating to class, race, religion and gender, we will look at how (and to whom) we speak, and develop tools that will enable us to get underneath social clichés in a playful way, thus coaxing the hidden rules into the room. By doing so, those rules will be shown to be mutable rather than fixed.

These tools are useful both for creating new kinds of
political-philosophical performances and interactions, and also for learning new ways of communicating within and among groups which are interested in getting beyond stale patterns of hierarchical/binary “that’s the way it is” thinking. This workshop offers some basic tools to help change old perceptions and to allow for new ways of making
things happen.

The Cutting It Up workshop evolved from more than a decade of work with actors, dancers, writers, visual artists and musicians in experimental theater labs in New York City (The Present Company, 1997-2001) and in London (Apocryphal Theatre, 2004-2011).

This workshop is open to all and no prior theater experience is necessary to participate. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged. Please write to toplabnyc@gmail.com for further information or to let us know you will be attending.

Julia Lee Barclay is an award-winning director and writer whose work has been published and produced internationally. She lived in NYC for most of her professional life, and, having lived and worked in London for the past eight years, returned home in October 2011. She received
a practice-as-research PhD from the University of  Northampton (UK) in December 2009, for which she received a full fellowship, and was the founding Artistic Director of Apocryphal Theatre in London from 2004-2011. She has led these workshops at many universities, conferences, festivals and other venues throughout Europe and the US.

Many of her plays have been published in anthologies and most can be read online at http://www.indietheaternow.com. She writes about her
shifting roles and identities on her blog Somewhere in Transition (http://julialeebarclay.blogspot.com), which may also prove the basis for a performance in the near future. She is Adjunct Assistant Professor at CUNY, teaching acting (Hunter College) and interpersonal communications (Bronx Community College).

Tuition–sliding scale: $35-$65
Register online:
http://brechtforum.org/civicrm/event/info?id=12180&reset=1


Summer Sublet Series at HERE

April 25, 2012

This item is from Micky Weller

HERE is currently accepting applications to our Summer Sublet Series – this hybrid performance series offers bold artists space for up to one week for technical rehearsals and 4-5 performances. The Series will run from June 25 – August 5.

HERE provides space, equipment, box office services, and technical support. HERE will include the series on our website and in a weekly e-blast to our 16,000 subscribers.
Artists are responsible for production expenses, artist fees, marketing and any additional staff required for their show.
Tickets are $15.  For each performance, the first 20 tickets go to HERE, followed by a 50% / 50% split of the box office that evening between HERE and Artist.

Applications are due Monday, May 14, 2012 at 12pm (noon).  Artists will be notified by May 21.

Visit http://www.here.org/programs/here-stay/  for more details and application.


Plays and Playwrights blog

April 11, 2012

New readers to this blog have been asking questions by posting comments.  All comments are vetted by me and since I don’t really think questions are comments, they don’t get posted.  But I really would do enjoy hearing from our readers.

It is really easy to reach me.  Got a question? Send it to rd@nytesmallpress.com. Would you like me to post information about classes/submissions being offered? Send them to rd@nytesmallpress.com and I will try hard to get the information posted.

And if you know of new productions of any of the plays/playwrights we publish either via NYTE Small Press or on our newest website Indie Theater Now, send that information to me and I will try to get it up for some pre production publicity.

Hope to hear from many of you. And thanks for reading the PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS BLOG.


Call for Submissions: HEREstay Curated Rental Program

April 11, 2012

This item submitted by Micky Weller, program intern

Since 1993, HERE Arts Center has been one of New York’s most prolific producing organizations, and today, it stands at the forefront of the city’s presenters of daring new hybrid art. HERE supports multidisciplinary work that does not fit into a conventional programming agenda. Our aesthetic represents the independent, the innovative, and the experimental. HERE supports the work of artists at all stages in their careers through fully-produced works, commissions and subsidized performance and rehearsal space. In addition, HERE’s staff provides marketing, technical and administrative support. All work at HERE is curated based on the strength and uniqueness of the artist’s vision.

One of our most vital services, the HEREstay Program, supports 250 guest independent artists and groups—such as New Georges, Vampire Cowboys, and ViBe Theater Experience (an educational arts group for underserved urban teen girls)—and their audiences each season.

This creative curated rental program has allowed many upstart companies and emerging artists to realize their full artistic vision on a small budget. The program provides subsidized performance and rehearsal space, technical assistance, and administrative support, including a fully staffed box office. HEREstay artists can also access equipment that is not typically available in venues our size such as video projectors, wireless microphones, color scrollers—all for free or at subsidized rates. We accept applications from artists all over the world for the opportunity to show work.

For more information, and to fill out an online application, please visit the HEREstay website at: http://here.org/programs/here-stay/


The Here And Now Project On Howlround- A Call For Submissions

March 29, 2012

This item submitted by Daniel John Kelley

A Call For Submissions
HowlRound is seeking four playwrights from across America to take part in the Here & Now Project—an online series fostering theatrical work exploring the nature of America today by reflecting what is happening here and now.

The pilot program will select four writers from geographically diverse sections of the country, asking them to write one new short piece (from five to ten minutes in length) once a month for three months that reflects where they are, and what’s happening there now. These pieces, each credited appropriately, will then be posted weekly to theHowlRound blog as an ongoing series for the months of June, July and August 2012.

These pieces can take any form the playwright can think of including but not limited to:
-A dramatic rendering of a moment in time.
-A rigorously naturalistic ten minute play.
-A confessional monologue from a state senator.
-A dreamscape of images that typify this moment in time.
-A pageant of local personalities.
-A series of harrowing interviews with wildlife.
-Or anything else the playwright can devise.

While history pieces (and imagined futures, apocalyptic and otherwise) have their place, this is not it! Here and now is the focus, thus the pieces should be based both in the here (where the playwright lives) and the now (the summer of 2012). Outside of that, the playwright should feel free to use their imagination to dramatize their here and now.

Interested playwrights should send the following to daniel@howlround.com no later than Friday, April 20. Late submissions will not be considered, nor will anything outside of the following items:
- one thirty-page excerpt of a full-length work.
- a 150-word description of why you are interested in writing about where you live and what’s going on there and why HowlRound readers would benefit hearing from you.
- 100 word bio and headshot.

Selected playwrights will be notified no later than May 18.


The 3rd United Solo Theatre Festival Accepts Submissions

March 16, 2012

This item submitted by Marcin Lipinski

United Solo, established as the world’s largest solo theatre festival, has announced dates for its six-week run this fall. The Festival will be held between October 11 and November 18, 2012 at Theatre ROW on 42nd Street in the heart of New York’s theatre district. Artists from all over the world are invited to submit their one-man and one-woman productions. A board consisting of the Festival creators and other accomplished artists, will select shows in a vast range of categories, including storytelling, improv, dance, puppetry, multimedia, stand-up, magic, tragedy, comedy, and other forms of solo theatre.

Deadline for submissions is May 21, 2012. More information and the application form can be found at the Festival’s website: www.unitedsolo.org.

Related inquiries may be addressed to Marcin Lipinski at info@unitedsolo.org

Check out the interesting work from the past United Solo Festivals on Indie Theater Now.


Cutting It Up: A Theater Workshop That Illuminates the Rules of the Room So We Can Change Them

March 9, 2012

This item by Julia Lee Barclay

The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB)
presents Cutting It Up: A Theater Workshop That Illuminates the Rules of the Room So We Can Change Them
a one-day workshop: Saturday, April 7, 2012, 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm; also Saturday, May 12, 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm
at  the Brecht Forum, 451 West Street (West Side Highway, at Bank Street, one block north of West Eleventh Street)
Facilitated by Julia Lee Barclay.

In this beginning workshop, we will break down both the basic elements of how we communicate with each other and the (mostly unspoken/hidden) rules which govern that communication. Working with verbal and gestural clichés relating to class, race, religion and gender, we will look at how (and to whom) we speak, and develop tools that will enable us to get underneath social clichés in a playful way, thus coaxing the hidden rules into the room. By doing so, those rules will be shown to be mutable rather than fixed.
These tools are useful both for creating new kinds of
political-philosophical performances and interactions, and also for learning new ways of communicating within and among groups which are interested in getting beyond stale patterns of hierarchical/binary “that’s the way it is” thinking. This workshop offers some basic tools to help change old perceptions and to allow for new ways of making things happen.

The Cutting It Up workshop evolved from more than a decade of work with actors, dancers, writers, visual artists and musicians in  experimental theater labs in New York City (The Present Company, 1997-2001) and in London (Apocryphal Theatre, 2004-2011). This workshop is open to all and no prior theater experience is necessary to participate. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged.

Please write to toplabnyc@gmail.com for further information or to let us know you will be attending.

Julia Lee Barclay is an award-winning director and writer whose work has been published and produced internationally. She lived in NYC for most of her professional life, and, having lived and worked in London for the past eight years, returned home in October 2011. She received
a practice-as-research PhD from the University of Northampton (UK) in December 2009, for which she received a full fellowship, and was the founding Artistic Director of Apocryphal Theatre in London from 2004-2011. She has led these workshops at many universities, conferences, festivals and other venues throughout Europe and the US. Many of her plays have been published in anthologies and most can be read online at http://www.indietheaternow.com. She writes about her shifting roles and identities on her blog Somewhere in Transition(http://julialeebarclay.blogspot.com), which may also prove the basis for a performance in the near future. She is Adjunct Assistant Professor at CUNY, teaching acting (Hunter College) and interpersonal communications (Bronx Community College).
Tuition–sliding scale: $35-$65
Register online:
http://brechtforum.org/civicrm/event/info?id=12178&reset=1 (April 7)
http://brechtforum.org/civicrm/event/info?id=12180&reset=1 (May 12)


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.