NYCPlaywrights April 6, 2019

Greetings NYCPlaywrights

*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***

SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2019 

3:30 PM 

more dates through April 20, 2019

School of Drama New Voices Festival: "Pony Up" and "Plain Brown Box"

The second pair of plays in the School of Drama's the New Voices Festival will be Pony Up, written by Mallory Weiss and directed by Andrés López-Alicea; and Plain Brown Box, written by Conlan Carter and directed by Sarah Young

The Theater at the School of Drama

151 Bank Street, New York, NY 10014

*** FREE WRITER/PERFORMANCE LAB AT THE LIBRARY ***

Thursday, April 18, 2019, 5:30 - 7 p.m.

PROGRAM LOCATIONS:

Tompkins Square Library, Second Floor

Fully accessible to wheelchairs

The intention is to provide artists in the community the opportunity to develop works-in-progress of writing pieces, theater texts, performance pieces and related projects. In addition to writers and performers, musicians, singers, dancers, etc., are welcome to participate.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, the former P.S. 64 School Building on East 9th Street served a vital role in the local art/cultural scene of the East Village. Locally referred to as Charas El Bohio, the building was transformed into a vibrant community center, thus providing space and resources to the surrounding neighborhood’s emerging/grassroots art scene. It was a concentration of activity that had a considerably positive impact both within and beyond the East Village. 

Participants will have the opportunity to offer and receive constructive feedback on work presented in the “Writing/Performance Lab” - with emphasis on how effectively a piece might engage with an audience.

Anyone with a story to offer, an interesting/dramatic character to present, or an interest in connecting their creative work with an audience may find this process helpful.

Presenters will have somewhere between 5-10 minutes for their material - depending on the number of participants for a particular date.

Interaction and mutual support are important for the Lab !

If you have questions, please call 212-228-4747 or ask the librarians at the desk. The Library would also like to hear your feedback on this project. 

Registration required

*** PLAYWRIGHTS OPPORTUNITIES ***

#metoo plays seeks 10-minute plays - plays can be submitted for Altered Minds Mental Health awareness, dis-ease, suicide , the last taboo! Semi finalists will be chosen to participate in three series of staged readings, performed and directed by professional actors and directors in a venue on Theatre Row, New York, followed by post show receptions and discussions.

***

Seeking 10-minute plays (or shorter) to be curated for an evening of short works to commemorate Stonewall. There is no limit to the number of submissions each playwright can send. If it's a scene from a play, it has to be edited so it can stand alone and be a play. The work must directly relate to the community struggles and fight for civil rights prior to and up to June 1969, or have a direct correlation to Stonewall, not just a mention.

***

Submissions are now being accepted for the 2019 edition of Gi60. Still the worlds only international One Minute Theatre Festival and New York and the UK's longest running and favorite place to view tiny plays.

*** For more information about these and other opportunities see the web site at http://www.nycplaywrights.org ***

*** THEATER STORIES FROM NPR - TEXT & AUDIO ***

The Lehman Trilogy, which opened at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City on March 27, has been produced in France, Germany and Italy. An Italian, Stefano Massini, wrote it; the Englishman Sam Mendes directed it.

And yet the story is quintessentially American. Three Orthodox Jews from Bavaria arrive in New York in the mid-19th century; eventually two of them settle in the very neighborhood where the play is being staged. And over the next decades, they build one of the most influential economic behemoths in the world: Lehman Brothers.

More...

***

Staging A Debate Over 'What The Constitution Means To Me'

Actor and playwright Heidi Schreck says her new play — What the Constitution Means to Me — is a love letter to her mother.

The Broadway play — part personal memoir, part civics town hall — recreates the constitutional debate contests Schreck attended in high school. It's an attempt, she explains, to trace her evolving understanding of the U.S. Constitution and how it relates to her life, her family, and the women in her family in particular.

Schreck says she wanted to explore "how their existence had been shaped by this document, circumscribed by this document, and, in some ways, harmed by this document."

More...

***

'Moonlight' Writer's Broadway Debut Stars A Queer, Black 'Choir Boy'

In Choir Boy, a gifted singer endures anti-gay bullying at his all-boys prep school.

Matthew Murphy/Courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club

Perhaps you have read a book or seen a play or movie set in a prep school: say, The Catcher in the Rye, or The History Boys, or The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

The playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, who co-wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for the film Moonlight, has made his Broadway debut with his own take on the setting, called Choir Boy. But instead of the WASP elite, the school in Choir Boy has an all-black student body. The Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys says it wants to raise strong, ethical black men.

More...

***

For Many With Disabilities, 'Let It Go' Is An Anthem Of Acceptance 

Disney's Frozen remains one of the greatest box-office successes in history. But in terms of impact and influence, it is perhaps most loved and best remembered for one of its breakout songs.

No matter which version you know best — the Oscar-winning film version sung by Idina Menzel, the pop version by Demi Lovato or the one currently performed on Broadway by Caissie Levy, star of Frozen's stage adaptation — "Let It Go" announces itself as an anthem right away.

More...

***

The Show Tunes And Plaid Pants Of The 'Documentary Now!' Sondheim Send-up

If we still lived in a world in which everything had to justify time on one of only three broadcast networks, the odds that we would ever have seen the birth of an entire series that parodies documentaries is zero. It is less than zero. (And if there were a documentary about the making of the movie Less Than Zero, there would be a Documentary Now! episode about it.) It is for lovers of parody who are also lovers of documentary who are also lovers of whatever the particular parodied documentary is about, be it bowling or Broadway or '70s bands.

More...

***

Irrational Exuberance: Audiences Love Broadway Hit 'Greenspan'

Editor's note on April 2, 2019: This story was an April Fools' joke.

A musical inspired by the Broadway hit about Alexander Hamilton tells the story of former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan.

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

All right, "Hamilton" fans, get ready for your next obsession. A new show inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway hit about Alexander Hamilton could end up eclipsing it. Reporter Jen Sands-Windsor has the story.

JEN SANDS-WINDSOR, BYLINE: For composer-director Christylez Bacon, it was a no-brainer.

CHRISTYLEZ BACON: I always grew up hearing about him - you know, Alan Greenspan, Alan Greenspan. You know, we in the carry-outs, Alan Greenspan - you know what I'm saying? - making that green, Alan Greenspan. I just found him to be, you know, an inspiration. I mean, the way he managed interest rates in the '90s, the drama of the dot-com bust - I mean, people forget about that history, you know? They be sleeping on him.