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NYCPlaywrights December 21, 2024
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NYCPlaywrights
Dec 21, 2024, 6:02:28 PM12/21/24
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Greetings NYCPlaywrights
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
OPHELIA'S OCEAN
The year is 2080. Human society is loveless and emotionless, and Samantha, a poet intrigued by the mystery of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, excavates the past to seek the truth about her father’s death.
Join us on January 17, 18, and 19 in St. Paul’s Chapel for Ophelia’s Ocean. Starring four actors in eight roles, the play was written and directed by Maya M. Workman with music by Reggie Workman. Together, they received a Guggenheim Fellowship to bring Ophelia's Ocean to life.
The cast includes Mary Chang (narrator), Ayana Workman (Ophelia/Samantha), Jakeem Dante Powell (Hamlet/Robert), Justin Hofstad (Claudius/Nick), and Nicole Spinnler (Gertrude/Beatrice) with a musical ensemble featuring Reggie Workman (bassist/composer), Hanna Inui (pianist/music director), Elijah Thomas (flute), and Timothy Anguloa (drums/percussion).
St. Paul's Chapel
209 Broadway New York, NY 10007
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ophelias-ocean-tickets-1111849223959?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
The Vidalia Theatre Company in Atlanta, is accepting submissions for its annual Summer Harvest show of 10-minute plays to be produced in June 2025.
The theme for this show is “at a crossroads.” We are only seeking plays that fit this theme at this time.
***
The New Voices Theatre Festival is accepting submissions of unpublished and unproduced full-length plays to develop during a summer residency that will culminate in a staged reading. One new work from the festival will be chosen to be mounted as a fully-produced production during the upcoming season at The University of Alabama.
***
Queens Theatre is seeking submissions for Theatre For All Short Play Readings to be held in the Spring of 2025. These submissions will also be considered for BIRD Festival readings in Japan in the Fall of 2025.
Plays on all subjects by writers with disabilities will be considered, as well as plays by any writer which feature a character or characters with a disability. Please note that plays with disabled characters do not need to focus on disability as the topic.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** CHRISTMAS SHOWS ***
Tennessee Williams has written a serious comedy that is neither especially serious nor notably comic.
"Period of Adjustment" which opened last night at the Helen Hayes Theater, marks a change of pace for Mr. Williams. It was written in a time when he evidently found himself on a sunny upland, and he chose to depart from the themes of intensity and violence that have concerned him so much during his writing career.
Mr. Williams is telling the story of two marriages at points of acute crisis. One couple has just broken up after five years together. The other has not been able to come to terms in one day of wedlock. Both couples are living through a period of adjustment. The phrase is tinged with irony.
The play examines the sources of the crises. Ralph Bates, a former war hero, has in-law trouble. George Haverstick, a war buddy who unexpectedly visits him on Christmas Eve with his bride of a day, has the shakes; his difficulty seems to be a fear of impotence. The end is happy, as comedy requires. The four go to bed- in the right combinations.
More...
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/12/31/specials/williams-period.html
***
A Tuna Christmas, written by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard, is set in the small, fictional town of Tuna, Texas. To the ordinary outsider, it doesn’t appear that much happens here. Driving through the town during the holiday season, one might even be intrigued, if not a bit confused at times when viewing the holiday yard displays.
The yard displays in this tiny town are all the citizens have on their minds. This year, a Christmas Phantom is keeping everyone guessing as to what the prankster or pranksters will do to sabotage contestants in the annual Christmas Yard Display Contest.
True to the original format, the Longmont Theatre Company chose to only cast two actors — Shannon McCarthy and Josh Leisure — to play all 20 parts in the play.
McCarthy said this show was on his bucket list. He has been in love with the play since he saw it many years ago. He auditioned once when he was younger in another theatre house but was not cast for the role because “I was not old enough,” he said. Thirty years later, he feels like he has matured into the position.
More...
https://www.longmontleader.com/local-news/a-tuna-christmas-review-4800323
***
They were bound to happen. The first was a respectable musical to enliven a Broadway season that had hitherto been tone‐deaf, even stonedeaf. Second, a musical about wifeswapping, or about near wife‐swapping. After all, Hollywood did it years ago.
Seriously, the new musical “I Love My Wife,” with book and lyrics by Michael Stewart and music by Cy Coleman, is bright, inventive, amusing and breezy. And it even takes place in Trenton, N.J. It opened last night at the Ethel Barrymore Theater...
Mr. Stewart gets the most out of the slender idea. The two high‐school chums, one semisophisticated (he works in public relations) and one semi‐unsophisticated‐ (he works in furniture moving), meet over a beer and the first tells the second how his relations with the public can be made more moving by persuading his wife to accept a threesome.
The semi‐unsophisticated chum, timidly at first, buys the idea, thinking that another woman in bed might make things wanner. (It is Christmas time.) The wife also accepts. Yet she thinks of another man. Not all triangles, it seems, are equilaterals and as for an isosceles, those little devils can point in many different directions.
Where Mr. Stewart scores almost more than in his hook, is with his lyrics, which are neat, nifty and very literate. Cy Coleman's music runs the gamut from blues to barrel house, from country and western to marching band. But it is always tuneful, infectious and slightly impish. This makes it sound like a singing leprechaun with mumps, but in fact it is a great deal funnier and much more versatile.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/18/archives/stage-tuneful-i-love-my-wife-its-a-deft-diverting-different-musical.html
***
That’s right. Twelfth Night is a Christmas play. You see, Shakespeare probably wrote the play for a Twelfth Night celebration. (The fact that the play’s plot has little-to-nothing to do with the holiday is neither here nor there.) Twelfth Night was a holiday usually celebrated the twelfth day after Christmas: January 6. (Is that where “The Twelve Days of Christmas” song came from? Yes. Yes it is). Though Twelfth Night is not really celebrated anymore, it was always a huge part of Christmastide celebrations in Elizabethan England. Originally, it marked the Epiphany: according to Christian tradition, the revelation of God as Jesus in the flesh. It also commemorated the Magi’s visit to the Christ child.
More...
https://www.bard.org/news/what-the-heck-is-a-twelfth-night/
***
In SANTALAND DIARIES, Sedaris chronicles his work experience as an elf at Macy’s. He takes us behind the scenes to the holiday craziness in a department store Santaland. His intimate elf confessions have been adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello.
In this one man show, Matt Crowle (Crumpet) plays Sedaris. He shares all the details from applying to be an elf to surviving Christmas Eve horrors. In between, he covers a variety of topics including white vs black Santas, Jersey dads, the vomit corner, materialism, and elf rivalry. Under the skillful direction of Steve Scott, Crowle tells his woes dripping with sarcasm. On the holiday spectrum, he’s somewhere between Grinch and Scooge.
More...
https://thefourthwalsh.com/2018/12/review-santaland-diaries-goodman-theatre-clever-tale-of-elf-oppression/
***
Do you know how you behave when you’re drunk, I mean, really drunk? If the answer is yes, then you’ve never been that drunk, since the curse and kindness of vast quantities of alcohol is that they obliterate self-awareness.
This physiological fact of life makes the gorgeous, vitally intelligent performances in “The Seafarer,” the new play by Conor McPherson that opened last night at the Booth Theater, all the more remarkable. Everyone in this dark and enthralling Christmas fable of despair and redemption descends at some point to oceanic depths of drunkenness, including a sinister fellow who is, shall we say, not of this world.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/theater/reviews/07seaf.html
***
PROJECT AUDION PRESENTS: "The Plot to Overthrow Christmas"
In this new production, the Project Audion players remake Norman Corwin's classic holiday tale, told completely in rhyme! We learn how the forces of evil want to destroy Christmas, and how a hero comes to the rescue!
Project Audion was created in 2020 by Larry Groebe of Generic Radio Workshop and this is their 13th production, bringing actors from all over the United States, plus a few from Canada, together via Zoom to re-create the classics of Old-Time Radio. Find more productions (with video included!) at YouTube: search "project audion larry groebe".
Listen:
https://moonlightaudio.libsyn.com/the-plot-to-overthrow-christmas
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
OPHELIA'S OCEAN
The year is 2080. Human society is loveless and emotionless, and Samantha, a poet intrigued by the mystery of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, excavates the past to seek the truth about her father’s death.
Join us on January 17, 18, and 19 in St. Paul’s Chapel for Ophelia’s Ocean. Starring four actors in eight roles, the play was written and directed by Maya M. Workman with music by Reggie Workman. Together, they received a Guggenheim Fellowship to bring Ophelia's Ocean to life.
The cast includes Mary Chang (narrator), Ayana Workman (Ophelia/Samantha), Jakeem Dante Powell (Hamlet/Robert), Justin Hofstad (Claudius/Nick), and Nicole Spinnler (Gertrude/Beatrice) with a musical ensemble featuring Reggie Workman (bassist/composer), Hanna Inui (pianist/music director), Elijah Thomas (flute), and Timothy Anguloa (drums/percussion).
St. Paul's Chapel
209 Broadway New York, NY 10007
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ophelias-ocean-tickets-1111849223959?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
The Vidalia Theatre Company in Atlanta, is accepting submissions for its annual Summer Harvest show of 10-minute plays to be produced in June 2025.
The theme for this show is “at a crossroads.” We are only seeking plays that fit this theme at this time.
***
The New Voices Theatre Festival is accepting submissions of unpublished and unproduced full-length plays to develop during a summer residency that will culminate in a staged reading. One new work from the festival will be chosen to be mounted as a fully-produced production during the upcoming season at The University of Alabama.
***
Queens Theatre is seeking submissions for Theatre For All Short Play Readings to be held in the Spring of 2025. These submissions will also be considered for BIRD Festival readings in Japan in the Fall of 2025.
Plays on all subjects by writers with disabilities will be considered, as well as plays by any writer which feature a character or characters with a disability. Please note that plays with disabled characters do not need to focus on disability as the topic.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** CHRISTMAS SHOWS ***
Tennessee Williams has written a serious comedy that is neither especially serious nor notably comic.
"Period of Adjustment" which opened last night at the Helen Hayes Theater, marks a change of pace for Mr. Williams. It was written in a time when he evidently found himself on a sunny upland, and he chose to depart from the themes of intensity and violence that have concerned him so much during his writing career.
Mr. Williams is telling the story of two marriages at points of acute crisis. One couple has just broken up after five years together. The other has not been able to come to terms in one day of wedlock. Both couples are living through a period of adjustment. The phrase is tinged with irony.
The play examines the sources of the crises. Ralph Bates, a former war hero, has in-law trouble. George Haverstick, a war buddy who unexpectedly visits him on Christmas Eve with his bride of a day, has the shakes; his difficulty seems to be a fear of impotence. The end is happy, as comedy requires. The four go to bed- in the right combinations.
More...
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/12/31/specials/williams-period.html
***
A Tuna Christmas, written by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard, is set in the small, fictional town of Tuna, Texas. To the ordinary outsider, it doesn’t appear that much happens here. Driving through the town during the holiday season, one might even be intrigued, if not a bit confused at times when viewing the holiday yard displays.
The yard displays in this tiny town are all the citizens have on their minds. This year, a Christmas Phantom is keeping everyone guessing as to what the prankster or pranksters will do to sabotage contestants in the annual Christmas Yard Display Contest.
True to the original format, the Longmont Theatre Company chose to only cast two actors — Shannon McCarthy and Josh Leisure — to play all 20 parts in the play.
McCarthy said this show was on his bucket list. He has been in love with the play since he saw it many years ago. He auditioned once when he was younger in another theatre house but was not cast for the role because “I was not old enough,” he said. Thirty years later, he feels like he has matured into the position.
More...
https://www.longmontleader.com/local-news/a-tuna-christmas-review-4800323
***
They were bound to happen. The first was a respectable musical to enliven a Broadway season that had hitherto been tone‐deaf, even stonedeaf. Second, a musical about wifeswapping, or about near wife‐swapping. After all, Hollywood did it years ago.
Seriously, the new musical “I Love My Wife,” with book and lyrics by Michael Stewart and music by Cy Coleman, is bright, inventive, amusing and breezy. And it even takes place in Trenton, N.J. It opened last night at the Ethel Barrymore Theater...
Mr. Stewart gets the most out of the slender idea. The two high‐school chums, one semisophisticated (he works in public relations) and one semi‐unsophisticated‐ (he works in furniture moving), meet over a beer and the first tells the second how his relations with the public can be made more moving by persuading his wife to accept a threesome.
The semi‐unsophisticated chum, timidly at first, buys the idea, thinking that another woman in bed might make things wanner. (It is Christmas time.) The wife also accepts. Yet she thinks of another man. Not all triangles, it seems, are equilaterals and as for an isosceles, those little devils can point in many different directions.
Where Mr. Stewart scores almost more than in his hook, is with his lyrics, which are neat, nifty and very literate. Cy Coleman's music runs the gamut from blues to barrel house, from country and western to marching band. But it is always tuneful, infectious and slightly impish. This makes it sound like a singing leprechaun with mumps, but in fact it is a great deal funnier and much more versatile.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/18/archives/stage-tuneful-i-love-my-wife-its-a-deft-diverting-different-musical.html
***
That’s right. Twelfth Night is a Christmas play. You see, Shakespeare probably wrote the play for a Twelfth Night celebration. (The fact that the play’s plot has little-to-nothing to do with the holiday is neither here nor there.) Twelfth Night was a holiday usually celebrated the twelfth day after Christmas: January 6. (Is that where “The Twelve Days of Christmas” song came from? Yes. Yes it is). Though Twelfth Night is not really celebrated anymore, it was always a huge part of Christmastide celebrations in Elizabethan England. Originally, it marked the Epiphany: according to Christian tradition, the revelation of God as Jesus in the flesh. It also commemorated the Magi’s visit to the Christ child.
More...
https://www.bard.org/news/what-the-heck-is-a-twelfth-night/
***
In SANTALAND DIARIES, Sedaris chronicles his work experience as an elf at Macy’s. He takes us behind the scenes to the holiday craziness in a department store Santaland. His intimate elf confessions have been adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello.
In this one man show, Matt Crowle (Crumpet) plays Sedaris. He shares all the details from applying to be an elf to surviving Christmas Eve horrors. In between, he covers a variety of topics including white vs black Santas, Jersey dads, the vomit corner, materialism, and elf rivalry. Under the skillful direction of Steve Scott, Crowle tells his woes dripping with sarcasm. On the holiday spectrum, he’s somewhere between Grinch and Scooge.
More...
https://thefourthwalsh.com/2018/12/review-santaland-diaries-goodman-theatre-clever-tale-of-elf-oppression/
***
Do you know how you behave when you’re drunk, I mean, really drunk? If the answer is yes, then you’ve never been that drunk, since the curse and kindness of vast quantities of alcohol is that they obliterate self-awareness.
This physiological fact of life makes the gorgeous, vitally intelligent performances in “The Seafarer,” the new play by Conor McPherson that opened last night at the Booth Theater, all the more remarkable. Everyone in this dark and enthralling Christmas fable of despair and redemption descends at some point to oceanic depths of drunkenness, including a sinister fellow who is, shall we say, not of this world.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/theater/reviews/07seaf.html
***
PROJECT AUDION PRESENTS: "The Plot to Overthrow Christmas"
In this new production, the Project Audion players remake Norman Corwin's classic holiday tale, told completely in rhyme! We learn how the forces of evil want to destroy Christmas, and how a hero comes to the rescue!
Project Audion was created in 2020 by Larry Groebe of Generic Radio Workshop and this is their 13th production, bringing actors from all over the United States, plus a few from Canada, together via Zoom to re-create the classics of Old-Time Radio. Find more productions (with video included!) at YouTube: search "project audion larry groebe".
Listen:
https://moonlightaudio.libsyn.com/the-plot-to-overthrow-christmas
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