NYCPlaywrights September 27, 2025
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NYCPlaywrights
Sep 27, 2025, 5:09:52 PM (3 days ago) Sep 27
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Greetings NYCPlaywrights
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
My photos live in two worlds: gritty, dramatic headshots for theatre, film, and TV, and bright, polished shots for commercial projects. Every session is a collaboration. Together, we’ll create images that capture your uniqueness.
Starting this October, I’ll be at a beautiful new studio in Brooklyn. Book a package and get a free retouched image—just mention you found me through NYC Playwrights.
View my work at udbheadshots.com and on Instagram @udbheadshots.
I look forward to shooting with you!
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
Big Idea Theatre is now accepting original one-act plays for our 5th Annual One-Acts Festival. This is your chance to see your words brought to life on the Sacramento stage and share your vision with our community.
Length: 20–60 minutes (approximately)
***
Conventional wisdom says the theater is slow to react to current events, but dramatists like Ayad Akhtar (“McNeal”) have clamored lately to tell stories about artificial intelligence, sometimes using it to help with the writing.
Matthew Gasda’s new play “Doomers” is an addition to that pack. Inspired by the 2023 ouster of Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, it was written with the help of ChatGPT and Claude. The two chatbots share a dramaturgy credit in the program.
Alas, the hype around that technology does not correlate here with narrative cogency. Despite having a loathsome fictional ex-C.E.O. at its center, and numerous characters who joust over the peril and promise of A.I., “Doomers” possesses a peculiarly self-indulgent quality, as if it takes for granted that its audience is invested from the get-go.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/theater/doomers-review-ai-gasda.html
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
by William Shakespeare: A Live Staged Reading
Come join us for a thrilling evening of Shakespearean drama at Times Square Corps - Theatre 315! Witness a live staged reading of one of Shakespeare's most intriguing plays, filled with love, deception, and moral dilemmas. Immerse yourself in the world of Vienna as our talented cast brings this timeless classic to life. Don't miss out on this unique theatrical experience!
Thursday, October 16 · 7:30 - 9:30pm EDT
Times Square Corps - Theatre 315
315 West 47th Street New York, NY 10036
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/measure-for-measure-by-william-shakespeare-a-live-staged-reading-tickets-1748607053769?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
*** SPECIAL HEADSHOT OFFER FOR NYCPLAYWRIGHTS ***
Hi! I’m Uys (pronounced 'Ace'), an NYC headshot photographer for actors and creatives.
Come join us for a thrilling evening of Shakespearean drama at Times Square Corps - Theatre 315! Witness a live staged reading of one of Shakespeare's most intriguing plays, filled with love, deception, and moral dilemmas. Immerse yourself in the world of Vienna as our talented cast brings this timeless classic to life. Don't miss out on this unique theatrical experience!
Thursday, October 16 · 7:30 - 9:30pm EDT
Times Square Corps - Theatre 315
315 West 47th Street New York, NY 10036
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/measure-for-measure-by-william-shakespeare-a-live-staged-reading-tickets-1748607053769?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
*** SPECIAL HEADSHOT OFFER FOR NYCPLAYWRIGHTS ***
Hi! I’m Uys (pronounced 'Ace'), an NYC headshot photographer for actors and creatives.
My photos live in two worlds: gritty, dramatic headshots for theatre, film, and TV, and bright, polished shots for commercial projects. Every session is a collaboration. Together, we’ll create images that capture your uniqueness.
Starting this October, I’ll be at a beautiful new studio in Brooklyn. Book a package and get a free retouched image—just mention you found me through NYC Playwrights.
View my work at udbheadshots.com and on Instagram @udbheadshots.
I look forward to shooting with you!
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
Big Idea Theatre is now accepting original one-act plays for our 5th Annual One-Acts Festival. This is your chance to see your words brought to life on the Sacramento stage and share your vision with our community.
Length: 20–60 minutes (approximately)
Festival will run January 23rd - February 8th, 2026
***
Newport NewWorks Summer 2026 Musical Theater Festival
For Summer 2026, up to three unproduced works will be selected from a worldwide pool of submissions, for a two-week-long, artist-driven workshop residency by the sea— in beautiful and creatively inspiring Newport, Rhode Island. Artists in Residence are provided housing, transportation, most meals and a stipend. Workshops are staffed with industry-leading Broadway level professionals.
***
LoveNotes! is looking for TRUE LOVE stories of ROMANTIC love--think first love, last love, forever love, unrequited love, the against-all-odds love, gay love, trans love, the one-that-got-away love, happily-ever-after love, unexpressed love, online love, arranged marriage love, worst date-ever love, friends-to-lovers love, never-ending love, opps-that-was-a-mistake love, second-time-around love, and on and on. Tales from heart-breaking to healing, humorous to hopeful--you name it! LoveNotes! is spreading love one story at a time. Diverse voices are encouraged to submit.
The only two requirements are:
Your story must be true.
Your story must be 750 words or fewer.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** DRAMATURGY ***
Holly Reed: Can you tell us how you came to dramaturgy and how you landed at Disney?
Ken Cerniglia: After trying my hand at performing, directing, and producing as a theatre and psychology undergrad at UC San Diego, I discovered my vocation for dramaturgy in graduate school, where I went to study theatre history and dramatic criticism and literature at Catholic University in D.C. During the final year of my master’s program, I landed a literary internship at Arena Stage and was assigned to dramaturg two mainstage productions with experienced creative teams. Nothing like being thrown into the deep end! So I learned by doing, applying my scholarship training to the making of theater—and I loved it!
More...
https://www.musicalwriters.com/writing-a-musical/what-is-a-dramaturg-an-interview-with-ken-cerniglia/
***
Newport NewWorks Summer 2026 Musical Theater Festival
For Summer 2026, up to three unproduced works will be selected from a worldwide pool of submissions, for a two-week-long, artist-driven workshop residency by the sea— in beautiful and creatively inspiring Newport, Rhode Island. Artists in Residence are provided housing, transportation, most meals and a stipend. Workshops are staffed with industry-leading Broadway level professionals.
***
LoveNotes! is looking for TRUE LOVE stories of ROMANTIC love--think first love, last love, forever love, unrequited love, the against-all-odds love, gay love, trans love, the one-that-got-away love, happily-ever-after love, unexpressed love, online love, arranged marriage love, worst date-ever love, friends-to-lovers love, never-ending love, opps-that-was-a-mistake love, second-time-around love, and on and on. Tales from heart-breaking to healing, humorous to hopeful--you name it! LoveNotes! is spreading love one story at a time. Diverse voices are encouraged to submit.
The only two requirements are:
Your story must be true.
Your story must be 750 words or fewer.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** DRAMATURGY ***
Holly Reed: Can you tell us how you came to dramaturgy and how you landed at Disney?
Ken Cerniglia: After trying my hand at performing, directing, and producing as a theatre and psychology undergrad at UC San Diego, I discovered my vocation for dramaturgy in graduate school, where I went to study theatre history and dramatic criticism and literature at Catholic University in D.C. During the final year of my master’s program, I landed a literary internship at Arena Stage and was assigned to dramaturg two mainstage productions with experienced creative teams. Nothing like being thrown into the deep end! So I learned by doing, applying my scholarship training to the making of theater—and I loved it!
More...
https://www.musicalwriters.com/writing-a-musical/what-is-a-dramaturg-an-interview-with-ken-cerniglia/
***
Dramaturgical labor is so expansive in scope that defining it is a fool’s task. Any definition is sure to miss some aspect of a dramaturg’s varying contributions to a production. The last time you saw a play, did the joke land right? Probably the work of a dramaturg. Were the costumes believable? Probably the work of a dramaturg. Did the monologue on race relations actually speak to the lived experiences of communities of color? Definitely the work of a dramaturg. I spoke with Amauta Firmino, the dramaturg for Slave Play, to get his take on what dramaturgy is and its role in challenging theaters to avoid lazy storytelling.
More...
https://brooklynrail.org/2021/10/theater/The-Dramaturgs-Perspective-A-Conversation-with-Amauta-Firmino/
***
What led you to dramaturgy?
AW: I love words. I've always loved words. I love how you can put them together in a specific way, and the way that they affect you can be indescribable. It does something to you inside and there's power in it. What draws me to theatre, in general, is figuring out how theatre can be the best version of itself. I want to figure out how [a production] can be successful at taking those words and doing something useful with them. I'm big on purpose. If there's no purpose behind what you are doing, then what's the point of doing it? Even with art for art's sake, I think there's still a sense of purpose in that—it is moving towards a goal. For me, it's important that theater is impactful. So I think dramaturgy, as I'm figuring out what it means to me, is looking at a project and figuring out what it's doing. Is the play or project successful at doing what you want it to do? And then if it is not, how can we get to a point where it is?
More...
https://arts.columbia.edu/news/ghost-light-meet-dramaturg-alexis-williams
***
I think it's good as a writer to understand the dramaturg's role well. I certainly wish I had had a better understanding on it much earlier. It would have saved everyone a lot of grief, no doubt, especially when I started to work in other countries like France and Germany.
The main reason I think this is important is that knowing more about the work of dramaturgs and literary managers allows us to reverse engineer how they approach play development, improving our writing.
I am coming at it from the perspective of a writer and would love to hear from Dramaturgs/Literary managers on how they see their role, how they support writers and a productiona, Also - things writers can do to help the process and make the best of this often amazing creative relationship.
The relationship between the writer and the dramaturg is of central importance and can be an incredible driver of creativity.
More...
https://www.iainfmacleod.com/the-role-of-the-dramaturg/
***
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was the first official dramaturg (of the Hamburg National Theatre in Germany, in 1767). He wrote Hamburg Dramaturgy, a series of essays on theatre, creating a bridge between theory and practice and establishing the modern concept of production criticism. Subsequently, the German theatre tradition developed a Resident Dramaturg position to assist in selection of plays and assist in the development of the work.
Fast forward almost 200 years to the 1950s, and another German, Bertolt Brecht, expanded the role to include documentation of the process, and giving political and social context, which is similar to how the role exists today. The rise of the American regional theatre movement in the late 1960s and 1970s brought the profession to our shores, creating the staff position of Literary Manager. (Confusingly, the literary manager of a theatre is almost always a dramaturg, but they are distinct roles – more on who does what in a theatre company here.)
In recent years, the role of the dramaturg has continued to expand and evolve, including taking a larger role in devising work, and incorporating cultural competency and education into the process as appropriate.
More...
https://www.playwrightsrealm.org/aspiring-playwrights-articles/what-the-turg
***
Theorist Marianne Van Kerkhoven, creator of the term of new dramaturgy, and the late dramaturg of Kaaitheater in Brussels and Rosas dance company, in two of her essays, published in the Etcetera magazine in the 1990s, made an important observation (“The theatre is in the city and the city is in the world and its walls are of skin…,” and “Van de kleine en de grote dramaturgie”). She noted that the context for contemporary performing arts (theatre, dance, performance and live arts) has changed. Consequently, the place and the role of the dramaturg in the creative process have also changed. One of the indicators of this phenomenon, for instance, is that the working process is now focused at two interlinked areas whose radii run in contrary directions: micro and macro dramaturgy.
Kerkhoven defined these two new concepts thus: while micro dramaturgy is “that zone, that structural circle, which is situated around a concrete production,” the dramaturgy of a piece (“Van de kleine en de grote dramaturgie” 67). Macro dramaturgy, on the other hand, “deals with the social relevance and function of theatre” (67). That is to say, macro dramaturgy focuses on the social role and responsibility of theatre as a public institution, its correlation with the local communities and the curatorial work that deals with developing the profile and philosophy of the organisation. These two dramaturgies, of course, are related. In fact, according to Van Kerkhoven, the role of the dramaturg is an intermediary to connect micro and macro dramaturgy in a creative process in which “artists can help us read the world and decipher its complexity” (69).
More...
https://www.critical-stages.org/26/the-seven-principles-of-leave-no-trace-dramaturgy/
Dramaturgical labor is so expansive in scope that defining it is a fool’s task. Any definition is sure to miss some aspect of a dramaturg’s varying contributions to a production. The last time you saw a play, did the joke land right? Probably the work of a dramaturg. Were the costumes believable? Probably the work of a dramaturg. Did the monologue on race relations actually speak to the lived experiences of communities of color? Definitely the work of a dramaturg. I spoke with Amauta Firmino, the dramaturg for Slave Play, to get his take on what dramaturgy is and its role in challenging theaters to avoid lazy storytelling.
More...
https://brooklynrail.org/2021/10/theater/The-Dramaturgs-Perspective-A-Conversation-with-Amauta-Firmino/
***
What led you to dramaturgy?
AW: I love words. I've always loved words. I love how you can put them together in a specific way, and the way that they affect you can be indescribable. It does something to you inside and there's power in it. What draws me to theatre, in general, is figuring out how theatre can be the best version of itself. I want to figure out how [a production] can be successful at taking those words and doing something useful with them. I'm big on purpose. If there's no purpose behind what you are doing, then what's the point of doing it? Even with art for art's sake, I think there's still a sense of purpose in that—it is moving towards a goal. For me, it's important that theater is impactful. So I think dramaturgy, as I'm figuring out what it means to me, is looking at a project and figuring out what it's doing. Is the play or project successful at doing what you want it to do? And then if it is not, how can we get to a point where it is?
More...
https://arts.columbia.edu/news/ghost-light-meet-dramaturg-alexis-williams
***
I think it's good as a writer to understand the dramaturg's role well. I certainly wish I had had a better understanding on it much earlier. It would have saved everyone a lot of grief, no doubt, especially when I started to work in other countries like France and Germany.
The main reason I think this is important is that knowing more about the work of dramaturgs and literary managers allows us to reverse engineer how they approach play development, improving our writing.
I am coming at it from the perspective of a writer and would love to hear from Dramaturgs/Literary managers on how they see their role, how they support writers and a productiona, Also - things writers can do to help the process and make the best of this often amazing creative relationship.
The relationship between the writer and the dramaturg is of central importance and can be an incredible driver of creativity.
More...
https://www.iainfmacleod.com/the-role-of-the-dramaturg/
***
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was the first official dramaturg (of the Hamburg National Theatre in Germany, in 1767). He wrote Hamburg Dramaturgy, a series of essays on theatre, creating a bridge between theory and practice and establishing the modern concept of production criticism. Subsequently, the German theatre tradition developed a Resident Dramaturg position to assist in selection of plays and assist in the development of the work.
Fast forward almost 200 years to the 1950s, and another German, Bertolt Brecht, expanded the role to include documentation of the process, and giving political and social context, which is similar to how the role exists today. The rise of the American regional theatre movement in the late 1960s and 1970s brought the profession to our shores, creating the staff position of Literary Manager. (Confusingly, the literary manager of a theatre is almost always a dramaturg, but they are distinct roles – more on who does what in a theatre company here.)
In recent years, the role of the dramaturg has continued to expand and evolve, including taking a larger role in devising work, and incorporating cultural competency and education into the process as appropriate.
More...
https://www.playwrightsrealm.org/aspiring-playwrights-articles/what-the-turg
***
Theorist Marianne Van Kerkhoven, creator of the term of new dramaturgy, and the late dramaturg of Kaaitheater in Brussels and Rosas dance company, in two of her essays, published in the Etcetera magazine in the 1990s, made an important observation (“The theatre is in the city and the city is in the world and its walls are of skin…,” and “Van de kleine en de grote dramaturgie”). She noted that the context for contemporary performing arts (theatre, dance, performance and live arts) has changed. Consequently, the place and the role of the dramaturg in the creative process have also changed. One of the indicators of this phenomenon, for instance, is that the working process is now focused at two interlinked areas whose radii run in contrary directions: micro and macro dramaturgy.
Kerkhoven defined these two new concepts thus: while micro dramaturgy is “that zone, that structural circle, which is situated around a concrete production,” the dramaturgy of a piece (“Van de kleine en de grote dramaturgie” 67). Macro dramaturgy, on the other hand, “deals with the social relevance and function of theatre” (67). That is to say, macro dramaturgy focuses on the social role and responsibility of theatre as a public institution, its correlation with the local communities and the curatorial work that deals with developing the profile and philosophy of the organisation. These two dramaturgies, of course, are related. In fact, according to Van Kerkhoven, the role of the dramaturg is an intermediary to connect micro and macro dramaturgy in a creative process in which “artists can help us read the world and decipher its complexity” (69).
More...
https://www.critical-stages.org/26/the-seven-principles-of-leave-no-trace-dramaturgy/
***
Conventional wisdom says the theater is slow to react to current events, but dramatists like Ayad Akhtar (“McNeal”) have clamored lately to tell stories about artificial intelligence, sometimes using it to help with the writing.
Matthew Gasda’s new play “Doomers” is an addition to that pack. Inspired by the 2023 ouster of Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, it was written with the help of ChatGPT and Claude. The two chatbots share a dramaturgy credit in the program.
Alas, the hype around that technology does not correlate here with narrative cogency. Despite having a loathsome fictional ex-C.E.O. at its center, and numerous characters who joust over the peril and promise of A.I., “Doomers” possesses a peculiarly self-indulgent quality, as if it takes for granted that its audience is invested from the get-go.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/theater/doomers-review-ai-gasda.html
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