NYCPlaywrights January 14, 2023
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Jan 14, 2023, 5:23:35 PM1/14/23
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Greetings NYCPlaywrights
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
GALATEA
By David Templeton
This sci-fi mystery takes us to a Space Station in the year 2167.
Dr. Mailer and Dr. Hughes, two scientists aboard the vessel, are working to understand the origins of an Emergency Craft found floating in space containing a female robot named Seventy-One.
It is believed the craft originated from a Space Station that exploded many years before, though Seventy-One’s systems have no record of it. The play deals with identity, what it means to be human, and speculates on what the results might be of the ecological disaster that threatens our whole planet. Within this framework, the play is written with humor, humanity and suspense.
Cast: Mel House, Jason Kravits, Ben Mehl and Kim Sykes.
The director is Bob Ari
Monday, January 23rd at 2 PM
Manhattan Movement & Arts Center
248 West 60th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues
RSVP to Bob Ari (646) 594-5415 or at bigji...@gmail.com
RSVP/Reservations are not required but are recommended.
*** FREE RADIO PLAY ONLINE ***
OPERATION CLUTTERBUCK
A radio play from Jack West and The Profound Idiots:
Fantasy comedy. Inspired by a true event. The rest? Completely made up!
During World War II, Royal Navy Intelligence Officer Ian Fleming along with Prime Minister Winston Churchill hatch a plot to cast a spell on Hitler... with the help of British witches.
https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/ElQLoffrxwb
*** DRAMATISTS GUILD SEMINAR: WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN SUBMITTING YOUR WORK TO FESTIVALS & CONTESTS ***
Do you want to submit your work to contests and festivals? Discover the Guild's new Best Practices! At this free webinar, led by DG Executive Director Ralph Sevush and DG Director of Business Affairs Jessica Lit, you'll learn how to define important industry terms, what to expect from standard contest or festival contracts and promotional materials, and what your authorial rights are when submitting to a contest or festival. You'll also be equipped with strategies and suggestions for how to respond if a contest or festival flouts current industry norms.
This event is open to playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists, as well as potential producers/organizers of contests and festivals.
Wednesday, January 25
Atlantic Time: 4pm
Eastern Time: 3pm
Central Time: 2pm
Mountain Time: 1pm
Pacific Time: 12pm
Alaska Time: 11am
Hawaii Time: 10am
https://events.dramatistsguild.com/event/what_to_expect_when_submitting_your_work_to_festivals_and_contests
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
NEXT ACT!, now in its twelfth year, is an expansion of Capital Repertory Theatre’s (theREP) commitment to the development of new work. At the same time, the four-day long summit is designed to complement the Upper Hudson Valley’s rich diverse populations. NEXT ACT! New Play Summit 12 will take place in June of 2023 (exact dates coming soon) and will feature both in-person and virtual readings of several never-before produced plays, with additional events throughout the summit.
theREP is looking for scripts that use theatre to address injustices, inequities, and cultural collisions, providing a voice for the unheard on stage, in the workplace, the Capital Region and beyond. Specifically seeking scripts with racial, ethnic, generational, religious and gender diversity. Scripts that engage art and social justice.
***
In honor of World Ocean’s Day 2023, the Blue Institute is proud to announce its 5th call out for Submissions to “Words on Water” a Poetry, Prose, and Playwriting Competition with an “open-ended theme of water.”
Both electronic and snail mail submissions will be accepted. A panel of jurors from the local, regional, and international writing-arts community will anonymously review and select the Finalists in each category.
***
The Jane Chambers Playwriting Award recognizes new feminist plays and performance texts created by women and genderqueer writers for the stage that present a feminist perspective and contain significant opportunities for female performers.
We welcome plays that experiment with form and/or that feature non-binary characters.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** INDECENT ***
In 1906, dramatist Sholem Asch wrote God of Vengeance, a Yiddish play about the daughter of a Jewish brothel owner falling in love with one of her father’s prostitutes. When an English production of the play opened on Broadway in 1923, the cast and producer were arrested on obscenity charges—and the play was shut down.
In 2015, playwright Paula Vogel dramatized the controversy and censorship in her own play, the Tony-nominated Indecent. Now, a Florida high school has abruptly canceled a student production of Indecent, citing sexual content.
More...
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/florida-high-school-censors-play-about-censorship-and-queer-jewish-love-180981437/
***
***
As a rabbi and the father of two Douglas Anderson graduates, I was deeply disturbed by the decision to cancel Paula Vogel's play, “Indecent.” Having seen this powerful work on Broadway, I can attest that it does deal with adult themes, but no more so than any number of serious dramatic works staged by the school over the years.
My religion teaches modesty in speech and behavior; I oppose the dehumanizing ways in which social media exploits human sexuality. We see prurient and sexually gratuitous imagery so often we've become inured to their existence.
More...
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2023/01/14/the-irony-of-cancelling-indecent-a-play-about-censorship/69803088007/
***
As a playwright who wrote a play about how censorship is a first step toward genocide, I am puzzled about the school board's decision. There is nothing prurient about Indecent. I use parts of Sholem Asch's original text for the two girls. For the past 40 years, I receive requests from high schools to change language in my plays, and to restage the scenes, ignoring my stage directions. And I readily give my permission. There have been high school productions of INDECENT where the student actors hold hands. The Victorian translation is demure, and one can amend my updated translation with permission.
But it is as an educator that I am angry and appalled. Why hurt the students who are aiming to become theatre makers? Instead of letting them discover the issues of antisemitism, intolerance, censorship and the Holocaust the school board is censoring them.
Disempowering young artists at this crucial age borders, to me, on an obscene act.
More...
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Paula-Vogel-Issues-Statement-on-INDECENT-Cancellation-at-Florida-High-School-20230108
***
“Parents who live in the community have written to me and said, ‘There is rising antisemitism in our community,’” Vogel told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Sunday. “I very much think that what the school board may not be able to express is their concern about presenting a play that shows how censorship is the first step to the Holocaust.”
Vogel’s 2015 play is about the 1923 Broadway debut of “God of Vengeance,” a play written in Yiddish by Sholem Asch that includes perhaps the first romantic kiss between two women on an American stage. In “Indecent,” the actresses who play the lesbian characters in the Asch play are depicted as lovers off stage. The plot picks up after “God of Vengeance” is shuttered and its cast briefly imprisoned over obscenity charges. “Indecent” follows the stage manager who returns to Eastern Europe, disheartened by what happened in America, and is ultimately murdered by the Nazis.
Students at Douglas Anderson all had permission to act in “Indecent,” and they had put on other shows portraying sexuality in the past: “Chicago” last year, and “Rent” before that. But conditions in the state changed last year when Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, signed the Parental Rights in Education Law into effect, stoking fear among LGBTQ teachers and students and causing school districts to alter policies.
More...
https://www.jta.org/2023/01/09/culture/florida-school-board-cancels-paula-vogels-indecent-a-queer-jewish-love-story-about-a-censored-yiddish-play
***
Scotti told Teen Vogue the cast discussed being “Don’t Say Gay-ed,” after hearing the news.
Duval County Public Schools told Teen Vogue in an email that the show’s cancellation is not related to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ infamous Parental Rights in Education law, which is known informally by critics as the Don’t Say Gay law.
“Indecent contains adult sexual dialog that is inappropriate for student cast members and student audiences,” Duval County Public Schools spokesperson Tracy Pierce told Teen Vogue on Friday. “It’s that simple. The decision has no relevance to any legislation but is rather a function of our responsibilities to ensure students engage in educational activities appropriate for their age.”
Douglas Anderson theater students, including Scotti, say they don’t believe the school district’s reasoning is legitimate, citing previous school productions of shows with mature content including Chicago and RENT.
“It’s baffling that a show written about the detrimental effects of censorship is being censored,” Scotti said. “What about love should be censored? How is this impure?”
More...
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/jacksonville-theater-students-indecent-shut-down
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
GALATEA
By David Templeton
This sci-fi mystery takes us to a Space Station in the year 2167.
Dr. Mailer and Dr. Hughes, two scientists aboard the vessel, are working to understand the origins of an Emergency Craft found floating in space containing a female robot named Seventy-One.
It is believed the craft originated from a Space Station that exploded many years before, though Seventy-One’s systems have no record of it. The play deals with identity, what it means to be human, and speculates on what the results might be of the ecological disaster that threatens our whole planet. Within this framework, the play is written with humor, humanity and suspense.
Cast: Mel House, Jason Kravits, Ben Mehl and Kim Sykes.
The director is Bob Ari
Monday, January 23rd at 2 PM
Manhattan Movement & Arts Center
248 West 60th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues
RSVP to Bob Ari (646) 594-5415 or at bigji...@gmail.com
RSVP/Reservations are not required but are recommended.
*** FREE RADIO PLAY ONLINE ***
OPERATION CLUTTERBUCK
A radio play from Jack West and The Profound Idiots:
Fantasy comedy. Inspired by a true event. The rest? Completely made up!
During World War II, Royal Navy Intelligence Officer Ian Fleming along with Prime Minister Winston Churchill hatch a plot to cast a spell on Hitler... with the help of British witches.
https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/ElQLoffrxwb
*** DRAMATISTS GUILD SEMINAR: WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN SUBMITTING YOUR WORK TO FESTIVALS & CONTESTS ***
Do you want to submit your work to contests and festivals? Discover the Guild's new Best Practices! At this free webinar, led by DG Executive Director Ralph Sevush and DG Director of Business Affairs Jessica Lit, you'll learn how to define important industry terms, what to expect from standard contest or festival contracts and promotional materials, and what your authorial rights are when submitting to a contest or festival. You'll also be equipped with strategies and suggestions for how to respond if a contest or festival flouts current industry norms.
This event is open to playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists, as well as potential producers/organizers of contests and festivals.
Wednesday, January 25
Atlantic Time: 4pm
Eastern Time: 3pm
Central Time: 2pm
Mountain Time: 1pm
Pacific Time: 12pm
Alaska Time: 11am
Hawaii Time: 10am
https://events.dramatistsguild.com/event/what_to_expect_when_submitting_your_work_to_festivals_and_contests
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
NEXT ACT!, now in its twelfth year, is an expansion of Capital Repertory Theatre’s (theREP) commitment to the development of new work. At the same time, the four-day long summit is designed to complement the Upper Hudson Valley’s rich diverse populations. NEXT ACT! New Play Summit 12 will take place in June of 2023 (exact dates coming soon) and will feature both in-person and virtual readings of several never-before produced plays, with additional events throughout the summit.
theREP is looking for scripts that use theatre to address injustices, inequities, and cultural collisions, providing a voice for the unheard on stage, in the workplace, the Capital Region and beyond. Specifically seeking scripts with racial, ethnic, generational, religious and gender diversity. Scripts that engage art and social justice.
***
In honor of World Ocean’s Day 2023, the Blue Institute is proud to announce its 5th call out for Submissions to “Words on Water” a Poetry, Prose, and Playwriting Competition with an “open-ended theme of water.”
Both electronic and snail mail submissions will be accepted. A panel of jurors from the local, regional, and international writing-arts community will anonymously review and select the Finalists in each category.
***
The Jane Chambers Playwriting Award recognizes new feminist plays and performance texts created by women and genderqueer writers for the stage that present a feminist perspective and contain significant opportunities for female performers.
We welcome plays that experiment with form and/or that feature non-binary characters.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** INDECENT ***
In 1906, dramatist Sholem Asch wrote God of Vengeance, a Yiddish play about the daughter of a Jewish brothel owner falling in love with one of her father’s prostitutes. When an English production of the play opened on Broadway in 1923, the cast and producer were arrested on obscenity charges—and the play was shut down.
In 2015, playwright Paula Vogel dramatized the controversy and censorship in her own play, the Tony-nominated Indecent. Now, a Florida high school has abruptly canceled a student production of Indecent, citing sexual content.
More...
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/florida-high-school-censors-play-about-censorship-and-queer-jewish-love-180981437/
***
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), PEN America, and the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund, organizations dedicated to artistic, intellectual, and academic freedom, today expressed deep concern over the cancellation of the student production of the play, Indecent, by the administration at Douglas Anderson School of Performing Arts in Duval County, Florida. The groups urged school officials to rescind their decision and work with students to stage the play as planned. Scheduled to open in March, school officials this month pulled it from production — a few weeks after casting had been decided — due to “adult sexual dialog that is inappropriate for cast members and student audiences.”
More...
https://ncac.org/news/condemn-cancellation-student-play-indecent-florida
More...
https://ncac.org/news/condemn-cancellation-student-play-indecent-florida
***
As a rabbi and the father of two Douglas Anderson graduates, I was deeply disturbed by the decision to cancel Paula Vogel's play, “Indecent.” Having seen this powerful work on Broadway, I can attest that it does deal with adult themes, but no more so than any number of serious dramatic works staged by the school over the years.
My religion teaches modesty in speech and behavior; I oppose the dehumanizing ways in which social media exploits human sexuality. We see prurient and sexually gratuitous imagery so often we've become inured to their existence.
More...
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2023/01/14/the-irony-of-cancelling-indecent-a-play-about-censorship/69803088007/
***
As a playwright who wrote a play about how censorship is a first step toward genocide, I am puzzled about the school board's decision. There is nothing prurient about Indecent. I use parts of Sholem Asch's original text for the two girls. For the past 40 years, I receive requests from high schools to change language in my plays, and to restage the scenes, ignoring my stage directions. And I readily give my permission. There have been high school productions of INDECENT where the student actors hold hands. The Victorian translation is demure, and one can amend my updated translation with permission.
But it is as an educator that I am angry and appalled. Why hurt the students who are aiming to become theatre makers? Instead of letting them discover the issues of antisemitism, intolerance, censorship and the Holocaust the school board is censoring them.
Disempowering young artists at this crucial age borders, to me, on an obscene act.
More...
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Paula-Vogel-Issues-Statement-on-INDECENT-Cancellation-at-Florida-High-School-20230108
***
“Parents who live in the community have written to me and said, ‘There is rising antisemitism in our community,’” Vogel told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Sunday. “I very much think that what the school board may not be able to express is their concern about presenting a play that shows how censorship is the first step to the Holocaust.”
Vogel’s 2015 play is about the 1923 Broadway debut of “God of Vengeance,” a play written in Yiddish by Sholem Asch that includes perhaps the first romantic kiss between two women on an American stage. In “Indecent,” the actresses who play the lesbian characters in the Asch play are depicted as lovers off stage. The plot picks up after “God of Vengeance” is shuttered and its cast briefly imprisoned over obscenity charges. “Indecent” follows the stage manager who returns to Eastern Europe, disheartened by what happened in America, and is ultimately murdered by the Nazis.
Students at Douglas Anderson all had permission to act in “Indecent,” and they had put on other shows portraying sexuality in the past: “Chicago” last year, and “Rent” before that. But conditions in the state changed last year when Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, signed the Parental Rights in Education Law into effect, stoking fear among LGBTQ teachers and students and causing school districts to alter policies.
More...
https://www.jta.org/2023/01/09/culture/florida-school-board-cancels-paula-vogels-indecent-a-queer-jewish-love-story-about-a-censored-yiddish-play
***
Scotti told Teen Vogue the cast discussed being “Don’t Say Gay-ed,” after hearing the news.
Duval County Public Schools told Teen Vogue in an email that the show’s cancellation is not related to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ infamous Parental Rights in Education law, which is known informally by critics as the Don’t Say Gay law.
“Indecent contains adult sexual dialog that is inappropriate for student cast members and student audiences,” Duval County Public Schools spokesperson Tracy Pierce told Teen Vogue on Friday. “It’s that simple. The decision has no relevance to any legislation but is rather a function of our responsibilities to ensure students engage in educational activities appropriate for their age.”
Douglas Anderson theater students, including Scotti, say they don’t believe the school district’s reasoning is legitimate, citing previous school productions of shows with mature content including Chicago and RENT.
“It’s baffling that a show written about the detrimental effects of censorship is being censored,” Scotti said. “What about love should be censored? How is this impure?”
More...
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/jacksonville-theater-students-indecent-shut-down
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