July 20, 2010
Six plays have been chosen as the winning scripts from the 35th Annual Samuel French, Inc. Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival The
scripts will be published as a collection and licensed by Samuel
French, Inc., available for sale later this fall/winter. We are thrilled to find that two of the winners are playwrights whose earlier work is published by NYTE Small Press.
WHITE EMBERS by Saviana Stanescu (’06) – East confronts West in this thriller about international adoptions and how they can impact a
child’s life.
DANCE LESSONS by Josh Koenigsberg (’10) — diner employees Sue and Norm get ready for another dreary day of dreary work in a dreary world — until Norm reveals that he’s secretly been taking dance lessons.
Watch for this new publication and congrats to all the winners.
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July 20, 2010
For the 7th year, the NYIT awards will be presented to honor members of the indie theater community. Congratulations to all the nominees. Here’s an extra hurrah for NYTE Small Press alumni playwrights whose work is being recognized.
- Kirk Wood Bromley (Playing With Canons, Plays and Playwrights for the New Millennium – the ebook) — his play Remission is nominated for Outstanding Performance Art Production and Dan Berkey for Best Solo Performer
- Joshua Conkle (’10) — his play MilkMilkLemonade garnered nominations for Michael Cyril Creighton (best actor in a featured role), Jess Barbagallo, Jennifer Harder, and Nikole Beckwith (best actress in a featured role)
- James Comtois (’07) for outstanding full length original script Infectious Opportunity; ditto to Ashlin Halfnight (’07) for Balaton; ditto again to Crystal Skillman (’08) for The Vigil or the Guided Cradle.
Winners will be announced September 20. Great job done by all the nominees.
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June 30, 2010
This year we thought we would record podcasts with the authors from Plays and Playwrights 2010 a bit differently than in the past. We felt it might be a good idea to talk with them as they had something new on the horizon. We hope, and it often does happen, that our playwrights get to work together but this year two of our authors, also excellent actors, auditioned for the same role and ended up sharing the stage in the upcoming Henry VI, Part 3.
When Martin (editor of our books and moderator of many of the podcasts) found out about this he immediately invited them both to talk about their experiences as actors and about their plays which are published in this year’s anthology.
Jerrod Bogard is the author of Spin Cycle and he shares with listeners how this collection of one-acts came together as an evening of theatre. He further explains how it is different from most such collections in that it has a through line which joins them together making five short plays feel like one play in five acts. You really get an appreciation of the process that goes into making a great production. And Jerrod is a delight to listen to.
Nat Cassidy describes his play, Any Day Now as a normal three act family drama — except that Dad’s a zombie. His thoughts on why he wrote this and the various pop culture influences (and non-influences) are all part of the process of a talented and intelligent author. And Nat has that wonderful combination of charm and friendly good nature.
Check out this new podcast and learn a bit more about Plays and Playwrights 2010 and this new production of Henry VI Part 3.
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May 14, 2010
Josh Fox (PP06) and his company, International Wow May 6-23 at the Ohio –
RECONSTRUCTION memorializes the OHIO Theater’s pending closure in August. The production focuses on the foreclosure crisis in both the housing and cultural spheres. The production highlights the debacle facing the OHIO Theater and many of New York’s most valued cultural institutions, featuring scene after scene of foreclosure, including one where a theater company, performing the Cherry Orchard is kicked out of it’s theatrical home.
Eric Bland (PP09) and his company Old Kent Road Theater at Bushwick Star May 13-22 –
Our 22 minute piece is a ‘contemporary ecstasy’ called ‘Are We Bourgeois, Mon Amour (A Psycho’s Analysis).’ I call our piece a ‘contemporary ecstasy’ because that is what we are after—the nodes of despair and apotheosis within the ways we live today as New Yorkers. We hope to use the comedies of desire, philosophy, and physicality to discuss and dispel the notion that our age is post-ideological, post-historical, post-vital.
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April 6, 2010
David Johnston (Playing with Canons) does a great job keeping us updated with his doings. Here is his latest posting:
Come to the LGBT Community Center, Tuesday April 13, 2010 at 6:30PM. (The Center is at 208 West 13th Street, near 7th Ave.) as part of the Center’s 2nd Tuesdays Cultural Series, “4Play,” featuring readings from “Short Plays to Long Remember.” The evening includes a reading of “Saturday with Martin,” featuring George Hosmer and Brian Fuqua, who originated the roles in 2003 for Blue Coyote. Original direction by Kyle Ancowitz. Ten bucks at the door. Reservations at the Center are available here.
On Monday, April 12 at 6:30, America in Play presents “Crossing Over” at University Settlement, 184 Eldridge Street. While I haven’t been able to be as active with AIP this spring, the evening does include some of my material and it’s a terrific group of writers, led by Lynn Thomson. Admission is free.
Besides seeing David’s work you get a chance to look at some new playwrights, too.
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March 23, 2010
Crystal Skillman, published in Plays and Playwrights 2008, recently hosted a podcast on nytheatrecast with with three of her colleagues in the Women’s Project Lab.
She has a new play, Flow, coming up on March 27 in the Director’s Salon at Working Theatre with director Nicole A. Watson.
And here’s some information she sent about her next production:
I’m so excited that my play The Vigil or the Guided Cradle is being produced in a co-production with Impetuous Theater Group and The Brick theatre at the Brick – April 22nd- May 8th. Director John Hurley and I are really excited about our wonderful cast: Susan Louise O’Connor*, Dion Mucciacito*, Christian Rummel*, Travis York*, Vinnie Penna*, Alex Pappas* & Joseph Mathers. It’s a great team and we go into rehearsals next week. Here’s a description of the show:
A Medieval man tortures a terrorist in 15th Century Prague while a young tourist in the 21st Century befriends a stranger. A play about the danger of crossing over, between now and then, THE VIGIL or THE GUIDED CRADLE is a chilling portrait of the art of torture and those desperate enough to use their ability to create . . . no matter the cost.
More information on Impetuous’ website
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March 21, 2010
Plays and Playwrights 2010 is at the printer and we should have copies by the beginning of the month. And, as usual, we are so excited about this new anthology.
Our books usually come out in February but this year we chose to re-release our very popular first book, Plays and Playwrights for the New Millennium as a Kindle e-book. Out of print for several years and an excellent selling book when it was available, it is now back with extra bonus material ready for you to download to your computer, Kindle, iPhone, etc. Check it out on the Kindle store and let me know what you think.
Now that our first foray into e-books is complete, we can concentrate on Plays and Playwrights 2010. The book will retail for $19 but you can be one of the first to receive it and PAY ONLY $14 by ordering now.
Here’s what you’ll find between the covers of this, our 11th yearly anthology.
- The Invitation by Brian Parks - A birthday dinner celebration among a group of highly successful friends takes an abrupt peculiar turn in a play that veers maniacally and sardonically through the worlds of politics, art, and revenge.
- Flip Side by Ellen Maddow – A comedy of misperceptions and mismatches in which two sets of characters – played by the same six actors – occupy two different worlds.
- Any Day Now by Nat Cassidy – A three-act drama about a typically dysfunctional American family dealing with a rather atypical problem, the dead are coming back to life.
- The Spin Cycle by Jerrod Bogard - Five short linked plays create a collage of contemporary America – from Lady Liberty to the Hollywood Hills to an army base in Iraq – as ordinary folks attempt to “spin” troubling aspects of their life.
- Suspicious Package: Rx by Gyda Arber and Aaron Baker – A Twilight Zone-esque sci-fi thriller that takes the form of an interactive adventure for audience members, who portray all the characters in this innovative play.
- Our Country by Tony Asaro and Dan Collins – Outed in a public restroom, country music sensation Tommy Dautry has gone from darling to derelict overnight. But now, in this exciting and heartfelt musical, Tommy is back and ready to prove that gay or straight, left or right…it’s Our Country, too.
- Maddy: A Modern-Day Medea by Will Le Vasseur – An adaptation of the classic Greek tragedy sown in the heartland of America at the Corinthian Trailer Park, with a supernatural element thrown into the mix.
- Al’s Business Cards by Josh Koenigsberg – When gaffing assistant Al Gurvis’s new business cards are accidently swapped with those of a real estate agent, it sets off a chain of events with hilarious – and profound – consequences.
- The Songs of Robert by John Crutchfield – A folk musical for one performer with a motley cast of characters that tells the story of a lonely teenager growing up in the mountains of southern Appalachia.
- MilkMilkLemonade by Joshua Conkel - A satirical play for adults about gay children, a parasitic twin, an antagonistic grandmother, a depressed chicken, and our growing bodies.
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March 1, 2010
Ato Essandoh’s Black Thang which we published in Plays and Playwrights 2003 is having a new NYC production.
J&R Productions is set to present A Black and White Night of Theater, running March 3rd-7th at the Gene Frankel Theater, and one dollar from every ticket sold will be donated to the American Red Cross to help those affected by the devastating earthquake in Haiti.
Black Thang will be performed with White Panther to make a themed evening of two plays. Ato’s play is a charming romantic comedy about the blossoming relationship between a black man and a white woman. Well worth seeing.
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February 27, 2010
This item from Elenna Mosoff, programming intern
DEADLINE: Applications must be emailed to kristin@here.org or received by Friday April 2 at 6pm. Artists will be notified by Friday, April 23.
OPEN CALL for applications to our second annual Summer Sublet Series – this hybrid performance series offers bold artists space for up to one week for technical rehearsals and 4-5 performances. The Summer Sublet Series is part of HEREstay, HERE’s curated rental program, which offers artists space, equipment, box office services, and technical support. HERE will include the series on our website and in a weekly e-blast to our 14,000 subscribers. Artists are responsible for production expenses, artist fees, marketing and any additional staff required for their show.
SIMPLY… tickets to your shows are $15. Instead of a fixed rental rate, HERE offers a box office split: 20 tickets per performance go to HERE, followed by a 50/50 split of the box office between HERE and Artist.
TO APPLY: please provide: 500 word project description, number of artists, cast size, technical requirements, estimated running time, primary artist bios, contact info, work sample (preferably a DVD of previous work).
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February 17, 2010
Julia Lee Barclay published in
Plays and Playwrights 2001 received her Ph.D. in Northampton, UK (on Valentine’s Day) where she has lived and studied for several years. Her thesis is entitled
Apocryphal Theatre: practicing philosophies… And, having read it, I can tell you she certainly deserves credit for a well researched paper that proves the philosophical basis for the theatre lab she has created. Congrats Dr. Julia.
Popping up his head behind Julia is her husband, Dr. Bill Aitchison, a well known theatre artist in his own right.
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