the nytheatre i

Introducing the NYTHEATRE BLOG

2010-02-21T14:30:00.000-05:00

Starting today, I am launching a new blog which will be a successor to the nytheatre i.

It is called, with sparkling simplicity, THE NYTHEATRE BLOG, and you can find it at http://www.nytheatreblog.com/

I will leave this blog intact for now -- so all of the nytheatre i archives will remain here at this location. But I don't expect to be adding any new posts, so please switch (or add) your bookmark to the new address.

Over at THE NYTHEATRE BLOG I will be laying out, in the next few weeks, some new ideas and plans for my blogging that I hope will be useful and worthwhile for all of my readers!

29th Street Rep Artistic Director to Teach Beginners' Acting Class

2010-02-13T19:22:00.003-05:00

This is from David Mogentale, the artistic director of 29th Street Rep (and a fine actor and director in his own right):

* * * * *

After many years at 29th Street Rep (sixteen as Artistic Director) I have been teaching a very small, mostly advanced acting class on Sunday nights at 7pm. I have been doing this since October 2008. I have recently had a yearning to teach a class with people who have no (or little) acting experience. I want it to be a fun and enjoyable time for people who may want to get into acting or just are interested in the process of theater itself. I want them to get a feeling for the craft and an enthusiasm for the art itself.

So if you are interested in taking this class where:

- YOU WILL HAVE FUN.
- You will have a teacher who will not talk your ear off and expound on how much he might know.
- You will (mostly) be working on scenes and monologues instead of this mumbo jumbo stuff that I, and everybody else has experienced in a beginner class.
- You are not scared off by someone who will actually say things that you may have never heard, nor hope to hear again.
- You will have something to do EVERY time. Something that I will probably give you from plays, monologues or exercises we have done here at 29th Street Rep. Visceral, hard-hitting stuff. Stuff that I have a feeling for...but stuff you can (hopefully) handle.
- You will prepare for every class (as will your teacher).
and
- You will show up on time for every class AND HAVE FUN.

...then this beginner brutal acting class might just work out well for you!

- 8 week session (no more than 10 people)
- (February 28-April 25) - Off Easter week.
- Every Sunday evening 7-10 or 11pm or untill we get everything done.
- In my studio space
- 212 West 29th Street-3rd Floor

$400 bucks...I'm worth it. 212 465-0575

Note: this class is NOT for the advanced actor

Plays and Playwrights News

2010-01-31T23:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry I've been sort of MIA for a while. Busy times here at NYTE HQ.

I wanted to pass along some updates about our Plays and Playwrights books.

First--with very mixed feelings, I report that Plays and Playwrights 2003 is now officially out of print. This anthology contains wonderful work by Joe Godfrey, Catherine Gillet, Andrea Lepcio, Ato Essandoh, Nat Colley, Leon Chase, Marc Morales, Joseph Langham, Maggie Cino, Edward Musto, and Kelly McAllister. It's the third of our anthologies to go out of print (following Plays and Playwrights for the New Millennium and Plays and Playwrights 2005).

The interesting--and very gratifying--thing is that demand for the plays in our out-of-print volumes continues unabated. What can we do to help make sure that these plays remain available to those who want to read/perform/produce them? We are moving rapidly toward a solution!

This month, we will be releasing our very first ebook, a new edition of Plays and Playwrights for the New Millennium. There will be very complete details here on the blog very soon; for now I can tell you that it will be available for Amazon's Kindle, and will feature--in addition to seven of the plays we originally published in the print edition of this anthology--terrific never-before-published bonus material. The extras include one-act plays by Garth Wingfield, Lynn Marie Macy, Edmund De Santis, and David Dannenfelser, plus a tantalizing excerpt from one of the latest Kirk Wood Bromley plays, plus an excerpt from Gary Rudoren's screenplay based on "So, I Killed a Few People..."

Watch for the official release, very soon!

Finally, I want to mention that Plays and Playwrights 2010 is in the works. Our publication date will be a little later than usual this year--we're aiming for release on or about March 31. Again, watch this space for the latest details.

I am so excited about both of our new publications--can't wait to share more about them with you.

The Cradle Will Rock at Theater Ten Ten: Why Does a Company Choose to Do a Show?

2010-01-30T14:44:00.004-05:00

One of the things I find most invigorating about the indie theater community is how purposeful it usually is. The artists and companies working in this sector think carefully about the projects they will devote their scarce time and resources to; they want to say something very specific when they produce theater, and they are generally very articulate about what they're trying to accomplish.

This comes through when we ask artists to participate in our festival preview features on nytheatre.com (our preview of the FRIGID New York Festival goes on line in less that two weeks, and when you read it you'll see what I mean).

I recently got some information about Theater Ten Ten's upcoming revival of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock which provides another strong example of the clear and valuable goals that theatre-makers have in mind when they embark on a project. Today I am sharing with you here on the blog the Director's Note, prepared by director David Fuller and assistant director Carissa Cordes, for this production:

Writer and composer Marc Blitzstein completed his first opera The Cradle Will Rock in 1936, in a torrid frenzy of work just weeks after his wife Eva Goldbeck suddenly died. The seeds for the opera were sown while Eva was alive and translating Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Novel, when Blitzstein played his song “The Nickel Under the Foot” for Brecht himself. Brecht suggested that this song, about a woman forced into prostitution out of hunger, become the centerpiece for a political opera: "Why don't you write a piece about all kinds of prostitution - the press, the church, the courts, the arts, the whole system?” With encouragement from John Houseman (producer) and Orson Welles (director), Blitzstein played his finished Cradle for Hallie Flanagan, the director of the Federal Theatre Project of the WPA. Flanagan agreed to allow Cradle to be produced under the Federal Theatre Project #891 on Broadway. It became an unforgettable part of theatre history.
After the success of Cradle, Blitzstein went on to compose music for two revivals of Shakespeare’s King Lear (1950, 1956) and Lillian Hellman’s Toys in the Attic (1960). Two more of his works were produced: the opera Regina (1949) and the musical comedy Juno (1959).
Blitzstein is also well known for his English language adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Opera (1954). He was called before The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1958, but while he admitted to having been a member of the Communist Party, he refused to give up any information and HUAC let him go without any further incident. On the night of January 21, 1964 he was stripped, robbed, and beaten to death by three sailors he was trying to pick up at a bar in the Caribbean.
The story of the opening night of Cradle is perhaps one of the most important stories in American theatre history. Fearing a volatile political message in a time of worker strife, the federal government prevented the scheduled opening on June 16, 1937 at the Maxine Elliot Theatre, posting armed guards. Ironically, the actors union, Actors Equity, went along with this and forbade its members to perform on stage.
Determined that the show should go on as planned, and having already sold out the opening, Houseman and Welles managed to find a space and piano. The cast, crew, press and audience marched uptown, just over a mile, to the Venice Theatre. With no actors, no set, and one spotlight, Blitzstein sat at the piano onstage, determined to play and sing the entire show himself. The actors, who had been encouraged by Blitzstein to exercise their freedom of speech, but who were risking their livelihoods in a time when jobs were scarce, one by one joined Blitzstein in singing the show – prevented from appearing on stage, they performed from among the audience!

Cradle’s message endures. During the original production, the US was fully immersed in the Great Depression. Strikes and union organizing were becoming lethal at the hands of the police, as wealthy conservatives were fiercely fighting labor movements favoring the rights of workers. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) and its theater arm, The Federal Theatre Project, were under fire as hotbeds of Communism and funding for the arts was drastically slashed. Today, the US is again enduring a great economic upheaval fostered by greed. Unemployment is at a high not seen in several decades. We are embroiled in a war that profits the oil barons. Wall Street profiteers make billions at the expense of their shareholders. Now on the verge of finally providing universal health care to its citizens, Congress is assailed by fear mongers not unlike HUAC who equate Socialism with Communism in a red-baiting media barrage. Arts advocates fight annually against budget cutbacks, trying to keep arts education and nonprofit arts organizations alive. Sweatshops endure, migrant workers are victimized.
“Steeltown USA” may be a thing of the past, but change it to “Oil-town” or “Mortgage-town” or “Insurance-town” or “Meatpack-town” and the stories of Joe Worker and Larry Foreman ring true. When Harry Druggist tells his tale, perhaps we may think of a town Wal-Mart took over, or of a dark empty local storefront we passed today. In Cradle we see artists selling out to the wealthy, health care influenced by big money, the press owned by big business, the church controlled by its donors and war encouraged for corporate greed.
With our national election, we began a change that must continue, or, The Cradle Will Rock.

Stolen Chair Theatre's Community Supported Theatre: Event #3

2010-01-29T15:27:00.002-05:00

Here's the latest report from Jo Ann Rosen on Stolen Chair Theatre's ongoing Community Supported Theatre (CST) initiative:

****

There is little difference between scientists and artists of the theater, according to Professor Gabriel Cwilich, a condensed matter physicist who advises many theater productions. In this case, he was the enthusiastic and entertaining guest speaker at Stolen Chair Theatre’s third event for their Community Sponsored Theatre (CST), a program designed to share the creative process with their members in an effort to cement a long-term relationship with them.

According to Cwilich, both professions attract people who are passionate about their work, both require training, and both use analysis extensively to find success. Of course the vocabularies are different, but increasingly they are finding additional commonality by communicating their ideas on the stage. He said during the last decade or so, about 150 plays have been written on science, most notably among them Copenhagen (physics) by Michael Frayn, Arcadia (chaos theory) by Tom Stoppard, and A Number (cloning) by Caryl Churchill. The gentle shift in the theater from dysfunctional family to the personalization of science and its effect on family or on an intimate community of people is noticeable enough for Cwilich to proclaim that “a new discipline is born.” His talk, entitled “Science and Theatre: What Can They Teach Each Other?” demonstrated how science has inspired playwrights to stretch the boundaries of predictable play structure and how playwrights have opened new avenues of communications for scientists.

Cwilich is a professor in the Physics Department at Yeshiva University in New York City, and is currently the Director of the University’s Jay and Jeannie Schottenstein Honors Program. He is also involved with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a philanthropic, not-for-profit institution that makes grants in support of original research and education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economic performance. He has a strong interest in the relationship between science and the arts, and has been the scientific advisor to numerous off-Broadway theater productions. He dotted his talk with familiar examples.

First, Copenhagen. In Copenhagen, he explained, Frayn focuses on a single conversation that took place in 1941 between the two eminent physicists, Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr. There are many speculations about what was said during that conversation and Frayn builds on that uncertainty. The problem, then – the very thing that excites scientists – becomes the play’s thesis. The discussions and arguments between Heisenberg and Bohr are interesting, persuasive, and comprehensible, as they circle around and around, both physically and intellectually.

He described the structure of Stoppard’s Arcadia as a mirror of its topic. There are two story lines. One takes place in the present and in the past. Cwilich explained that present and past reflect the arcs in chaos theory. In the play, the present and the past move closer and closer until they merge or collide, making it unclear what we are seeing – a parallel to chaos theory in which swinging arcs multiply exponentially, getting closer and closer to one another until they ultimately smash.

Cwilich further emphasized that science in theater was not new. The first performance of Ben Jonson’s comedy, The Alchemist, was performed in 1610. Henrik Ibsen’s Enemy of the People and Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Galileo were written in 1882 and 1937, respectively. And, there are others. Science provides dramatic vehicles for playwrights and the stage allows scientists to reach new audiences.

For Kiran Rikhye, Stolen Chairs’ Resident Playwright, this CST project, Quantum Poetics: A Science Experiment for the Stage offers the opportunity to create a play by exploring and researching material that is both new and foreign to her. As in last month’s event, Rikhye and Stolen Chair’s resident actors presented characters and snippets of dialog that hint at what she’s learned and the challenges she faces. One character who was presented, an 18th century Jesuit priest, says: “Always put your ideas into language the layman can understand. Always put your ideas into language the layman wants to understand. Put things into language the layman thinks he can understand. Put your ideas into language.” It is fascinating to follow the research and see results in rhythmic poetic lines such as these.

The evening was one of partnerships. A receptive audience entertained by an informed and generous speaker, and talented actors bringing smart lines to life. Carrying out the theme of partnerships in the cocktail hour was co-founder and resident director, Jon Stancato, who added a gastronomic touch with mac and cheese and strawberries and cream. All inspired by the duo of science and theater.

Page 121 Productions: Effecting Disaster Relief for Haiti

2010-01-15T17:23:00.003-05:00

Here's a note I received from Stephen Kaliski, an nytheatre.com contributor and also a playwright/director who heads an indie theater company, Page 121 Productions:

Dear Friends,

In the wake of this week's devastating earthquake, we've decided to do our small part in helping Haiti endure such a calamity.

For The 121 Effect, we will pledge the first $121 raised off of ticket sales for His Minute Hand to The American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund. We will also donate an additional $121 for every 60 tickets sold.

Although theatre is an inherently community-based art form, we believe in its ability to inspire global change. We hope that the local audiences gathered for His Minute Hand will come together to contribute to a nation in desperate need.

If you are unable to attend, we encourage you to follow the link above to donate to the Red Cross.

Sincerely,

Stephen Kaliski, Artistic Director
Jeffrey Feola, Executive Director

There's detailed info about His Minute Hand here. Kudos to Stephen and Jeffrey for taking action for this important cause!

NYTE's Vision for 2010

2009-12-29T20:00:00.001-05:00

I make New Year's resolutions every year about this time. When a nonprofit organization like The New York Theatre Experience, Inc. creates an annual budget and a business plan, it is making New Year's resolutions, too.

I am excited to share our 2010 Resolutions with all of you.

We are going to celebrate the diversity of New York theatre this year, in a big way. We want to make sure that theatre-makers and theatre-goers understand just how thrillingly diverse this community is--our focus will be on building awareness and access to the many, many choices available to audiences. Diversity includes gender, ethnicity, and race, but that's not all there is to it! We are interested in diversity in terms of form--theatre styles that break down the barriers between traditional disciplines to create new genres that often get lumped together in categories like "physical theatre," "experimental theatre," or "avant-garde theatre." We are also interested in diversity in terms of location: we are going to search for theatre everywhere it is being made in the NYC area, throughout all five boroughs. This diversity initiative isn't about being politically correct; it's about learning, exploring, and discovering art, ideas, cultures, and ways of communicating that are different from the status quo. A good thing, we believe.

We are going to provide new and better tools to make sure people can find the kind of theatre they want to see. We believe that a lot of people want simple, focused, accurate information about the many choices available to them so that they can decide how to spend their precious hours and dollars in the theatre. I met with a group of high school students recently in a seminar about theatre criticism. I was excited to discover that these teenagers don't like superficial rating systems: they don't care if Rolling Stone gives an album five stars or if some pundit calls a movie "essential viewing." They want data. We're going to keep on providing exactly that on nytheatre.com, recognizing that many different elements affect the theatre-going decision--not only content and form, but also the artists involved, performance times and lengths, and price points.

Technology plays an ever-larger role in our lives, and we are focused on that as well. We will continue to ensure that we respect the diversity of our constituents by making all of our resources completely accessible. And we will provide choices as to how our services are delivered--some people like books and other people like e-books, and we're gearing up to offer both; a lot of folks are becoming increasingly dependent on mobile devices like the iPhone or the BlackBerry and we are making sure all of the info we provide can be conveniently read and used regardless of your computing platform.

So, there's a high-level look at what we are resolving to accomplish in 2010. Now I want to focus on some specifics. Here are some of the actions we have already taken to move toward achieving our vision:

New features on nytheatre.com that celebrate diversity: We've already made some additions to nytheatre.com that highlight the works of diverse artists. There are now separate Now Playing listings on our website for Plays by Women and for Plays with Gay & Lesbian Themes. These join our existing listings for Physical Theater and shows in the Outer Boroughs to help audiences identify and focus on each of these kinds of work. Last week, we added keywords to every current show page as a further enhancement (see a sample here). Also, our new PlaywrightALERTS (see below) include up-to-date feeds of new productions of plays by women and plays by people of color.

nytheatre.com PlaywrightALERTS: To help audiences keep abreast of current and upcoming productions of plays and musicals by authors they care about, we've launched nytheatre.com PlaywrightALERTS. You can learn much more about this new service in this blog post.

50/50 in 2010: NYTE is partnering with 50/50 in 2020, a grassroots movement to acknowledge the contribution of women to theatre and to achieve employment parity for women theatre artists by the 100th anniversary of American suffrage in 2020. We will be working with them to significantly augment coverage of women theatre artists on our websites. We believe in putting our money where our mouth is, so to speak; and therefore we are committing to "50/50 in 2010"--we are going to attempt to review equal numbers of plays by women and plays by men in 2010. (Note that, given the disparity between numbers of productions, this may not actually be possible. We will keep everyone posted.) We recommend Marsha Norman's American Theatre article on this subject for those seeking an explanation of the importance of this initiative.

That's what we have to report right now. I'll keep you up-to-date with new features and new projects as the year progresses. Your feedback is vital, so please comment here or send me an email with your thoughts about our vision for 2010.

BardALERT! (Announcing Some New Features on nytheatre.com)

2009-12-28T20:00:00.000-05:00

There are lots of ways nowadays to find out about theatre that's going on in New York City. But it's sometimes difficult to stay on top of the particular kind of theatre that you love and cherish and care about.

nytheatre.com is here to help! Today I am announcing the nytheatre.com BardALERT and the nytheatre.com PlaywrightALERTS. These are constantly-updated web resources that keep you posted about the newest current and upcoming productions of works by Shakespeare (that's the BardALERT) or other groups of playwrights. Check them out.

In addition to the BardALERT, we have alerts for the following groups of plays:

Plays by Women

Plays by People of Color

Plays by British & Irish Playwrights

Plays by Early- and Mid-20th Century American Playwrights (e.g., O'Neill, Miller, Williams, Inge, etc.)

Plays by Contemporary American Playwrights

Plays by European Playwrights

Plays by Alumni of NYTE's Plays and Playwrights anthologies (there's a list of all of these playwrights here)

These are RSS feeds, which means that you can subscribe to them using an RSS reader or your web browser software. You can also subscribe to them via email. If you're not sure how to subscribe to an RSS feed, it's explained here.

The purpose of the BardALERT and the PlaywrightALERTS is to keep you up-to-date about NYC presentations of plays by the authors you like. Please post a comment or email me to let me know what you think about this new feature on nytheatre.com!

nytheatre.com BardALERT and PlaywrightALERTS are part of our broad initiative in 2010 to provide theatre audiences with the information they need to find the shows that interest them. I will be talking more about this initiative in upcoming nytheatre i posts.

A Year-End Message about nytheatre.com and NYTE

2009-12-27T13:15:00.006-05:00

Today, I share some thoughts about the first 10 years of The New York Theatre Experience, Inc...

25 years ago, New York theatre pretty much meant Manhattan theatre. Today, there are thriving epicenters of theatrical activity in Williamsburg, Bushwick, Long Island City, downtown Brooklyn, Astoria, the Bronx and other spots in what we used to call the “outer boroughs.”

Back then, you could tell someone you were going to see a play or a musical and they’d have a pretty good idea of what you were talking about. In 2009, the lines between those traditional forms have blurred, and new and re-imagined genres like performance art, multimedia, burlesque, improv, dance, physical theater, puppetry, mask, vaudeville, and even opera can all coalesce within a single production. Home-grown companies intermix with artists from all over the world, and theatre created from every conceivable point-of-view finds its way to the stage here in the Big Apple.

This is why I love living where I live and doing what I do. But it’s also why our mission here at The New York Theatre Experience, Inc., becomes more challenging every year. When we launched NYTE as a nonprofit corporation ten years ago, our vision was pretty straightforward: to help theatergoers navigate the NYC theatre scene via our website, nytheatre.com.

Since then, we’ve expanded the scope of our mission. Today, NYTE is committed to using new and traditional media to highlight, nurture, promote, and advance the work of thousands of indie/nonprofit theatre practitioners who make groundbreaking and foundational art in New York City. We do this by giving thousands of artists free space to list and explain their work on nytheatre.com and our other websites and on our nytheatrecast podcast series. We do this by reviewing more productions than any other media outlet every year—917 so far in 2009. And we do this by providing the first publication for worthy emerging and/or unheralded playwrights—144 of them in our first ten years.

As the community we serve keeps growing and morphing in unpredictable ways, so too has our bailiwick. The world of 2010 is a world of e-books and Kindles, iPhones and Droids. Our #1 focus is to keep providing our community of readers and listeners with the content they need to stay on top of the NYC theatre scene, to know what’s playing, what’s coming, what’s hot, what’s cool; all of the who-what-where-when-why-and-how details, in a format and style that’s easy to deal with and fun to engage with. I will be writing in detail about our plans in upcoming blog posts, right here on the nytheatre i.

Meanwhile, today I ask you to help us make this happen. There are two important actions you can take. And please know that both are very very important.

First, please make a contribution to NYTE. This year we were recognized by Microsoft Corporation with a $5,000 grant for our “promotion of the work of hundreds of nonprofit theatre companies to an audience of 3 million people annually, and all at no cost to the nonprofit theatres themselves.” This extraordinary gift has helped us lay the groundwork for the complicated yet exciting new-tech goodies we are building to make sure we can keep achieving our mission. Your gift of $5, $25, $50 will enable us to enter the world of ebook publishing in 2010, and thereby to bring the works of even more gifted playwrights to a broad, deep, diverse audience. Your gift of $10, $35, $75 will allow us to continue development, testing, and implementation of new features on our websites and a whole new kind of theatre information resource designed for mobile devices like the iPhone.

Any amount—one dollar or one hundred dollars or anything in between—will be greatly appreciated and is in fact essential to make sure we can continue to provide and grow the services we’ve built during our first ten years. NYTE is a nonprofit corporation, and so your donation is tax-deductible in accordance with federal and state laws. You can use your credit card or you can send a check to:

The New York Theatre Experience, Inc.
P.O. Box 1606
Murray Hill Station
New York, NY 10156

If you have already recently made a contribution, thank you very much!

The second action you can take is to stay in touch with us. Your show listings and company updates help make nytheatre.com interesting and comprehensive. Your opinions, ideas, and feedback keep us on track. Post your comments anytime, right here on the nytheatre i. And email me your thoughts about nytheatre.com, NYTE’s publication program, and what we can do to make them more responsive to your needs as a theatre-maker and/or theatre-goer.

I am lucky to be able to work in a field that is so rich and rewarding, and to do that work for people who care deeply about our common culture, our values, and our future. So thank you for reading this, and thank you for being an active part of NYTE’s community, and supporting us.

Here's to a successful, peaceful, and beautiful 2010!

nytheatre Readers' (and Listeners') Choice: 2009 -- Part 2

2009-12-23T12:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I shared with you the most popular podcasts and artist cyberinterviews on nytheatre.com during 2009. Today, we continue exploring what our readers were most interested in by looking at the top nytheatre i blog posts and the most-read nytheatre.com reviews.

Let's start with this blog -- the nytheatre i, home in 2009 to Good News about NYC Theater. Here are the top ten postings for the year:

David H. Koch Theater Gets Aisles (Mar 28)
14th Annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts (May 8)
Puppetry of the Penis Stimulus Package (Apr 10)
Watch the Inauguration at BAM (Jan 10)
Keen Teens Free After-School Theatre Program (Jan 31)
FringeNYC -- Popular Shows (Aug 15)
Barefoot Theatre Company Celebrates Israel Horovitz's Birthday (Mar 18)
50/50 in 2020: Parity for Women Theatre Artists (Sep 6)
Plays and Playwrights 2010: First Announcement (Oct 13)
Ground Up's Barefoot in the Park Announces Events (Jun 25)

Finally, here are two lists of the most popular reviews on nytheatre.com for 2009. I was surprised myself by these results.

Here are the top 10 Broadway/off-Broadway shows:

Shrek The Musical
Billy Elliot the Musical
Jersey Boys
West Side Story
Wicked
God of Carnage
Our Town
South Pacific
The Lion King
Naked Boys Singing

And here are the top 10 indie theater shows:

Jailbait
That Pretty Pretty, or the Rape Play
The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side
Line
The Temperamentals
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
Sweet Storm
Soul Samurai
Homer's Odyssey
The Lily's Revenge

Thoughts about these, anybody?

nytheatre Readers' (and Listeners') Choice: 2009

2009-12-22T13:23:00.004-05:00

So, I've posted nytheatre.com's view of some of the most memorable theatre and theatre artists of the past year here, here, and here. All well and good...but perhaps even more meaningful will be for us to look at what nytheatre.com's readers and nytheatrecast's listeners looked at and heard during 2009. I am certainly interested in what portions of our content were most appealing to our many constituents. I thought perhaps you would be too.

So, for starters, here's the list of the most popular podcast episodes for 2009, from all of the nytheatrecasts we produced throughout the year:

Playwrights In Conversation: Matt Freeman and Adam Szymkowicz (#282)
Metropolitan Playhouse Spring Season (#276) (features Alex Roe)
Balancing Acts--Surviving and Thriving in Theater (#278) (features Robin Rothstein, Melanie Armer, Craig Pospisil, and David Hilder)
Plays and Playwrights 2009: Author Roundtable (#287) (features Colette Freedman and Nick Mwaluko)
Playwrights In Conversation: Matt Freeman and James Comtois (#289)
FRIGID New York Festival Preview (#273) (features artists from six festival productions)
Pan Asian Rep's New Works 2009 (#277) (features Tisa Chang and Ron Nakahara)
Indie Theater NOW! 2009 Holiday Season Preview (#316) (features artists from four holiday productions)
Playwrights In Conversation: Crystal Skillman and Daniel Talbott (#299)
Waterwell's Newest Drop: #9 (#290) (features Tom Ridgely and Kevin Townley)

You can find links to more info about these (and to download each of the podcasts) here.

Now let's take a look at the most popular nytheatre voices interviews:

Maria Striar (Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks Festival)
Carol Polcovar & Fresh Fruit Participants (Fresh Fruit Festival)
Francisco Reyes (Way to Heaven)
Kelly R. Haydon, Tzipora Kaplan, Katherine Heberling (Bird House)
Jon Stancato (Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists)
Chance D. Muehleck and Melanie S. Armer (A Gathering)
Michelle Vest (Sole Survivors: Journey Across Borders)
Kathryn Chetkovich (She Said, She Said)
Chiori Miyagawa (I Have Been to Hiroshima Mon Amour)
Tina Chen (The Shanghai Gesture)

Intriguing, no?

I will have more of these lists for you tomorrow.

Stolen Chair Theatre's Community Supported Theatre: Event #2

2009-12-18T15:25:00.004-05:00

This is the third in our series of postings about Stolen Chair Theatre's new initiative, Community Supported Theatre. It's written by our embedded journalist, Jo Ann Rosen.

*****
December 14, 2009

Despite the torrential rains, die-hard members of Stolen Chair’s Community Sponsored Theatre (CST) showed up for an evening of movie clips that demonstrated the effect of science on popular culture and everyday life. Reactions to the clips followed. The movies are part of CST’s research and inspiration for a play to be written by Kiran Rikhye, resident playwright. The year-long creative process is being shared with its membership. This year’s theme: Quantum Poetics: A Science Experiment for the Stage.

The movie clips highlighted nuclear energy, mathematics, electro-magnetics, and quantum physics. But, before you turn your back on topics you feel you’ll never understand, consider this: among the films were award-winning A Beautiful Mind, with the ever-engaging Russell Crowe, The Matrix with Keanu Reeves, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind featuring Jim Carrey, and Sliding Doors, starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Also included were an embarrassingly naive government-sponsored propaganda film from the 1950s illustrating the proper way for elementary school children to protect themselves during an atomic explosion (Duck and Cover), an animated film moderated by Martin Sheen demonstrating dimension (Flatland), an historical re-enactment of the discovery of electro-magnetic activity by the scientific genius Michael Faraday (Einstein's Big Idea: E is for Energy), Contact, a science fiction film featuring Jodie Foster, Memento, a movie in which the protagonist functions without memory, and Awakenings, the popular movie starring Robin Williams based on Oliver Sacks’s book of the same name, which describes Sacks’s treatment of catatonic patients with a drug that brings them back to life, if only temporarily. Following each clip, attendees participated in animated discussions moderated by Emily Otto, resident dramaturg.

It was clear from the start that one didn’t have to be a math wizard to enjoy A Beautiful Mind. Rather, someone offered that the movie elicited a great respect for genius and a voyeuristic thrill for discovery without demanding an understanding of the equations scrawled all over the movie’s university campus. After viewing Flatland, one participant suggested that scientific knowledge could actually hold back progress. Just as the movie’s animated two-dimensional line could not fathom the words ‘above’ or ‘below’, it’s all-knowing sphere was equally baffled by the possibility of a fourth dimension. Jon Stancato, resident director of Stolen Chair, said he liked NOVA’s production of Einstein's Big Idea, because it showed that a mark of a good scientist was his bold ideas and his rebelliousness – not unlike some of the best playwrights. He also found it appealing that Michael Faraday, who discovered electro-magnetic induction among other things, was depicted as an awestruck child and that he used his science not only to reinforce his religious beliefs but as salvation, in general. Another attendee noted that many scientists found inspiration outside of their field, such as Newton with his apple and Faraday and his wedding ring.

Bringing science into the living room or even the bedroom humanizes the concept. In Sliding Doors, Gwenyth Paltrow inhabits two universes simultaneously: one in which she misses her subway, because a child got in her way as she raced down the stairs, and another in which she actually catches that train, ultimately making a disturbing discovery. All in all, the films inspired thought and conversation – just what the exercise was meant to do!

Following the clips and discussion (did I forget to mention the popcorn and wine?), we read snippets of dialog written by Kiran, ideas that may or may not appear in the final play. The creative process continues. Members can look forward to another stimulating evening on January 24th, where again, science will take center stage.

My New York Theatre Experience: 2009

2009-12-13T19:55:00.003-05:00

It's the time of year for looking back and making lists. I actually enjoy doing a bit of this, especially where the world of New York theatre is concerned--because there are always plenty of great memories to cherish as I think back on the last 12 months of my own personal New York Theatre Experience.

I've already shared with you the names of the 15 theatre artists and companies whom we've cited as nytheatre.com's People of the Year--all of the work these folks contributed to the scene in 2009 ranks among the best of the best as far as I'm concerned.

And I've also told you about the 10 new plays that we'll be including in NYTE's next anthology, Plays and Playwrights 2010. Obviously, these dramas and comedies are to be counted among my top faves of the year as well.

But why should I stop at two lists? I've still got more stuff I want to remind everybody about--so here's my final year-end list, of what I found most worth celebrating in the year in theatre in 2009:

Here, in absolutely random order, are the other new American plays that really excited me this year:

Balaton by Ashlin Halfnight
The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson
This by Melissa James Gibson
The Temperamentals by Jon Marans
The Savannah Disputation by Evan Smith
Behind the Bullseye by Kevin Doyle

In the not-exactly-a-play category, there are these two:

The Lily's Revenge by Taylor Mac
The Pig, The Farmer, and the Artist by David Chesky

The performances I will remember for a long time include:

Jane Fonda in 33 Variations
James Spader and David Alan Grier in Race
Mercedes Ruehl in The American Plan
Geoffrey Rush in Exit the King
Chris Harcum and Kyle Haggerty in The Hypochondriac

Behind-the-scenes, I feel attention must be paid to:

David Korins, for the set design of Why Torture is Wrong and the People Who Love Them
Scott Reynolds, for his direction of Simon Armitage's dramatization of Homer's Odyssey

It was a great year for revivals of American classics. For me, the best of these included:

Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Lincoln Center Theater (directed by Bartlett Sher)
Vieux Carre, Pearl Theatre Company (directed by Austin Pendleton)
It Pays to Advertise, Metropolitan Playhouse (directed by Michael Hardart)
Fifth of July, T. Schreiber Studio (directed by Peter Jensen)
Our Town (directed by David Cromer)

The indie theater company CollaborationTown had a fantastic year in 2009; if they hadn't already been named a "Person of the Year" back in 2006, they would have been on our list this year. They had two excellent, very different new shows: Let's Go and Children at Play.

Vital Theatre Company imported the show that probably ranks as the happiest surprise of my year: the delightful comedy Perfect Wedding, by British playwright Robin Hawdon.

And finally, the most fortuitous non-production event of the year, for my money, was the renaming of the La MaMa Annex as the Ellen Stewart Theatre. What a great tribute to her in the year she celebrated her 90th birthday!

So, there you have it. Martin's New York Theatre Experience for 2009. You can hear me talk about some of this with playwrights Kevin Doyle and Saviana Stanescu on our year-in-review podcast. (We also chat about the theatre scene abroad, beyond the borders of NYC.)

So, now I have to ask: what's on your list for 2009? Send in your "New York Theatre Experience" by posting a comment.

nytheatre.com's People of the Year

2009-12-09T19:32:00.003-05:00

Today on nytheatre.com we announce our 2009 People of the Year.

I want you to read the article so you can find out all about these amazing folks; you'll also find lots of links to reviews, podcasts, and other resources that will spell out how significant their work has been to the indie theater community in NYC.

But I won't tease you...here's the list of the 15 we chose.

There are six theatre companies:

AXIS Company
Inverse Theater
The New York NeoFuturists
Nosedive Productions
Soho Think Tank
Wide Eyed Productions

All but the last of these are long-running companies that have given us dozens of innovative works over the years. Wide Eyed is a relatively new company that has already made a big impact.

There are four actors:

Michael Gnat
Alyssa Simon
Paco Tolson
Matthew Trumbull

There are two directors:

Shannon Sindelar, who runs the Ontological Incubator Series
Sarah Cameron Sunde, who is associate director of New Georges and co-artistic director of Oslo Elsewhere

There's one sound designer, the prolific Elizabeth Rhodes.

There's one playwright/actor, the prolific Richard Lovejoy.

And capping the list is a new very worthy organization, 50/50 in 2020, founded by Melody Brooks, Julie Crosby, and Susan Jonas; its mission is to devise strategies to address the differences in representation of male vs. female playwrights in American theatres.

People of the Year are nominated by the contributors to nytheatre.com, and the final selections are made by NYTE's Board. It's hard to choose just 15 people to represent the broad spectrum of the NYC indie theater scene. But we think it's important to recognize artists who are doing significant work that may otherwise be taken for granted or fall under/off the radar.

So read all about them. And take a look at our past People of the Year, 2004-2008. I think you'll find that we've been doing a pretty good job at identifying the up-and-coming stars of our community.

Help NYC Theatres via the Chase Community Giving Program

2009-12-06T15:14:00.003-05:00

You've almost certainly already heard about the charitable giving program that Chase is conducting through Facebook. The basic concept is that individual Facebook members can vote for their favorite organizations, and the top vote-getters will receive $25,000 grants from Chase.

The link is here--it requires you to be a Facebook member to use, as well as to allow access to this charity application to some of your personal data:

http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/780875

I've personally been asked to vote for a number of very worthy theatre groups who are vying for this funding. If you're on Facebook and open to using this application, I urge you to show support for the nonprofit theatre community in NYC by voting for one or more of these deserving companies.

I got a lovely note from Elena K. Holy of the Present Company/New York International Fringe Festival about this opportunity earlier today. Elena says that the Present Company seems to really be in the running to receive this grant! As she says:

If we were to get this $25,000, it might mean that we could keep our ticket price at $15 for another year....This Chase campaign, as you know, is limited to organizations with a budget of $10 Million dollars or less. Despite the fact that we're on the tiny end of the spectrum (as to staff size as well as budget) we seem to be competitive.

Right now:

Invisible Children = 5374 Votes

Tony Stewart Foundation = 555 Votes

Present Theatre Company = 485 Votes

Quite frankly, for our organization to be doing so well, is amazing. All of the above organizations, and all of our peer organizations, are incredibly worthy.

I would love to see The Present Company get one of these grants because the work they do in turn supports 200 indie theater companies every year; I would love to see all of the winners come from our NYC indie theater community, though that's not terribly likely to happen! You can vote for up to 20 different organizations. I hope you will vote for The Present Company and for many other theatre organizations whose work you love.

Holiday CD Round-Up by Seth Bisen-Hersh

2009-12-01T20:12:00.003-05:00

The nytheatre i happily presents this holiday feature, a look at some recent theatre-related CD releases, written by our CD columnist, Seth Bisen-Hersh:

*****

2009 CD Reviews
by Seth Bisen-Hersh

I admit it: I have been procrastinating writing CD reviews for a while now. The amount of Broadway performers making solo CDs in the last year alone has created quite a backlog. In fact, there are even CDs from 2008 and, dare I admit, 2007 that I failed to cover, and it hardly seems fair to suddenly become a good Samaritan but only cover ones I missed in 2009. Thus, I have decided to review all of the solo (and 1 duet) CDs I have received but not reviewed from 2007 to the present en masse; I hereby present to you 15 concise reviews just in time for holiday shopping.

First, I will say I would highly recommend all of these CDs. They are all pristinely recorded. If you are a fan of the performer, I promise you, you will not be disappointed. Here are the highlights, most recently released recordings first:

Marcy & Zina: The Album: Marcy & Zina’s songs are staples of the cabaret scene. This marks the first time a lot of their classic songs have been professionally recorded, and it’s about time! The songs range from the hilarious--“Fifteen Pounds” and “The Last Song”--to the emotional--“Oh, How I Loved You” and “Welcome to Rain”--but always they exhibit the exquisite song-writing craft you expect from this wonderful writing team.

Chita Rivera: And Now I Swing: Words cannot express how iconic Chita Rivera is. She is without a doubt a Broadway legend and has finally come out with a solo recording, which certainly swings, as the title promises. The highlights are many and include a wonderful new Kander and Ebb song from The Visit--“Love and Love Alone”--a heart-wrenching “Where Am I Going” from Sweet Charity, and a frenzied “Carousel” from Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.

Liz Callaway: Passage of Time: Liz Callaway’s voice is angelic. This recording is replete with highlights--in fact just about every track is a highlight. Simply put, if you are a fan of Callaway, you should have this CD. Here are a few of the reasons:– a new song by Flaherty and Ahrens (“Nothing to Lose”), two Sondheim songs (“Being Alive” and “Children Will Listen”), a rendition of a song from Baby she didn’t get to perform in the show (“Patterns”), and a new duet with her sister, Ann Hampton Callaway (“That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be”). Plus there are four great medleys.

Rebecca Luker: Greenwich Time: Rebecca Luker expresses so much emotion with just the subtlest change in her vocal tone. Her soprano melts over the listener’s ear, as soothing as a mother’s caress. Her recording contains mostly world premiere songs by new composers, but has a few obscure treasures from older ones, as well. The highlights are an esoteric Jule Styne/ Carolyn Leigh tune, “Killing Time,” a chilling rendition of the Goldrich/Heisler ballad, “Out of Love,” and a gentle “Summer with You,” a world premiere John Kander song, which shows a musical side of him never before exhibited.

Kate Baldwin: Let’s See What Happens: Kate Baldwin's debut recording is charming. Baldwin sings fifteen classics either with lyrics by E. Y. Harburg or music by Burton Lane. Harburg’s clever lyrics are almost unparalleled, and Lane’s music is vivacious. The highlights are a jazzy rendition of “How are Things in Glocca Morra?” a tune Baldwin sings 8 times a week on Broadway in Finian's Rainbow, a passionate “He Wasn’t You,” and the upbeat “I Don’t Think I’ll End It All Today,” which incidentally was pleasantly orchestrated by Tony winner Jason Robert Brown.

Alan Cumming: I Bought a Blue Car Today: That Cumming is not exactly a singer does not deter from the charm of this solo debut. The heavily accented Scotsmen neither croons nor belts through his covers of artists as varied as Sinatra and Cindy Lauper, but fans will not be disappointed. Cumming pulls out his characteristic duality of naughtiness and innocence in each selection. Highlights include the Hedwig and the Angry Inch covers “Wig in a Box”/"Wicked Little Town,” where he is truly in his element, the raunchy “Beautiful,” and the Cabaret tribute “Mein Herr.” Overall, an enjoyable listen.

Malcolm Gets: The Journey Home: Malcolm Gets’s first solo recording is simply charming. His soft, sweet interpretations create a serene ambiance. Highlights include a seductive, cross-gendered rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s “Wait,” a sentimental version of Maury Yeston’s ballad “Getting Tall,” and an earnest “Truly Scumptious” from the children’s movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!

Stephanie J. Block: This Place I Know: The coolest thing about Stephanie J. Block’s solo CD is that she asked all the composers to accompany her songs. The next coolest thing is that Block’s flawless, seamless belt is on audible display throughout the recording. She belts higher than anyone should be able to without the slightest bit of effort. The highlights include dueting with 9 to 5 composer Dolly Parton on her standard “I Will Always Love You,” hearing the original “I Want” song from Stephen Schwartz’s Wicked, “Making Good,” and an esoteric gem by Marvin Hamlisch and Craig Carnelia called “Smart Woman.”

Kerry Butler: faith, trust & pixie dust: Kerry Butler’s recording of Disney songs is magical. Butler sweetly transports the listener to the Magic Kingdom, providing a window into childhood. Her family-friendly recording presents calming renditions of mostly animated classics. The highlights include a hopeful “When You Wish Upon a Star,” an imploring medley of “It’s a Small World” and “God Help the Outcasts,” and a melancholy “When She Loved Me.”

Karen Mason: Right Here/Right Now: Karen Mason is a magnificent musical talent. Being extremely versatile, Mason finds the nuance in both comedy and dramatic songs. The highlights of her new CD include the funny “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” and “Hurry! It’s Lovely Up Here,” an intense, incredible medley of the Beatles song “Help” with the Sondheim masterpiece “Being Alive,” and a touching rendition of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “As If We Never Said Goodbye” from Sunset Boulevard (Mason covered the role of Norma Desmond on Broadway).

John Pizzarelli: With a Song in my Heart: The intricate jazz stylings of John Pizzarelli are on clear display on his new album. 7 of 12 tracks feature Pizzarelli’s group, the wonderful Swing Seven (with incredible arrangements by Don Sebesky), and two of the others feature great guest instrumentalists. The selections are all songs written by the legendary Richard Rodgers--some are well-known, while others are fairly obscure. The recording is uniformly grand with each track providing eclectic and unexpected twists. If you are into jazz and enjoy the music of Rodgers, this CD is for you!

Sutton Foster: Wish: Sutton Foster is a like a breath of fresh air. Her first solo CD is whimsically joyous and showcases her dynamic range from sweet to brassy, from funny to poignant and from introverted to extroverted. The highlights of the CD include the folky rendition of Christine Lavin’s “Air Conditioner,” a thrilling duet with Little Women co-star Megan McGinnis: Craig Carnelia’s “Flight,” an emotional “Once Upon a Time” from Charles Strouse and Lee Adams’s All American and a belty rendition of the anthem “On My Way” from Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley’s Violet.

Lauren Kennedy: here and now: Lauren Kennedy continues to be a stunning voice for new composers with her second solo CD. When she belts, it’s a seamless, shimmering sound. The highlights of the CD include a new upbeat song by Andrew Lippa, “Spread a Little Joy,” a fantastic jazzy song by The Wedding Singer team, Matthew Sklar & Chad Beguelin, “Pretending that I’m Somebody Else,” and Marcy Heisler & Zina Goldrich’s hilarious, honest cabaret song, “Apathetic Man.”

Kelli O’Hara: Wonder in the World: Kelli O’Hara has a seductive soprano. Her jazzy debut recording features new arrangements of some standards plus three original songs by Harry Connick, Jr, O’Hara’s Pajama Game co-star, who also duets on the title song. The highlights are the aforementioned title duet, the soft arrangement of Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes,” an emotional, mature “Fable” from Adam Guettel’s The Light in the Piazza, which O’Hara co-starred in playing the younger role, and a delicious “I Have Dreamed” from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s classic, The King and I.

Judy Kuhn: Serious Playground: The Songs of Laura Nyro: It could be said that one of the greater tragedies in Nyro's career was that her music was so heavily covered that no one outside of the music industry revered her songwriting with the same esteem as peers such as Joni Mitchell. However, here her catalog is treated with the appropriate amount of respect that perhaps only a Broadway Baby could dish out. Other singers might be weary of tackling these highly complex pop songs, so treasured by Nyro fans, and so varied in their keys and melodies. So intricate is the songwriting that Nyro can flawlessly swing from a variety of melodies, pitches, keys, time changes etc.--all in the same song! And Kuhn dutifully follows along, her love for the music clearly evident. It would be impossible to choose a highlight from an album that encompasses so much light and so much darkness.

Kickoff! -- Stolen Chair Theatre's Community Supported Theatre

2009-11-27T17:16:00.003-05:00

Here's the first dispatch from Jo Ann Rosen, nytheatre.com's "embedded journalist" with the Stolen Chair Theatre's Community Supported Theatre program.

*****

November 22, 2009

Even before President Obama urged educators to concentrate their efforts on math and science, Stolen Chair Theatre co-artistic directors Jon Stancato and Kiran Rikhye were reaching for the stars. Last night, they launched the pilot program of their Community Sponsored Theatre (CST) that introduced friends, family and, most importantly, the new CST members to this year’s theatrical theme: Quantum Poetics: A Science Experiment for the Stage.

The evening, divided into two parts, began with a slide presentation by Jon, also the resident director, explaining the CST concept, which he hopes will solidify a long-term relationship between the theater group and its membership. The plan is to update and educate the members monthly on the creative process. Kiran, Stolen Chair’s resident playwright, focused on their mission statement: to create “playfully intellectual, wickedly irreverent and exuberantly athletic original works.” Aviva Meyer, the communications director, explained how they intend to increase awareness through telephone interviews that will become pod casts and through their online social network, The Chaise Lounge, where subsequent CST events and other related activities, will be posted.

But it was the second part of the evening that delivered on the CST concept; that is, they shared the result of their first steps in the dynamic process of creating a play. Seven actors re-enacted exercises developed during a recent creative retreat. To prepare for the retreat, each actor received a 211-page compilation of articles and books on a wide variety of scientific subjects, including theoretical physics and neuroscience. They also received books by Bertolt Brecht, Aristotle, and Richard Schechner, who, in Jon’s words, “approach theater with the same sort of empirical rigor as scientists.” During the retreat, ideas percolated and Jon added requirements and boundaries to the concepts. The actors interpreted and enacted them. The best of the compositions were presented at the kickoff.

Performances represented the personification of five theories: chaos, gravity, memory, evolution, and synethesia (senses crossing from one part of the brain to another, as from brain damage or drugs). The first exercise, made up of all seven actors, reflected an imaginative interpretation of a human collider creating new matter. The group, held tightly together by a hula hoop, moved slowly to center stage. Once the plastic ring dropped, each burst from the whole with great energy. Another performance related the story of The Three Little Pigs to represent three gravity-defining moments; a third showed the daily routine of two people that could easily have doubled for two rats in a maze. All were big scientific ideas applied to every day life. They were made comprehensible and whimsical by this very clever group.

Kiran, who will be giving shape to the final play, knows there will be lots of changes during this year-long collaboration. The final version may include parts of the exercises, maybe only a gesture, or none of it. But, what the charter members saw last night was the first spark of a new play – Quantum Poetics: A Science Experiment for the Stage. The next event is on Sunday, December 13. They will be screening clips from movies that explore scientific themes. Membership is still open.

*****

Learn more about Stolen Chair and CST here.

Major Savings on Tickets to Pilar Rioja Flamenco

2009-11-07T10:11:00.003-05:00

Theatergoers who have never experienced authentic flamenco on stage have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do so at a very affordable price this month. Thanks to a grant from Target, Repertorio Espanol is offering a great ticket discount for purchases made on or before November 16th. You pay regular price for the first ticket ($30 and up) and just $1 for the second ticket. (You can buy up to 8 tickets with this offer.)

Pilar Rioja was born in Torreón, México to Spanish parents who hailed from the Rioja region of Spain. Ms. Rioja combined her modern, ballet and classical dance training with traditional Spanish dance forms. She has taught throughout Latin America, Spain, the United States and even Armenia, and to the dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. Ms. Rioja has been an inspiration for many artists' work including: a sculpted bust by Arnold Taylor, drawings and paintings by Hector Javier, paintings by Spanish artist Antonio Peyri, a collection of songs and poetry by Luis Ríus, poetry by Juan Duch and Alfonso Simone and an audiovisual production by Neil Goldberg in New York (http://www.neilgoldberg.com/). Ms. Rioja has performed in the United States, México, Latin America, Spain, Austria, Bulgaria and throughout the former Soviet Union. In 1996, she performed in England with the BBC Proms Orchestra and in 1997 with the Brooklyn Philharmonic in New York; as a guest artist with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra in Portland and the San Antonio Symphony in Texas as well as two participations in the prestigious Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts. Ms. Rioja debuted solo in New York at Repertorio Español in 1972, this is her 37th season with the Company.

You can read more about her show here. Tickets for Pilar Rioja may be reserved by phone: 212-225-9920; online: repertorio.org or in person: Repertorio Español’s Gramercy Arts Theater Box Office located at 138 East 27 Street, New York, NY between Lexington and Third Avenues.

The Temperamentals Moves to Off-Broadway

2009-11-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a great piece of news: The Temperamentals, Jon Marans's excellent and insightful new play about Harry Hay and the founding of the Mattachine Society, is moving to New World Stages in February.

This is a terrific work that reminds us how recent the struggle for gay rights really is; it's particularly timely in this current period of opposition to same-sex marriage rights. I reviewed the original off-off-Broadway presentation here.

I had the privilege of interviewing playwright Jon Marans on an episode of our nytheatrecast podcast series. Listen here or read more about it.

I'll post details about casting, ticketing, and more as they are released, on nytheatre.com

Stolen Chair Theatre's Community Supported Theatre

2009-11-05T10:07:00.003-05:00

Stolen Chair Theatre Company was recently awarded a grant to develop a new model for funding their work. Their program--Community Supported Theatre--is based on the very successful Community Supported Agriculture concept. You can read much more about what Stolen Chair is planning to do here. I did a podcast with Stolen Chair members Jon Stancato and Aviva Meyer along with Jennifer Wright Cook from The Field which provides lots of great background about this initiative as well.

We at NYTE think that what Stolen Chair is doing has real significance and applicability to the indie theater community. So we've asked the folks at Stolen Chair if we can have one of our contributors follow the program as it develops and unfolds, as an "embedded" member of the new CST. They've graciously consented, and so today I am happy to let readers know that nytheatre.com staffer Jo Ann Rosen will be reporting about CST for the next nine months, right here at the nytheatre i.

Here's Jo Ann's initial dispatch:

Good ideas are plentiful, but the number of people willing to invest time, money, and a detailed plan to see whether, in fact, their concepts actually work are far fewer. This appears particularly relevant in theater, where the daily scramble to keep the dinghy afloat is particularly acute. Therefore, it seemed worth more than a glance to talk to Jon Stancato, co-artistic director of The Stolen Chair Theatre Company, and learn about his ambitious plans for developing community sponsored theater (CST). For the next nine months, I will be embedded for nytheatre.com as a member of Stolen Chair, reporting on the monthly events of Stancato’s new business model for theater production.

Basically, Stancato is rethinking the relationship of the audience to his theater, offering an alternative to the actively-engaged theatergoer. His idea grew from his long-time membership in Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA), where each member invests seed money and in return reaps the profits of local farms. According to Jon, some weeks the produce he received looked gorgeous and tasted even better, other weeks less so due to heavy rains. At times, he received a nice variety of vegetables, other times his share could amount to five pounds of cauliflower. Still, he is nothing short of ecstatic about his heightened understanding and better appreciation for the farm-to-table process. “I’ve learned so much about food!” - about the process, what goes into putting it on the table, an increased enjoyment of eating, and an interest in cooking. Then, the connection sank in. Could he do the same thing with his theater? That is, could he create a rich and committed community by including people in the process?

Jon thinks so. Members will participate once per month in a wide range of events that illuminate his chosen topic: panel discussions, lectures, viewings of rehearsal footage, movies, field trips, and more, ending with a full production of a new play. “My plays always start with an obsession,” he offered. He reads, and reads, and then reads some more on topic. His references for each production are listed on Stolen Chair’s website. “I’m trying to create theater that hasn’t been done before.” The topic for the pilot project is Quantum Poetics. Not interested in science? Too intellectually challenging? According to Jon, the concepts will be presented in relevant, understandable ways that have meaning for the members.

Stancato is aiming for 100 charter members, but will breathe easy with 50. They might be connected to people in the production, interested in the subject matter, or intrigued by Stolen Chair and its process. Wherever they come from and whatever their interest level, Stancato is intent on building a group of invested audience members. “This is not about rewarding donations. It’s about creating community,” he emphasized. “By buying into the community, you get nine months worth” of enlightening and thoughtful entertainment related to the play’s topic. All members receive the same benefits, but there are several ways of joining. A group of three can join for $325; one person for $175; and a student for $150. Stolen Chair has already received a $20,000 grant to jumpstart this idea. Stancato will kick off his CST on November 22.

Watch here for monthly updates of the events. It should be a fascinating year.

Meet Susan Louise O'Connor and Greg Kotis

2009-11-04T10:24:00.004-05:00

Next Monday night (November 9), at the Kraine Theater, members of the indie theater community will have a chance to meet two of its biggest success stories in a panel sponsored by the League of Independent Theater.

Susan Louise O'Connor has been given nicknames like the "queen of downtown theatre" after a long history of memorable performances in plays by Daniel MacIvor and others at venues like the Red Room and 14th Street Theatre. Her career has recently taken off in more commercially viable directions, happily; last spring she appeared on Broadway in Blithe Spirit, alongside Angela Lansbury, Christine Ebersole, and Rupert Everett, in a performance that was highly regarded enough to bring her a Theatre World Award.

Greg Kotis had a long career working in the trenches in Chicago and NYC indie theater scenes before his musical Urinetown (co-written with Mark Hollman) made a splash (pun entirely intended; sorry) first at the FringeNYC festival in 1999 and then off-Broadway and finally, in 2001, on Broadway at the Henry Miller Theatre. Greg won 2 Tony Awards for Urinetown.

At Monday's "Get Lit with LIT" event, you will have the chance to hear from Susan and Greg as they talk about the trajectories of their careers. Mark Lonergan will moderate a panel with these two artists, and afterward there will be time for audience members to speak directly with both of these folks. This is a great chance for people in the indie theater world to spend some quality time with people who have set down roots in our community but achieved success in the more "mainstream" world beyond it.

This event is free!

Get Lit with LIT, featuring Susan Louise O'Connor and Greg Kotis, is at the Kraine Theatre, on Monday, November 9, from 7-9pm.

Previewing Ars Nova's ANT Festival

2009-10-15T17:24:00.004-04:00

Ars Nova's ANT Festival, which runs from October 20 - November 22 at the Midtown venue, is tough for a website like nytheatre.com to cover. All of the programs are one-night-only, and many are works-in-progress, not really suitable for review. How can we get people excited about this festival, and give them the info they need to decide whether they want to go to it, and if so, which shows they want to sample?

We are solving this dilemma with a two-pronged attack on the festival! By tomorrow, our preview podcast for the 2009 Festival will be online at nytheatrecast.com and available for download. This podcast is one of the most fun ones we've ever made. We got artists from 18 out of the 32 shows participating in ANT and we gave each of them 90 seconds at the microphone. The result is a collage of every kind of contemporary performance you can imagine! Cudzoo and the Fagettes sing an a cappella ditty about a-b-o-r-t-i-o-n, Soce the Elemental Wizard performs a 30-second rap, Jesica Delfino plays on her v-shaped ukulele, Elsie Jay's Improv Girl Smash tantalize us with a chat about what sort of hookers they will play at their show, and The Mighty Third Rail give listeners a sample of their beatboxing accompanied by a mean fiddle player.

And there's much more! Check out our podcast and get a real taste of the ANT Festival. Then check out Ars Nova's website for the details about showtimes, ticketing, etc.

Now for the second prong: I asked Emily Shooltz, one of the curators of the festival, to answer a few questions about this event. Here's our cyber-conversation:

ME: How do you go about finding the artists who will participate in the festival?

EMILY: We accept open submissions for ANT FEST each summer. We put out the call to emerging artists in theater, music, comedy and everything in between to send us their original shows, and this year we were lucky to have an embarrassment of riches--we received hundreds of applications from a truly phenomenal range of talent. We could have programmed the festival twice over from the materials we received, so choosing just thirty nights was a challenge! Our goal is to find the next wave of emerging artists, those who see the future of live entertainment and need a chance to show off their skills. Over the five weeks of the festival this year, more than 200 artists will use ANT FEST as a way to showcase their talents.

ME: What can audiences expect at Ars Nova during the festival?

EMILY: Every night a new group of performers takes the stage and the festival is designed to be eclectic, so you definitely won't see the same thing twice! Expect to see emerging artists pushing the boundaries, and a lot of hot new talent exploding preconceived notions of what a concert, or a play, or a crypto-zoology-horror show can be. Our hope is that audiences will take a chance on a few different shows to get a taste of the wide range the festival has to offer. We definitely have concerts for music lovers, great improv and sketch for comedy fans, but also magic, vaudeville, a play or two, and even an interpretive dance squad to wrap things up. Plus we've added late-night variety shows called Showgasm on Thursdays during the festival--they're free and a great way to hang out with festival artists and sample what's coming up in ANT FEST.

ME: What's it like to attend one of the performances?

EMILY: It's an awesome, fun, night out! Because each performance is for one night only, the crowd is pumped to be there and there's a great vibe around the whole event. All of the ANT FEST artists are very supportive of each others' shows, and it's not uncommon for the party to continue at a bar around the corner when the curtain comes down.

ME: Can people get drinks and/or food?

EMILY: We have a full bar in the theater (be warned--the drinks are strong!) and snacks like chocolate and Pirate's Booty. People are welcome to take drinks to their seats, but we have no drink minimum, so no pressure!

ME: Do the artists hang out?

EMILY: Absolutely. ANT FEST artists can see any of each others' shows for free (space permitting), so they are around for performances, and the Showgasms are a way for everyone to come together and have a beer and watch some hilarity each week. Plus, our festival bars, Bar Nine and The Ritz, are offering ANT FEST artists and audience members a free drink with their program after the shows, so why would anyone go home?

Plays and Playwrights 2010: First Announcement

2009-10-13T10:41:00.003-04:00

Friends, colleagues, readers -- today I am very excited to announce the forthcoming publication of NYTE's 11th annual anthology of new works from the world of indie theater: Plays and Playwrights 2010. We are now in production for this volume, with an expected release date of February 1, 2010.

Plays and Playwrights 2010 will include ten plays, culled from the hundreds of new American plays that premiered in NYC's indie theaters from September 2008-September 2009. Here they are, in the order they appeared on stage:

The Invitation by Brian Parks: This is a scathing, vitriolic, and surprising dark comedy from one of the masters of contemporary comedy of manners. In it, a dinner party among five old friends goes horribly awry.
Flip Side by Ellen Maddow: This play from The Talking Band contrasts two opposite worlds--one drab and predictable, the other fast-paced and dynamic. It's an exploration of symmetry, balance, and harmony--in our lives, and in theatrical style.
Any Day Now by Nat Cassidy: A modern epic tragicomedy about a family coping with their daily lives...and an epidemic of zombie-ism. Nat's play The Reckoning of Kit and Little Boots was recognized last month at the New York Innovative Theatre Awards.
The Spin Cycle by Jerrod Bogard: As the title suggests, this is a cycle of short plays about the notion of "spin" in contemporary America. Jerrod's "green" musical for children, Jack and the Soy Beanstalk, is currently playing at the Algonquin Theatre.
Suspicious Package: Rx by Gyda Arber and Aaron Baker: This interactive "iPod" play premiered at the Brick's Antidepressant Festival. It embraces Web 2.0 technology in a dazzlingly innovative way.
Our Country by Tony Asaro and Dan Collins: A new musical about a country & western singer who is inadvertently outed following a tryst with a cop in a public men's room. Full of heart and vigor, this show premiered at the brand new Planet Connections Theatre Festivity.
Maddy--A Modern Day Medea by Will LeVasseur: This is a contemporary re-telling of the legend of Medea, set in a Southern trailer park. Its exploration of the cosmic forces invoked in the story bowled me over.
Al's Business Cards by Josh Koenigsberg: The format of La Ronde is freely adapted here into a hilarious farce about circumstance and coincidence and miscommunication and misunderstanding.
The Songs of Robert by John Crutchfield: A one-man musical about a young man growing up in Appalachia. This smart and sensitive piece debuted in the New York International Fringe Festival.
MilkMilkLemonade by Joshua Conkel: A parable about growing up queer in the American heartland, by a young playwright who has made a big name for himself within the indie theater community in a very short period.

I'll be posting about the new book every so often between now and its release, to keep you apprised of our progress and, more importantly, to introduce the plays and playwrights to you. I am proud to be working with these 12 distinguished artists, and thrilled to present their work to a wide audience in Plays and Playwrights 2010.

The Ellen Stewart Theater

2009-10-10T18:46:00.002-04:00

On November 1, the La MaMa Annex Space will be renamed The Ellen Stewart Theater, as a living tribute to La MaMa's founder and artistic director. I can't think of better way to celebrate the life and career of Ellen Stewart; nor can I think of a theater person more deserving of having a theater named after them.

The following comes from the press release from La MaMa:

La MaMa ETC - one of the standard-bearers of experimental theater in New York and around the globe since it was founded in 1961 by the inimitable Ellen Stewart - will rename its Annex theater the Ellen Stewart Theater at a gala entitled "Celebrating Ellen" on Sunday, November 1 at 4 p.m. at the Annex (66 E. 4 St.), it has been announced by Mia Yoo, Associate Artistic Director of La MaMa, and Frank Carucci, President of the theater's Board of Directors.
A host of La MaMa alum - including Tony winner Bill Irwin, Meredith Monk, John Kelly, Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, Elizabeth Swados, Andrei Serban and members of Ms. Stewart's own Great Jones Repertory Company - will perform and pay tribute to Ms. Stewart, affectionately known as "Mama," at the November 1st event, which will also mark the 48th anniversary of the founding of La MaMa ETC.
Through Ms. Stewart's guidance and vision of international and multi-cultural collaboration in the arts, La MaMa ETC is considered the home of experimental theater in America, one of the premiere presenters of the international avant-garde, and a beacon to all artists who explore the boundaries of creative expression. Well-known names of the theatre for whom La MaMa was their first artistic home in the United States include Andrei Serban, Elizabeth Swados, Jerzy Grotowski, Tadeusz Kantor, Tom O'Horgan, Lee Breuer,Tom Eyen, Mike Figgis, Joel Zwick, Harold Pinter (THE ROOM -- La MaMa was the first presenter of Mr. Pinter's work in the United States); Kazuo Ohno, Tan Dun, Julia Stiles and Diane Lane, as well as artists from Japan, Nigeria, Korea, Zaire, Ivory Coast, Poland and countless other countries. La MaMa was the first Off-Off Broadway theatre to support full-time resident companies, and was the first Off-Off company to tour Europe. La MaMa has been honored with numerous OBIE Awards, dozens of Drama Desk Awards, Bessie Awards and Villager Awards.
For ticket information about "Celebrating Ellen," call the La MaMa box office at 212-475-7710. Single tickets are available for $100, with various patron packages also available.

Ellen Stewart also won the first Stewardship Award from the New York Innovative Theatre Foundation (an award that NYTE was honored to received in 2008). La MaMa's website is at http://www.lamama.org.

Theater for the Adventurous Soul

2009-10-09T10:27:00.002-04:00

There is always so much interesting and surprising theater going on in NYC at any given time that it's sometimes easy for shows to "fall through the cracks." Our mission here at nytheatre.com--and at our affiliated website, indietheater.org--is to try to make sure that this doesn't happen. We want to be certain that while the mainstream media is talking about Hugh Jackman and Tony Roberts and Jeremy Piven, there's also a place on the web where people can learn about the New York Neo-Futurists and Rich Lovejoy and David D'Agostini.

That's why today we launch Theater for the Adventurous Soul.

It's a new section of indietheater.org where I will highlight (to quote myself) "the best in unusual, inventive, out-of-the-ordinary, under-the-radar indie theater." TFAS will be updated continually, to provide news and views about the great stuff happening in the world of indie theater that you might not have heard or read about...shows that are perfect for folks who want to be challenged by and immersed in a fulfilling and stimulating theatrical experience.

The current lineup at TFAS includes Laika Dog in Space, The Dark Heart of Meteorology, and Homer's Odyssey.

Please check out this newest feature and let me know your thoughts about it. And, if you have ideas for some other kinds of theatre you'd like to see spotlighted here at nytheatre.com and indietheater.org -- i.e., theater for people other than "adventurous souls" -- please send me your suggestions! (Email me.)

Another Look at Indie Theater

2009-10-08T10:00:00.001-04:00

Theatre Resources Unlimited (TRU) is presenting a panel on Wednesday, October 21, that should be both interesting and edifying. It's called "Where Do I Belong: Off-Broadway or Indie Theater?" Here's the description, from the good people at TRU:

We'll attempt to define "indie theater," the new designation for showcase and off-off-Broadway productions, and compare it to off-Broadway. Are the differences mainly economic, or are there significant aesthetic distinctions? Does "indie" necessarily encompass fringe and festival production? When planning a production of a new work, what are the reasons for aiming at one medium versus another? What economic impact does "indie theater" have on New York's economy? And how different is producing not-for-profit from producing commercially?

As you may know, the term "indie theater" was coined by Kirk Wood Bromley back in 2005, and has been championed by me here on the nytheatre i and on nytheatre.com's community website, indietheater.org. I am very excited that TRU has invited me to participate on their panel to talk about what it means for theater to be "indie"--economically, artistically, and in other contexts. I am really looking forward to this event, and hope that lots of you will attend!

The other panelists slated to participate are: Paul Bargetto, Managing Director of Public Affairs, League of Independent Theater; Frances Black, Director of Member Services, ART-New York; Virginia Louloudes, Executive Director, ART-New York; and Stacey Cooper McMath, Associate Arts Program Specialist, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Here's the rest of the important info about the event:

Doors open at 7:00pm for networking and refreshments, panel starts promptly at 7:30pm. FREE for TRU members; $12 for non-members. Please call at least a day in advance for reservations: 212/714-7628; or e-mail TRUnltd@aol.com. The panel will be held on Wed, October 21, 2009 at the Players Theatre, 115 Macdougal Street, Mainstage Theatre.

***

You may also be interested in this TRU event: Pitching & Presentation Skills for Producers, Writers & Everyone! This is a new full-day, two-part program with Jane Petrov and Roy Havrilack of Skytown Entertainment, Saturday October 10, 11am to 5pm, Players Theatre, 115 Macdougal Street, 3rd floor loft. Full details are here.

Readers of the nytheatre i can attend for the special price of $125 (a $50 savings from the regular price of $175). Just tell the folks at TRU you heard about it from Martin.

New Ways to Navigate the NYC Theatre Scene on nytheatre.com

2009-10-07T10:00:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, we added two new features to nytheatre.com that I hope will be useful to our readers.

PICK A PLAYWRIGHT provides you with an alphabetical listing of playwrights whose work is currently playing (or about to be playing) in NYC. It's a simple, convenient way for you to keep up with the dramatists that matter to you. Who's the most popular playwright in New York right now? I don't think you'll be surprised, but you'll find the answer right here. (There's a tie for 2nd place between two very successful contemporary American playwrights.)

SEE SHOW WEBSITES is a portal to the official websites of shows with currently scheduled runs in New York theatres. What I love about this feature is that it lets you move rapidly from one show's site to another without having to hunt for the links--you can get a real feel for what a show is like by visiting its official site (usually!). The journey from one to another is fun and entertaining.

These are two additions that I've been looking forward to bringing to nytheatre.com for a while now. And they are just the beginning of what we have planned.

As you may recall, nytheatre.com won the "Show Your Impact" contest sponsored by Microsoft last summer, and received both a cash grant and a ton of software as the prize. Well, we've started working with some of our new software and we've made subtle but far-reaching changes to the nytheatre.com infrastructure. Maybe you've noticed some of the new little ways we've started enhancing our site: the design of the individual show/review pages has been improved, and we're listing more information about closed shows... we've added venue links to the festival calendar... we've upgraded the way festival productions are displayed throughout the site... and those are just a few examples.

I'll be announcing some new technology-related enhancements to nytheatre.com and to NYTE's suite of services to the NYC theatre community quite soon in upcoming posts on this blog. In the meantime, please let me know what you think of our new features and what changes/additions you'd like to see on nytheatre.com.

How Does It Feel to be a Winner of the NYIT Awards? Part 2

2009-09-26T21:52:00.010-04:00

The nominees for the New York Innovative Theatre Awards sit nervously in the dark at the New World Stages waiting for their category to be announced. Then, from the stage comes the boom of "and the winner is....".

For the 2nd year, nytheatre.com wanted to get the instant reaction at that moment from the winners. We asked three questions: (1)What was the absolute first thought you had when you heard them call your name? (2)Who was the first person you called/emailed to tell that you won? (3)What does this award signify or mean to you personally? Here are the answers in the order we received them. This is the second batch of responses (see previous post for the first group).

LEE/GENDARY - Outstanding Production of a Play
Soomi Kim, producer/creator

First thought: “YES!!!”

First called: My good friend Lillie Haws who helped dress me for the event.

Award means: SO much! This project has been a passion of mine for a long time. It is an original play about Bruce Lee. Not only was he the first real Asian American Hollywood star who brought the recognition of Kung fu to millions, he was an icon/iconoclast, martial artist, choreographer, teacher, philosopher an simply a super badass human being. To be able to portray someone of this magnitude and to be able to bring his story to the stage is a dream come true. To have won an award for this production is just icing on the cake. But I also recognize that I know that we won this award for “Outstanding Production of a Play” because I have surrounded myself with Outstanding collaborators and people.

JEFF GROW - Outstanding Solo Performance
Outstanding Performance Art Piece
Creating Illusion

First thought: Wow!! (Then my mind went blank to focus on not tripping on the stairs, etc. and preparing to say something coherent)

First called: Jessi D. Hill, who directed the show and couldn't attend ceremony because she’s working in Chicago.

Award means: It is really nice to have one’s work recognized and it appears people enjoy it, so that gives me inspiration to continue presenting it.

BRUCE STEINBERG - Outstanding Lighting Design
Blue Before Morning

First thought: I was totally floored when I heard my name. I couldn't really think of anything besides remembering to get my thank you list.

First called: I texted my classmates at the graduate design program at NYU. I've been so lucky to learn from and grow with all of them.

Award means: I am really happy that I won for a piece produced by terraNOVA. I've worked with them for three years and think Jen and JD's work is wonderful and challenging.

WILLIAM APPS IV - Outstanding Actor in a Featured Role
Amerissiah

First thought: I was not there for the ceremony because I was in a show that night , but when I got the text message from Derek Ahonen it was intermission of Oedipus the King which was the show I was doing at the time and I was so happy that I had to try so hard to forget about the award , because theres nothing happy about Oedipus.

First called: The fist person that I called was my amazing friend and talented actress Selene Beretta who was also in the Amerissiah in the role of Loni my drug addicted girlfriend.

Award means: What I hope this will do for my career is give me the chances to play roles that others may not think I can do and also give me the opportunities to perform at the higher levels of our wonderful industry.

CONSTANCE PARNG - Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role
Lee/gendary

First thought: Nothing. My mind completely emptied itself. I was stunned.

First called: My brother Walter. It was also his birthday!

Award means: I loved doing Lee/gendary. It was challenging and rewarding. I got to do good work with good people. The award was the icing on top. And it truly wouldn't have been possible without my amazing cast-mates, our director Suzi Takahashi's tireless work and dedication, Derek Nguyen's great script, Lucrecia Briceno's beautiful lighting, Airon Armstrong's expert choreography, our awesome crew, and Soomi Kim's inspired vision of Bruce Lee, whose heart & soul carried the show.

How Does It Feel to be a Winner of the NYIT Awards?

2009-09-23T22:58:00.016-04:00

JILLIAN ZEMEN - Outstanding Stage Manager
Ragtime, Astoria Performing Arts Center

First thought: Oh my God, I hope I don’t throw up when I give my speech. I’m not one for public speaking and I just wanted to get in and get out as gracefully as possible and not forget to thank anyone who was a part of the production.

First called: My parents/sister/family.

Award means: It’s the first award to go to someone in my field, so it’s such an incredible honor to be the inaugural recipient. It’s validation, it shows that my hard work is paying off and people do notice. It pushes me to keep working just as hard to go further and further in the future.

SARAH LOWE - Outstanding Original Music
The Apple Sisters

First thought: Well... I am currently living in Vegas doing the show Jersey Boys... so I didn't hear them call it, but Kimmy was there and she called me & Rebekka and we screamed and gave each other a big hug! We couldn't believe it! The best part is that Rebekka was in town to celebrate my recent engagement!! I am having the best week EVER!

First called: I got the call right as I was heading into the theater... so I called my Dad, my Mom, then told the whole cast!! then, of course I posted it as my facebook status.

Award means: We started as a little comedy show... we had no idea- at least I had no idea- what would happen. We have been so lucky to have found each other. To me, this just means we're gonna keep working... more songs! more shows!! More, more, more!!!

NAT CASSIDY - Outstanding Original Full Length Script
The Reckoning of Kit & Little Boots

First thought: “Oh, shit, try not to curse too much.”

First called: Throughout the show, I kept getting text messages (phone on silent, don’t worry) from people who were, somehow, finding out before I could tell them. So, I guess, technically, the first person I myself told was my mailing list, which is filled with wonderful, beautiful people who haven’t yet told me to stop e-mailing them fart jokes.

Award means: I’m hugely honored, as I’m still relatively new to playwriting. I wrote a lot of short stories (and a few abortive novels) when I was younger, and a ton of sketch comedy throughout my life, but I’ve really spent the majority of my time focusing on acting—constructing full-length playscripts is still kind of a brave new world to me. I was so incredibly excited to even be included in the list of nominees (particularly alongside Mac Roger’s Universal Robots, which was so personally inspiring to me), and it really confirmed for me there will always be an audience for new, intelligent, different, occasionally wacky, but always bold theatre.

MICHAEL P. KRAMER - Outstanding Set Design
Ragtime, Astoria Performing Arts Center

First thought: Holy shit! Did I really hear my name? Sounded like my name, I should make my way to the stage just in case.

First called: I didn’t have cell service in the theatre, when I was done with the press photos, interviews etc. I made my way outside and sent a text to family and friends.

Award means: I am just happy to be recognized and be part of this community. It is an honor to be one of the nominees, and I was lucky enough that the judges and the public voted for me. I have been nominated in the past, but I am really proud to have won for this specific production. It was a very special production for APAC. I think it touched a lot of people. This is the type of show you always hope you are involved with, the type of show you are always trying to create, but somehow eludes your best efforts. I am proud and extremely thankful.

THE GALLERY PLAYERS - Outstanding Production of a Musical
Like You Like It - Heather Siobhan Curran, artistic director

First thought: Oh, my God! 3 times in a row!

First called: My husband

Award means: That The Gallery Players should continue to program new musical theater work as part of their regular season. It also validated my choices as Artistic Director and producer.

NICO VREELAND - Outstanding Original Short Script
The Interview, Elephants on Parade 2009

First thought: A combination of “Is this really happening?” and “Don’t trip on the stairs.” It gets a little hazy after that.

First called: The director of my show was busy texting people while I was backstage, so by the time I turned my phone on, my sister and my mother were already calling me. When I got home, I emailed my girlfriend, who’s in Africa. I haven’t heard back yet.

Award means: As an aspiring artist, it’s great to know that you’re not shouting into a void. It’s a thrill for me that somebody’s watching, and a real honor that they like what they see.

THE BRICK THEATER - Caffe Cino Fellowship Award
Michael Gardner, co-founder

First thought: The Caffe Cino Fellowship Award is actually determined and announced many weeks before the awards event. So it wasn’t any sort of surprise. But the announcement of our name marked the pinnacle of a month’s worth of nervousness over how to address 500 of my peers.

First called: The first person we notified was EVERYONE WE KNEW ON FACEBOOK.

Award means: Caffe Cino was before my time. Which makes it all the more meaningful for me, personally. I studied and devoured literature about 1960s Off-Off theater in undergrad. It was a period of intense creativity and fearlessness that I try to emulate as an artist and venue director on my better days. To be honored in the name of the institution which is credited with launching Off-Off Broadway as we know it is humbling, to say the least. We at The Brick like to think of ourselves as artists and community-builders in equal measure. And to be recognized as such by The New York Innovative Theatre Awards was insanely gratifying.

NEW YORK NEO-FUTURISTS - Outstanding Ensemble
(Not) Just a Day Like Any Other, Christopher Borg

First thought: Because I’m on the staff, when I heard them announce the recipient, there was a flash moment where I thought “am I in trouble?” then “there was a mistake!” – but after the initial flash of confusion I was overcome with such a feeling of elation and gratitude. It was one of the best feelings I have ever experienced, frankly.

First called: My sister, Meg! I texted her as soon as I got to my phone. And then I twittered it, of course!

Award means: It is especially meaningful to have received THIS particular award (Ensemble) for THIS particular production! The Neos always work as an ensemble, so we value this recognition above all others. But “(Not) Just a Day…” is by FAR the most ensemble-driven piece of theatre I have ever worked on. It was intensely personal and vulnerable to create an autobiographical piece, but the high-level of support and artistic guidance from the rest of my ensemble (Eevin, Kevin and Jeffrey) enabled me to open up and tell my part of the story honestly and openly. The show was one of the most gratifying theatrical experiences of my career and receiving the IT Award made me more proud and honored to be a part of my ensemble and my community in general. I couldn’t be happier. It couldn’t happen to a better group.

NEW YORK NEO-FUTURISTS - Outstanding Ensemble
(Not) Just a Day Like Any Other, Eevin Hartsough

First thought: Well, I was wishing they’d say the show’s name in my head and at the same time bracing myself to hear something else. So I was saying it over and over in my head “(Not) Just A Day . . . (Not) Just A Day . . .” and then that’s what Charles Bush said and what surprised me was the lack of jolt – the lack of dissonance – that what I was saying in my head was what the presenter said. Then I thought “hurry up! We only have a minute!” so I moved it . . .

First called: Exiting New World Stages I updated my facebook status which, in effect, let a lot of people know. My husband was with me so I didn’t need to tell him. I called my mom first thing in the morning.

Award means: (Not) Just A Day . . . was a complete labor of love for me. The New York Neo-Futurists had decided to produce one “Prime time” (as opposed to our usual late night) show in addition to our weekly Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind. There was a rigorous proposal process within the company and my journey began when the company chose my show concept to go forward. From that moment on, I felt a strong sense of obligation to the New York Neos – not to let them down. My first sigh of relief was when audiences responded so well to the play; my second was when we managed to pack our little house up at the Red Room and I didn’t loose the company any money. It was a huge acknowledgement to have been even nominated for the award – this was the first piece I’d ever done before as the Captain of the ship, so to speak. To win feels to me like something to be personally very proud of and it feels like something great!

SUZI TAKAHASHI - Outstanding Director
Lee/gendary

First thought: For the last few days my boyfriend had been telling me that I was going to win. Of course, I did not believe him, as I usually am not the sort of person who wins things… So, my first thought was, “I can’t believe he is right!” Then, I thought that if I kissed him, I would smear my lipstick. Then, I hoped I would not forget to thank my parents; unfortunately, I did forget. Thank you Mom and Dad!

First called: The first person I called was artistic director of BVT, Karin Bowersock. She is the person who insisted that I start directing, and subsequently has given me many of my first opportunities as a director. One day this past summer, she told me that she had a dream in which I won a big award and did not thank her. Apparently, in this dream my omission caused us to have a big fight. Therefore, I was sure that she was the first person I thanked both publicly and privately.

Award means:Winning the IT Award for directing came at a significant moment for me personally. I began directing later in my “career,” and starting over at the beginning has at times been disheartening. A few days ago, I was having a serious conversation with myself about whether I had started too late to ever be able to make a career of it. I asked myself, “When is the moment that a person knows it is time to alter dreams for the sake of pragmatism?” Being acknowledged at the IT awards reminded me that the best art comes out of love for the craft, and in that type of love there is no easy pathway; no pragmatics to fall back upon. To be honored by my peers, who all struggle, create, and dream in the same ways, is a touching reminder that though the audience may be small, there are people out their watching who care about innovative work and believe in me.

KIMMY GATEWOOD - Outstanding Original Music
The Apple Sisters

First thought: Holy crap! (then) Ahhhhhh!

First called: My co-winners: My “sisters", Rebekka Johnson & Sarah Lowe, and the boys, Jeff Solomon & Andy Hertz, who are all on the west coast!

Award means: This award was so unexpected. When Rebekka, Sarah & I formed the Apple Sisters, it was out of pure joy and love of the music and sensibility of the 40s. So to be recognized by our peers means so much more. Music and lyrics are the ultimate expression of an emotional moment. The Apple Sisters are the ultimate expression of flying food products and pratt falls. I am so thrilled our tunes moved people, even with pudding smeared on our faces. Thank you NYIT Awards (in 3 part harmony).

NEW YORK NEO-FUTURISTS - Outstanding Ensemble
(Not) Just a Day Like Any Other, Jeffrey Cranor

First thought: Sadly, I couldn’t be at the ceremony, because I was in tech for a new show, but I got a text message from the NY Neo-Futurists who were in attendance. In fact, I got about 6 text messages. But the very first one was from my mother-in-law in Houston. So my first thought was “HTF did she know I won??!” (She was watching the webcast.)

First called: I told my wife, who was with me at tech rehearsal.

Award means: I’ve never received a theater award before. It’s great! It really is. And it’s not just the pride but the sense of recognition & belonging within this amazing community of New York artists. That’s the most exciting thing.

ELYSE MIRTO - Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role
Any Day Now

First thought: First thought when my name was called was that it was an echo. My name was said last when they read the nominees. Next thought "Sh*%! I have nothing prepared to say because I thought Jan Maxwell would win.

First called: Got outside the theatre on the street, called my mom Karen in Las Vegas and we both squealed like little piggys as my date watched and laughed.

Award means: I took a big chance moving to NYC 18 months ago. Leaving agents, a relationship and a life behind because I felt stagnant in LA. I had $60 left over after my headshots last year. I started waitressing and pounding the pavement. This award means more than I can write here but it is validation that my instincts to return to theatre and start over in the Big Apple were right and now Don Buchwald&assoc has signed me for 3 years so I'm staying!

50/50 in 2020: Parity for Women Theatre Artists - Part 2

2009-09-07T21:34:00.000-04:00

Playwright Crystal Skillman continues her report on 50/50 in 2020: Parity for Women Theatre Artists, a panel and working event sponsored by the League of Professional Theatre Women, New Perspectives Theatre Company, and Women’s Project. To be kept up to date about this topic, check out their Facebook page.

“Get it in Print.”
Alexis Greene (critic/author) and Milly Barranger (author) hit home how to share our work, create a record of history and gain production, as well as career opportunities, all through one simple act – publishing. Getting your work in print and knowing your history matters. Because as Milly pointed out, voices are missing from history. Ours. Both Alexis and Milly fight against this in the publications they edit or write, as well as their work in education. Alexis’s recent book Front Lines: Political Plays by American Women (with co-editor Shirley Lauro) is one of my favorite new additions to my library and it was great to hear Alexis remind us playwrights not to freak out about publishing non-produced plays. It not only creates a record of the work, but can go around to universities and school where there is a call for work by women. These classes want published work by contemporary women writers that can be studied and performed. Another Alexis – playwright Alexis Clements, who is in the Women’s Project playwriting lab with me, filled me in with some awesome notes she feverishly scrawled on the working group that Alexis Greene led later in the night:
- Publishing is an important and powerful tool for disseminating women’s work and also for establishing a critical dialogue about the work
- In American there is more squeamishness about publishing ahead of production. For example, in Britain, it’s very common for a work to be published before production.
- Traditional publishing has a very long time-scale 2-5 years to get a book done, but in purchasing a distribution package though a company like lulu.com, you can get your book published with an ISBN and distribution to major outlets within a matter of months.

During the panel, playwright Caridad Svich’s work publishing playwrights from her group No Passport was also mentioned as a great model. She’s created NoPassport Press that has not only brought great attention to their diverse group of writers, but allowed new readers and possible producers to experience these plays. In short the message is get the work out there, and the more we have in print, the more of a chance we have for future generations to know our history and the work we’ve created.
Soooooo say you already sent off your play to lulu.com. Or you’re putting together a group of plays to be published. Now, how are you going to continue to engage that conversation about you and your work?
“Theatre Can Be About People You Know”
One of my favorite moments of the night was when Linda Winer (critic/television host) spoke. She described coming from Chicago where it wasn’t such a big deal to be a woman theatre critic. But when she came here it was very different for her. Still it wasn’t until she was sitting watching Wendy Wasserstein’s Uncommon Women & Others that she realized the above comment she shared with us. She realized she was never seeing plays that spoke to her directly and over time, as we know, she became an amazing champion of women’s work. But print is in huge trouble as we know. Also as we know, this has put criticism in the hands of so many more people and blogsters have been able to discuss theatre in a totally new way. It was emotional for Linda, sharing her concern of print being at such a crossroads. There is barely the right amount of attention being given to larger shows, not to mention anything below Broadway. But I think for all of us this crisis can bring up how we can really use these postings, reviews, essays in a way that can benefit us all. This is part of a larger conversation and one I’m only stepping into now, but I’ve already seen how exposure with on-line articles, blurbs and reviews can draw attention to those voices that are just not being heard on stage to help raise them up. Shortly after, in the Q & A section, Randy Gener (American Theatre Magazine) stood up and shared some amazing ideas of his own. He talked about looking for ways to get people to write “think pieces” about your work — to start conversations.
And these conversations need to include all generations and backgrounds – we really need to reach out to each other. The panelists themselves remarked on how they wished there was more diversity in the already packed theatre. I noted some of the younger artists who I’d seen in previous meetings were absent. It’s important to keep this in mind because only by working together, in ways that each of us can do best, can we have true momentum, keeping our ideas for solutions as diverse as the work we’re trying to bring attention to.
“We’re Responsible for Each Other.”
Natalia L. Griffith (NYC Commission on Women’s Issues), wrapped up the night in an inspiring way by opening up this conversation to the injustices of racial and gender inequality throughout the world and how important it is to take action. This reminds me of a point Susan Jonas brought up earlier – a call for a need to track statistics “regularly and with a consistent methodology to measure actual progress against perception. And against specific goals”. We need not only to understand the state of things, but measure our own possible effects in the years to come.
When the groups broke off and started brainstorming, groups on the stage, in the aisles, in the lobby, spilling onto the streets I saw people gravitating towards their passion – be it producing, publishing, criticism. This is the key for me. What can each of us do that uses our skills and what skills can we share and/or learn that helps the cause, while enriching our lives as artists and helping any of our neighbors whose stories are not being told? Because if you stand up for others to have their stories told, stories which are having difficulty being heard in the world, you open up possibilities for your own work to be produced. Maybe who you mentored will be getting their first production or reading their first review (yikes!) on-line or in the paper. Maybe for the first time they’ll get to direct a large cast or have a budget to hang lights or create a set. Maybe they’ll get to produce a show. Maybe it’s even yours. I hope so. Cuz I’ll be there. Front row. And maybe, just maybe by 2020 the program from this meeting, this very article, these 50/50 buttons will be in some museum, because they won’t be needed anymore. Maybe Julie Crosby said it best: “Nothing would make me happier than to see the mission of the Women’s Project obsolete.” To keep adding to this conversation or to learn more about 50/50 in 2020 please check out their page/become a fan on Facebook.

Crystal Skillman is a playwright, published in Plays & Playwrights 2008, and contributer to nytheatre.com. Her upcoming projects include Hack, a play in the Vampire Cowboy’s Saloon Series kicking off on Sept. 12th and That’s Andy, a musical about a boy who wants to play Annie, receiving a developmental reading at the York Theatre Oct. 6th at 3 PM.

50/50 in 2020: Parity for Women Theatre Artists

2009-09-06T20:30:00.004-04:00

Playwright Crystal Skillman is back with a full report on 50/50 in 2020: Parity for Women Theatre Artists, a panel and working event sponsored by the League of Professional Theatre Women, New Perspectives Theatre Company, and Women’s Project. To be kept up to date about this topic, check out their Facebook page. Here is Crystal's summary and her thoughts on what she considers a most exciting evening:

On Tuesday, August 25th at 6pm I stepped into the already packed lobby of the Julia Miles theatre. We’d all gathered for 50/50 in 2020: Parity for Women Theatre Artists, a panel and working group event sponsored by the League of Professional Theatre Women, New Perspectives Theatre Company and Women’s Project. Moderator, Melody Brooks (artistic director, New Perspectives) explained that the panel would share their insight into the ongoing struggle for women to have their voices heard in theatre. And for the first time in this ongoing conversation solutions were to be discussed, not only on the panel, but in working groups we’d break off into later.
Solutions! I hadn’t even heard that word used yet regarding this issue. It kinda made me a bit giddy inside to be honest. Being a writer and not really a reporter, in this piece I’d like to focus on creating a working guide to some of the solutions discussed that night for those that couldn’t make it as what’s most exciting about this insight is how we can use it on our own as working theatre artists as well as a collective.
“We can’t stand on the shoulders of giants unless we know who they are.”
That’s from Susan Jonas (author), who kicked off the panel. Susan wrote, with Susan Bennett, in 2002 the Report on the Status of Women in Theatre, based on a three year national study. It found, like the most recent studies, that women artists were under represented in theatre. (a copy of the report can be obtained by sending an email request to rd@nytheatre.com) It’s clear it hasn’t gotten better and only worse, which is what rekindled this all recently. And it’s been going on for a long time. As Susan read the list of women playwrights in history - Elizabeth Inchbald, Cicely Hamilton, Eva Le Gallienne, Margaret Webster, Hallie Flanagan - I realized I didn’t know who they are. Any of them. And I’m a theatre geek!
Elizabeth Van Dyke (Producing Artistic Director of Going to the River at EST) started reciting the women she had supported in her festival (which this year includes Melody Cooper, Naveen Bahar Choudhury, N.N Ewing, as well as Kara Lee Corthron, Kia Corthron, Lynn Nottage and Desi Moreno-Penson) I’m embarrassed to say I knew about four. That was a wakeup call for me. And this brings up a sobering thought which underscored the urgency of this issue – the names of those gathered in this room and those of the future generation of women theatre artists could be lost to the issue of parity we’ve all gathered here to face if we don’t act now. So what do we do? These issues not only face us, but anyone writing, directing, producing, designing something new or pushing the envelope in theatre today. But what can these unheard voices actually do?
“There is No Scarcity of Extraordinary Work by Women to Choose From.”
Julie Crosby (Artistic Director, Women’s Project) is a producer who knows, as we do, that there are incredible women theatre artists working in the theatre today. From Lucy Thurber’s Killers and Other Family at Rattlestick to Bekah Brunstetter’s Oohrah! at the Atlantic, both opening this month, not to mention Women Project’s and New Perspectives upcoming seasons (as well as the great women playwrights we’ve all met through various workshops) this is clear. So, how do we continue becoming more visible, seen on a consistent basis and continue to encourage further diversity? She reminded us first and foremost that “getting a job in this business” requires connections. She stressed that we must spend time networking - from the League of Professional Theatre Women to Facebook to the bar at Angus. She also reminded us that we must SEE the work of those theatres, programs, producers that we want to work with. This really meant a lot to me because it’s through seeing certain productions that I know where my work belongs. It’s totally true. And if we are really upset about gender and racial inequality in the theatre then “put your money where your mouth is”. Go to see these shows and support them. But the point Julie made that most folks came out quoting was about getting a mentor. Julie shared how she’s been “fortunate and had amazing mentors – mainly men – who have provided a backlog of support and guidance whenever I have asked for it. My career would not be where it is today without my mentors.” She urged us to “build a cabinet of people” who are not afraid of sharing their connections with you. “And if you are established in your career, then begin to mentor someone. Be generous. George Bush would never believe this, but your power will not diminish when you give good information to those who are asking to hear it.” But let’s say you’re already following through on these great suggestions – what do you do as these connections gain momentum?

“Attention to the Work”
Elizabeth Van Dyke shared with us a great example right there – Going to the River, a festival that has promoted women playwrights of color through readings and workshops at Ensemble Studio Theatre over the years and is kicking off again this Sept. 9th, is now going to PRODUCE the work. They’ll have to start with short plays in order for this to be do-able but this is a huge leap and it was wonderful to hear Elizabeth Van Dyke, whose speech was one of the most impassioned of the night, share her insight of how she came to the conclusion that “attention to the work” must be paid in production. Because as wonderful as the festival has been, she continues to see the writers championed there under represented by production. She recognized they were helping writers build a body of work but they were treading water. These plays have to be done to gain recognition. Wow – if every theatrical organization that only uses its development funds to do readings and workshops realized this, American theatre would be changed overnight. Not only will I be paying more attention to the list of writers Elizabeth’s festival is championing, but now I can SEE their work, which is so important. Okay but what if you’re moving towards this step but not quite there yet as a theatre artist to produce? You’ve got that play and you’re ready to go. What can you do most immediately and more affordably?

****
Check back tomorrow for the second part of Crystal's article.

Crystal Skillman is a playwright, published in Plays & Playwrights 2008, and contributer to nytheatre.com. Her upcoming projects include Hack, a play in the Vampire Cowboy’s Saloon Series kicking off on Sept. 12th and That’s Andy, a musical about a boy who wants to play Annie, receiving a developmental reading at the York Theatre Oct. 6th at 3 PM.

Report From FringeNYC #14

2009-08-30T10:19:00.003-04:00

Today is the final day of the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival. I thought it was one of the best FringeNYCs ever -- and so did nytheatre.com's reviewers. A public thank you--a BIG ONE--is in order to our reviewers: without them, we would not have been able to review all 201 shows in this year's festival!

FringeNYC Encores shows will be announced later today, I believe; we're looking forward to learning which of the 201 shows will be sticking around for awhile.

And of course life after FringeNYC begins tomorrow. The fall season is shaping up to be an exciting one. Watch for coverage of it on nytheatre.com!

To close out this year's FringeNYC, here is the final list of popular shows -- the top five most-read reviews from yesterday:

Zipperface!!?!: The Hobo Musical
The Boxer
Sorority Queen in a Mobile Home
Ukrainian Eggs: Terrible Tales of Tragedy and AlleGorey
Muffin Man

Report from FringeNYC #13

2009-08-29T10:38:00.002-04:00

Last night at about 9:50pm I posted the 201st 2009 FringeNYC review on nytheatre.com (it was Jen & Angie, for the record). And with that, nytheatre.com completed our coverage of this 13th annual New York International Fringe Festival. For the eighth year in a row, we reviewed every show in the festival. (And I believe we reviewed it more quickly than ever before.)

There's still a weekend of Fringe-ing left, and with this soggy weather, seeing a show or 2 indoors is a great way to spend today! Here's the last batch of shows that were declared noteworthy at this year's festival by our reviewers:

And here's the list of the top five most-read reviews of FringeNYC shows on nytheatre.com yesterday:

The Boxer
Ukrainian Eggs: Terrible Tales of Tragedy and AlleGorey
Zipperface!!?!: The Hobo Musical
Romeo and Toilet
Love Money: A Recession Rock Musical

Report from FringeNYC #12

2009-08-28T10:16:00.002-04:00

I just posted review #199 on nytheatre.com this morning--that means we have only 2 reviews left before we complete our coverage of FringeNYC 2009. It feels like one of the best festivals ever. Here are the recent starred reviews that appeared on our site:

And here is the list of the five most-read FringeNYC reviews on nytheatre.com for yesterday:

Love Money: A Recession Rock Musical
Poppy! An Enchanted Evening with Poppy Bulova
Far Out -- The New Sci-Fi Musical Comedy
Sorority Queen in a Mobile Home
Circuits

My final report on the 13th annual New York International Fringe Festival will be posted this weekend!

50/50 in 2020: Parity for Women Theatre Artists

2009-08-26T18:38:00.003-04:00

Last night, playwright Crystal Skillman (who is an occasional contributor to the nytheatre i blog) attended a very exciting event at the Julia Miles theatre – 50/50 in 2020: Parity for Women Theatre Artists, a panel and working event sponsored by the League of Professional Theatre Women, New Perspectives Theatre Company, and Women’s Project. Crystal has this to say about the event:

The Julia Miles Theatre was literally packed--almost every seat full! The approach to this issue was discussed in an extremely proactive way by the panelists, who included Melody Brooks, Susan Jonas, Julie Crosby, Elizabeth Van Dyke, Linda Winer, Alexis Greene, Milly Barranger, and Natatia L. Griffith. The problem was covered from several angles tackling the hardships playwrights face in general, especially women playwrights, in terms of getting productions and being published. There was an emphasis of the need for all women theatre artists (playwrights, directors, actors, designers, etc.) to understand their own history, as the canon of early women playwrights and their productions is less discussed or in most cases just ignored. From gaining equal pay to gaining coverage of women’s theatre work and criticism of this work at a time when print itself is in such crisis, and a new age is forming with criticism online – it was quite a conversation. Perhaps most excitingly, the second part of the night consisted of breaking into smaller working groups where solutions to the problem were brainstormed.

Crystal is going to be filing a much longer report on the panel for the nytheatre i later this week -- please check back for details about this important discussion of an important subject.

Report from FringeNYC #11

2009-08-26T10:29:00.003-04:00

We're coutning down toward the end of the festival. Watch nytheatre.com today for many reviews of the newest shows that have just begun their runs at FringeNYC.

Yesterday's top five most-read reviews on nytheatre.com were:

6 Seconds in Charlack
Muffin Man
Series 6.2: Paint on Canvas
Zipperface!!?!: The Hobo Musical
The Confessional

And here are the new gems we reviewed yesterday--the shows that earned starred reviews on nytheatre.com:

Report from FringeNYC #10

2009-08-25T09:45:00.003-04:00

We're in the final week of FringeNYC 2009 now, and there are still lots of remarkable shows out there to see! Here are some that we posted reviews for yesterday on nytheatre.com that seem especially notable:

And here's the list of the five most-read FringeNYC reviews on nytheatre.com yesterday:

Muffin Man
The Confessional
Population: 8
Series 6.2: Paint on Canvas
Art's Heart

I'm going to close today's post with a link to the blog of one of this year's FringeNYC artists. Please take a look at what David Hansen (And Then You Die: How I Ran a Marathon in 26.2 Years) has to say about the reviews his show received. Very gratifying!

Report from FringeNYC #9

2009-08-24T10:25:00.003-04:00

Happy Monday! Here are the top-ten most read FringeNYC reviews on nytheatre.com for Sunday, August 23:

Population: 8
Zipperface!!?!: The Hobo Musical
The K of D, an urban legend
666
Mr. Sensitivity

And here are the shows we reviewed yesterday that struck us as being special, earning starred reviews on nytheatre.com:

Report from FringeNYC #8

2009-08-23T10:28:00.002-04:00

Here are the top five most-read FringeNYC reviews on nytheatre.com for Saturday, August 22nd:

1. Zipperface!!?!: The Hobo Musical
2. Mr. Sensitivity
3. A Midsummer Night's Dream
4. And She Said, He Said, I Said Yes
5. all over.

We've reached the three-quarter mark in terms of reviewing the New York International Fringe Festival -- as of now, we have 154 out of 201 shows reviewed. Keep watching nytheatre.com for the remaining 47 reviews this week! The newest starred reviews (i.e., particularly noteworthy shows) include:

Report from FringeNYC #7

2009-08-22T09:38:00.002-04:00

Here's today's look at what's hot in the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival.

First, here are the shows that nytheatre.com's reviewers found especially exciting yesterday (starred reviews):

And now here are the top five most-read reviews on nytheatre.com yesterday:

1. all over.
2. A Midsummer Night's Dream
3. The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour
4. The Songs of Robert
5. Abraham Lincoln's Big, Gay Dance Party

More tomorrow!

Report From FringeNYC #6

2009-08-21T09:23:00.002-04:00

We're now about 60% complete in our mission to review all of the shows in this year's FringeNYC Festival. Yesterday, as ever, nytheatre.com's reviewers found a number of noteworthy shows that we are giving starred reviews to:

The variety is staggering, isn't it?

Here are the five most-read FringeNYC reviews on nytheatre.com from yesterday:

1. Abraham Lincoln's Big, Gay Dance Party
2. The Jungle Fun Room
3. Tell It To Me Slowly
4. Cephalopod: A Play Below Sea Level
5. And She Said, He Said, I Said Yes

Report from FringeNYC #5

2009-08-20T09:06:00.003-04:00

One of the things I love best about FringeNYC is that every time I see a show in the festival, without fail, I will always bump into at least one (and usually more than one) colleague. On Monday, when I saw Venus at the Flamboyan Theatre, I ran into Donna Jean Fogel and Becca Lindstrom, who were on their way out of the FringeNYC show they're appearing in, MoM-A Rock Concert Musical. On Tuesday, at American Jataka Tales, I chatted with playwright/director Vincent Marano (of Confirmation). And last night, at Candide Americana, I was delighted to run into nytheatre.com reviewer J Jordan, who was seeing the same show as a "civilian."

FringeNYC really is about community.

Ok, here are the truly worthy shows discovered by nytheatre.com's reviewers yesterday:

And now here's the list of the top five most-read FringeNYC reviews on nytheatre.com yesterday:

1. Pie-Face! The Adventures of Anita Bryant
2. VIRAL
3. Finger Paint
4. High Plains
5. And She Said, He Said, I Said Yes

Report from FringeNYC #4

2009-08-19T09:35:00.002-04:00

Are you having a good time at this year's FringeNYC Festival? I am, and I think lots of our reviewers at nytheatre.com are, too. Do send in your recommendations and comments.

Yesterday, we posted 16 more reviews of shows in the festival. The ones that really struck our reviewers as worthy (the "starred" reviews) included:

And here's the list of the five most-read reviews on nytheatre.com yesterday:

1. La Ronde
2. I Can Has Cheezburger: The MusicLOL!
3. Dominate Yourself!
4. The Office and the Metal Blob
5. Forest Maiden

Report from FringeNYC #3

2009-08-18T10:02:00.002-04:00

Last night I posted nytheatre.com's 50th review of FringeNYC 2009 -- we're just about a quarter of the way through the festival.

Our reviewers continue to spot great work out there! Here's a list of the starred reviews (representing noteworthy shows) that we posted yesterday:

And for those interested in what's hot, here are the top five most-read reviews on nytheatre.com from yesterday:

1. I Can Has Cheezburger: The MusicLOL!
2. Inferno: The New Rock Musical
3. Hatching
4. A Fine Line
5. Buddy Becker's Big Uncut Flick

Report from FringeNYC #2

2009-08-17T09:06:00.003-04:00

The reviews continue to flow in for the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival, and nytheatre.com's staff has found some more gems for you to check out! Here are the starred reviews we posted yesterday (starred reviews indicate particularly noteworthy work):

Here are the top five most read reviews on nytheatre.com yesterday:

1. I Can Haz Cheezburger: The MusicLOL!
2. VOTE!
3. The Motherline
4. Flight
5. 38 Witnessed Her Death, I Witnessed Her Love: The Lonely Secret of Mary Ann Zielonko (Kitty Genovese Story)

Report from FringeNYC #1

2009-08-16T10:26:00.003-04:00

So we've started posting reviews of shows at FringeNYC on nytheatre.com in a big way already: there are 15 reviews online as I write these words. And our reviewers have already identified some work they really admire. The following are the starred reviews that we posted yesterday (starred means we think the show has many noteworthy elements):

Also, let me share with you the top 5 most-read reviews on nytheatre.com yesterday:

1. Remission
2. Inferno: The New Rock Musical
3. Truth Values: One Girl's Romp Through MIT's Male Math Maze
4. 38 Witnessed Her Death, I Witnessed Her Love: The Lonely Secret of Mary Ann Zielonko (Kitty Genovese Story)
5. Clemenza And Tessio Are Dead

More reviews are being posted throughout the day. Let us know what you're discovering at FringeNYC by posting a comment! Happy Fringe-ing.

FringeNYC -- Popular Shows

2009-08-15T10:00:00.000-04:00

The overriding goal of our "gavel-to-gavel" FringeNYC coverage on nytheatre.com is to help audience members find the shows they'll want to see from among the more than 200 offerings available. Our previews and our reviews provide lots of great information about the shows, and you should check them out (revisit the reviews page frequently throughout the festival, as new reviews are posted every single day).

But sometimes it's interesting to find out what others are interested in -- which shows are most popular, in other words. Now, I don't ever advocate following the pack -- the FringeNYC Festival is the time to stretch and discover work you wouldn't otherwise see. But it never hurts to know what the pack is up to...

So, in that spirit, today I want to share with you the top ten most popular shows at this year's New York International Fringe Festival so far, as measured by most visits to the nytheatre.com preview page.

(Drum roll please...)

Muffin Man
I Will Follow
Willy Nilly
Pie-Face! The Adventures of Anita Bryant
Look After You
Shelf Life
Notes on the Land of Earthquake and Fire
Candide Americana
Viral
The Office and the Metal Blob

I'll be posting the most-read reviews of FringeNYC shows starting on Monday. Happy Fringe-ing!

Things To Do In Between FringeNYC Shows

2009-08-14T10:00:00.000-04:00

So today is the start of the 13th annual New York International Fringe Festival. For the next 17 days, nytheatre.com and its fleet of reviewers will be focused on the 201 shows in FringeNYC. This is your chance to really immerse yourself in theatre's great diversity. Dance, puppetry, masks, musical comedy, satire, noir, politics, drama, romance, clowns...it's all here (plus much more), right at your fingertips. Engage and enjoy!

But I wanted, today, to also step back from Fringe-ing for a moment and remind everyone about all the other amazing, interesting theatre that's happening in NYC at the same time as the festival. Take a break from FringeNYC and check out some of these:

FREE OUTDOOR THEATRE: There are several shows in FringeAlFresco...but there are also lots of wonderful productions in parks all across the five boroughs of New York. Choose from Theater for the New City's Tally Ho!, their annual activist street musical; the Gorilla Rep offerings, Julius Caesar (in Fort Tryon Park) and Peer Gynt (in Central Park); two productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream (here and here); Romeo and Juliet and the Greek play Plutus, presented by Curious Frog Theatre. All of these are free and great for families and kids.

IAN W. HILL'S "MINI-FESTIVAL" AT THE BRICK: Each August, theatre auteur Ian W. Hill takes over the Brick (where he serves year round as Technical Director) for a repertory of eclectic work. This year's lineup includes a revival of Daniel McKleinfeld's A Little Piece of the Sun (which premiered in FringeNYC about a decade ago), the American premiere of Richard Foreman's George Bataille's Bathrobe, the Reiner Werner Fassbinder play Blood on the Cat's Neck, and an original multimedia work called Sacrificial Offerings. Hill's "stock company" includes some of downtown theatre's finest actors (many of them are contributors to nytheatre.com). Links to info about the shows are here.

INDIE THEATER AT LANDMARK VENUES: P.S. 122 continues to host The Amoralists' The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side... The Ontologic-Hysteric Theatre concludes its Summer Incubator Series with Family and a double bill of Undine and The Importance of Being Earnest... And Metropolitan Playhouse celebrates its neighborhood with the annual East Village Theatre Festival.

IT'S OKAY TO ACT LIKE A TOURIST: Hey, it's summer. Cut loose. Check out Puppetry of the Penis while you're in the East Village... or Fuerza Bruta when you're at Union Square... or Blue Man Group when you're in the NYU area... or Naked Boys Singing! when you're in the Theatre District.

It's Festival Season. See Stuff. Have fun.

Countdown to FringeNYC (1 Day Till Opening)

2009-08-13T10:00:00.001-04:00

When the New York International Fringe Festival started back in 1997, all of the shows were presented within a relatively compact swath of the Lower East Side. Since that time, the festival has pushed beyond that neighborhood and now occupies a fairly broad cross-section of Manhattan between Canal Street and 14th Street.

The venues this year include some perennials (the Flamboyan and Milagro spaces at CSV Cultural Center, for example) along with some great spaces new to FringeNYC (the two theatres at HERE Arts Center, the new Dixon Place, and the Minetta Lane Theatre, to name a few).

You can find out everything you need to know about this year's venues on our FringeNYC 2009 Map. Click on the red pushpin markers to get info about each venue; once you do that, you will see links to even more details about each one.

I hope you enjoy using it, and that it's helpful to you!

Tomorrow is the Grand Opening of the 13th Annual New York International Fringe Festival. See you at 12 noon at the Opening Ceremonies! Check back our FringeNYC reviews throughout the festival.

Happy Fringe-ing.

Countdown to FringeNYC (2 Days Till Opening)

2009-08-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I told you that we are planning to review all of the 201 shows in this year's New York International Fringe Festival. Today, I want to tell you how we are able to accomplish this...by introducing you to the members of our Reviewing Squad.

These folks are all theatre artists who have volunteered their time to help us achieve this goal. Some of them have been helping us review FringeNYC since we started our gavel-to-gavel coverage back in 2002, and some of them are joining us for the first time this summer. All of them deserve our thanks.

The squad roster is here. (Click on the "+" next to each name to see the reviewer's bio.)

Our reviewing team this year is larger and more diverse than ever! We've got NYIT Award-winning and nominated artists participating; artistic directors of long-running theatre companies (past and present); actors; dramaturgs; stage managers; playwrights; directors; producers ... you name it. I would conservatively estimate that together the squad encompasses about 1,000 years of theatre experience.

As you read the reviews this year, click on the reviewers' names to read more about them. Get to know our Reviewing Squad, and check out their work (some are participating in the FringeNYC festival this summer!).

Up next, finding your way at FringeNYC 2009. Check back tomorrow...

Countdown to FringeNYC (3 Days Till Opening)

2009-08-11T10:00:00.001-04:00

Seven years ago, I said something out loud that has haunted me ever since. What I said was, hey, nytheatre.com ought to review EVERY SHOW in the New York International Fringe Festival.

Whoever I was with at the time said, "Yes, what a great idea!" And so, for the 2002 FringeNYC, we set out to review all of the shows in the festival--something no other organization had ever attempted. We enlisted about 60 colleagues--actors, directors, playwrights, stage managers, etc.--to pitch in. And we did it. And when it was over, I took some deep breaths and said, wow that was fun, let's not try that again! And everybody I knew said, "Oh no, nytheatre.com needs to do this every year!"

And so we do.

This will be the 8th year that we tackle this mission. If I sound at all reluctant in these preceding paragraphs, it's just for comic effect -- I love that we do this, and I love doing it.

There are two important reasons why we do this every year. First, we believe that every show in FringeNYC deserves informed, considered feedback about their work. Most press outlets only review a tiny fraction of what's presented in the festival each year, and coverage tends to be skewed toward certain kinds of shows. But everybody participating in FringeNYC has something in their hearts and minds they're burning to share with audiences. They need to be heard, and our reviewers are here to listen...and to communicate back to them in return.

The second reason is for our readers and audiences. This festival is SO BIG...and it's really imperative for people to have some way to figure out which shows are the ones they want to see. By reviewing every show, we're able to serve these people, by giving them some information to help them sift through 200+ choices each year.

Our review coverage starts on August 14th, the night the festival opens. We're scheduled to review our first 35 shows that night...and continue steadily over the next 2 weeks until we're all done, on about August 28th or 29th. You'll see links to our reviews on the home page of nytheatre.com every day. The newest reviews will always be highlighted. And reviewer picks, of the best of what they've seen, will be showcased on our nytheatre picks page.

I can't wait to get started!

Tomorrow, I will introduce you to the members of our reviewing squad. Check back...

Countdown to FringeNYC (4 Days Till Opening)

2009-08-10T10:00:00.002-04:00

For the fifth year in a row, the good folks at the New York International Fringe Festival have asked me to host their Opening Ceremonies. (It's actually my seventh year doing this; I missed 2004, but hosted in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. You can see that I enjoy this gig!)

This year, the Opening Ceremonies will be held in Washington Square Park, at Holley Plaza, in the southwest corner of the park (near West 4th Street and MacDougall Street). Here's a map. (Note: rain location is FringeCENTRAL, 54 Crosby Street.) The festivities begin on Friday, August 14 at 12NOON and continue through 3pm.

FringeNYC Producing Artistic Director Elena K. Holy kicks things off, as she always does, with a wonderful welcome. And then I will be entrusted with "cutting the ribbon," so to speak, for this always exciting theatre festival. Here's what we'll do:

We'll see previews of a dozen FringeNYC shows (FringeNYTeasers) -- the list of the shows scheduled to perform is here.
I'll share tips and pointers about how to get the most out of North America's largest multi-arts festival -- my "patented" "How to FringeNYC Guide," refined over a dozen years of intense FringeNYC-going and reviewing.
I'll interview a whole bunch of FringeNYC insiders -- staff members, participants, and alumni -- who will give you the real scoop about this year's events.
And there will be lots of prizes to give away, courtesy of FringeNYC and The New York Theatre Experience, Inc.

The weather forecast, as I write this words, is for partly cloudy skies and a high of 82 degrees on Friday -- that's just what the doctor (Dr. Elena, that is) ordered! Please, if you are free on August 14 between 12pm and 3pm, join me for the FringeNYC Opening Ceremonies. It's one of my favorite events of the year!

Up next, information about reviewing this enormous festival! Check back tomorrow...

Countdown to FringeNYC (5 Days Till Opening)

2009-08-09T10:00:00.000-04:00

Every year we try to help readers and audience members navigate the New York International Fringe Festival, to find the shows that they'll particularly enjoy seeing. Our previews are a great way to get started. This year, we also focused on a few new works in the festival, all written by FringeNYC alumni playwrights, on our nytheatrecast series.

So here's what we have for you, as a way of getting to know some of these amazing artists and whetting your appetite for some of this year's new FringeNYC plays:

nytheatrecast #300: Matt Freeman talks to Mac Rogers about his FringeNYC show Viral. Matt and Mac have a great conversation about their craft and about the themes of Mac's works, including this new play premiering in FringeNYC, which is about a group of people who have become obsessed (sexually) with the idea of watching someone die. This is what FringeNYC is all about, people. Listen to the podcast.

nytheatrecast #301: Lisa Ferber talks to Todd Michael about his FringeNYC show Buddy Becker's Big Uncut Flick. Todd's works are always affectionate parodies of old movies with strong camp/drag components, and this year's is no exception. Lisa became a fan and then a friend of Todd after she saw one of his earlier FringeNYC shows. FringeNYC=Community! Listen to the podcast.

nytheatrecast #302: Series host Trav S.D. talks to FringeNYC founding artistic director John Clancy about his new show The Event. And then John talks to Trav about his new show, Willy Nilly. Between the two of them there's 30+ years of downtown indie theater history happening here. The spirit of FringeNYC! Listen to the podcast.

Check out the nytheatrecast website for info about all of these episodes, how to subscribe to nytheatrecast on iTunes, and more (including photos of all these great playwrights, all snapped by yours truly!).

Up next: News About the FringeNYC Opening Ceremonies. Check back tomorrow...

Countdown to FringeNYC (6 Days Till Opening)

2009-08-08T10:00:00.000-04:00

The 13th annual New York International Fringe Festival begins on Friday, August 14. I'm excited--the energy around the festival this year feels great to me!

As we have every year since 2002, nytheatre.com will be doing our comprehensive "gavel-to-gavel" coverage of FringeNYC in 2009. This begins with our previews, which went online on July 13th. So far, more than 160 shows have participated this year, providing fascinating answers to our three questions:

1. What is your show about and what can audiences expect when they see it?
2. Why is your show pertinent to today's times and/or why should your show be the choice for audiences to see?
3. Why did you choose to present this show?!

Check out the previews here. You can also click on direct ticketing links from our FringeNYC Preview pages, to get your tickets from TicketWeb before the festival starts

Up next: our podcast previews. Come back tomorrow for the scoop...

Where the Heck Have You Been?

2009-08-07T15:13:00.002-04:00

Followers of the nytheatre i / Good News Theatre Blog: Please forgive my unannounced hiatus!
It has been a busy several weeks here at nytheatre.com.

As you may know, we recently won the Microsoft/Techsoup "Show Your Impact" Competition. Part of the prize package for this was $25,000 worth of software, donated by Microsoft.

Well, the first shipment came in this past week, and it's kept us pretty busy. Thanks to Microsoft's generosity, we have been able to upgrade our technology infrastructure. Pretty cool.

I've already implemented a bit of new technology on nytheatre.com that this new software made possible. Check out our reviewers page. You'll notice that the old-fashioned links have been replaced with newfangled "+" links next to each name. Click on the "+" to bring the reviewer bios right on the same page. (This is a technology called Ajax, and you can expect to see more of it on nytheatre.com as time goes on.)

Other stuff is coming...but so is the New York International Fringe Festival, and preparing for that has been keeping me very occupied as well! More on that tomorrow...

Kudos for nytheatre.com Contributors

2009-07-21T08:53:00.002-04:00

Today we got some very good news about some of the folks who write reviews for nytheatre.com. Several of our contributors were nominated last night for New York Independent Theatre Awards! As a past winner myself, I have an idea how these folks are probably feeling right now. Congratulations--this accolade is richly deserved!

These are the people I'm talking about:

Gyda Arber, nominated for her inventive production Suspicious Package
Nat Cassidy, a triple threat: nominated for writing and producing The Reckoning of Kit & Little Boots and for directing Any Day Now
Ivanna Cullinan, nominated for her delightful performance in The Granduncle Quadrilogy: Tales from the Land of Ice
Edward Elefterion, nominated for his choreography/movement for Shadow of Himself (Ed was named Best Director last year)
David Fuller and Judith Jarosz of Theater Ten Ten, whose production of The 103rd Annual Performance of Ruddigore, or The Witch's Curse, Presented by Murgatroyd's Hospital for Mental Rehabilitation, Ruddy Gore Maine is nominated for Best Production of a Musical
David Ian Lee, nominated for his leading performance in The Reckoning of Kit & Little Boots and also as a member of the ensemble of Universal Robots

(And speaking of Universal Robots: that play by Mac Rogers, which is published in my anthology Plays and Playwrights 2008, received several other nominations, including a nod for Best Full-Length Script.)

So, hearty applause for these talented folks. I appreciate the great service they perform for the indie theater community and am very glad to see them honored in this way!

nytheatre.com Wins Microsoft Grant

2009-07-08T15:06:00.006-04:00

Today I am thrilled to announce that The New York Theatre Experience, Inc. has won a significant grant from Microsoft Corporation and Techsoup. This is major recognition for our small nonprofit company and we have been amazed and humbled by the news since we first learned it about ten days ago. The official announcement is here.

This grant comes as a result of our winning the Show Your Impact competition sponsored by Microsoft and Techsoup. Hundreds of nonprofits entered this competition. Each was asked to demonstrate how the software they received from Microsoft (through their donation program with Techsoup) benefitted the community they serve. You can read what we wrote here.

In order to be a finalist for this competition, we needed to show support from our community--and you may recall that I asked for that a couple of times on this blog. Thanks to the fantastic enthusiastic indie theater community, we did make the finals. And thanks to the Microsoft and Techsoup judges--who found merit in our write-up and felt that indeed NYTE has used technology in ways that have had a positive impact on our constituencies--we are one of three prize winners.

We will be receiving a $5,000 cash grant from Microsoft, along with a donation of $25,000 worth of Microsoft software.

So first of all: major major thanks to everyone who reads the nytheatre i blog and took the time to vote for nytheatre.com's submission in this competition. Rochelle and I can't begin to tell you how much your support means to us, and how excited we are that our friends and colleagues in the indie theater community made this grant possible for us.

Shout-outs to folks who really went the distance to help us make it into finals: Nita Congress, Julie Congress, Elena K. Holy, Gus Schulenberg, Matt Freeman, John Clancy, Jon Stancato, the folks at NYITA, and others whom I may have inadvertently left off this list.

So, what does this Microsoft grant mean to NYTE and to the folks we serve?

Well, one of the things that really thrills me is what this grant represents for the indie theater movement. Here we have a giant corporation--Microsoft--choosing to recognize a small nonprofit company whose bailiwick is promoting and advocating for indie theater. If that's not a major act of validation, affirming the importance and impact of the incredible art created by the thousands of playwrights, actors, directors, producers, designers, etc. who are both the main contributors to and subjects of nytheatre.com--well, then I don't know what is.

The other two winners of the competition--a food bank in Cincinnati and a service organization that created an intelligence hub for nationwide disaster relief coordination--exemplify the kinds of nonprofits that I expected to receive these grants. I am immensely gratified to know that what we do--helping to make sure that the world knows about the work of indie theater artists--is viewed by objective outsiders as being as worthy a cause as these others.

So, my friends and colleagues in the indie theater world: pat yourselves on the back! This grant is recognition of the great work you do.

Which brings me to the most important part of this long, rambly essay: what will the grant mean to the readers and artists we serve on nytheatre.com?

The cash grant, obviously, is a real boon for NYTE, especially given the current economy. But the real impact to our community of this Microsoft grant will come from the new web features and services that we will be able to develop as a result of receiving all this software. I have only just started to plan out what we will be getting and, more importantly, what we will do with it. Over the coming weeks and months, the new infrastructure/development plans that this software grant will fuel will become clearer and I'll be sharing them as that happens. But I do want to mention some of my preliminary ideas with you now.

First, we'll be able to upgrade our data base system to the most current full-featured version available. We'll also be able to upgrade the "back-end" development software--the programs I use to track and manage all of the data that feeds our websites--to the most state-of-the-art versions. Together, these will result in a variety of new features and enhancements to nytheatre.com that I hope we will start to roll out as early as this fall.

Some of the software grant will be in the form of applications geared toward administrative tasks, such as budgeting and project management. If we can make use of up-to-date software solutions to become more productive in these areas, we will have more time to spend on developing nytheatre.com "stuff" that is directly beneficial to our readers and users.

We should be adding some new web development software to our existing "repertoire" that will make us more effective in creating "Web 2.0" applications on nytheatre.com and also in creating mobile applications.

And we're looking at communications and other server software that may help us transform our entire workflow concept, so that we can be more efficient and perhaps facilitate how we work with our volunteer contributors.

Rochelle and I are having a blast right now, indulging in some pie-in-the-sky dreaming about where this grant can take us in the next 12 months. We're researching ebook technologies, language translation technologies, and a whole new paradigm in managing/thinking about the data that supports all of our websites. This is feeling like the most transformational event for our organization since our first NYSCA grant in 2002.

And--because this recognition (and funding) comes from a source outside of our traditional funding community (outside New York, outside the theatre world)--it is immensely validating to our organization and to our mission.

nytheatre NOW

2009-07-07T17:16:00.003-04:00

The nytheatre i is back from our 4th of July hiatus.

And we come bearing NEWS about something NEW on nytheatre.com.

Maybe you've already noticed it... if you look at the sidebar on the left-hand column of the site, you'll see the links, right at the top under the heading "Now Playing": Tonight and Tomorrow. These take you to pages that display just what they say--listings of what's playing tonight and tomorrow, organized by the hour. So now, whenever you're thinking to yourself "Gee, I wonder what's playing tonight (or tomorrow)," it'll be super-easy to find out the answer. Bookmark these pages and refer to them often.

nytheatre NOW (as we are calling this new feature) is only the first of many improvements, enhancements, and additions to nytheatre.com that are coming over the next several months. I am eager to hear feedback about it--what you like and don't like. I also want to hear from you about what new features you'd like to see here on nytheatre.com. Comment here on the blog, or send me an email if you prefer.

But wait, there's more. We have created a version of nytheatre NOW specifically for the iPhone. It's a special feature, specifically designed to match the look and feel of the iPhone, and you can only see the iPhone version on an iPhone. (If you have your iPhone handy, check it out now: type www.nytheatrenow.com in your Mobile Safari browser.) (If you don't have an iPhone, you can use the regular nytheatre NOW feature on your desktop or laptop. Same information, just a different non-iPhone-esque interface.)

The iPhone version of nytheatre NOW is in beta right now, which means we are welcoming feedback from users as they try it out. Again, comment right here on the blog or send an email.

Why are we building a special iPhone feature? Well, we acquired an iPhone a few months ago, and I have to say that it's darned impressive. My sense is that more and more of our readers are using nytheatre.com on mobile devices like the iPhone. Our usage/traffic logs tell us that more than half of all readers who view nytheatre.com on a mobile device are on an iPhone. So this seems like a market segment to pay attention to. We plan to pay even more attention during the coming months. If you're an iPhone person, let me know...and let me know what you'd like to see, nytheatre-wise, on your device.

Gallery Players' Dominic Cuskern on Players Shakespeare and King Lear

2009-06-30T23:00:00.001-04:00

As promised, here is my cyberinterview with actor Dominic Cuskern about the new "Players Shakespeare" program at The Gallery Players in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Me: This is a very exciting new project for The Gallery Players. Can you tell us what prompted you to start up "Players Shakespeare" and why this is an important project for the company?
Dominic: I have always wanted Gallery to do more Shakespeare. A couple of years ago I started a free Shakespeare Summer Camp for Teenagers. We did a one hour version of Romeo and Juliet. The play turned out well but I was very unsatisfied with the process. There was only me and 15 kids. Rehearsals proved difficult as too often there were kids with too much down time. I realized I needed a lot of help before I could undertake such a venture again.
I had also been asked by Shep Sobel, artistic director of The Pearl Theatre Company, to take a look at the role of Lear. He suggested it would be great to do that role somewhere before tackling it at the Pearl.
So this is some background to a dinner I had with friend and fellow Shakespeare addict, Sidney Fortner. She was bemoaning the lack of decent Shakespeare work. I noted that Gallery Players was dark in July and our imaginations sprang to work. I saw a rebirth of the Summer Camp and Sidney envisioned the Acting Apprentice program. Our modest budget helped sell the idea to the board and we were off and running.
Me: How have you assembled the ensemble for this production? What were you looking for when casting actors?
Dominic: We advertised auditions for actors who had both training and experience with Shakespeare. Some people who had worked at The Pearl expressed an interest in being involved. But we were looking for actors who were passionate about Shakespeare, who could act and who could handle text.
Me: What's the unique "hook" for your production of Shakespeare? People can see Shakespeare for free outdoors all summer long; what's going to bring them indoors to see your work?
Dominic: First there is Gallery's high reputation for good work and I do have a very small following of people who might be interested in seeing me tackle this role. Our production will also be as true to the Bard as we can make it without recourse to gimmicks or concepts. And with this weather, it's best to work indoors--less chance of cancellation!
Me: Are there any plans for work beyond this initial production of Lear?
Dominic: Once we knew we would be doing Lear we began to think of the longer range. I see Gallery getting back to the free Shakespeare Summer Camp for Teenagers. The kids would perform the same play as the adults are working on, although in an abbreviated form. I'm hoping that the actors in the evening production will filter into the camp and mentor the kids. I also see the teens attending the adult rehearsals and maybe being part of that production. We're also planning on helping those who want to understand and appreciate Shakespeare with something we're calling Bard Basics. We'll also do readings of the lesser-known plays, discussion groups, workshops and things we haven't even thought of yet.

I'd like to thank Dominic for taking time out of his schedule to share his thoughts with my readers. King Lear at The Gallery Players begins performances on July 23; get more info here.

Yoga in the Park with Rabbit Hole Ensemble

2009-06-29T22:00:00.001-04:00

Our friends from Rabbit Hole Ensemble have come up with one of the most innovative--not to mention healthy!--ways to raise some money. On Saturday, July 18, from 4:00 - 5:30pm in Central Park, they are hosting a Yoga Class as a benefit for their upcoming FringeNYC production of Candide Americana. Here are the details:

Certified yoga instructor Jeffery Taylor will lead the class in an hour and a half of Vinyasa Yoga as we Salute the Sun and Cat-Cow with Candide. Jeffery Taylor has been teaching yoga for eight years, with clients including New York Sports Club and the Miami City Ballet. Suggested donation is $20, and reservations with payment must be made in advance on the Rabbit Hole Ensemble website. Deadline for registration is Friday, July 17th. The event is open to all levels of yoga practitioners—beginners welcome! Please bring your own mat or towel.

Learn more about this event (or register) here: http://www.rabbitholeensemble.com/involved/events.html

This certainly sounds like a way to improve mind, body, and spirit while helping a good cause.

Gallery Players Launches Summer Shakespeare

2009-06-28T22:00:00.000-04:00

The Gallery Players, a theatrical institution for more than 40 years in Park Slope, Brooklyn, has recently announced an exciting addition to their schedule--a summer Shakespeare production. Here's the full announcement, courtesy of publicist Paul Siebold:

The Gallery Players of Park Slope has expanded its already broad scope of theatrical offerings with the creation of Players Shakespeare, a Summer Shakespeare festival and home for the Bard in Brooklyn. As good as its name, Players Shakespeare will focus its productions on Shakepeare's plays themselves and the players who bring them to life. Production elements - sets, lights, costumes, props - will be selectively chosen for their ability to support this creative work.
Players Shakespeare's inaugural production will be The Tragedy of King Lear with a long-standing member of the Pearl Theatre Resident Acting Company and Gallery favorite, Dominic Cuskern, as Lear. He will be joined by an exciting cast of experienced Shakespeareans, bringing to life this tale of two fathers and the terrible price they pay for letting pride, anger and greed destroy the natural order and proportion of their world.
Additionally, in keeping with the Elizabethan theatrical tradition of on-the-job training, every PS production will include at least two Acting Apprentices who will receive textual, speech and movement training along with appropriate mentoring toward performing multiple assigned roles. This Apprenticeship experience will add creative tools, improve technique, and build confidence for future projects in both classical and contemporary theatre.

On Tuesday night, I'll be running on the Good News Theater Blog my cyberinterview with Dominic Cuskern about Players Shakespeare and King Lear! So don't forget to check back in a couple of days.

Actors Fund Performance of WICKED

2009-06-27T21:00:00.000-04:00

Another item from Broadway today: Our friends at the Actors Fund asked me to share that there will be a special performance of Wicked on Sunday, June 28 at 8pm at the Gershwin Theatre. Proceeds benefit the Actors Fund (http://www.actorsfund.org/). Click on their website link and you can purchase tickets to this and other upcoming events, which include special benefit performances of Blithe Spirit, Mary Stuart, and West Side Story.

Go here to learn about the many programs and services of the Actors Fund.

In the Heights Launches a Scholarship Competition

2009-06-26T23:00:00.001-04:00

This Good News Item is from the world of Broadway:

In the Heights tells the universal story of a vibrant community working hard to better their lives in Manhattan's Washington Heights. The characters are following their dreams, holding on to their traditions and culture, and sacrificing to create a better home for themselves and their children. The pride and joy of this community is Nina Rosario, the first to go away to college at Stanford University. However, Nina comes home for the summer with a jarring secret: she has dropped out of school because of financial pressures. Throughout the show, Nina struggles with her identity, her ambitions and her parents, who desperately want their child to get a good education. The only thing in their way is money.

Based on the struggles that many families face to afford college, and inspired by Nina’s story in the show, In the Heights has partnered with Clear Channel NY to create the “Graduate To New Heights Scholarship” to help a deserving student achieve their dream of higher education. To fund the scholarship, In The Heights with Clear Channel NY will auction five "once-in-a-lifetime" prize packages on a specially created website http://www.graduatetonewheights.com/. Each Clear Channel NY radio station (106.7 Lite fm, 103.5 KTU, Power 105.1, Q104.3 and Z100) will hold a 2-week auction with the first auction commencing Thursday, June 18, 2009 with a prize which includes having dinner and seeing the show with In The Heights composer Lin-Manuel Miranda. Other packages will include a private salsa lesson with In The Heights Specialty Latin Dancer and assistant choreographer Luis Salgado; A Spa Day and Ladies Night Out package; The Perfect New York Date Package; and a package which includes a special walk-on cameo role in the Broadway show. All proceeds from the auctions will go toward the “Graduate To New Heights Scholarship” fund, along with an additional $2500 contributed to the fund by In the Heights and Clear Channel NY.

Starting Thursday, August 27, 2009, through Wednesday, September 9, 2009, you can visit any of the Clear Channel NY websites (1067litefm.com, ktu.com, power1051fm.com, q1043.com, z100.com) and use keyword "GRADUATE" to be considered for the scholarship, or to nominate a student. You will be asked in 100 words or less to tell us why you or the student you are nominating deserves to win the “Graduate To New Heights Scholarship.”

The winner will be invited to attend a performance of In The Heights on Broadway at which time they will be presented with the “Graduate To New Heights Scholarship”. The winning student will be announced in September 2009.

Ground UP's Barefoot in the Park Announces Events

2009-06-25T23:00:00.001-04:00

With revivals of Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound coming to the Nederlander Theatre this fall, it's already looking like a Neil Simon season here in NYC. To kick things off, Ground UP Productions is presenting Simon's first big hit comedy, Barefoot in the Park, at Manhattan Theatre Source in July. In conjunction with their show, the folks at Ground UP are planning a variety of interesting tie-in events. The following is from their publicist, Lanie Zipoy:

Ground UP Productions (Kate Middleton, Producing Artistic Director) has announced a series of events to be held during its revival of Barefoot in the Park, Neil Simon's classic New York comedy, this summer. The events include talk backs with Penny Fuller and the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation, a Hula-Hoop class and a gay Newlywed Game.

The series is as follows:
Wednesday, July 8th (Directly following the 8:00 pm performance)
PREVIEW POST-SHOW PARTY - Meet and greet the cast and producers of Barefoot in the Park. Refreshments will be served.

Thursday, July 9th (Begins at 7:00 pm directly before the 8:00 pm performance)
TAR HEEL TAILGATE - The company celebrates its members' University of North Carolina's roots with a Tar Heel-themed pre-show party.

Saturday, July 11th (Directly following the 2:00 pm performance)
NEWLYWED NOW - After a brief talk back on the legal status of gay marriage in the Empire State and across the country, Ground UP Productions will host the Gay Newlywed Game -- a new take on the classic 1960s game show -- with prizes for all participants.

Saturday, July 11th (Directly following the 8:00 pm performance)
BAREFOOT FLASHBACK - A post-show talk back with Tony Award nominee Penny Fuller, who starred in the original 1963 Broadway production of Barefoot in the Park.

Wednesday, July 15th (Directly following the 8:00 performance)
VILLAGE VIEWPOINT - An insightful and entertaining look at the transformation of Greenwich Village. The Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation will host a post-show Q&A about one of New York's favorite neighborhoods.

Thursday, July 16th (Directly following the 8:00 performance)
SINGLE MINGLE - Mingle with fellow singles at this post-show mixer.

Friday, July 17th (Directly following the 8:00 performance)
HOOPING IT UP - Hula-Hoop mania swept the nation in the 1960s. Now, after that decade's quintessential comedy, audience members may enjoy a heart-pumping Hula-Hoop class.
The events and talk backs are free with the purchase of a ticket to Barefoot in the Park.

You can find out more about the show and the company at Ground UP Productions' website.

Affordable Rehersal Space Available at Algonquin

2009-06-24T23:00:00.001-04:00

Today's Good News Item comes from Kristin Skye Hoffmann of Wide Eyed Productions:

Hi everybody! Great news... Wide Eyed Productions is now booking the amazing rehearsal spaces at the Algonquin theatre on East 24th Street. To book, email wideeyednyc@gmail.com or call 212-300-5939 or 917-379-1525.
ROOMS:
- The Benchley (no windows)
- The Connelly (windows)
Both rooms are 16 x 32 feet. Both have a piano (untuned) and mirrors.
Rate: $20 p/h
Book your entire rehearsal process and get a discount!
- There is a 48 hour cancellation policy
- Cash or check only (credit cards not accepted.)
- The rooms fit 20 people or less comfortably.
LOCATION:123 E. 24th St.(between Park and Lex)
Take the 6 train to 23rd St.or the N, R, W to 23rd St.

Dear Friend of Global Picket: Fiction by Jeffrey Essmann

2009-06-23T23:00:00.001-04:00

Today on the Good News Theater Blog, something very different! The humorous prose piece below is written by Jeffrey Essmann, whom many of you will remember as a stalwart of the indie theater scene in the late 1980s/early 1990s (at La MaMa, mostly, and elsewhere). I had the pleasure of interviewing Jeffrey for an episode of nytheatrecast and we've stayed in touch ever since. Jeffrey is a very smart, very funny writer, and a few weeks ago he shared this short piece with me and is now sharing it with the readers of this blog. Enjoy!

* * * * *

"Dear Friend of Global Picket" by Jeffrey Essmann

Dear Friend of Global Picket:

More than seventeen years ago, Emily Waines stood at her picket fence talking to her neighbor, Doug Emerson. Her apples had the rust, her son had acne, and she was thinking of tearing down the barn. They’d never really used it. It was on the property from back when it had been an actual farm, just part of the lot. It seemed neat at first. They’d had all kinds of ideas about what they’d do with it. Bob was going to set up a woodshop, make bookshelves and things. Duck decoys. Emily was thinking about making candles. Selling them. She’d set up a little shop in the corner and sell candles. Candles and honey. But she’d get the honey somewhere else. She didn’t want to make it herself. She didn’t want the bother. Besides, she hated bees. But somewhere along the way Bob lost interest in wood and Emily totally forgot about the candles. They’d used it as a garage for a while until they got the carport. Bob still kept the snow blower in it. Emily hid Christmas presents up in the loft. But now the barn was getting old. It was getting shabby. Emily was afraid it was rotting. She was afraid it might have bats. It either needed to be fixed up or torn down, one or the other, she didn’t know which. And to Bob, of course, it was just wood.

But to Doug Emerson it was an opportunity. As a communications major, Doug had been fairly active in college theatricals, with several musical comedy and dramatic roles already on his resume. He also already had a penchant for making innovative, surprising choices. The head of the theater department said that his Lenny revealed the dark humor in Of Mice and Men, and his nude scene in Glass Menagerie is, of course, legendary. As everyone knows, he was also very active on the Akron theater scene while he was doing marketing for the meatpacking plant. After several seasons of leading roles with the Porchlight Players, he broke out on his own and founded Phenomenal Theatre, which scandalized Akron with its all-puppet production of Angels in America. Eager for Phenomenal to develop its own material, Doug and members of the company had just begun interviewing local farmers about their experience with syphilis when the meatpacking plant closed. Doug tried to hang in there, funding the new piece from his savings, but economics won out in the end and "Pigsty" never saw production. A couple jobs and a marriage later, Doug found himself, as so many of us have, in western Ohio, looking for some kind of outlet. So at the end of Emily’s lament, he said, “Hey, we could put on a show in the old barn.” And Global Picket Theater Company was born.

Emily and Doug always honored that conversation. They saw all theater—all good theater—as a conversation across a picket fence. The picket fence represents a community of shared stories, folklore, and gossip, and their unique vision was to try to create a theater that was as good as gossip. But their vision was global as well, and they wanted to gossip about the whole world. A big vision. A big dream. At Global Picket we dream big. We always have. But we also know that there’s a difference between dreaming and sleepwalking. Or, for that matter, between walking in your sleep and talking in your sleep. The wonder, though, is that at Global Picket, we manage to do all three.

Emily, as you know, died several years ago in that horrible accident during our production of ’night, Mother (the small alcove to the right of the snack bar is the Emily Waines Alcove and Couch), but we like to think that, wherever she is, she’s proud of us, proud that we’ve stayed true to the Global Picket vision: We’re part of the gossip…

While we of course maintain a full season of mainstage productions at the barn, we’ve also explored exciting new performance venues in the surrounding communities. A surprise hit this season was our site-specific Medea at various locations in the Allerton Mall. Greek tragedy seemed to be exactly what shoppers were looking for, and having Medea kill the children at the food court was a coup de théâtre. (For the record: the issue with Kentucky Fried Chicken has been settled amicably; the court found the Wendy’s complaint groundless.) And we’re into our fourth year of mime workshops at the state correctional facility up in Warnerville. (The DVD of the show developed by the inmates at the workshop, Shut Up!, is now available. Check our website or look next to the soda machine in the lobby.)

While already laying the groundwork for our Islam in Ohio festival slated for 2011, in the past year Global has also done outreach to Amish communities as far away as Pennsylvania in an effort to establish a theatrical dialogue with this highly misunderstood and often demonized group. The effort has been particularly fruitful in that it led to a meeting with Amish performance artist Hebediah Weams, whose cross-cultural one-man show, I’m Here! I’m Queer! I’m Amish!, will be part of our Table for One solo performance series this October in the Emily Waines Studio Loft.

Kicking off that series, by extremely popular demand, will be Menopaws, Jane Putrell-Roberts’ humanly funny, funnily human one-woman show about facing midlife with your cat. As the Weekly Advertiser said, “Ms. Putrell-Roberts avoids the obvious choice of playing the intense loneliness at the core of the piece and shifts the focus instead to an amusing meditation on what we can learn from lower mammals. The cat stories are terrific!” Emily Waines Gold Level Members will have first access to seats for this runaway hit.

And if western Ohio hadn’t been on the map already, Global would have put it there this year with a groundbreaking pair of productions: our all-black Fiddler on the Roof (with several actors imported from Indiana!) in repertory with our all-white Raisin in the Sun. Several critics called the provocative clash of cultural markers a veritable “train wreck” of emotion and theatricality. The intensity of the talkback sessions after these productions showed that we had touched a real nerve in the community and opened up a long-pent-up dialogue. After one particularly intense session, Doug was heard to say, as the fire department drove off, “Now that’s theatre!”

And of course Global is also looking to the future, to a new audience hungry for a new kind of theater. The Emily Waines Play Development Grant has been essential to this effort, and has commissioned our second production next season, Wht?, a Twitter play that could be about not knowing something, needing an explanation, not being sure. Maybe wanting something repeated. Or maybe about identity. Or maybe it’s a whodunit. Whatever it is, it’s an exciting excursion into the limits of language. And more than that: it’s typing. And it’s short. Only fifteen minutes. So please join us for an exciting discussion afterwards with the playwright present by text message and possibly blog.

Global Picket productions have attracted international attention (the Raisin segments on YouTube went viral within hours), and we’ve become the darlings of the state and local press. As the Columbus Dispatch raved, “They’re good for what they are.” And we are. At Global Picket, we may not have changed the world—but Ohio’s a little different.

But cutting-edge work like this can’t move forward without your support. Other than the Emily Waines Gold Membership, we feature donation levels all the way from Producer and Angel down to Janitor. A number of payment plans are available, since we want you to be as comfortable making your donation as we are taking it. You can respond by simply filling out the enclosed form and sending it along with your check, or of course via our website at www.globpick.com (Please note that no donations can be made through www.RememberingEm.com. We don’t have PayPal on there yet.) Or just call Doug on his cell (740-827-9943) and tell him how much you think you can give.

We’ve been bringing top-of-the-line traditional and avant garde theater to western Ohio for more than seventeen years now, and we look forward to an exciting and challenging seventeen more. Because remember: at Global Picket we’re tearing down walls between people—and putting up fences.

See you at the theater!

Doug(740-827-9943)

* * * * *

Jeffrey Essmann is a writer/performer living in New York. Segments of his one-man show, The Usual Freak Show, are on YouTube, and his radio essays for the NPR affiliate in Chicago, WBEZ, are available in their online archive. He is currently working on a full-length play, The Indifferent Narrator.

Paneling

2009-06-22T23:00:00.001-04:00

I've had a full schedule, lately, of panels and talkback events -- which is great because I love to do them!

The panel at Theatre Resources Unlimited last Wednesday was really interesting--it was about resources available for independent theatre producers, and in addition to myself (talking about nytheatre.com, nytheatrecast, and the pilot Indie Theater NOW! TV shows) the panel included folks from United Stages, Theatermania and Ovation Ticketing, Back Stage, Fractured Atlas, Shakespeare Mailing Service, and Materials for the Arts. I was particularly excited to learn about the great services that Materials for the Arts offers--if you don't them, you should check them out here.

Bob Ost, our host at TRU, asked me to be sure and remind folks about their upcoming workshop, Pitching & Presentation Skills for Writers & Producers. Details are here.

I also did a talkback session last Friday at the Planet Connections Theater Festivity, following readings of 2 new short plays by Glory Bowen and Duncan Pflaster, both directed by Amber Gallery. We did the discussion with members of the audience plus the playwrights, director, and full casts of both plays. It was held in the Festivity's lovely lounge area, with the group seated in a circle. The discussion was great and the setup was perfect. This is the final week of Planet Connections; check out nytheatre.com's coverage here and here.

Coming up this week is another panel that I will be moderating: "In Celebration of Off-Off-Broadway: Terry Schreiber and Peter Jensen." This is held at the 92nd Street Y's Tribeca facility at 200 Hudson Street. It's on Wednesday, June 24th at 12noon. Here's the official blurb:

Celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of New York's renowned acting studios with a discussion on actors and Off-Off-Broadway. Terry Schreiber, founder of the T. Schreiber Studio, and Peter Jensen, an actor and the associate artistic director at the T. Schreiber Studio, discuss teaching, directing and mentoring such notables as Edward Norton, Peter Sarsgaard, Annabella Sciorra, and others.
Terry Schreiber has been teaching and directing on and off-Broadway for almost 40 years. His directing credits include K2, The Trip Back Down, Devour the Snow, Desire Under the Elms with Kathy Bates and Feedlot with Jeff Daniels. He is the author of Acting: Advanced Techniques for the Actor, Director and Teacher.
Peter Jensen is Associate Artistic Director at T. Schreiber Studio and the director of Fifth of July currently in production at T. Schreiber Studio.

Martin Denton is the founder and editor of nytheatre.com and indietheater.org.
Wednesday, Jun 24, 12pm
92YTribeca
200 Hudson Street
Click here for event details and ticket information (tickets are $16)

I hope many of you will join me for this--it promises to be a fun and interesting event!

More About the Des Moines Social Club

2009-06-21T23:00:00.000-04:00

Last week I posted the first half of my cyberinterview with Iowa theatre impressario (and former NYC indie theater stalwart) Zach Mannheimer. Here's the second part, with input from Zach's fellow theater artist/pioneer Matt McIver:

ME: Tell us a little about the play by Steven Gridley that is happening at your space this month.

Z: Matt's got this.
MATT MCIVER: Steven Gridley's The Twelfth Labor is a play I've wanted to direct since I saw a workshop of it at Columbia last June. I walked out of that theater, called Zack and told him we were doing this play or I wasn't moving to Des Moines.

When we talked to Steven about producing the play he was supportive, and even better indicated that Erin Treadway was interested in reprising the role of Cleo, which she had created. I jumped at the chance. We had a group of actors in town that I believed were up to the dazzling, imaginative challenges that Steven's language poses. Kim Grimaldi (Esther) and Michael Cornelison (Forrest) are local legends; Mike spent time in NY and LA and has Broadway credits under his belt. Kim is a force of nature and one of the pillars of Repertory Theatre of Iowa, a company devoted to theatrical classics. We were very fortunate in the younger actors who worked with us, some of whom had been in our first production, R.U.R.

The rehearsal process is almost a blur at this point--it's a huge four-act play with dazzling leaps of the imagination. A large part of the action is seen through the memory and dreams of a mentally damaged woman who harbors a family secret. Dad is in a POW camp, and in Cleo's jumbled imagination Abbott and Costello and the Wizard of Oz blur with her parents and siblings. We had a lot of ground to cover and the cast worked hard to get to the meat of the language and characters. In the middle of all this work one of our actors lost her mother, and that added to what she was dealing with in the process. But it all came together right at the end, when it needed to.

Steven had a lot of wonderful sound cues, and Chris Peterson did a wonderful job with video projections that play at moments in the background. All of the technical elements came together at the last moment--Steven and Erin were wonderful, hard-working and supportive. We were so fortunate to have them here. In the end I had the wonderful experience of watching this moving story told with the skill, creativity and grace I had dreamed of for a year. I've been a fan of Steven's writing and Erin's acting for some time and I'm as big a fan of them as people.

You can see a review of the play here:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090609/ENT/90609014/1047/ENT01
ME: Finally, what differences and similarities are you finding between Iowa audiences and NYC audiences? Is Des Moines going to become a great indie theater outpost?

Similarities first - they all love theatre. They are excited about it and want to get involved in it. But that's really it.

Differences - night and day to me. The audiences here are passionate and excited about the work they do and see. In NYC there was a feeling, I thought, of "Been there, done that" for most shows I would go to. Here people are so excited about the work they can't wait to jump in and learn themselves. And many of them have been through the NYC ringer and returned home to Iowa. I mean, how many people do you know who are actually from NYC? Lots of them come from Iowa. We're hoping to provide a place so they don't have to go back.

The main thing is - here you can make a living doing your work if you work like you did in NYC. And people other than your colleagues, friends, and family will come see your work - and not to "support you" but because they really want to see it. I've met some of the most brilliant artists living out here - and also, they're a hell of a lot nicer!

Indie Theater Outpost - you betcha! We've got our own theatre now, so that's what we're filling it with. Come and do a show with us - spend some time in DSM!

Indie Theater NOW! Show #2 Hits The Airwaves

2009-06-20T23:00:00.000-04:00

Today's Good News is very exciting: the second pilot episode of our TV series Indie Theater NOW! has been scheduled to air! Here are the dates/times:

Sunday, June 21 at 3pm (Time Warner channel 56 and RCN channel 83)
Tuesday, June 30 at 8pm (57/84)
Monday, July 6 at 9:30pm (67/85)

If you live in Manhattan (or have access to a TV in Manhattan), you can watch on the designate cable channels at the above times. Otherwise, you need to stream the broadcast live on the Internet at www.mnn.org.

I hope you will watch, and pass on your feedback! The format of this show is a little different from our last show. It's hosted once again by Trav S.D., but the guests this time are interviewed one at a time and each segment includes some performance! The lineup is:

Puppeteer/actor Kevin Augustine (performing a scene from Big Top Machine)
Rob Neill of the NY NeoFuturists (with a video clip from Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind)
Clay McLeod Chapman of The Pumpkin Pie Show (performing one of his stories)

Please tune in, and let me know what you think of our show! We are getting ready to plan out the possible follow-ups, which may be happening this fall.

Kevin Augustine's Lone Wolf Tribe Goes to Europe & South America

2009-06-19T23:00:00.000-04:00

Last week I told you about NYC indie theater stalwart Kelly McAllister's success in the Czech Republic. This week I have more news of indie theater folk conquering the world! Here's info from our colleague Kevin Augustine, whose brilliant puppet theatre work Animal is published in Plays and Playwrights 2005:

Lone Wolf Tribe, award winning contemporary puppet theater ensemble, will present their newest show, Part 1 of The Hobo Grunt Cycle, internationally. On June 24 and 25, the company will have its European premiere at The International Poppentheater Festival in Dordrecht, The Netherlands. On August 25 - September 6, the company has been invited to Brazil to perform four presentations in Sao Paulo and four presentations in Brasilia as part of the Cena Contemporanea Festival.
A circus appears on a war torn landscape. A clown’s beloved dog goes missing; a U.S. army veteran has lost himself. Some clowns throw the pies, others take them in the face—not unlike the soldier’s life. And under one V.I.P. tent, grunts fight dogs to the death. Featuring Lone Wolf Tribe's signature blend of puppets and performers, artistic director Kevin Augustine helms a story of human frailty in the face of war. Starring a breathtaking cast of life-sized puppets including pit bull warriors, circus clowns, and disabled veterans of American warfare, three puppeteers bring Part 1 of The Hobo Grunt Cycle to life.
Part 1 of The Hobo Grunt Cycle is written and directed by Kevin Augustine and produced by Carolyn Sesbeau. Performers: Kevin Augustine, Nathan Wagner, and Connor Augustine. Lighting design: Ayumu Poe Saegusa. Costume design: Candida Nichols. Set and Properties design: Gloria Sun. Video design: Ryan and Molly Fedyk. Sound design: Clint Davis. Puppets creator and designer: Kevin Augustine. Stage Manager: Rich Baiocco. Assistant Director: Sarah Bellin.
The Hobo Grunt Cycle has been developed through workshops at the Irondale Center and the Brooklyn Arts Exchange and is being funded by the Greenwall Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, USArtists International, and the Brooklyn Arts Council.
LWT's previous production, Bride, will travel to Atlanta to be presented at the National Puppetry Festival on July 18, 2009.
Lone Wolf Tribe is a contemporary puppet theatre ensemble blending history, sociology and psychology into brutally poetic contemporary narratives. Their visceral and fantastical productions explore the edges of artistic style and human experience. Combining a hybrid mix of theatrical mediums, Lone Wolf Tribe pushes the boundaries of visual storytelling and sculpts a new dimension for live performance.
Tickets for Part 1 of The Hobo Grunt Cycle at the International Poppentheater Festival are available at: www .poppentheaterfestival .nl.

Kevin appears as a guest on our second Indie Theater NOW! TV show on MNN public access cable (dates TBA--soon, I hope!). Kevin gives a preview of one of the characters in The Hobo Grunt Cycle on the show during his interview with Trav S.D. Details coming soon!

News from The Des Moines Social Club

2009-06-18T23:00:00.000-04:00

Fans of the NYC indie theater scene and longtime readers of this blog will remember Zachary Mannheimer. He founded Subjective Theatre Company and the Community Dish and conceived what sounded to me like a wonderfully brave idea to bring the best of NYC's indie theater to the American Heartland. Well, Zach has made his dream come true, and what he's accomplished is an inspiration to us all. I did a cyberinterview with Zach recently. Here's the latest from this remarkable theatre visionary:

ME: Zach, I posted about your idea to move to Des Moines and open a theatre company there back when you first were planning it. But for folks who haven’t been following the blog for that long, or who may have forgotten, can you give us the short version of your fabulous quixotic idea –how you came up with it and what you intend to accomplish?

Z: I was in NYC for over 8 years producing theatre and working 3 jobs to pay the bills. So the first motivation to get out of Dodge was rather selfish (only wanted 1 job - making theatre - wouldn't that be nice!) The major motivation was the realization that the majority of the theatre I was interested in producing in NYC was either already being done in some respect, or the point I was trying to convey was falling on ears of like-minded audiences. There must be other places in the country where my work could be more vital.

Being indecisive, I drove to 22 cities in 8 weeks spending 3-4 days in each city in the summer of '07, researching. I interviewed over 40 theatre companies and was searching for the right city to lay my roots. Des Moines won. I moved here in September, 2007 not knowing a single person in the city, and a day after my 30th birthday.

The idea all along, as well as in NYC, is to create community amongst a diverse group of people and begin a discourse, get those who don't make art making it, and those who do make art understanding the lives of those who don't, and partaking in that world. And of course, the best way to do this is to give them a piece of art to look at and several strong drinks - so we opened a bar as well.

Des Moines is a city of almost half a million people and is growing. The downtown is seeing a revitalization, and we were able to secure a building in the heart of it (across the street from the largest outdoor public sculpture garden in the world - to be completed this summer). It's 50/50 in terms of political idealogy, religious backgrounds, and has a strong ethnic population - and it's Midwest - so people like each other - at least to their faces. The potential for exciting ideas is infinite.

Was my work vital in NYC? I didn't think so. Here in Des Moines I feel it is.

ME: So now you are opening your theatre in Des Moines, and I am so proud and thrilled that I feel like I will bust. Tell us about the theatre you’ve created, and the process you used to make it happen. Are the people you are working with theatre folks or people you’ve met in the community in Des Moines?

Z: Thanks so much Martin!

This is a long story, but the sum of it is that there is such a HUGE demand for art space here in DSM [Des Moines]. There was not a black box theatre or art gallery in town who focused mainly on local artists. And there are plenty of them!

I began by taking a job as the Maitre d' at The Embassy Club, a private club on top of the tallest building west of the Mississippi (at least until you hit Denver). There I met many of the people in DSM who make projects like mine become a reality. After work I spent my time in the bars and clubs meeting as many artists as possible.

When you spend so much time trying to get NYC press to notice you, it's much easier to do it in DSM. The idea spread quickly, and soon we were on the cover of the local papers and on TV talking about my trip and the plans to open the space. But it was all a very exciting idea then, nothing real.

A core group of us, about 12, met on a regular basis and we rented out an old building in the heart of DSM and threw the first annual Subjective Circus - over 25 different acts from fire eaters to acrobats to opera singers, hip-hop artists and belly dancers - in May of 2008, and over 700 people came and we raised close to $12,000. That got things moving. I was in talks with several prominent DSM patrons, and one wonderful woman, Liz Kruidenier and her foundation, agreed to donate $152,000 to get us started. That was enough for 1 year's rent in the building (30,000 sq. ft in the heart of downtown DSM) and salaries for two full time staff. I persuaded Matt McIver and his wife Julie Betts to move from Brooklyn to DSM, and off we went. This was last September.

We moved into the space this past January. It was a DUMP. It was last used as Obama's Iowa Headquarters, so lots of historic value, but they didn't clean up. We enlisted over 200 volunteers and we spent every weekend from the end of January to the beginning of March cleaning, painting, building. On our website www.desmoinessocialclub.org - go to About Us and watch the 3 minute video - it shows us putting the space together over time.

The main thing was we put a call out to those who want space - and not just artists - everyone. Now we have every weekend booked up until the fall and we're close to having something every night in our two spaces - we've got performances ranging from monthly barn dances, professional wrestling, cat circuses, full scale theatre pieces, tons of concerts, trivia nights, open mikes, dance parties, belly dancing, 15 different classes in our education program, etc etc....its very overwhelming. The important part is that when you come down to Des Moines Social Club, it will be different every night. And the performance in the theatre will be for an opposite group than the performance in the bar, so both worlds mix over drinks.

The building houses an Art Gallery - The Instinct Gallery, whose shows change monthly; our bar - The Sideshow Lounge; the Classroom area; and The Black Box Theatre. It's not just theatre - its everything - it has to be to work. It's a community center and its beautiful.
The people are from all walks of life - some are professional theatre people, and some are volunteers who really enjoy using our ping-pong table, and everything in between. All in all we have a core, dedicated all-volunteer staff of 18 and a larger net of about 50 to help out on larger events. In our first month, March, we saw over 3,000 people come through, and every month since it as increased.

*** Part II of my interview with Zach Mannheimer (with a special guest star!) will be posted on the Good News Theater Blog on June 21st at 11pm. Check back for more then!

Burning the Old Man in Prague

2009-06-17T23:00:00.001-04:00

Last week, I told you about Kelly McAllister's European debut -- his play Burning the Old Man is in the rep at Divadla Na zábradlí in Prague, Czech Republic. Well, I promised you some photos from the production. Here they are! (All photos are by Martin Spelda).

Kristina Maděričová as Jo and Igor Chmela as Marty

Pavel Liška as Bobby

Igor Chmela as Marty and Pavel Liška as Bobby

Gabriela Pyšná as Candy, Ladislav Hampl as Hlina (Earth), and Leoš Noha as Eddy

Leoš Noha as Eddy

Kristina Maděričová as Jo, Ladislav Hampl as Hlina (Earth), and Gabriela Pyšná as Candy

Mamma Mia Offers $15 Tix

2009-06-16T23:00:00.000-04:00

This announcement of bargain-priced Broadway tickets comes to us from the good people at Mamma Mia:

Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus’ global smash hit musical MAMMA MIA! will officially become the 15th longest-running show in Broadway history on Saturday, June 27th when it plays its 3,183 performance, surpassing the record previously held by the play Tobacco Road.

In celebration of the MAMMA MIA! landmark, 15 brides will have the opportunity to win tickets to the record-breaking matinee performance for a Fab 15 bachelorette party, followed by a meet and greet with the Broadway stars, celebratory wedding cake and a champagne toast.

One lucky bride will win a grand prize honeymoon trip to London to see MAMMA MIA! on the West End by catching a bouquet thrown by MAMMA MIA!’s Broadway bride-to-be Brandi Burkhardt.

For a limited time only $15.00 tickets will be available with the purchase of one full priced ticket for June 20 - July 5 performances. These special tickets will be available beginning June 13 by visiting www.celebratemammamia.com.

nytheatre.com Welcomes New Reviewers

2009-06-15T23:00:00.002-04:00

I am very pleased to let you know that eight new members have joined our all-volunteer / all-theatre-artist reviewing squad here at nytheatre.com. You can learn more about them (and all of our volunteer reviewers) here.

The newbies are:

Case Aiken
Joshua Conkel
Rachel Grundy
Paul Hufker
E. Michael Longley
Montserrat Mendez
Matt Roberson
David Vining

Joshua Conkel has posted some observations about his new assignment on his blog.

Please join me in welcoming them aboard, and give their reviews a visit as they begin to appear on nytheatre.com! More new reviewers will be coming soon...

Drama Book Shop Extends Their Hours

2009-06-14T23:00:00.000-04:00

Today, just a quick item about the great NYC institution, the Drama Book Shop. If you've never been to this one-of-a-kind store, which is located at 250 West 40th Street, right across the street from the new New York Times office tower, then you need to get there right away. They are that rarity--an independent bookshop specializing in material about the theatre. You'll find an enormous selection of plays (including all of NYTE's Plays and Playwrights anthologies), along with vast sections on theatre production, acting, directing, etc. Plus they have lots of stuff on film.

They've just recently changed their hours: they are open Monday-Saturday from 11am to 7pm, and Thursdays until 8pm. They say, "Please Join us for Wine, Cheese and Soda, Thursday from 6 to 8."

This is a great place to browse for hours and hours, and the one spot in NYC where you can be pretty sure of finding some of those specialized items you need for your theatre class or theatre company. Check them out!

Here's their website: www.dramabookshop.com

Midtown International Theatre Festival Launch Party

2009-06-13T23:00:00.000-04:00

This is from Michelle Tabnick, who is handling publicity for the Midtown International Theatre Festival:

The Midtown International Theatre Festival (MITF) presents their Tenth Anniversary Season LAUNCH PARTY on Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 7pm (doors open at 6pm) at the Bleecker Street Theatre. Tickets are $20 and are available now at http://www.midtownfestival.org/ or by phone at 866-811-4111.
MITF's LAUNCH PARTY will feature previews of upcoming shows in the MITF, including musical numbers from Insecurity! (featuring the Icky House Club) and That's Showbiz!, as well as scenes from Bartholomew Fair, NJ; Checking In; The Lincoln Continental; Monroe Bound; Not My Daughter; and Southern Man, among others. Food and drinks are available, and there will be raffles for show and event tickets, theatre memorabilia, goods and services, and more.

nytheatre.com plans to review as many of the 42 shows in the MITF as we possibly can! Check our festival calendar for more info.

Talkback Discussions at Suzan-Lori Parks' New Play

2009-06-12T23:00:00.000-04:00

The Public Theater will present post-show discussions following select performances of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 8 & 9), the final play of the 2008-2009 Public LAB season.

After the 7pm performance on Tuesday, June 16, the Speaker Series will present “Metadrama: Bring It On!”, Suzan-Lori Parks (writer of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 8 & 9)) in conversation with Glenda Carpio (Associate Professor of African and African American Studies and English at Harvard University and author of Laughing Fit to Kill: Black Humor in the Fictions of Slavery).

After the 7pm performance on Tuesday, June 23, the Speaker Series will present “Meet the Artists of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 8 & 9),” a conversation between Suzan-Lori Parks, cast members from the play, and Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis.

Tickets are only $10 for all performances and include free admission to post-show discussions.

TRU Presents Panel With Indie Theater Service Organizations

2009-06-11T23:00:00.000-04:00

If you're an indie theater producer, mark your calendar: on Wednesday, June 17, Theatre Resources Unlimited will present a panel entitled "Who Can I Turn To? Resources to Make Your Producing Life Easier." Here's the description, from the folks at TRU:

Service organizations that help not-for-profits, some that help commercial producers, others with programs designed for individual artists. There are a surprising number of people out there who want to help you. Come learn the many and varied services available.
Co-moderated by Sherry Eaker, editor-at-large of Back Stage. Panel will include Martin Denton of NYTE/NYTheatre.com, Hal Hochhauser of Shakespeare Mailing Services, Jonathan Reuning of United Stages, Evan Seplow of StageBuddy.com, plus representatives from Materials for the Arts, Theatermania, OvationTix, and others. A strong lineup is guaranteed!

Yes, you read that right: I will be part of this panel. I'm looking forward to it: it should be a very informative event!

The panel is being held at the Players Theatre. Doors open at 7pm for networking and refreshments, and the panel starts promptly at 7:30pm. FREE for TRU members; $12 for non-members. Please call at least a day in advance for reservations: 212/714-7628; or e-mail TRUnltd@aol.com.

Visit TRU at their website: http://www.truonline.org/.

Kelly McAllister's "Burning the Old Man" Goes to Prague

2009-06-10T23:00:00.000-04:00

Burning the Old Man, the play that won the first New York Innovative Theatre Award for Best Full-Length Script, and subsequently was published by NYTE in Plays and Playwrights 2006, has just made its European debut at Divadla Na zábradlí in Prague, Czech Republic.

You can get all the details at Divadla's website, which is in Czech: http://www.nazabradli.cz/.

Kelly McAllister, the author of Burning the Old Man, was interviewed by two students at the Higher School of Journalism in Prague, Czech Republic, and he has passed the interview on to me to share with all of you:

1. Why did you use a festival of Burning Man as one of the themes? Have you ever visited that festival?
I began writing this play after reading an article about the Burning Man festival, and about how at the end of the festival each year there is this gigantic bonfire where people bring things they want to be done with – like if they just got over a relationship, they might bring something that represents that – a photo, a gift, a love letter – and throw it on the fire. The desire to be done with the past struck me as very interesting, and also very universal. So I got this image in my mind of two brothers trying to get to that fire – and not being able to do so.
Also, I find the whole neo-hippie culture very interesting. I grew up in California near San Francisco, and so have had a lot of experience with the whole hippie experience. I like hippies – they are funny, and sad, and poetic, and absurd. Like the characters in the play, I have not yet been to the festival.
2. What have inspired you to write the play Burning the Old Man? Is it true that it is closely connected to your father's death?
Yes and No. I believe that all writing is autobiographical – indeed, that any form of artistic expression is autobiographical. How can it be anything else – we are telling the world who we are whenever we take the time to write something down, or paint a picture, or compose a song. My father died a few years before I wrote the play – from a bad liver that was the result of alcohol abuse, which is a sort of suicide, I suppose. And there are certain parallels between the dead father in the play and my own father – but it’s not a play about my experience with my father’s death. There are starting points when writing, and then there is the story that follows. When I write a play, there always comes a certain point during the writing where the characters take over – and whatever idea I began with doesn’t matter anymore – now the story has become it’s own being, and I am taking dictation from the people in that story.
When I began writing this play, I just had the image of two brothers stuck in the middle of the Nevada desert, desperately trying to get to the festival before it ends so that they can fulfull their father’s dying wish and put his ashes in the bonfire.
3. Thanks to the Boomerang Theatre Company, Burning the Old Man won a few awards. How important is that company to you?
Tim Errikson, who runs Boomerang Theatre, is an old friend. We met in the late nineties when I played Astrov in a production he directed of Uncle Vanya in a small theatre in New York City. A few years later, I started writing plays, and Tim formed the Boomerang Theatre Company. Tim came to all my shows – and always was very supportive. When he asked me to write a play for his company, I said yes immediately. I’ve written two shows for the Boomerang Theatre Company – Burning the Old Man, and Fenway: Last of the Bohemians – which I wrote with my wife, Lisa Margaret Holub. Tim also directed my play Some Unfortunate Hour for hope theatre, inc. as part of the 2005 New York International Fringe Festival. And I am in the process of writing a screenplay with several other writers called “Places” that is slated to be the first film the Boomerangs produce – so you could say they are fairly important to me.
4. What does it mean to you that your play will be presented in the Czech Republic? In the theatre where Vaclav Havel worked in the 1960s?
It is wonderful for me personally to be produced in Prague. This is the city I got married in, during the summer of 2006. There is something wonderful about how theatre is embraced here – something that I wish happened more in the USA. And Vaclav Havel is a hero of mine – when I found out that the theatre where the play was being produced was the same theatre he worked in, I couldn’t believe it.
5. What will be interesting for a Czech audience?
I hope all of it. The characters, the story, the whole thing. I never really know what will be interesting for an audience – I just try and write things that are interesting for me, and so far that seems to work pretty well.
6. Did you control a translation of your play? How? Are you satisfied with the work of Viktor Janis (the translator)?
I didn’t really have anything to do with the translation – I was approached by Dilia, they showed me the resume of Viktor Janis, and I said “yes, that sounds good.” That was it.
7. Would you come to see the play?
I would love to come see the play- hopefully that will happen.
8. I just have to ask one more thing. Is the anthology Plays and Playwrights highly acclaimed in the U.S.A.? What does it mean to your professional life?
Plays and Playwrights is a series of anthologies that comes out each year, and is published by the New York Theatre Experience. That organization, more than any other, has greatly helped my career as a writer. They also run the web site nytheatre.com, which is dedicated to reviewing all theatre in New York City, especially smaller theatre. They came to my first play, Last Call, and gave it a wonderful review, which helped turn the show into a success – it sold out, added performances, and won the Excellence in Playwriting Award from FringeNYC. Martin and Rochelle Denton, who run the organization, approached me later and asked if they could publish Last Call in Plays and Playwrights 2003. I said yes, and began a long, happy relationship with them that continues to this day. Being published by them lead to being published by other organizations. The Plays and Playwrights series is dedicated to new writers, with the express purpose of getting them in front of more people. I think it is one of the most important anthologies American theatre has at the moment. Burning the Old Man, which won 2005 NYIT award for Outstanding Full Length Script, is in the 2006 edition.
I would just like to add that to me, it is very exciting to think that there are people thousands and thousands of miles away from me, reading and rehearsing my play about two brothers stuck in the middle of the desert. There is something quite unreal about it, and quite magical.

Check back next week for photos from the Czech production of Burning the Old Man!

Indie Theater Icon Doric Wilson: News and Accolades

2009-06-09T23:00:00.001-04:00

One of the best things about my job is the fact that I have gotten to know some of the remarkable artists who helped make today's indie theater scene what it is. Playwright Doric Wilson is just such a person. He is one of the pioneers of gay theater (he was at the Stonewall Riots, and chronicled what happened in his play Street Theater).

So I am very excited to share some wonderful Good News about Doric today.

First, I am so pleased to announce that Doric is one of two persons to receive the 2009 Career Achievement in Professional Theatre Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. (The other winner is Judith Malina.) Doric is in excellent company (or should I say, the following noteworthy theatre artists are in excellent company now that Doric is a fellow honoree--past winners of this award include: Richard Schechner, Bill Irwin, Jon Jory, Edward Albee, Robert Brustein, Anne Bogart, Zelda Fichandler, Augusto Boal, Ellen Stewart, Jose Quintero, Kristen Linklater, Oscar Brockett, and Maria Irene Fornes). Congratulations, Doric, for this well-deserved honor!

Second, here's some info from Doric that I find compelling:

I don’t know if you were aware that my play A Perfect Relationship has been somewhat of a huge hit in New Delhi. It seems to be one of the first "gay plays" to be presented in India and is causing quite a ruckus. The production travels around to different locations in the city playing mainly to straights. To be out as gay in India risks a ten-year prison sentence.
I just received this email for Sameer Thakur, the director: "We now have performances scheduled at the American Center in Delhi on 12th and 13th June 2009. This is for the benefit of students who come to the library. Around 300 young people will get to see the play. It is part of our campaign against Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a draconian law that makes any sexual act against the order of nature liable for imprisonment up to 10 years. We want sexual rights to be in the order of fundamental human rights. Just the fact that we are being invited by the American embassy is a big deal here."
Talk about a Stonewall + 40 moment! They wanted to bring me over, but I declined, suggesting that they probably had more than enough scared white elephants. The theater company is Cathaayatra and you can contact Sameer Thakur at cathaayatra@gmail.com.

There is much more info at Doric's blog.

Planet Connections Festivity: Theatre for a Cause, Part 3

2009-06-08T23:00:00.001-04:00

Last week I told you about Planet Connections Festivity and how each of the participating artists are supporting a worthy charitable cause or organization via their work in the festival. These dedicated artists are taking time to tell readers of the Good News Theatre Blog about their particular causes and why they chose them.

Well, the responses from the PCF folks keep on coming in! Here are some more. (The questions I asked each of the artists are: (1) What's your name? (2) What's your show? (3) What cause are you supporting at Planet Connections; and (4) Why?)

Hannah Wolfe, HER KIND: The Life & Poetry of Anne Sexton
Cause: Safe Horizon
Why: Safe Horizon is a women's shelter just down the street from the theatre. HER KIND is about the confessional poet Anne Sexton, who used poetry as a means of escape from harm, her personal utopia, just as Safe Horizon is an escape for women from harm and a form of utopia for at risk women of New York.

Maureen Van Trease of Third Eye Theatre Company, Those Whistling Lads! The Poetry and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker
Cause: We are working with Safe Horizon Shelter for Women and Children, Suicide Prevention International, and the Actors Fund. All box office proceeds are being donated to the charities, and we are collecting toiletry items (soap, shampoo, toothpaste, etc.) for the Safe Horizon Streetwork Program for homeless teens.
Why: Safe Horizon and Suicide Prevention International both work toward helping those affected by abuse and suicide, two themes that are addressed by Those Whistling Lads. Dorothy Parker endured many abusive relationships and attempted suicide four times. The Actors Fund support is important to me and my cast as members of Actors Equity. They were instrumental in helping members make ends meet during the last strike and they really need to raise some funds.

Peter Dagger, Wait of the World
Cause: Gynecologic Cancer Foundation
Why: In memory of Ellen Weissbrodt Dagger

Andrew Rothkin, Meredith's Ring
Cause: CEDARS Home for Children
Why: Because of the nature of Meredith’s Ring -- a love story between two young people, one very troubled, both going through the temptations, fears, and troubles of being adolescent in this not so perfect society – I was very passionate about finding the perfect organization that helps youth in times of crisis. I spent weeks researching charities on line, and none spoke louder or clearer to me than that exceptional work done by the counselors and staff of CEDARS Home for Children. Not only does the caring staff provide support, assistance, and homes for over 3,500 children and youth each year, but a staggering 89% of their expenditures go directly to service for children and youth – by far the highest number I found within the dozens of charities I researched. It is no wonder that CEDARS is a "Better Business Bureau Accredited Business," nationally accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA) and National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), and a 2005 BBB Integrity Award winner. Above all, CEDARS helps children in need. Who could be more deserving?! If you are still not convinced, check out http://www.cedars-kids.org/ and read the true stories of some of young people whose lives were turned around because of the care and commitment of CEDARS home for Children.

John Patrick Bray, Hound
Cause: RAINN (Rape Abuse and Incest National Network)
Why: Sexual assault is one of the most horrific weapons at the disposal of cowards who haunt the world. My belief is that those who have suffered sexual assault need to know that help (quiet, anonymous, and brave) is always close, and always available.

Maria Alexandria Beech, Designer X, Your Face or What are you doing Here?
Cause: SOS Children’s Villages: Venezuela
Why: I grew up in a small Venezuelan town. My father spent every afternoon at an orphanage behind my house. Beaten and abandoned children often landed on our doorstep. Early on, I understood that children are always the victims of mismanaged homes and mismanaged countries. In 1999, President Chavez promised that during his administration, "children would no longer sleep on newspapers on the street," a promise that vanished in the wind. Today, an estimated 15,000 children live on the street, according to the human rights NGO For the Rights of Children and Adolescents. These children become addicted to glue and other substances as their teeth, bodies, and minds rot. Children aren’t disposable; their welfare is everyone’s responsibility. I’m not a success if a child lives outside my window; and my government isn’t a success if there are children living without roofs and walls. As long as I write plays, I want to defend homeless children.

Carly Robins & Molly Rydzel, Everybody Dies
Cause: Play For P.I.N.K (Prevention, Immediate diagnosis, New technology, Knowledge) a grassroots organization dedicated to raising funds to fight breast cancer, and creating and promoting awareness of breast cancer through sporting and lifestyle events including golf, tennis, swimming, card games, men's tournaments, equestrian events, shopping benefits, spa days, school activities, and wine tastings.
Why: This cause is near and dear to our hearts because the writer and co-founder of EdibleBrains Productions Molly Rydzel's mom is a breast cancer survivor. Her mom is actively involved with this organization and we felt it was a perfect time to combine efforts and reach a younger different demographic because breast cancer can also affect women as early as 20-30 years old. In addition, cancer is very prevalent in both our families and we felt a strong need to choose a cancer foundation to support.

You can learn more about the Planet Connections Festivity in nytheatre.com's exclusive festival preview.

Good News From St. Louis

2009-06-07T23:00:00.000-04:00

The Good News Theatre Blog hits the road today -- here's a report from St. Louis from our friend, colleague, and frequent contributor Daniel Talbott. Daniel is currently appearing as Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare Festival St. Louis. He writes:

How are you guys?! I wanted to throw something out there to you all again as a possibility for the Good News blog. It has to do with St. Louis and the wonderful independent theatre community out here, and I’ve just been so impressed by it and all the local actors I’ve been working with on Merry Wives that I wanted to at least try to give them a shout out and to put it out there in some way. I’ve been really inspired by how deeply dedicated and wonderful the local theatre community is and how connected I feel it is in spirit to the indie theatre in New York.

We’ve been out here working on the play for about five weeks now and I’ve been really lucky to start to get to know a lot of the local actors in the cast and to have gotten the chance to see a couple productions with them while I’ve been out here. I saw a wonderful new adaptation of Woyzeck and also Rebecca Gilman’s play The Sweetest Swing in Baseball, and with both shows it’s reminded me so much of being home in a really great way – lots of insanely hard-working, talented theatre folks busting their asses to put on the best possible show with limited resources and money. It’s been really inspiring to me to see how much theatre is going on out here and what a vital and supportive community it is, and I’ve been especially blown away by the audiences of the plays.
The audiences for Merry Wives, Woyzeck, and The Sweetest Swing are so supportive and hungry and it’s been a great reminder for me of the relationship you can have as an actor with an audience onstage. The audiences so far are insanely diverse and full of kids, families, young people, old people, and have been every color of the rainbow, and they are unjaded and open and extremely excited to be there. They start to line up at around five o’clock in the afternoon and when the show starts at eight they’re loud and involved and their energy across the board has made us all better onstage, and especially on a night when we’re having a tough time or feeling low or down they inspire the hell out of us and drive us. It honestly feels like being at an outdoor music festival or rock concert and the audience comes ready to be engaged and to play and has such a strong understanding of how much they’re a part of what we all do. It’s been a wonderful experience and reminder and I feel like the audiences and the vibe of the shows are such a testament to how tight, hard-working, and inspired the local theatre is.
I’ve loved getting to come to another city and be part of their theatre community for a while and get to know all these peeps and it’s been deeply important to me to be reminded about how much theatre is happening all over this country and how hungry people are for it and how independent theatre is thriving and is everywhere.

Hope you guys again are both doing great out there and I miss you and can’t wait to see yas when we get our butts home in the mids of June.

I'm feeling totally inspired now! Thanks, Daniel, for the great post.

Family Savings at Shrek The Musical

2009-06-06T23:00:00.001-04:00

Here's some Good News that can save families money on their NYC vacations, courtesy of the folks at Shrek The Musical:

Beginning Monday, June 1, Shrek The Musical invites families to avoid the stress of planning a summer vacation by taking advantage of a SHREKcation package, the new way to organize an affordable and memorable New York City getaway and experience the best of what the “Big Apple” has to offer.

The SHREKcation experience begins with a special discount to see Shrek The Musical on Broadway. With the purchase of one adult ticket, a patron can buy up to three additional tickets for 50% off.

Then, complete the big city adventure by taking advantage of special discount offers from restaurants and NYC attractions that appeal to the entire family. Once tickets are purchased, a patron will receive discount coupons valid for the following:
o Participating Restaurants include Applebee’s, ESPN Zone, Hard Rock Café, Mars 2112 and Planet Hollywood.
o Participating Attractions include American Girl Place, BODIES... The Exhibition, Circle Line Tours, The Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame and Top of the Rock.

Log on now to http://www.shrekcation.com/ to find out more information.

Learn more about Shrek The Musical (and read my review, which is very positive) here:
http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/showpage.php?t=shre6616

Tony Pundit Strikes Again

2009-06-05T23:00:00.000-04:00

For the fourth year in a row, I have asked by Tom O'Neil of the awards website Gold Derby to prognosticate who will win the Tony Awards. The first year I entered the fray I was the best guesser; we'll see how well I do this year. You can see my picks (and those of all of the other critics and reviewers who are participating) here:

http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_goldderby/2009/06/tony-awards-predictions-broadway-news-837910752.html

You'll note that one of the categories where I am on my own, prediction-wise, is "Best Special Theatrical Event." Everybody else says it will be Liza's show, but I am holding out for Slava's Snowshow, one of whose producers is indie theater stalwart John Pinckard. Go get 'em, John!

Reminder: Please Help Us Win a $5,000 Grant

2009-06-04T23:00:00.000-04:00

Voting closes tomorrow (Friday, June 5th) at midnight for the Techsoup/Microsoft "Show Your Impact" Contest. nytheatre.com/The New York Theatre Experience, Inc. has entered this contest for a chance to win a $5,000 cash grant from Microsoft plus $25,000 worth of software. I believe we really have a decent shot at winning this--but we need your help to make it into the finals. So please, if you haven't already done so, take a moment and vote for our submission. The full instructions are here.

We've actually received some terrific feedback from our readers, friends, and collegues about this! Jon Stancato of Stolen Chair Theatre Company was kind enough to post something in his company's blog. And I got a lovely email from playwright Arlene Hutton (proving once again how very small a world we live in!):

Hello, Martin --A friend forwarded me the ballot information for the Microsoft Techsoup contest, encouraging me to vote for an organization that helps his child with her special disease. As you know, one must vote for at least three organizations and I was delighted to find nytheatre.com listed!

What a well-written essay and a good reminder of all the important services you provide to the theatre community!

So while I was thinking of it, I wanted to take this opportunity to say....Thanks.

Thanks to all for your support! I will certainly keep everyone posted here on the Good News Theater Blog about the outcome of this contest. And whether we win or not, the Microsoft software we've already received via TechSoup is helping us make a lot of new and exciting stuff possible on nytheatre.com and our other websites, and I will announcing some of that very soon as well!

Planet Connections Festivity: Theatre for a Cause, Part 2

2009-06-03T23:00:00.000-04:00

As promised, here are more statements from participating artists in the Planet Connections Festivity, telling our readers about the causes and organizations their work in the festival will support, and why.

(The questions I asked each of the artists are: (1) What's your name? (2) What's your show? (3) What cause are you supporting at Planet Connections; and (4) Why?)

Duncan Pflaster, Hate Myself in the Morning
Cause: Amnesty International
Why: Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights to be respected and protected for everyone. Since my play has a lot to do with political prisoners, I thought it would be most appropriate. In college I did a production of Harold Pinter's One for the Road, which has similar themes, and our director donated a portion of the proceeds to AI as well.

J. Stephen Brantley, The Jamb
Cause: Raising Malawi / Raising Malawi Academy For Girls
Why: Educating Malawi's daughters today empowers its mothers tomorrow. By creating a strong and independent female leadership in the developing world, girls' education will save this planet.

Aliza Shane, The Imaginary Invalid: By Prescription Only
Cause: HOSPICE OF NEW YORK
Why: My grandmother was diagnosed with cancer and given a few months to live. As she was in her 90s she chose to stay at home with my family rather than go into the hospital. Thanks to the amazing people at Hospice, not only did she live two more years, but she was cared for and loved 24 hours a day by nurses and day care workers who became a part of our extended family. The amazing work Hospice does is selfless and incredible and I am blessed to have the chance to give back to this amazing organization.

Ashley Jacobson, Hers
Cause: Sanctuary for Families, the largest nonprofit in New York State dedicated exclusively to serving domestic violence victims and their children
Why: My play is a feminist play, talking about how women, especially in families, need each other. I believe that fighting violence against women is not only something women should care about, but everyone on this planet. It is a dark secret of our American society that too often goes unexamined, unexplained, and grossly un-punished. My aunt, Patrice D'Onofrio, was a victim of domestic abuse this year, and lost her life. The fight is far from over, and Sanctuary for Families is doing amazing things for women in this area, and is changing the stigma of "victim" for women forever.

J.C. Svec, A Play on Words
Cause: City Critters
Why: My little girl is a cat lover and dreams of someday opening a shelter of her own. I've always believed in "giving back" when I am able. When I told her that Festivity participants were to be partnered with a charity, and the importance of charitible work, her first response was to team up with a shelter. I was lucky to have City Critters on our list of possibilities.

Glory Bowen, The 40 Foot Tall Jesus Statue
Cause: Amnesty International
Why: Amnesty International is an important organization to me because of its work to end the crisis in Darfur, its campaign to end human rights violations committed by the US government in the name of fighting terrorism, and its campaign to end violence against women. For more than 45 years, Amnesty International has come to the aid of prisoners of conscience and other individuals at risk of serious human rights violations. They work to protect victims of disasters like Hurricane Katrina. They also work to protect LGBT human rights, the rights of children, and the rights of all US citizens. You can help too! Please visit http://www.amnestyusa.org/ to learn how you can get involved.

Amber Gallery, The 40 Foot Tall Jesus Statue and Hate Myself in the Morning
Cause: Amnesty International
Why: Human Rights is something we all have a personal investment in. In Hate Myself in the Morning, the issues of the torture of POWs by American soldiers is brought our attention. The mistreatment of human beings affects not only the receiver and giver, but it also has an impact on whoever each comes in contact with for the rest of their lives. It is important we all work together to stop cruelty and cut off its ripple effect.

You can learn more about the Planet Connections Festivity in nytheatre.com's exclusive festival preview.

Planet Connections Festivity Does Theatre for A Cause

2009-06-02T23:00:00.001-04:00

Theatre festivals in New York City aren't a novelty anymore, so I am always excited when a festival comes along that takes a new approach to the genre. The Planet Connections Festivity, which holds forth for three weeks in June (starting on June 11), has added a twist that I'm really happy about: every one of the shows in this festival is committed to a charitable cause or organization. And I'm not talking about a nonprofit theatre company--I'm talking about some other community-service-type group, to which proceeds or some other benefit will accrue during the festival. So when you see a show in the Planet Connections Festivity, you'll not only be supporting nonprofit indie theater in NYC, you'll also be helping out some other worthy cause as well.

I think this community spirit is really something to admire, and I respect festival co-founders Glory Bowen and Frank Calo for making this an intrinsic aspect of their event. I thought it might be interesting and inspiring to share some of the participants' causes with you here on the ol' Good News Theatre Blog. So today and tomorrow, the blog will be given over to many of the artists in Planet Connections, who will tell you about the charities they are supporting via their shows in the Festivity and -- most importantly -- why. Happy reading!

(So, the questions I asked each of the artists are: (1) What's your name? (2) What's your show? (3) What cause are you supporting at Planet Connections; and (4) Why?)

Sergei Burbank, Wrestling the Alligator
Cause: City Harvest
Why: In my opinion, the most debilitating aspect of poverty is hunger. In the plenty of New York City, there are myriad opportunities, large and small, to ease the hunger of our less fortunate neighbors. I've been an individual supporter of City Harvest, and this festival's mission provided the perfect opportunity to pair a personal passion with my creative output to use my (very small) soapbox as a means to promote this organization's great mission.

Brianne Hogan, Truth...Or Consequences
Cause: WIN (Women In Need)
Why: Domestic violence against women is still very prevalent in our society, which I find very surprising because it's very barbaric and archaic in my opinion. As a woman, I feel it is important to support other women so that they know they are not alone, that they are not being judged, and that there is light at the end of the tunnel for them. We need to acknowledge this issue, not hide it. Too many of these battered women hide and instead, they need to be empowered. They need to know that they are not alone--there are other women like them in their own neighborhoods and there are women who are willing to support them. And they need to know that they can rise above their circumstances and seek a better life. They need to know their worth. I think it's very vital for women to know how much they are valued.

Jackie LaVanway, On the Square Productions, America: A Problem Play
Cause: We have decided to support the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership. This is an not for profit organization dedicated to help women become leaders in the work force by exercising honesty, compassion, courage, and respect. Woodhull strives to reach out to working women and encourages them to tackle today's issues in a "conscientious way" by "encouraging open debate." Why: The foundation of our play is Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. To give the play a modern twist, our adapter, Deborah Wolfson, has taken text from Naomi Wolf's The End of America and inserted it into the verse. The purpose of melding the two together shows how a society goes from an open one to a closed one. Ms. Wolf is the co-founder of the Woodhull Institute; and being that my co-producer, Rachel McPhee, and I are two working women striving to be leaders in our field, it seemed working with this organization was the natural choice. Their values complement our values, and the work that these ladies do is inspiring- we simply wanted to get involved! We embrace the opportunity to work with them and hope to collaborate with them again in the future.

John Kearns, Resignations
Cause: China Tomorrow Education Foundation
Why: Our show is about the grown children of Chinese immigrants and their struggles and it makes significant use of ancient Chinese culture. In China, the big cities are used as showcases for the outside world, while the rural areas remain incredibly poor. China Tomorrow promotes education in rural China.

Duncan Pflaster, Suckers
Cause: For Suckers, we'll be benefiting the New York Blood Center.
Why: New York Blood Center provides life-saving blood products and clinical and transfusion services to close to 200 hospitals in New York and New Jersey each and every day. Also, there was a nice tie-in because my play is about vampires, and so we thought some phlebotomy would be nice.

William Roetzheim, Dickinson: The Secret Story of Emily Dickinson
Cause: Safe Horizon Woman's Shelter
Why: Emily Dickinson was trapped in an abusive relationship. Safe Horizon helps women who are trapped in abusive relationships.

Bridget Bailey, Child of Hungry Times
Cause: Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids
Why: Child of Hungry Times is a dark comedy about women living in Russia during the Soviet Union. The show is based on the writings of Soviet dramatist Ludmilla Petrushevskaya who wrote about the daily hardships of women during that era and has become one of Russia's most celebrated authors. The women of Child of Hungry Times tell of survival no matter what. Their stories tell about doing whatever it takes to protect the lives of their children and those they hold dear. During the Soviet Union women faced many obstacles in daily life and today there is a new challenge on the horizon. Women represent over two-thirds of officially registered adult HIV/AIDS cases in Russia. Many women there contract HIV from their husbands or steady partners who refuse to use condoms. Many times, women do not find the same care afforded to them by medical personnel and are often treated with disrespect and must rely on information from the mass media and each other. Socially and legally, HIV-positive women are expected to abstain from sexual relations with uninfected partners, resulting in additional secrecy and shame. The lack of counseling, confidentiality, and a viable women's movement also contribute to the isolation of women around HIV in Russia. Before we can take the fight abroad, I think it is first in order to raise awareness here in our own city. Too often it can seem that one must choose a life in social work/nonprofits or one in the "real world." I think the movement in the US and New York right now is to blend the two. BC/EFA has been doing so for years. Their commitment to HIV/AIDS awareness within and beyond the entertainment community is amazing. They recognize the power of inspiring an entire community to raise money and awareness for a cause that was hardly known just 20 years ago. Moreover, they not only have a commitment to raise HIV/AIDS awareness here at home but one to do so internationally as well. The Planet Connections Theatre Festivity is another example of inspired individuals thinking outside the box and bringing the idea of being socially conscious into the mainstream. It is a pleasure to work with their team. I feel so lucky to be a part of this movement--to able to do what I love and create theatre while at the same time raising awareness and funds for an organization that really changes peoples’ lives.

(Read more about Planet Connections in our exclusive festival preview on nytheatre.com)

Please Help NYTE Win a $5,000 Grant from Microsoft

2009-06-01T23:00:00.003-04:00

Today I write to ask for about 10 minutes of your time to help nytheatre.com and The New York Theatre Experience, Inc., win a grant from Microsoft.

We have entered the "Show Your Impact" Contest, which is sponsored by TechSoup and Microsoft Corporation. The winners of this contest -- there will be three -- will each receive a $5,000 cash grant from Microsoft plus $25,000 in donated software. For a technology-based small nonprofit company like ours, this is a fantastic opportunity! And we believe we have a shot at winning.

To enter the contest, we had to write a "story" about the impact that Microsoft software, which we received via their donation program with TechSoup, has had on our organization and on the community of theatre-goers and theatre-makers we serve.

We now need to get our friends and supporters to go online to the "Show Your Impact" contest website and vote for our submission. So this is where you come in: please follow the link below, register, and vote for nytheatre.com:

http://www.showyourimpact.org/microsoft/gallery

The public voting process ends on Friday, June 5, and then the top vote getters in each category will move on to the finals, to be judged by Microsoft and TechSoup.

Anyone can vote. It will take you a few minutes: the contest rules require that you register (all they ask for is an email address) and also that you vote for a minimum of 3 projects (so you can't just vote for us--you have to pick a couple of other projects in order for your vote to be counted). It's kind of complicated and I'm sorry about that--but if you'll bear with the process and vote, we will be very appreciative!

Our submission is called nytheatre.com. Our submission date is 5/20/2009. Our category is "Optimize Mission Delivery." There can only be one winner per category, so you'll maximize our chance to win by not selecting any other entries in that category.

Please pass this information along to anyone you think would like to help us! Your support is enormously appreciated.

And please take a few moments to read our submission entry, which details some of the work we've done over the past several years to prepare nytheatre.com and our other websites for Web 2.0 and beyond. Your comments and thoughts are welcome!

But the bottom line, once again: please vote for our submission to help us win this grant from Microsoft. Click here:

http://www.showyourimpact.org/nytheatrecom

Read our story, register, and vote for us. Thank you!

Email me if you have questions. Learn more about TechSoup, the great nonprofit organization that has put together this contest, here.

Seth Bisen-Hersh Reviews Barbra Streisand: The Concerts

2009-05-31T21:05:00.000-04:00

Today on the Good News Theatre Blog, we turn over the space to our colleague Seth Bisen-Hersh, who is very happy to have reviewed the new Barbra Streisand DVD collection (The Concerts):

Five hours of Barbra! The new DVD set includes FIVE HOURS of Barbra! The first DVD is a live recording of the most recent concert from 2006. The second DVD is a live recording of the concert at the Arrowhead Pond in 1994 previously only available on VHS. The third DVD is a recording of the tv special Putting It Together – the Making of The Broadway Album. Any one of these DVDs would be worth purchasing, but to get all three in one package is simply divine. If that wasn’t enough reason to get them, there are ELEVEN bonus tracks ranging from footage from Barbra’s TV specials to specially recorded songs just for this DVD from the recent concert to interviews with collaborators and her foundation. It is magical to watch Barbra throughout the years from her tv specials in the sixties through the most recent concert. Basically every song is a highlight, but the highlights for me personally included her honest interview about recording Broadway songs even though everyone told her not to, her understated rendition of the title song from Funny Girl, her dueting with herself in the Yentl Medley, and the two bonus tracks created solely for this DVD collection of songs she hasn’t sung in years – “Nobody’s Heart Belongs to Me” and “When the Sun Comes Out.” Thus, for five hours, happy days are indeed here again.

Thanks for the heads-up, Seth! You can purchase the DVD set at amazon.com (and earn NYTE a little bit of a commission, thus aiding your favorite nonprofit theatre site) by clicking here.

Lanford Wilson Visits T. Schreiber Studio

2009-05-29T23:00:00.002-04:00

Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing the new production of Fifth of July at T. Schreiber Studio (my review will be on nytheatre.com soon). While I was there, I chatted with producing director Cat Parker and the show's director, Peter Jensen, who shared news with me about Lanford Wilson's visit to the Studio about a week earlier.

He loved the production; Cat sent me this quote from Mr. Wilson: "T. Schreiber Studio has presented one of the best productions of Fifth of July that I’ve witnessed in a long, long time. Peter Jensen and his cast have brought so much of this play to life – it’s funny, touching and provoking. I’m glad I got the opportunity to see it." Congratulations to all of the dedicated folks at T. Schreiber for this accolade -- Good News indeed. How terrific (though not really surprising) that a playwright of Mr. Wilson's stature and talent recognizes that indie theater is worth his and our time, a place where excellent work is the norm.

Cat shared a couple of photos that I am happy to post here:

The top image shows Lanford Wilson (right) with director Peter Jensen. The second features (top row): Michael W. Murray, David Villalobos, Jamie Neumann, Jonathan Orsini, Liz Richards, Edward Campbell; and (bottom row) Ellen Reilly, Terry Schreiber, Lanford Wilson, Peter Jensen, Lily DePaula, and Lucy Avery Brooke.

Indie Theater NOW! on TV -- Your Feedback Please

2009-05-28T23:00:00.000-04:00

So our initial foray into TV -- the first pilot episode of Indie Theater NOW! -- has been broadcast twice on public access cable and will have its final showing on Sunday, May 31 at 11pm. If you haven't had a chance to watch, I really hope you will!

You can view it on cable TV in Manhattan: It's on channel 56 (Time Warner) or channel 83 (RCN). And you can stream it live on MNN's website (www.mnn.org). The time, once again, is this Sunday, May 31 at 11pm.

If you've watched--or after you watch on Sunday night--please let me know what you think. The future of this TV project truly depends on viewer feedback. What do you think of the format? Was the number of guests ok -- too many, too few, just right? What about the mix of topics? What do you think of our host, Trav S.D.? What subjects would you like to see on a half-hour show of this nature?

Please comment here or send me an email with your thoughts!

Thanks for helping us with our planning for Indie Theater NOW! I'll have info about our second pilot show, which features performances and interviews by/with Kevin Augustine, Rob Neill, and Clay McLeod Chapman, very soon.

St. Clement's Episcopal Church Celebrates the Lives of Theatre Folk

2009-05-27T23:00:00.000-04:00

Today we have a somber, but meritorious, item here at the Good News Theatre Blog. It comes from James Ashcraft:

On Sunday evening, June 14, 2009, one week after the 63nd annual Tony Awards officially draws the 2008 - 2009 theater season to a close, St. Clement's Episcopal Church will hold its Twelfth Annual A Celebration of Their Lives service at 5:00 p.m. A Celebration of Their Lives is a brief service of song and meditation remembering and celebrating the lives of those in the theater community who have died during the past year. Special music, special readings, a tolling of the names of those who have died and a signing of a memorial parchment will be part of this unique memorial service. The public and the theatre community are especially invited to join with the congregation of St. Clement’s Episcopal Church for this special service. Admission is free. St. Clement’s Episcopal Church is located at 423 West 46th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues).

Check the church's website for more info: www.stclementsnyc.org.

DecadesOut Launches on June 3 -- They Are Making a Documentary about the History of Indie Theater

2009-05-26T23:00:00.000-04:00

DecadesOut, a new indie theater-related nonprofit organization here in NYC, founded by Frank Kuzler, is launching on June 3. I asked Frank to talk about this new endeavor of his. Here's our cyberinterview:

ME: Frank, congratulations on forming this new company DecadesOut. Can you tell readers a bit about the company’s overall mission, and who is involved with it?
FRANK: Thank you Martin for your good wishes. The overall mission of the company is to develop and produce new works that explore the impact of science in our lives and our relationship with science. It sounds like it runs the risk of being a college seminar or about the gadgets that have taken over our lives, but fundamentally it’s about relationships, making connections between ideas and people and looking behind the technology to the heart of science. I’ve always looked at science not so much as a school subject but as a philosophy and an art form. I think there are parallels between the way we communicate emotionally and the way we analyze who we are and our existence here. The real basis of the company is that these ideas (and whatever grows from this initial seed) be explored through the eyes of today’s artists with a focus on new work.
Since we started the company, we’ve gotten great feedback from artists and organizations that want to see the mission in action, so we feel that the energy behind the organization is already so positive. So I guess to answer the question, so many people are already involved, and the network of people has expanded well outside of myself, my lovely wife Jen [Jennifer Larkin Kuzler], and our wonderful friend Morgan Harris, who are the founding members. Jen, of course is an actress who has worked in the indie theatre scene for many years; Morgan has a fine arts background in photography and film and really rounds out what we’ll be trying to accomplish in film and visual arts; and my background is as a writer, director, and producer in the indie film and theatre worlds. I’ve learned a lot from those I’ve worked with and have had the pleasure of seeing work, and one of the most important lessons has been to not be afraid of taking chances. So here goes.
ME: One of the key activities DecadesOut will be working on is a documentary called Burning to Communicate. Tell us what this film is about.
FRANK: The film is about the origins, social impact, and development of the off-off/indie theatre scene from the late 1940s to the present. It is a mammoth project, but one I feel very strongly about, and one that has to be done right, so that’s the challenge. So far we’ve gotten great interviews with icons of the early days including the Living Theatre’s Judith Malina who is a fantastic soul and a force of nature; Lanford Wilson, writer of the American classic Balm in Gilead; and Doric Wilson, writer and active supporter of the indie theatre movement. Both Doric and Lanford got their start at the Caffe Cino in the 1950s where so much of the foundation of the indie theatre scene rests. We’re also in the process of arranging interviews with many other figures throughout the movement’s sixty year history including, Ellen Stewart at La MaMa who also continues to work and create amazing theatre. It’s going to be a busy summer. One of the things I want to explore in the film is the spark behind creativity and how from a social science perspective creative energy flares into a movement which leads to social change. I mean, it’s no secret that we’ve been in the midst of a movement which started sixty years ago and continues to grow everyday. With every new theatre person coming into town to follow their dreams or participate in a festival, ideas continue to get exchanged and the dialogue expands. This is what leads to new visions for society and social change.
ME: How did you get interested in off-off-Broadway/indie theater? Why is it important to document the history of this movement?
FRANK: I think those two questions are actually tied together for me on a personal level. Why did I get interested? My involvement was far from deterministic. I didn’t set out to do it. It’s simply the path that got laid out in front of me. There was little choice, and I went willingly. I studied theatre in school but was more of a poetry student. I like images, telling stories or revealing ideas image by image, moment to moment. My love of film and playwriting grew from that. Then I studied acting because as a writer I wanted to know about the actor’s perspective. Then I acted for awhile, found Boomerang Theatre Company, found FringeNYC, and here I am. I’ve had the extreme good fortune of being involved with companies and people doing great work at a great time, so my interest grew to fascination and activity. And that’s why it became important for me to document the history. I want to know more about the things I love, and I want to share it with as many people as possible. That may sound like a big ole can of corn, but that’s where it comes from for me personally.
On a different note, I’m a researcher at heart, and always want to know more, more, more about things by jumping in and learning about them and then trying to bring it together and present it to the world. I think that history teaches us everything we need to know about reshaping ourselves and the present world into the ideals we aspire to. The history of this movement has value on social, artistic, and individual levels. That’s why it’s important to embrace the past as vital to the present.
ME: How are you going about collecting material for this documentary? If someone reading this thinks they have a story to tell or something to contribute to this endeavor, can they get in touch with you?
FRANK: The project will likely be a multipart piece. I think it has to be because of its scope which needs to not only explore theatre history but also look at the social conditions of each segment. As I said, it’s a mammoth project. We’ve been doing copious research into the history of each decade, and as I mentioned, have been conducting interviews. We have a ton of interviews planned, and continue to build the list of people we need to speak with. It’s great (and a little daunting). Everyone we speak to always has at least five other people they say we need to speak to. We’ve also been fundraising and meeting with potential producing partners in the documentary world, and we’ll be showing a trailer of some of what we have at our launch/benefit party happening on June 3rd. That being said, we are reaching out to everyone and support has been great so far. We would love to hear from as many people as possible. We welcome people to contact us at http://www.blogger.com/info@decadesout.org if they have stories or would like to be part of the project.

You can learn more about DecadesOut at their offical website: http://www.decadesout.org.

Mainspring Collective Collects Good Karma and Gives Back

2009-05-25T23:00:00.000-04:00

Today's Good News Item is from Jenna Weinberg of Mainspring Collective:

Dear Martin,
I've been reading your blog (the nytheatre i) for quite some time now and since you began the 'Good News Initiative' theme, I've been wanting to write to you about my own good fortune in working in thetheater in New York City.
About 2 years ago, I started a company with a fellow schoolmate from Indiana University and after 3 full length productions (built with a lot of hard work, generous gifts, and tireless fundraising), we are about to move our latest original play to an off-Broadway house for 2 weekends. In looking back, there have been a lot of wonderful things that have happened to us that have allowed us to arrive at this point. I'll try to keep our story brief...but there is no shortage of goodnews to be shared.
A mentor and dear friend of mine once asked me: "Jenna, do you want a career in theatre or a life in theatre?" This sounded like a trick question to me. Of course I want to work, but I want to work in such a way that will allow me both to grow as an artist and to make way for more professional opportunities. We founded Mainspring Collective with this in mind: the need for an artistic "home" to nurture artists in addition to giving them professional opportunities. But with no money or connections in the theatre world, how and where were we to do it?
We met the owners of the Producers' Club (Ernest and Freddy Tollja) in August of 2007 and they were so inspired by our enthusiasm and work ethic that they agreed to produce our inaugural performance, a 1950s adaptation of Euripides' Medea. Following this, we began working at the Producers' Club, running their office, house managing at night in exchange for free rehearsal/performance space at the theatre. We threw huge fundraising parties and managed to raise almost $8,000 in our first fiscal year thanks to the support of our friends and people we met along the way.
Medea was followed in 2008 by a devised theatre workshop with Bridget Fallen (a Chicago-based playwright) and the World Premiere of Legends, Myths, and Hieroglyphs by Demetrius in the Sonnet Theatre at the Producers' Club.
In January of 2009, when scouting for another space to produce a new play, we came across the cell, a brand new performance space/arts salon in Chelsea. We met with the women who ran the space and they welcomed us with open arms as artists-in-residence for the year. They gave us rehearsal space to develop our original play, Dream of Me (based on Charles Mee's Fetes de la Nuit) as well as our most exciting gift yet: a 3 week run of our new show in the space. The run was successful beyond our wildest dreams, with most performances sold out, and a slew of great reviews from Show Business Weekly, the Greenwich Village Gazette, and, of course, nytheatre.com.
Which brings us to the latest chapter of good news for Mainspring Collective. One of the theatre managers at the Players Theatre saw and enjoyed Dream of Me so much that he approached me with an idea: In exchange for a portion of our box office, the Players Theatre would bewilling to co-produce an extended run of Dream of Me for a two weekend run. It was an unexpected opportunity, and we knew we had to take it.
So here we are. Dream of Me opens off-Broadway in one week. We have no idea what's going to happen, and whether or not our new publicity tactics (a relentless guerilla campaign of shock and awe going on in the West Village as we speak) are going to work. We can only hope for the best and try to make the best of each new opportunity as it presents itself.
That is our story. It's the kind of story of good fortune and hard work that makes me believe that one can be successful in this crazy world of theatre, even while the economy and national morale are suffering. In fact, I think those things make theatre more important and necessary than ever.
Thank you for all of your help in promoting our shows over the past two years. And thank you for taking the time to let me share this with you.
Sincerely,
Jenna Weinberg
Executive Director
Mainspring Collective
http://www.mainspringcollective.com/

Send in your Good News Theatre stories -- I think these are very inspirational and valuable for our community to know about!

Talkback at APAC's Children's Hour

2009-05-24T23:00:00.000-04:00

Astoria Performing Arts Center is hosting a talkback following a performance of Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour. Here are the details:

Sunday, May 31, 2009 - Immediately following the 6pm performance - This event is free and open to all APAC audience members. You can purchase your tickets to the Sunday, May 31st performance by visiting www.apacny.org.
APAC is proud to announce the first in its new series of post-performance discussions with our audience, the APAC Talk-Backs. These discussions will give APAC audiences a chance to learn more about the work they have just seen, hearing from experts on that particular play and writer.
APAC artistic director Tom Wojtunik moderates a panel of industry professionals and Lillian Hellman experts, as we learn more about this major American playwright and her first big success as a writer seventy-five years after its Broadway premiere.
PANELISTS INCLUDE:
- Sharon Friedman (specialist on feminism in theatre, Associate Professor, NYU)
- Carl Rollyson (author of Lillian Hellman: Her Life and Legend)
SHARON FRIEDMAN is Associate Professor of literature and drama in the Gallatin School of New York University. Sharon’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of dramatic criticism, feminist criticism, and theories of adaptation. Her most recent publication is an edited volume entitled Feminist Theatrical Revisions of Classic Works (McFarland, 2008), and publications relevant to this seminar include “Feminism as Theme in Twentieth Century American Women’s Drama” in American Studies (1984), “Revisioning the Woman’s Part in Paula Vogel’s Desdemona” in New Theatre Quarterly (1995) and “Honor or Virtue Unrewarded: Susan Glaspell’s Challenge to Ideologies of Sexual Conduct and the Discourse of Intimacy” in New England Theatre Journal (2006). Other essays on women playwrights have appeared in Contemporary Authors Bibliographical Series: American Dramatists, TDR, Women and Performance, Susan Glaspell: Essays on her Theater and Fiction, and Codifying the National Self: Spectators, Actors, and the American Dramatic Text.
CARL ROLLYSON is Professor of Journalism at Baruch College, The City University of New York, and the author of Lillian Hellman: Her Life and Legend. He has also published biographies of Marilyn Monroe, Norman Mailer, Martha Gellhorn, Rebecca West, Susan Sontag, and Jill Craigie. He is currently at work on Recovering Amy Lowell, a new biography of a neglected American poet, and on Dana Andrews: Hollywood’s Enigmatic Hero.

Green Light for Midtown

2009-05-23T23:00:00.001-04:00

New traffic rules for Broadway between 33rd - 35th Street and 42nd - 47th Street go into effect on May 24. The idea is that it will be easier to get around the Theatre District (and the shopping district near Macy's). So this could be good news for tourists and theatregoers alike!

The official info detailing the changes is available here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/greenlight_theaters.pdf

Zentrale Intelligenz Agentur Presents Slow Capitalism

2009-05-22T23:00:00.001-04:00

Here's information about an interesting and unique performance event from Berlin, coming to the Goethe-Institut New York. Thanks to Jeffrey Essmann for alerting me to this. He writes:

Hey Martin:
I’m pleased to attach the press release for Slow Capitalism, a two-day series of performance events by the Zentrale Intelligenz Agentur (Central Intelligence Agency), a socialist-capitalist collective of freelance artists, activists, and intellectuals from Berlin.
In three separate events ZIA agents will state their case for a Slow Capitalism. It’s fairly clear at this point that the fast version doesn’t work, and the ZIA has a number of innovative and witty ways of slowing it down. And for all the things that the world could use right now, it could certainly use a little wit.
Their presentations, while clearly savvy about economic and political realities, translate those realities into a unique type of performance where intelligence is tempered by irony: dollars are replaced by slime; people are paid wages for doing things they actually like; PowerPoint presentations are karaoke. Lecture is subverted by vaudeville, order by improvisation, and economic politics are turned into performance, into cabaret, into theater. Into a situation where you can think about—and maybe even laugh at—what Marx called the "contradictions."
So please join us for this terrific group of events, all of which are free and will take place at our satellite venue, the Wyoming Building, 5 East 3rd Street, just off Bowery.

Full details about Slow Capitalism are here: http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/ney/prj/wyo/en4514116v.htm

Economic Survey of Indie Theater Folk

2009-05-21T23:00:00.001-04:00

This item comes from David Johnston of NYC Performing Arts Spaces:

We’ve put together this survey to assess the current economic situation for artists, facilities and arts admin – and also one for cultural facilities and performing arts venues. We’d love to get your feedback. If you have additional questions on this information, check our blog or email me at david.johnston@fracturedatlas.org.
http://nycpaspaces.org/blog/postShow/id/26
For the performing artists, directors, playwrights, choreographers, here’s your survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=bjWSNKn86GUb1sN9ZfvL4w_3d_3d
And for facilities, nonprofit or otherwise, go here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=MnkAUHfr13zYXdDfEjXu8w_3d_3d

Please help his organization out by participating in this survey.

Summer Festival Previews

2009-05-20T23:00:00.000-04:00

Every year at nytheatre.com we face the challenge of how to showcase all of the amazing work appearing in summer festivals. As you probably know, we work hard to review as many of these shows as we can. But in a way, that comes after the fact; we want also to provide interesting and insightful coverage BEFORE the fact--so that readers and potential audience members can make good decisions (and get enthused) about the myriad festival offerings IN ADVANCE.

We've got a number of tricks up our sleeve this summer to try to make some of that happen.

For the Jewish Theater Festival and TeatroStageFest (both coming to NYC in May/June), we'll be podcasting. Trav S.D. interviewed Edward Einhorn, the artistic director of the Jewish Theater Festival, along with Julia Pearlstein, a former member of the Ridiculous Theatre Company who has written a play called Rat Bastard that is featured in this festival. (Eureka, another Ridiculous alumna, is the director.) The three of them had a great conversation, which we will be presenting to you on our very next nytheatrecast episode, to be posted within the next 24 hours. (Visit www.nytheatrecast.com to check this and other podcasts out.)

Javier Gomez has been working with us to create both English- and Spanish-language versions of our annual preview podcast of TeatroStageFest, the festival of Latino theatre. In addition to artistic director Susana Tubert, we'll have some exciting special guests on hand. Details about the Teatro podcasts will be available in about a week, and I'll keep you posted.

We did a different sort of audio feature for the soloNOVA Arts Festival this year--a multimedia preview that I'm quite proud of, that you can check out here: http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/solonova_2009.php

Next month brings the Brick's annual themed summer shindig, The Antidepressant Festival. For this event, we're asking participants to answer 20 questions about their shows. The results will be posted for your enjoyment and edification in about 10 days. I hope you like the questions I asked.

Following that is the brand new Planet Connections Festivity. This is a pretty ambitious event, wtih two dozen full productions along with readings and other events. It's also a socially conscious (and green) festival, with each production promoting a specific charitable cause or organization. We've asked each of the participants to tell us about their chosen causes -- and they've already started responding, eloquently and incisively. I'll be collecting their responses and posting them right here on the Good News Theatre Blog in a few weeks.

We're also doing a standard festival preview feature for Planet Connections, which you'll be able to see on nytheatre.com very soon.

What's next? Obviously, the big daddy of summer festivals, FringeNYC, is on our radar. The Town Meeting happens soon; that's the event where the festival kind of officially "kicks off." We've got some ideas for some new stuff to help make FringeNYC more manageable and fun than ever this year -- I'll share those after the Town Meeting.

Kudos to Indie Theater Stalwarts

2009-05-19T23:00:00.000-04:00

Our friends at The Chocolate Factory in Long Island City are worthy winners of one of this year's Obie Award Grants, presented last night. Congratulations to Brian Rogers and Sheila Lewandowski, the co-proprietors of the company, for a richly deserved honor!

And Susan Louise O'Connor, one of our all-time favorite indie theatre actors, is among this year's recipients of the Theatre World Awards, for her Broadway debut in Blithe Spirit. Way to go, Susan!

(Just remember that we've known about both of these amazing honorees for a long time here at nytheatre.com. Susan was one of our People of the Year back in 2005, while Chocolate Factory was on our list in 2007.)

****

I close tonight with a quick personal note: today marks my 10th anniversary as a New York City resident. Feels like only yesterday that I moved here (though in another way it feels like I've been here all my life). Moving here was the best decision I ever made. NYTE's 10th birthday is just a few months off...