NYCPlaywrights May 9, 2026
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NYCPlaywrights
May 9, 2026, 5:03:47 PM (14 days ago) May 9
to NYCPlaywrights
Greetings NYCPlaywrights
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
Mother's Day Open House Block Party
Join us for our very special Mother’s Day Open House & Block Party on Sunday, May 10, 2026, 1-5pm with activities for the whole family!
This year AUNTS, a collaborative dance platform producing simultaneous dance/performance/parties, is co-hosting with Martita Abril to bring us a vibrant, abundant Dia de las Madres.
Come by for live music, dancing, bilingual storytelling by Drag Artists for Expression NYC, art stations and flower decorating, Solar Cooked Hot Dogs and shadow puppets with Steven Wendt, cookie decorating with Little Chef Little Cafe, grilled hot dogs & veggie dogs, popcorn, lemonade, performances, magic shows, face painting, Piñatas and more! We’ll be accepting clothing & food donations up to a week leading to the event for Astoria Food Pantry.
Sunday, May 10
1 PM - 5 PM
The Chocolate Factory Theater
38-33 24th Street
Queens, NY 11101
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mothers-day-open-house-block-party-tickets-1987650283504?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
*** A CAT IN A BOX BY TOM NEMEC ***
A CAT IN A BOX
A solo play written and performed by Tom Nemec
The Tank, NYC
May 11, 14, 16, 17, and 21 at 7:00 PM
An autobiographical solo play about how a difficult, dysfunctional childhood can shadow the rest of our lives — and how even after a dark past, the present can still hold the possibility of light.
“The audience was captivated by every word—vivid, expert storytelling.”
— ArtsIndependent.com
Tickets/trailer:
https://thetanknyc.org/calendar-1/2026/1/21/catinabox
30% off apply code CAT30
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
Theatre Three's 28th Annual Festival of One-Act Plays (2027)
Since its inception in 1998, The Festival has received over 13,000 submissions from across the world and produced over 140 world premieres by more than 100 different playwrights. The Festival presents between five and eight plays each season.
***
The Syracuse University Department of Drama is seeking submissions for its Spring 2027 New Works/New Voices (NW/NV) initiative. NW/NV supports the development of musicals by writers and composers whose perspectives have been historically underrepresented in the musical theater canon.
***
North Park Playwrights Festival 2026 seeks short new plays (no more than 12 pages, less is fine) that are easily staged and have casts with no more than four people. Our theater is very small and we normally use a minimal set concept in this festival. We have to be able to change sets in just a few minutes as we do six to seven plays each evening of the festival. We don't have space for large casts.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** MAMMA MIA ***
‘Mamma Mia’ was the very last track to be recorded for the ABBA album, in March 1975. Today, not much is remembered about the creation of the song, except that Björn recalls that he and Benny wrote it in the library of Björn and Agnetha’s then home in the Stockholm suburb of Lidingö. Although Björn was ABBA’s main lyricist at this time, their manager, Stig Anderson, still contributed catchy, “international” song titles – ‘Mamma Mia’ was just the latest in a long row. “That turned out to be another distinctive and memorable title, and one that maybe a native English writer would have thought was too European – and very uncool”, reflects Björn in the book Mamma Mia! How Can I Resist You? “The saying ‘mamma mia’ is used very, very commonly in Swedish and is just as well known a phrase as it would be in English.”
More...
https://abbasite.com/articles/mamma-mia-the-song-that-saved-abba/
***
As Creative Producer of MAMMA MIA!, my job started long before any script had been written. The story begins more than 25 years ago when I first met Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, the songwriting geniuses behind ABBA. I was working for Sir Tim Rice at the time, who was collaborating with Benny and Björn on his musical Chess, and I was immediately smitten – after all, these were the men who had written ‘Dancing Queen’, one of the greatest pop songs of all time – but it was another of their songs, ‘The Winner Takes It All’, that first suggested to me the potential of an original musical using Benny and Björn’s classic compositions. The lyrics revealed a roller coaster story of love and loss that struck me as extraordinarily theatrical, but how was I to bring this to life?
First I had to approach Benny and Björn, who were understandably a little unsure of my intentions. I explained that the project I had in mind would focus on a new and exciting story; it wouldn’t be a tribute show, or the ‘ABBA Story’, but a truly original ‘book’ musical. They weren’t 100% convinced at the time, but they didn’t absolutely close the door so I took hope.
So I sat on the floor of my apartment listening to ABBA late into the night. I may have driven my neighbours to despair but as time passed I became more and more certain of my idea. In 1995 my tenacity finally paid off. Björn said, “If you can find the right writer and story, well… let’s see what happens”…
More...
https://mamma-mia.com/a-truly-original-musical
***
The plot of Mamma Mia concerns itself partly with the life a single mother. Did you see yourself as Donna at all?
I did absolutely want to write about the single mother who wasn’t a wretched kind of – you know – at that time there was a lot of press about single mothers being a drain on the state etc etc. so I wanted to write about a working single mother who had got her life together and the relationship she had with her daughter who she absolutely adored but fought with.
So that part was very much based on my relationship with both my children. But the character I identified with far more is Donna’s friend, Rosie, who’s a writer and is a much more “I’ll go my own way, I’ll do my own thing” sort of character. That’s the one I felt was most based on me.
You had no idea that it would become one of the highest grossing musicals ever?
No, the thought that it is over ten years and it’s still running, it doesn’t make sense somehow.
More...
https://howdidtheydoit.net/creative/catherine-johnson/
***
Since April fans have been flocking from Eton, from Essex, from Cornwall, and probably Cornball, too, all seeking a fix from that most palindromic and hummable of Europop groups, Abba.
The draw is ''Mamma Mia,'' the $4.5 million all-Abba musical developed by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, former members of the group, with a book by Catherine Johnson.
Lines for unclaimed tickets form outside the Prince Edward Theater in the West End hours before curtain time, and the British press has reported that scalpers get hundreds of pounds (i.e., hundreds of dollars) for prime tickets. ''Mamma Mia'' has sold out its 1,650-seat theater through Sept. 11, with tickets on sale through March 2000.
Judy Craymer, the show's producer, said on Tuesday that a deal was in place to bring it to the Royal Alexandra Theater in Toronto in May. Then a tour is very likely, she said, and perhaps a trip to Broadway. ''I don't think anybody anticipated how well we would be received,'' she said. ''We're really just taking one step at a time. But Broadway is obviously a dream that everyone would like to achieve.''
More...
https://archive.ph/n6rKT
***
For many critics, it was beyond taboo to admit to liking the romantic comedy. In the late 1990s, as reflexive backlash to third-wave feminism mounted and all things girly were deemed frivolous, Mamma Mia!'s female gaze-centered narrative had many of the theatre industry's critics turning away in discomfort. As Alastair Macaulay put it in The Financial Times, "There are certain predilections to which one does not lightly confess... herewith vanishes my social life—I actually enjoyed Mamma Mia!"
In spite of the reviews (many of which were amended in the intervening decades), audiences flocked from across the world to visit Villa Donna. With 21 ABBA songs cleverly interwoven with the narrative—including a sing-along encore reprise of "Mamma Mia", "Dancing Queen", and "Waterloo", the show was the hottest party ticket in town, with lines looping around the block several times just in hope of claiming a cancellation ticket.
More...
https://playbill.com/article/the-winner-takes-it-all-why-mamma-mia-continues-to-enchant-audiences-25-years-on
***
Since its premiere in the West End in 1999, more than 65 million people have seen Mamma Mia! in the 50 or so countries where it’s been performed, raking in over $4 billion in revenue.
The film adaptation was another triumph. Fifteen years ago this summer, Mamma Mia! The Movie danced and jived its way into theaters, led by Streep, Seyfried, and a stacked supporting cast—Pierce Brosnan! Colin Firth! The Christine Baranski!—and turning the title Mamma Mia! into a shorthand for “campy feel-good escapism.” While Streep and her cohorts didn’t exactly expect Oscar nominations for putting on spandex bodysuits and belting out “Waterloo,” they all consider the film a personal highlight in their illustrious careers.
More...
https://www.vogue.com/article/oral-history-of-mamma-mia
***
The Abba jukebox musical “Mamma Mia!” is back on Broadway, but don’t call it a revival. No, this is “a return engagement” of the initial New York staging, which closed 10 years ago. You might interpret that move as a reluctance by the show’s producers to spend financial and creative capital on a new version when they can bank on audiences eager to see the ur-feel good show in its original state.
Or you could see it as the closest we may ever come to a real-life time loop.
Whether it’s successive generations discovering, like clockwork, Abba’s music or the unsinkable “Mamma Mia!” itself, anything related to the Swedish quartet seems to reset every time the world appears ready to move on. Even the band’s name is a palindromic perfect circle with no end, or maybe no escape.
Similarly, the echo-y title of the musical is made up of just three letters forming an infinite hall of mirrors. An appropriate image, because since its world premiere in 1999 in London — where it has been playing since — “Mamma Mia!” has been an everlasting part of the pop-culture landscape.
More...
https://archive.ph/it8dp
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
Mother's Day Open House Block Party
Join us for our very special Mother’s Day Open House & Block Party on Sunday, May 10, 2026, 1-5pm with activities for the whole family!
This year AUNTS, a collaborative dance platform producing simultaneous dance/performance/parties, is co-hosting with Martita Abril to bring us a vibrant, abundant Dia de las Madres.
Come by for live music, dancing, bilingual storytelling by Drag Artists for Expression NYC, art stations and flower decorating, Solar Cooked Hot Dogs and shadow puppets with Steven Wendt, cookie decorating with Little Chef Little Cafe, grilled hot dogs & veggie dogs, popcorn, lemonade, performances, magic shows, face painting, Piñatas and more! We’ll be accepting clothing & food donations up to a week leading to the event for Astoria Food Pantry.
Sunday, May 10
1 PM - 5 PM
The Chocolate Factory Theater
38-33 24th Street
Queens, NY 11101
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mothers-day-open-house-block-party-tickets-1987650283504?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
*** A CAT IN A BOX BY TOM NEMEC ***
A CAT IN A BOX
A solo play written and performed by Tom Nemec
The Tank, NYC
May 11, 14, 16, 17, and 21 at 7:00 PM
An autobiographical solo play about how a difficult, dysfunctional childhood can shadow the rest of our lives — and how even after a dark past, the present can still hold the possibility of light.
“The audience was captivated by every word—vivid, expert storytelling.”
— ArtsIndependent.com
Tickets/trailer:
https://thetanknyc.org/calendar-1/2026/1/21/catinabox
30% off apply code CAT30
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
Theatre Three's 28th Annual Festival of One-Act Plays (2027)
Since its inception in 1998, The Festival has received over 13,000 submissions from across the world and produced over 140 world premieres by more than 100 different playwrights. The Festival presents between five and eight plays each season.
***
The Syracuse University Department of Drama is seeking submissions for its Spring 2027 New Works/New Voices (NW/NV) initiative. NW/NV supports the development of musicals by writers and composers whose perspectives have been historically underrepresented in the musical theater canon.
***
North Park Playwrights Festival 2026 seeks short new plays (no more than 12 pages, less is fine) that are easily staged and have casts with no more than four people. Our theater is very small and we normally use a minimal set concept in this festival. We have to be able to change sets in just a few minutes as we do six to seven plays each evening of the festival. We don't have space for large casts.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** MAMMA MIA ***
‘Mamma Mia’ was the very last track to be recorded for the ABBA album, in March 1975. Today, not much is remembered about the creation of the song, except that Björn recalls that he and Benny wrote it in the library of Björn and Agnetha’s then home in the Stockholm suburb of Lidingö. Although Björn was ABBA’s main lyricist at this time, their manager, Stig Anderson, still contributed catchy, “international” song titles – ‘Mamma Mia’ was just the latest in a long row. “That turned out to be another distinctive and memorable title, and one that maybe a native English writer would have thought was too European – and very uncool”, reflects Björn in the book Mamma Mia! How Can I Resist You? “The saying ‘mamma mia’ is used very, very commonly in Swedish and is just as well known a phrase as it would be in English.”
More...
https://abbasite.com/articles/mamma-mia-the-song-that-saved-abba/
***
As Creative Producer of MAMMA MIA!, my job started long before any script had been written. The story begins more than 25 years ago when I first met Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, the songwriting geniuses behind ABBA. I was working for Sir Tim Rice at the time, who was collaborating with Benny and Björn on his musical Chess, and I was immediately smitten – after all, these were the men who had written ‘Dancing Queen’, one of the greatest pop songs of all time – but it was another of their songs, ‘The Winner Takes It All’, that first suggested to me the potential of an original musical using Benny and Björn’s classic compositions. The lyrics revealed a roller coaster story of love and loss that struck me as extraordinarily theatrical, but how was I to bring this to life?
First I had to approach Benny and Björn, who were understandably a little unsure of my intentions. I explained that the project I had in mind would focus on a new and exciting story; it wouldn’t be a tribute show, or the ‘ABBA Story’, but a truly original ‘book’ musical. They weren’t 100% convinced at the time, but they didn’t absolutely close the door so I took hope.
So I sat on the floor of my apartment listening to ABBA late into the night. I may have driven my neighbours to despair but as time passed I became more and more certain of my idea. In 1995 my tenacity finally paid off. Björn said, “If you can find the right writer and story, well… let’s see what happens”…
More...
https://mamma-mia.com/a-truly-original-musical
***
The plot of Mamma Mia concerns itself partly with the life a single mother. Did you see yourself as Donna at all?
I did absolutely want to write about the single mother who wasn’t a wretched kind of – you know – at that time there was a lot of press about single mothers being a drain on the state etc etc. so I wanted to write about a working single mother who had got her life together and the relationship she had with her daughter who she absolutely adored but fought with.
So that part was very much based on my relationship with both my children. But the character I identified with far more is Donna’s friend, Rosie, who’s a writer and is a much more “I’ll go my own way, I’ll do my own thing” sort of character. That’s the one I felt was most based on me.
You had no idea that it would become one of the highest grossing musicals ever?
No, the thought that it is over ten years and it’s still running, it doesn’t make sense somehow.
More...
https://howdidtheydoit.net/creative/catherine-johnson/
***
Since April fans have been flocking from Eton, from Essex, from Cornwall, and probably Cornball, too, all seeking a fix from that most palindromic and hummable of Europop groups, Abba.
The draw is ''Mamma Mia,'' the $4.5 million all-Abba musical developed by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, former members of the group, with a book by Catherine Johnson.
Lines for unclaimed tickets form outside the Prince Edward Theater in the West End hours before curtain time, and the British press has reported that scalpers get hundreds of pounds (i.e., hundreds of dollars) for prime tickets. ''Mamma Mia'' has sold out its 1,650-seat theater through Sept. 11, with tickets on sale through March 2000.
Judy Craymer, the show's producer, said on Tuesday that a deal was in place to bring it to the Royal Alexandra Theater in Toronto in May. Then a tour is very likely, she said, and perhaps a trip to Broadway. ''I don't think anybody anticipated how well we would be received,'' she said. ''We're really just taking one step at a time. But Broadway is obviously a dream that everyone would like to achieve.''
More...
https://archive.ph/n6rKT
***
For many critics, it was beyond taboo to admit to liking the romantic comedy. In the late 1990s, as reflexive backlash to third-wave feminism mounted and all things girly were deemed frivolous, Mamma Mia!'s female gaze-centered narrative had many of the theatre industry's critics turning away in discomfort. As Alastair Macaulay put it in The Financial Times, "There are certain predilections to which one does not lightly confess... herewith vanishes my social life—I actually enjoyed Mamma Mia!"
In spite of the reviews (many of which were amended in the intervening decades), audiences flocked from across the world to visit Villa Donna. With 21 ABBA songs cleverly interwoven with the narrative—including a sing-along encore reprise of "Mamma Mia", "Dancing Queen", and "Waterloo", the show was the hottest party ticket in town, with lines looping around the block several times just in hope of claiming a cancellation ticket.
More...
https://playbill.com/article/the-winner-takes-it-all-why-mamma-mia-continues-to-enchant-audiences-25-years-on
***
Since its premiere in the West End in 1999, more than 65 million people have seen Mamma Mia! in the 50 or so countries where it’s been performed, raking in over $4 billion in revenue.
The film adaptation was another triumph. Fifteen years ago this summer, Mamma Mia! The Movie danced and jived its way into theaters, led by Streep, Seyfried, and a stacked supporting cast—Pierce Brosnan! Colin Firth! The Christine Baranski!—and turning the title Mamma Mia! into a shorthand for “campy feel-good escapism.” While Streep and her cohorts didn’t exactly expect Oscar nominations for putting on spandex bodysuits and belting out “Waterloo,” they all consider the film a personal highlight in their illustrious careers.
More...
https://www.vogue.com/article/oral-history-of-mamma-mia
***
The Abba jukebox musical “Mamma Mia!” is back on Broadway, but don’t call it a revival. No, this is “a return engagement” of the initial New York staging, which closed 10 years ago. You might interpret that move as a reluctance by the show’s producers to spend financial and creative capital on a new version when they can bank on audiences eager to see the ur-feel good show in its original state.
Or you could see it as the closest we may ever come to a real-life time loop.
Whether it’s successive generations discovering, like clockwork, Abba’s music or the unsinkable “Mamma Mia!” itself, anything related to the Swedish quartet seems to reset every time the world appears ready to move on. Even the band’s name is a palindromic perfect circle with no end, or maybe no escape.
Similarly, the echo-y title of the musical is made up of just three letters forming an infinite hall of mirrors. An appropriate image, because since its world premiere in 1999 in London — where it has been playing since — “Mamma Mia!” has been an everlasting part of the pop-culture landscape.
More...
https://archive.ph/it8dp
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