Plays and Playwrights

Brian Sloan (WTC View published in Plays and Playwrights 2004) and Boo Killebrew (They’re Just Like Us published in Plays and Playwrights 2007) will be part of the Americas Off Broadway Festival at 59E59 during the next two months.  Brian will be bringing back WTC View and Boo has a new play, The Play About My Dad.

They are joined by Jack Finnegan who is a storyteller and will be performing his piece, City Love Songs.  Martin Denton moderates and it is a fascinating look at three productions – coincidently all three are about cities.

Check out the episode guide. Download the podcast.

In 2009 NYTE Small Press published a most unusual piece entitled Conversation Storm.  It was written by Rick Burkhardt and performed by him and the other members of the Nonsense Company. The company is returning with their newest show, Storm Still,  opening soon at PS 122 .  And of course we invited them to podcast about this latest venture.

It is such a please to listen to the creators of a show talk about their work which they also directed and, of course, will perform in. Download this interesting podcast. To get an idea about the podcast, check out the episode guide.

We have kept up with Ashlin Halfnight since we published his play, Diving Normal, in Plays and Playwrights 2007.  He is a most interesting person and a talented and hardworking playwright.  In addition he teaches 7th grade.  He joins Martin Denton for a podcast to talk about his latest work and introduces us to his director, Kristjan Thor (who is also a carpenter).  The two of them will be presenting three of Ashlin’s plays, God’s Waiting Room, Lathem Prince, and Laws of Motion under the delightful name, Theatre in the Dark with Lights.   Learn more about their ideas, their background, and about the plays by listening to the podcast. You can download the podcast or read more about it.  And look for a review coming soon.

August brings the whirlwind that is the New York International Fringe Festival with its 197 productions in a period of just over two weeks.  It’s the most exciting, looked forward to event of the summer.  And it gets better each year.  The choices are varied and exciting.  Of course, nytheatre.com will help guide you by publishing the previews written by the participants.  And we’ll have lots more online as we get closer to the opening.  

I thought I would give you a bit of advance notice as to the playwrights we have published here at NYTE Small Press who will have new plays produced in the festival.  Make a note, so you can try to see some of their newer work come August.

Chad Beckim (his play ‘nami is published in Plays and Playwrights 2007) will be represented twice.  Look for Cookie and A Matter of Choice.

Boo Killebrew (her play They’re Just Like Us is also in 2007) is part of the ensemble theatre company, Collaboration Town, and their new piece, for which she is part of the writing team  is called The Momentum. 

Arlene Hutton (her short play Faerie Tale is included in Plays and Playwrights 2001 as part of Washington Square Dreams) will have a new play to check out entitled Running.

Leslie Bramm who wrote the Foreword to our latest anthology and whose play, Marvelous Shrine, we published in Plays and Playwrights 2008 will be at the festival with his work, Venus and Mona.

Stan Richardson whose play Another Brief Encounter we also published in PP ’07 will present Veritas and you can listen to him talk about this play with his director Ryan Davis on a recent nytheatrecast episode. 

That’s a whole bunch to look forward to.  Hope you’ll be able to catch some or all in August.