NYCPlaywrights April 26, 2025

[NYCPlaywrights]

Greetings NYCPlaywrights

*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***

Theater Breaking Through Barriers presents "HPI3: DRAMAPHEMERA"
Live performance of six new short plays created during TBTB's 3rd Hybrid Playmakers' Intensive

TBTB is proud to present our 3rd Hybrid Playmakers’ Intensive — HPI3: DRAMAPHEMERA from April 28 through May 4.

But, what does “Dramaphemera” mean?
Well, Drama is what we do, and Ephemeral means “something that is short lived.”
So, in this case, the “dramas” that we create for HPI3 will be short — but very sweet!
Yet, “Dramaphemera” has many other meanings as well…
But, to find those out, you’ll just have to tune in beginning April 28th!

https://www.tbtb.org

Sunday, May 4 · 6 - 8pm EDT. Doors at 5:40pm

Cameo Studios
The performances will take place in Studio A.
307 West 43rd Street New York, NY 10036

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/theater-breaking-through-barriers-presents-hpi3-dramaphemera-tickets-1338056255279?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***

Roving Peregrine is seeking submissions for an event supporting Trans Lifeline being produced in October. The Roving Peregrine Theatre Company isn't taking any money from the tickets, it's all donated and were looking for playwrights to donate their time and talent to the cause. The shows are not fully produced, they are staged readings. We're looking for short plays (20 minutes or less).

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The Braid Salon Theatre seeks short plays

Two Faiths, One Love: Interfaith families reveal the humorous challenges and unlikely situations that lead to often surprising outcomes in a blended home.

What happens inside homes located at the crossroads of religions? How does it work or not? Is yours a mix of religions or even just different approaches to Judaism? Share with us your true stories that resulted in everyone laughing together or pushing the family to its breaking point.

How long can the story be that I’m submitting?
No more than 1500 words.
Please do not submit a full length play.
All one-acts must be 5 pages or less with no more than two characters.

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Named in honor of Elliott Hayes, the former dramaturg and literary manager at The Stratford Festival and a dual citizen of Canada and the USA, this award recognizes excellence in dramaturgical work on a specific project over the past two years. Eligible projects may include, but are not limited to, production, season planning and implementation, educational programming, or advocacy for the profession.

The recipient of the 2025 Elliott Hayes Award, presented at the annual LMDA conference, will receive $1000 USD and a $500 USD travel stipend to the LMDA conference held in San Diego, CA, USA/Tijuana, Mexico.

*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***


*** DAVID HYDE PIERCE ON BROADWAY ***

Somehow, the sooner the better, David Hyde Pierce should be designated an official National Treasure. My theater buddy and I were mulling what the (extremely positive) feeling Hyde Pierce elicits as soon as he appears on stage in Pirates! The Penzance Musical (Todd Haimes Theatre, booking to July 27) was all about—and not just in this, but in other stage roles such as the Bishop in Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, Here We Are.

There is the former Frasier star’s innate verbal and physical comic timing, dry enunciation and general performing intelligence—first showcased while playing Niles Crane—all encased by a charisma and presence that an audience naturally gravitates to. Hyde Pierce has clearly thought whatever the role is through with care. He instinctively plays less-is-more; even when chaos and activity are erupting around him, the actor pitches his performance at a subtle askew. He also has a kind of solid but playful assuredness. Your eyes immediately go to him.

You know, whatever else happens in the next couple of hours, everything that Hyde Pierce is involved in will not just work, but thrum. His is the least boring, most dynamic and affable version of a safe-pair-of-hands.

This Roundabout Theatre Production of Pirates!, a “reimagining” of the Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1879 comic opera, The Pirates of Penzance, would be agreeable without Hyde Pierce—it also features Ramin Karimloo as a low-key charming Pirate King—but Hyde Pierce’s presence mints the entire enterprise.

More...
https://archive.ph/1bOA5

***

Though jolly enough, the latest Broadway incarnation, which opened on Thursday at the Todd Haimes Theater, trusts neither the material nor us as much as it might. Clumsily but accurately retitled “Pirates! The Penzance Musical,” and transported to post-Reconstruction New Orleans, it is also significantly altered in tone. Except for the central performance by David Hyde Pierce, marvelously underplaying the tongue-twisting Major-General, the production has a sweaty quality, bordering on frenzy, that’s hopelessly at odds with the cool wit of the original.

Perhaps the sweat is a nod to the story’s steamy new location, or a sign of the effort it took to get it there. As adapted by Rupert Holmes, and directed by Scott Ellis, “Pirates” now takes place in a French Quarter theater — a clever touch, given Louisiana’s historic proximity to actual piracy, but one that requires laborious workarounds and, apparently, an uplifting lesson.

More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/theater/pirates-penzance-musical-review.html

***

The 51-year-old actor recently grew quite a lovely beard and mustache while performing as a priggish 17th-century French playwright in a London production of the play “La Bete.” The facial hair will stay as he takes the show to Broadway.

“I do enjoy my beard. It’s weird because I’ve had friends come backstage afterward and say, ‘Oh, it’s real!’ So why did I bother growing this thing?” he says. “But it’s nice to change your look. And it’s a walking advertisement for the play.”

The former “Frasier” star has a history with the David Hirson play, which pits his character against a vulgar street clown as they vie for the blessing of the royal court. Pierce originally auditioned for the part of a prince when the play debuted on Broadway in 1991.

He didn’t get it and very shortly moved to Los Angeles where he starred as Dr. Niles Crane for 11 seasons and won four Emmy Awards. He forgot all about the play until he was sent a script for this revival. This time, he wanted to play the uncompromising, highbrow playwright Elomire.

“I was drawn to the play and to the part, I think, because it’s very funny. Comedy is something I tend to end up doing. But it also has a lot of heart and a lot of interesting philosophical questions that pop up in the middle of the comedy,” he says. “So that all really excited me.”

More...
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2010/10/13/david-hyde-pierce-jumps-aboard-a-broadway-beast/

***

The song is performed, most engagingly, by David Hyde Pierce, who (this is the good news) steps into full-fledged Broadway stardom with his performance here. Mr. Hyde Pierce, playing Frank Cioffi, a Boston police detective investigating a murder within a doom-shadowed musical-comedy company in 1959, is describing the limited pleasures of being an unmarried cop.

“It’s a perfectly fine life,” he sings, with feeble conviction. “I’d give it” — and here he pauses, for a moment of honest self-assessment — “two cheers.” That’s more or less the feeling inspired by “Curtains.” I sincerely wish I could say otherwise.

The long road to Broadway for “Curtains” has been nearly as fraught as that of “Robbin’ Hood,” the show-within-the-show that keeps losing cast and crew members to untimely ends during an out-of-town tryout in Boston. Its original book writer, Peter Stone, died in 2003, and Mr. Ebb, the lyricist, died in 2004. Enter Rupert Holmes, the writer and composer of the Tony-winning “Mystery of Edwin Drood,” who is now credited with the script and (along with Mr. Kander) additional lyrics for “Curtains.”

More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/theater/reviews/23curt.html

***

Mr. Hyde Pierce plays Steven Gaye, a suave, successful writer whose career is thrown into chaos when his mousy secretary unexpectedly declares her love for him. (Yes, it was written in 1934.) The show opens Wednesday night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater.

Before a recent performance, Mr. Hyde Pierce sat down to discuss the production and narrate an audio slide show.

What was it about the character of Steven Gaye that attracted you to this project?

Dan Sullivan, the director, brought the play to me. I had worked with Dan years ago on “The Heidi Chronicles.” I loved working with him then. I had seen some of his work over the years and had always been so impressed with his productions. He brought me “Accent on Youth,” and said it was something that meant a lot to him. I read it and thought it was really interesting. It surprised me. I thought, O.K., 1930s comedy, I think I know what that is. It’s sort of wacky and people talk very fast and run in and out of doors and it will probably be in black and white. It’s none of those things. It is a comedy, it has some very funny things in it, but it’s a comedy with a lot of heart and sadness in it.

More...
https://archive.nytimes.com/artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/david-hyde-pierce-of-accent-on-youth-a-modern-man-for-a-1930s-comedy/

***

I was trying to think of one word to describe this play: sophomoric! That's the word. It's astonishing that it has lasted so long, having had other incarnations in and out of New York. But perhaps the others were better productions.

Vanya (David Hyde Pierce) and Sonia (Kristine Nielsen) are brother and adopted sister who seem to be living out their days in the family home that their parents have recently departed. They do little more than sit waiting for the local heron to pay a visit and repeat lines from Chekhov - Sonia is in mourning for her life (Get it?). These two have a lot of time on their hands and not much to fill it.

Until their sister Masha (Sigourney Weaver) the famous actress, arrives with her current lover Spike (Billy Magnussen). Masha has blown into town with plans. Everyone is to attend a costume party at a neighbor's mansion, and the homestead that she supports must be sold, in that order. First things first, Masha must emote all over the stage about the sad and frustrating life she has lead in spite of her many, many successes that neither of her siblings would understand because they never had any. After that she must extol the virtues and body of her much younger lover. After that she will outline the costume theme for the evening - she is Snow White and her siblings will be two of the dwarfs with Spike coming in as Prince Charming.

These plans meet with unqualified resistance. One the one hand beautifully performed by Pierce who understands that one raised eyebrow will be enough to make us laugh. Nielsen on the other hand, slips into her same old shtick of hobbling about and doing her bobble head with the rolling eyes bit. This is a tiresome affectation that makes a lot of locals howl, but one above which I hope she raises some day. She is a talented actor but settles for giving us less than she is capable of.

More...
https://www.newyorktheatreguide.com/reviews/vanya-and-sonia-and-masha-and-spike-0

***

BEFORE playing the cosmically over-refined psychiatrist Niles Crane for 11 seasons on "Frasier," David Hyde Pierce worked for 11 years as a stage actor in New York and at regional theaters around the country. Before that, when he was just David Pierce (the Screen Actors Guild, already having a member by that name, Hyded him in 1993), he was a theater and English major at Yale -- which is where I met him, in 1977. Steady and buttoned-down, with a keen but very dry sense of humor, he was not like the rest of us flamboyant theater types; and yet today, in his first Broadway appearance since his sitcom success, he is starring in perhaps the silliest musical ever: "Monty Python's Spamalot," which is in previews at the Shubert Theater and opens on March 17. Directed by Mike Nichols and also starring Tim Curry and Hank Azaria, "Spamalot" features Mr. Pierce, 45, as not-so-brave Sir Robin (among other roles): singing and dancing, clutching chickens, blessing hand grenades and generally putting his Yale education to good use. On Feb. 14, he took time off from writing Valentine's Day cards for his castmates -- yes, really -- to talk about how low he's sunk. 

JESSE GREEN: When I met you, I don't think anyone would have guessed that you had an interest in performing. You seemed very reserved. In fact, when I first heard that you were doing a small part in an undergrad production of "A Man for All Seasons" ----

DAVID HYDE PIERCE: You thought, "Is that wise?"

Q. I was dumbfounded. Did you have to overcome any reticence to present yourself in a theatrical context?

A. Never. In fact, I remember in fourth grade, I would write plays where I got to be Julius Caesar and we'd always do the death scene. I liked to fall down the staircase in my parents' house. Anything dramatic.

Q. When I later saw you in comic material, I thought of Bob Hope or Jack Benny. Did they influence you?

A. My comic influences are more from television -- people like Bob Newhart. I was always drawn to a style of comedy that didn't ask for laughs, but just went about its business and allowed people to respond, as opposed to saying, "Look how funny this is." It's a more intimate performance style, meaning that the focus is between you and the other actors, while allowing the audience in. My greatest pleasure onstage or on TV -- and it's why I hate doing movies -- is to do as little as possible and get the biggest laugh.

More...
https://archive.ph/LcZbK