NYCPlaywrights October 4, 2025

[NYCPlaywrights]

Greetings NYCPlaywrights


*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***

A VOICE IN THE STACKS

 by Pamela Robbins

Selina, a teenaged library ghost, has managed to scare new library staff away from the children’s department, but Maren Morrisey, a new hire, has no problem with ghostly phenomena. Hoping to drive Maren away for good, Selina tries every trick in the book, including one that almost works...but Maren is determined to hold on. Who will win??

Come join us at the 125th Street Library for a special live reading of a recent work by local playwright, Pamela Robbins. Registration is recommended but not required. Light refreshments will be served.

Saturday, October 25 · 2 - 3pm EDT
125th Street Library
224 East 125th Street New York, NY 10035

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-special-spooky-reading-a-voice-in-the-stacks-tickets-1758327858959?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

*** EXPAND THE CANON: DAY OF THE DEAD LADIES ***

🎭 Join Us: Day of the Dead Ladies — Oct 17

This spooky season, our coven gathers to raise the dead…legacies of women and gender-expansive playwrights erased from the classic canon.

Day of the Dead Ladies
📅 Thursday, Oct 17 | 7 PM
📍 ART/NY – 138 S Oxford St, Brooklyn

Expect summonings of historic playwrights, a Dead Ladies Costume Contest, music, tarot, craft vendors, and a joyful night with NYC’s theatre community.

Tickets fund Expand the Canon’s mission: reviving forgotten classics and making sure women & gender-expansive playwrights take their rightful place in the canon.

Tickets: $35 | $150 w/ Open Bar | $300 3 Pack with Open Bar
Can’t attend? Donate or join the costume contest remotely via Instagram (@etcclassics).

👉 Ticket Link
https://expandthecanon.betterworld.org/events/day-of-the-dead-ladies?utm_source=expandthecanon.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=enter-spooky-season-with-day-of-the-dead-ladies



*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***

Hepburn Hooks Theatre Co "Brown Skin Girl" seeks short plays
A clear element of inspiration for our very first endeavour is legendary superstar and timeless icon Beyoncé's 2019 song "BROWN SKIN GIRL", a gorgeous, heartfelt celebration of Black girl/womanhood. Its music video (which we enjoin you to watch, if you haven't already, features a plethora of Brown Skinned Girls and illustrates the broadness of this term!)
The plays may be set in any era, they may tackle whatever subject you desire, the stories may even not centre Black/Brown women at all!

***

At The Theater Project’s annual virtual one-act play competition, 7 to 10 short plays are selected for 3 pre-recorded broadcast performances. The goal is to give emerging writers in NJ and beyond the chance to platform their work!
The $500 Grand Prize is given to the playwright selected by the judges at the final performance.

***

Prologue Theatre will be selecting up to three (3) new plays to be workshopped in person, at our Arlington, VA rehearsal space, in February and March 2026.
Each selected play will be workshopped for two weeks in February/March of 2026 (pursuant to team availability).

The workshop team will consist of a Director and Performers who will also be paid for their participation.

Selected playwrights will receive a stipend of $2000 for the entire workshop process.

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


*** MONOLOGUING ***

How to begin writing, develop a monologue and what to bear in mind when turning that monologue into a full show.

When it comes to writing – in all its forms – starting can be the hardest part. We want to make sure whatever we write is perfect, but the first words rarely are. Writing, like almost everything worth doing, requires practice and if you never let yourself write badly, then you’ll never get good.

So, how can we encourage ourselves to write without self-judgement? And how can we then turn those scraps into a monologue worthy of performance?

More...
https://www.spotlight.com/news-and-advice/making-work/tips-for-writing-a-monologue/

***

In Pink Floyd’s Time, we learn that ‘hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way’, and this is certainly motivation for much of Alan Bennett’s wonderful Talking Heads series. Originally a collection of twelve fictional thirty-minute monologues first broadcast in 1988, they have recently been remade with contemporary actors, and specifically produced by the BBC under lockdown conditions.

The premise is simple. A single actor, a single camera, four or five small changes of scene, and a slow, drip-fed story that leaves a lot more unsaid than said. And it’s in these silences, the negative spaces of a brief look to camera, or the quiet rearranging of a fork on the table, where Bennett can conjure entire lives, entire worlds, and lifetimes of loneliness, powerlessness and desperation. The tales frequently involve damaged sexuality, often coupled with misery, claustrophobia, taboo, and the need for human frustrations to find an outlet at any cost.

More...
https://www.thepennmoviegoer.com/movie-review/alan-bennetts-talking-heads

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THE WHOOPI MONOLOGUES
In 1984, up-and-coming monologist Whoopi Goldberg premiered her one-woman show on Broadway, torching the rulebook of traditional solo performance in one of the most electrifying debuts of the era. Now, the trailblazing work returns—but for a new generation. Emmy® Award-winning producer, actor and filmmaker Kerry Washington (American Son, “Scandal”), and Tony® Award winner Kara Young (Purpose, Purlie Victorious) lead a remarkable ensemble of 5 women in bringing Goldberg’s unforgettable characters back to the stage, in this new production directed by Tony® Award nominee Whitney White. Funny, vivid, and deeply human, these nuanced portraits feel as fresh and irresistible today as they were over 40 years ago.

More...
https://www.lct.org/shows/the-whoopi-monologues/

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Black Stage Monologues
Season 13 Episode 2 | 23m 53s
Theatrical monologues performed as part of the BLACK STAGE: CLASSICAL CANON. A program unveiling the truth behind Shakespeare and Black Theatre. Performances from senior acting majors at Howard University's Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts.
05/15/2025

More...
https://www.pbs.org/video/black-stage-monologues-vnyp5g/

***

Kimmel delivered an opening monologue – occasionally choking up – that ranged across everything from jokes to the importance of the First Amendment.

Here’s what Kimmel said.

“Anyway, as I was saying before I was interrupted, if you’re just joining us, we’re preempting your regularly scheduled encore episode of ‘Celebrity Family Feud’ to bring you this special report. I’m happy to be here tonight with you. Please be seated. I’m not sure who had a weirder 48 hours: me or the CEO of Tylenol. It’s been overwhelming. I’ve heard from a lot of people over the last six days. I’ve heard from all the people in the world over the last six days. Anyone I have ever met has reached out 10 or 11 times. Weird characters from my past, or the guy who fired me from my first radio job in Seattle, where we are not airing tonight by the way! Sorry, Seattle. His name is Larry.”

“In 1989, Larry tried to force me to do a bit called ‘Jokes for donuts’ where people would call in with a joke and I would give them donuts. I refused to do it and then I made a lot of fun of Larry for suggesting it, and eventually Larry fired me and I had to move back in with my parents. But even he wrote in to cheer me up. Thank you, Larry.”

“And I want to thank everyone who checked in. It would take all week to list all of them, but some that I do especially want to mention are my fellow late night talk show hosts: my friend Stephen Colbert, who found himself in this predicament, my friends Jon Stewart, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, Conan O’Brien, James Corden, Arsenio, Kathy, Wanda, Chelsea. Even Jay reached out.”

“I heard from late night hosts in other countries, from Ireland and from Germany. The guy in Germany offered me a job. Can you imagine? This country has become so authoritarian the Germans are like, “Come here. Cut loose.” My boyhood idols Howard Stern and David Letterman were very considerate and kind. And I feel honored to be part of a group of people that knows what goes into doing a show like this.”

“And I also want to thank all of you. Thanks to (all) who supported our show, cared enough to do something about it, to make your voices heard so that mine could be heard. I will never forget it. And maybe weirdly, maybe most of all, I want to thank the people who don’t support my show and what I believe but support my right to share those beliefs anyway, people who I never would have imagined like Ben Shapiro, Clay Travis, Candace Owens, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, even my old pal Ted Cruz, who, believe it or not, said something very beautiful on my behalf.”

Ted Cruz video plays: ‘I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired.’

“Oh, wait,” Kimmel said. “No, not that. The other part.”

More...
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/24/business/monologue-transcript-kimmel-return

***

Lately I’ve been listening with more regularity to Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” monologue, that great conference with death that feels as germane to the English language — our rhetoric, our poetry, our elocution, our linguistic imagination — as soil to the Earth. In the span of about a week this summer, I lost a grandmother, and a dear friend shared that his cancer had returned. Having buried both her parents in the past two years, my mother has been talking more about funeral arrangements and where our family would like to spend our post-mortem days. I, on the other hand, take less stock in the expensive ceremonies and planning around death. I don’t plan to make a show of my finale; like Hamlet, I wonder what it will even mean — in that everlasting sleep, who knows what dreams will come?

More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/09/arts/hamlet-shakespeare-grief.html

***

How to Write a Monologue With Examples

Dramatic monologues are a literary device that have been used since ancient Greek theatre—today, they are a common tool in modern plays and films.

Monologue writing isn’t a way for writers to let loose and write without limits. In fact, monologue scripts should be written with special care and restraint, otherwise they can quickly bore viewers and fail to contribute anything to the character or plot. There are several key considerations you should keep in mind when writing a monologue:

1. The character’s backstory or importance to the storyline. Monologues are supposed to reveal important details about a character or the plot—it’s essential that you’ve developed the speaking character and a detailed plot for them to inhabit, even before you start writing. Monologues help inform the audience about the character’s traits and past events.
2. The character’s motivation. In real life, people don’t monologue unless they have a reason—in the same way, any character giving a monologue in a play or film should have a purpose for it.

More...
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-monologue-with-examples