PREVIOUS READINGS
* Offered a development workshop
** Offered a production
As a result of this series, Janyce Lapore received a playwriting residency at 13th Street Repertory Company. Her works include: Derringer, Ferris Wheel, Poppytown, Screaming My Heart Out, and 10 Minutes From Paradise.
READINGS:
MAY 2001:
** A Yellow Butterfly Called Sphinx by Christian Palustran
JULY 2001:
* Old Witch Blinda on Smeltzburg Hill by Sean Coveney & Sandra Nordgren
* Sacred Virgin by Carol Schaefer
AUGUST 2001:
Troika: God, Tolstoy and Sophia by Peter Levy
** Sacred Virgin by Carol Schaefer
OCTOBER 2001:
The Angelina Project by Frank Canino
JANUARY 2002:
** Straight Jacket by Richard Day
** House of Trash by Trav S. D.
Velvet Ropes by Joshua Scher
Fate by Elizabeth Horsburgh
Sojourn of the Heart by LoraLee Ecobelli/Richard O'Brien
FEBRUARY 2002:
Word to Your Moma by Julia Lee Barclay
Eureka by Elizabeth Horsburgh
Sodom and Go' Morning by Joshua Scher
MARCH 2002:
No One by Julia Lee Barclay
The Weight of Breath by Ben Sahl
Cuban Operator Please by Adrian Rodriquez
APRIL 2002:
Washington Square Dreams - Gorilla Repertory Theatre
The Factory by Adrian Rodriquez
Beyond the Palisades by John Pallotta
MAY 2002:
The Swan Queen & the Radical Faerie by Frank Canino
So, I Killed a Few People by Gary Ruderman & David Summers
JUNE 2002:
** Without Consent by Jack Perry (New Title: Change of Seasons)
Match by Marc Chung
** A Soldier's Death by Tom O'Neil
Midnight Brainwash Revival by Kirk Wood Bromley
JULY 2002:
**Summerland by Brian Thorensen
The Wild Ass's Skin by J. Scott Reynolds
* No One’s Home by Phil Potak
Shyness is Nice by Marc Spitz
AUGUST 2002:
Oranges and Lemons by Adelin Cai
The Tree by Alex Mem
The Death of King Arthur by Matt Freeman
The Thinness of Blood by Phil Potak
SEPTEMBER 2002:
* I, Witness by David Grand
3 Weeks After Paradise by Israel Horovitz
* Call It Peace by Anthony Pennino
No One by Julia Lee Barclay
Auto Delete by Honour Kane
OCTOBER 2002:
** Café Society by Robert Simonson
The Two Tobys by Anthony Pennino
* No One’s Home by Phil Potak
NOVEMBER 2002:
The Resurrectionist by Kate Chell
** Call It Peace by Anthony Pennino
* Derringer by Janyce Lapore
JANUARY 2003
* Derringer by Janyce Lapore
FEBRUARY 2003
** Derringer by Janyce Lapore (directed by Nicola Chisholm)
Together Again by Mark Weston (directed by Jim Jaworski)
MARCH 2003
* Elusive by Bradley Spinelli (directed by Laura Cosentino)
* Belial by Mark Dunn (directed by Jeremy Rosen)
September by Stuart Freeman (directed by Robert Kreis)
APRIL 2003
CRYSTAL by Fred Vargas (directed by June Rachelson-Ospa)
**SOCCER MOMS by John Devore - a dark comedy (directed by Meggan Christman) Two rival soccer moms will do anything for their daughters to be the best. They take their bake-sale competitiveness to the extreme when they each make a pact with the devil.
* WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? I'M IN IT! by Neil Feigeles (directed by Greg Vorab) - deals with the playwright's search for the girl next door and the women that caused him to seriously think about joining a monastery...and he's Jewish!
MAY 2003
PUMPKINS FOR SMALLPOX by Catherine Gillet (directed by Jason Tyne) A brief and incisive play about two teenage girls raising money for a good cause in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks.
** FERRIS WHEEL by Janyce Lapore (directed by June Rachelson-Ospa) - is the funny and poignant tale of 4 Italian women coming of age in a small steel-mill-town in the late 60's. On a warm summer afternoon, Toni, Celia and Babs meet at a local amusement park to welcome home their cousin, Lisa Marie, who has just been released from a mental hospital. Behind the delicate music of the midway, as twilight falls, these 4 women spend a wild, heartbreaking day at the park. Dan Lauria has called Ferris Wheel ... The Italian "Crimes of the Heart".
POPPYTOWN by Janyce Lapore (directed by June Rachelson-Ospa)- Frank Dishler, a young, hip record producer gets involved in the opium smuggling business in the dark and dirty back streets of Hong Kong. To re-invent the opium den for his "high end" clients in America, Frank and his men traverse swamps, Chinese gangs, prostitutes and the law, pursuing the drug that has been called "the only true happiness".
JUNE 2003
**THE CAT AND THE MOON - by William Butler Yeats; adapted by Tom O'Neil (directed by John Jordan) A blind man and a lame man set out on a quest to be cured. Their journey chronicles the search for the Holy Well, that mythical place where all things are possible, if you will simply have them.
**IN REBEL COUNTRY by Kevin Barry (directed by Matthew Kreiner) The lessons of youth, discovered and undiscovered, are what confront two small-town friends as they make a trek from Elm Creek, Nebraska, to Fairmount, Indiana, to visit the grave of their screen idol, James Dean.
** SUMMERLAND by Brian Thorenson (directed by Stephanie Eberhard) It's a hot summer in western South Dakota. Bud, a young gay man, is struggling to escape generations of isolation and alienation on the plains. His mom, Doreen, has settled for sittin' and watchin' the weather come and go. Enter a trio of unexpected visitors. Add an unfulfilled wish and unspoken daydreams. A love story, a family story, a story of coming to rest by taking flight.
*WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?..I'M IN IT! by Neil Feigeles (directed by Greg Vorab) deals with the playwright's search for the girl next door and the women that caused him to seriously think about joining a monastery...and he's Jewish!
IN MY FATHER'S EYES by John Anastasi/songs by David Freidman (directed by Daniel Neiden & June Rachelson-Ospa) Spanning 25 years, this is a tightly written, compelling and clear story of a father's misguided love for his daughter and the wish to live out his dead wife's dreams of stardom through her. Although not a musical, there is music that compliments the piece.
JULY 2003
JANE HO by John Pallotta, (directed by Jason Tyne) Love for sale... What price would you pay for a trip to paradise? A woman wastes years mourning the images of lost dreams and the hurt of wasted hope. If only she had realized, years ago, that yesterday, today and tomorrow are only the ever lasting NOW.
**THE INTERVIEW by Valerie Killigrew (directed by Jason Tyne) Written from an absurdist perspective. Ilias Tride has built an empire around things he realizes are irrelevant to his happiness and is ready to abandon everything to an obsessive admirer, Saul Lollipop, who has come to interview for his position. The true scope of Ilias Tride's affliction is then revealed, and in the end he is left questioning the worth of his very existence.
**WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?..I'M IN IT! by Neil Feigeles (directed by Greg Vorab) See the June 2003 entry for a synopsis.
LAST CALL by Kelly McAllister (directed by Matthew Kreiner) Last Call is about what happens to a small group of friends when they collectively face the deep, dark, truthful mirror. It's about all of the antidotes we use for life, like sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll, and what happens when our prescriptions run out.
AUGUST 2003
BLACK THANG by Ato Essandoh (directed by Stephanie Eberhard) is about an interracial relationship and relationships in general. It's in your face with slang, slurs, and humor.
DOGDAZE and ESCAPADE by Christian Palustran (directed by Katherine Vecchio) - two companion one-acts. "Dogdaze": To fill her loneliness, old Emily adopts a dog who takes on an exaggerated importance in her life. Defeated by the heat, sick and abandoned by men, Emily slowly takes on her new companion's habits and ways. "Escapade": With advancing age, the thin membrane separating memory and imagination sometimes become porous. "Escapade" is an old man's journey through the merging of memory and imagination.
THE NINTH CIRCLE by Edward Musto (directed by Matthew Kreiner) Election Day, 1980. Upper East Side of Manhattan. Tom, an administrator at a corporate outplacement firm, indulges his voracious appetite for sex while trying to maintain stability at home and at the office.
THE DARK PLACE by June Daniels (directed by Katherine Vecchio) When her father mysteriously disappears, Carol travels from NY back to the farm where she grew up. Things are not always as they seem and many old issues arise when her father is found dead.
SEPTEMBER 2003
BOXING IN THE SUN by Aurin Squire (directed by Wes Grantom) is a full-length play of interwoven stories about struggling New Yorkers fighting to make it through the unbearable heat and another day in the urban jungle. Set on the hottest day of the year, the lives of friends, families and neighbors spark off each other to comic and tragic results.
GLUE TRAP by Doug Stone (directed by June Rachelson-Ospa) Take one wealthy "poster family for dysfunctionality"...infest their home with one 30 pound rat... then call in one temperamental exterminator to remove the vermin within 48 hours and you have the trappings of a sticky new comedy called Glue Trap.
S.W.A.K. (Sealed With A Kiss) by June Rachelson-Ospa (directed by Daniel Neiden) A musical for children. What happens in this frogtured story when Fairytale land goes topsy turvy and a Frog Prince kisses Princesses and turns them into frogs? The end is sealed...with a kiss!
OCTOBER 2003
BURNING LEAVES by Michael Winks (directed by Carol Schaefer) Activist Abe Gordon is broke and at the dawn of the Iraq war, desperate to spread the word about his cause: making your own automobile fuel. He has set up a meeting with philanthropist Arlen Rosen who has a price; he wants to know what makes Abe tick? The revelations tap into secrets in both men's family pasts and soon Rosen is making Abe an offer he couldn't possibly refuse. Or could he?
URANIUM + PEACHES by Peter Cook & Bill Lanouette (directed by Deanna Neil) presents the dramatic and fateful confrontation of Einstein's protege, Leo Szilard, and Truman's mentor, Jimmy Byrnes on May 28, 1945. Science meets politics in the timeless struggle against the corruption of humanity's ingenuity. Before the dawn of the Atomic Age, the architect of the bomb confronts the man who would be the architect of the new peace -- before it is too late!
NOVEMBER 2003
GENERATIONS APART by Marv Siegel (directed by Julie Foh) is a hilarious full-length comedy in which cranky, scheming Norman Bender and his sparring-partner/wife Edna an old Jewish couple living in a retirement community, have their lives turned upside-down when Rosemary DiCarlo, an attractive Catholic widow moves in next door. Throw in a couple of divorced children, a matchmaking scheme, a wealthy sock-magnate, a 95 year old rabbi and a very dangerous piece of exercise equipment, and you have the makings of an unforgettable, strangely realistic slice of senior citizen life.
FEBRUARY 2004
URANIUM + PEACHES by Peter Cook & Bill Lanouette (directed by Marianna Loosemore) presents the dramatic and fateful confrontation of Einstein's protege, Leo Szilard, and Truman's mentor, Jimmy Byrnes on May 28, 1945. Before the dawn of the Atomic Age, the architect of the bomb confronts the man who would be the architect of the new peace -- before it is too late!
MARCH 2004
**RUBY'S STORY by Ron Osborne (directed by Troy Miller)
...FIRST PRIZE WINNER -
...NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2003
It's June 1944, and the world is at war. On a small truck farm far away from the front lines, a war of another kind rages. Here, teenage Ruby relates her family's struggle -- and eventual victory -- over prejudice, self-loathing, delusion and fear.
OUTBURST by Leroy Clark (Directed by Karen Raphaeli)
...FINALIST -
...NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2003
A gay high school teacher stands firm against the prejudice of his small-town-America community. He encounters hatred, prejudice and betrayal from those he believed in and loves. Through the struggle, he finds great inner strength and the courage to stand firm in the face of overwhelming adversity.
APRIL 2004
FRIENDS by Peter Levy. (Directed by Stephanie Eberhard) A comedy. Two eccentric elderly people realize that it is never too late to fall in love.
**INTERVIEW by Valerie Killigrew (Directed by Leslie Strongwater)
...THIRD PRIZE WINNER -
...NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2003
Ilias Tride, the world's most powerful mogul, has reached the pinnacle of his career. Realizing the shallowness of amassing money, power, and sexual prowess, he is desperately hollow and resigned to hand the reigns over to a younger man. He meets the perfect candidate in Saul Lollipop, an ambitious young man whose ambitions stretch even further than Tride's. A battle of wills ensues ending in monstrous, unexpected twists.
MAY 2004
FEED THE HOLE by Micheal Stock (directed by Dale Bernardo Ratner) In this dark dramatic-comedy six young twenty somethings learn that life is not pretty after college.
JUNE 2004
OUTBURST by Leroy Clark (directed by Karen Raphaeli)
...FINALIST -
...NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2003
A gay high school teacher stands firm against the prejudice of his small-town-America community. He encounters hatred, prejudice and betrayal from those he believed in and loves. Through the struggle, he finds great inner strength and the courage to stand firm in the face of overwhelming adversity.
KING CHRISTINA by Martha Kearns (directed by Tre Garrett)
...FIRST PRIZE WINNER -
...NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2003
She was young... she was brilliant... she was a King. A true story about King Christina of 17th century Sweden whose heroism challenged and conquered a divided Europe and whose faith changed the course of history.
SUN, STAND THOU STILL by Steven Gridley (directed by Karen Raphaeli) A surrealistic play that follows the journey of a man nearly blinded by a face-off with the sun as he drives eternally westward. In his truck he carries a haunted woman; a woman who cannot die.
JULY 2004
*SHADES by Paula J. Caplan (directed by Phil Keeling)
...HONORABLE MENTION -
...NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2003
A Vietnam War hero's sudden terminal illness compels his World War II hero father to question his patriotism and compels his antiwar sister to face the guilt over her veteran husband's suicide. The sister befriends a Black female poet left paraplegic from a grenade in Vietnam, and together they struggle for ways to help each other through their tragedies and into new life. ((Shades received a week-long workshop through the New Works Reading Series and went on to win the Pen and Brush Playwrights Award.)
PENNY CANDY by Carmen Betancourt (directed by Karen Raphaeli)
...HONORABLE MENTION -
...NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2003
War reaches into a little candy store in Queens, as Marty, a Vietnam veteran clashes with the couple who are the store's new owners, Vietnamese boat people whose children died on the voyage to freedom. The husband, often delusional, believes his wife betrayed the family; the wife longs for normalcy while bound by the expectations of her cultural heritage. The three must come to terms with their demons in order to achieve a measure of peace.
**CRY WOLF by Deborah Mulhall (directed by Erica Ramos)
...HONORABLE MENTION -
...NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2003
Nick "Wolf" Grey, world renowned war photojournalist, returns to his home in Sydney to be feted for his lifetime achievements. Into his life comes the daughter he didn't know he had and with her the question of what sort of a person carries a camera and not a gun to a front line? And what are the ethical and moral responsibilities of those who bring us "the news."
AUGUST 2004
BEE STING LIPS by Rory Jobst (directed by Ronee Penoi)
Leon says some pretty scary things. What he sees as innocent flirting, others see as violent threats. Only Tilly, the object of his affection, has the power to calm his spirit. However, when his estranged father romances Tilly, Leon just may become what he has always feared.
SHOW ME A SANE MAN by Marla Dumont (directed by Leslie Strongwater) Labeled a Multiple Personality patient, Reid defines her existence by white walls and isolation. Reid explores with a psychology student the stigmas of insanity and normalcy teaching her that answers aren’t always in a text book.
WTC VIEW by Brian Sloan (directed by Sarah Sigal)
Eric, a young man living in SoHo, has put an ad in the paper for a roommate the day before 9/11. As he interviews various people in the weeks following the attacks, we see New York in its new incarnation through their stories and experiences.
**BEHIND THE INVISIBLE ENEMY by Lily Harris (directed by Karen Raphaeli) is about a society that has allowed its thinking to be controlled by the ideas of one man named They, a sensible man mad with power. His devoted followers are oblivious to the absurdity and evil They embraces. Fortunately, a handful of free thinkers still exits, retro-revolutionaries whose belief in the past is the only hope for the future. (After rewrites based on the Q & A, the play went on to win the Bronx Council for the Arts Playwriting Award.)
SEPTEMBER 2004
AVA by Bonita Corso (directed by Melissa Ray) Ava Gardner grants an interview to American reporter, Danny Blue as a favor to Frank Sinatra during which, she exposes her vulnerabilities and imperfections. As the interview progresses, propriety is ignored and Ava discovers Danny has secrets of his own.
OCTOBER 2004
**A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Thomas Harlan (directed by Andrew Rothschild) Traditional version of the classic Christmas tale. This play was produced last Christmas and has been expanded and rewritten since then.
AVA by Bonita Corso (directed by Melissa Ray) Ava Gardner grants an interview to American reporter, Danny Blue as a favor to Frank Sinatra during which, she exposes her vulnerabilities and imperfections. As the interview progresses, propriety is ignored and Ava discovers Danny has secrets of his own.
NOVEMBER 2004
STARF**KER by Jill Campbell (directed by Troy Miller) A young girl meets the rock star she is obsessed over and a physical relationship develops. The ensuing lies and exaggerations create and tarnish reputations. The play is about the loss of the American Dream to sensationalism and celebrity.
I DO WANDER EVERYWHERE by Rose-Mary Harrington (directed by Laura Cosentino) Winner 2003 Roselily Productions Honorarium, spans 1912-1990. 4 generations of women cross 3 continents as a nation rebels against its colonizer. A mother and her helpers try to reach out to those they love before her Alzheimer's, the crossfire of religious and social mores and the inevitable changes of the 20th century breaks them.
JANUARY 2005
ONE WAGON, ONE BOATHOUSE, ONE BODY by Mary Flanagan (directed by James Nocito) Jude's half-dressed lover is passed out and hubby is due home in ten minutes. This high comedy takes strange turns when Jude and a friend try to dress him and take him off the property before her husband gets home. Due to the largeness and dead weight of the lover and a meddling next door neighbor, this proves to be more difficult than the two women can manage.
MARCH 2005
A ROOM FACING THE MOON by Aurin Squire (directed by Alexis Williams) A bitter comedy on sex, lust and romance. The entire play takes place in one hotel on one night. The different rooms highlight the different aspects of life and love.
**KEEP YOUR FUNNY SIDE UP by Louisa Poster A musical comedy review featuring songs of a by-gone era.
APRIL 2005
VELOCITY by Daniel MacDonald (directed by Karen Raphaeli)
...SECOND PRIZE WINNER -
...NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2004
Velocity equals distance over time. A simple equation until you are falling 73 stories from your office tower with your wife and daughter cheering you on. No matter how it tumbles, life's a circus, a carnival...or maybe just an overblown physics experiment.
* THE EDUCATION OF REGINALD by Branan Whitehead (directed by Jennifer Blevins) A man awakens to find himself in a cold, white, sterile room, strapped down to a chair. Two voices speak to him. Their ultimate purpose is a mystery but their tactics are painfully clear: to torment, to humiliate, to break.
WISE WOMEN by Ron Osborne (directed by Sasha Collington) Christmas 1944 and the world is at war. In Knoxville, a mother with a secret and a daughter with a dream take in two young roomers, one asserting her independence as a contestant in a forbidden beauty pageant, the other in the company of servicemen. When the daughter bamboozles her mother into allowing her to attend a Frank Sinatra concert at the local USO and brings home a young war-bound Marine as naïve as she, this colorful collection of women is pulled apart, then mended with humor, romance, twists, turns and tribulations.
MAY 2005
**NERVE by Adam Szymkowicz (directed by Jennifer Blevins) As the complexities of two troubled characters are revealed, we witness an entire relationship condensed into one blind date.
**CONVERSATION WITH A KLEAGLE by Rudy Gray (directed by Stanley Harrison)
...FIRST PRIZE WINNER - ...NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2004
Inspired by events in the life of a civil rights leader, the play takes place during the height of a lynching epidemic in the late twenties. A black writer, passing for white, travels to the deep South to interview a kleagle (a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan). When his true racial identity is discovered he escapes, only to find that his rescuer's family paid a dear price, a price that brings the writer back down south to confront the kleagle and the Klan.
JUNE 2005
PAGEANT by Daniel MacDonald (Directed by Karen Raphaeli) Alone and isolated in the Canadian wilderness, a man seeks revenge against the plastic surgeon that ruined his beauty queen girlfriend's face.
KILL MY WIFE WITH A KNIFE by Brent Carlsberg (directed by Lisa Maley) A married couple drive each other to murder as they try to work through
their martial problems.
JULY 2005
** RADIO, MIRTH, AND THE THIRD REICH... by Sharon Wajswol & Jack Kelly An absurdist style staged radio show set during the years of WWII showing how comedy brought mirth to the world/US at a very dark time in history. The show portrays the radio comedy/songs/commercials, etc... which were broadcast as the Third Reich swept its way through Europe.
DRAGON FLY TALE by Lorey Hayes and Bobby Crear (directed by Imani) In a small Texas town, still reeling from the Kennedy assassination, a Russian Immigrant and a Black War Veteran risk their lives and freedom to help a young Black boy and his mother escape the devastation of domestic violence. It is the story of spiritual and emotional warfare that unearths the depths of human courage buried in us all. Inspired by a true story.
THE TURTLE GETS THERE TOO by Arni Ibsen (directed by Lisa Maley) William Carlos Williams. Ezra Pound. Two different philosophical views expounded over the course of 70 years in a script that leaves the audience questioning their deepest values.
SEPTEMBER 2005
**TROIKA: GOD, TOLSTOY AND SOPHIA by Peter Levy (directed by Karen Raphaeli) Socialist ideals and family loyalty clash as an ill and aging Tolstoy attempts to be Christ-like and renounce his possessions while Sophia, his desperate and angry wife, tries to prevent the loss of her inheritance.
OCTOBER 2005
SEVEN YEAR CLAUSE by Sharon Wajswol (directed by Karen Raphaeli) All Allan Silverman ever wanted was to be a dramatic actor. But Allan finds himself in the middle of a real life drama as he realizes that everyone wants him dead.
NOVEMBER 2005
** CONVERSATION WITH A KLEAGLE by Rudy Gray (directed by Cristina Alicea)Inspired by events in the life of a civil rights leader, the play takes place during the height of a lynching epidemic in the late twenties. A black writer, passing for white, travels to the deep South to interview a kleagle (a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan). When his true racial identity is discovered he escapes, only to find that his rescuer's family paid a dear price, a price that brings the writer back down south to confront the kleagle and the Klan.
DECEMBER 2005
ALL HAPPY FAMILIES by Ted Tinling (directed by Syeus Mottel) A young married woman discovers the age of feminism to the comic disruption of her family.
THE STORE by Paul Manuel Kane (directed by Syeus Mottel) A family dominated by an abusive stepfather struggles to find their release from this domination.
JANUARY 2006
EXPOSURE by Michael Stockman (directed by Karen Raphaeli) Photographer Eli Gold's career crumbled after his solo exhibition was canceled amid the
tragedy of 9/11. When Nicky, a local garbage man, is catapulted to success in the Manhattan art world for his photographs of dust, a shocked and bitter Eli must confront the meaning of his work and the purpose of his life.
ROAD'S END by Greg Foote (directed by June Rachelson-Ospa) is set amidst the social turmoil of the Vietnam era and depicts a group of recent college grads who gather for one last time before scattering to their individual futures. The self-defining choices they must make about the war and two anti-war fugitives in their midst set the stage for coming of age in the truest sense.
FEBRUARY 2006
WHY ARE WE IN IRAQ? by Henry Meyerson (directed by Jennifer Blevins) An ironic commentary on the Iraq War.
MARCH 2006
SEVEN YEAR CLAUSE by Sharon Wajswol (directed by Karen Raphaeli) All Allan Silverman ever wanted was to be a dramatic actor. But Allan finds himself in the middle of a real life drama as he realizes that everyone wants him dead.
APRIL 2006
** TRIANGLE book & lyrics by June Rachelson-Ospa; music by Mark Barkan (directed by Robert W. McMaster) A pointed musical comedy about 2 married shrinks who can't stand each other and their patients who develop triangular relationships in the waiting room. They include a woman who takes the urn of her dead husband everywhere, her dead husband's undertaker, a cross-dresser, a guy who's fresh out of the closet, and a sexy young unmarried woman.
NAZO FAST! by Sharon Wajswol. (directed by Mack Gilbert) In 1963 Reinhard Pfrommer is living in Greenwich Village, NYC with his lover Noah. Having forgotten WWII, everything is going swimmingly well, until Reinhard's past catches up with him. Things get a littly n*zi when Reinhard meets his daughter, Molly for the first time. And when Herr Helmut Reichmann shows up to claim a valuable Matisse painting, Reinhard's Jewish ex-wife Fannie appears, a questionable anniversary cake arrives at the door for Reinhard and Noah, and things get a little out of hand.
MAY 2006
DEATH BY VISITATION OF GOD by Lowrie Fawley (directed by Lowrie Fawley & Christian St. John) This one man look into the life of Edgar Allen Poe paints a portrait of a man who was not mad, but rather haunted by love, death and loss. The depth of his love is revealed through his words, his letters and a look at the mind behind the mask that was Poe.
JUNE 2006
JACKIE UNDRESSED: AN INAUGURAL PLAY by Andrée Stolte (directed by June Rachelson-Ospa) Alone in her ghastly Mamie-pink bedroom, Jacqueline Kennedy prepares for the Inaugural Ball. But how does she prepare for the world of betrayal that awaits her in the White House? Is the Jacqueline that appears in the mirror the Jacqueline she thought herself to be?
BURNING THE OLD MAN by Kelly McAllister (directed by Helena Gleissner) In a motel in the middle of the Nevada desert, two brothers en route with the ashes of their recently deceased father to the Burning Man Festival are stranded when their car catches fire. In the course of the night and the following day they are forced to confront each other, and their past.
SWEET ADELINE by Ashley Birt (directed by Amanda Shank) The play focuses on Davey, a young man in his mid-twenties, and his ex-girlfriend, Addy. The Addy we see is a figment of Davey's imagination as he struggles to get over their recent break up. When Davey's sister Delia comes to visit and later when Davey is introduced to his roommate's new girlfriend, we begin to wonder how much Davey can be trusted or believed.
BICYCLE by Sean Kenealy (directed by Amanda Shank) While driving, Michael Toss accidentally killed a girl riding her bicycle. Because he was only 16, he was sent to Juvenal Hall for two years. The play follows Michael's return home where he encounters his father, old friends, and family members of the deceased girl.
JULY 2006
**ARKADELPHIA by Brett Williams, directed by Stacy Horowitz. Third Place Winner 2005 New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest. Bobby returns to his hometown of Arkadelphia, Arkansas after a semester of college in Manhattan. Seeking refuge in two childhood friends, he ends up exposing a secret the small, religious town would rather keep buried.
SEPTEMBER 2006
**MYK FREEDMAN SUIT and RUTH & BING (New Sounds in Jazz)
PIMP ME by Tal A young woman's experiences as a prostitute and what led her to sell her body.
OCTOBER 2006
POW'R IN THE BLOOD by T. Cat Ford (directed by Helena Gleissner)
...SECOND PRIZE WINNER - ...NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2005
A daughter visits her dying mother in this Southern Gothic comedy set against a background of the religious right. Mother and daughter try to touch each other over the gulf of their differences and in doing so bruise each other repeatedly. As the final moment comes, all that is left is a willingness to touch.
RAPUNZARELLA WHITE by June Rachelson-Ospa (Book and Lyrics); Daniel Neiden (Composer); Mitch Raftery (Musical Director) Cinderella, Rapunzel and Snow White are Triplets at birth. The Evil Witch Winifred casts a spell turning each Princess into "Rapunzarella White."
FEBRUARY 2007
JARVIS BLACK by Dan Campanelli (directed by Michael Swift) The best high school basketball player in America locks himself in an underground tulip bulb house on the eve of the biggest game of his life.
DAEDALUS MYTH by Matthew Smith (directed by Esther Neff)...a vicious, poetic, and epic tale of love and loss. An unwanted child is banished to a labyrinth to hide her deformity. When her father discovers how useful she can be in rallying his people, a human mistake becomes a timeless myth and simple emotions become a lasting tragedy.
MARCH 2007
*BEGGARS RAIN by Robert Firpo-Cappiello (directed by Robert Firpo-Cappiello) A whiskey-fueled, guitar-driven odyssey through Depression-era America.
APRIL 2007
**BEAUTIFUL AMERICAN SOLDIER by Dano Madden (directed by Cristina Alicea)
...FIRST PRIZE WINNER - ...NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2006
Two sisters, unexpectedly lost along a quiet roadside in war-torn Iraq, find an unexpected friend in a man peddling junk. Their shattered hearts deal with the consequences of war in very different ways.
**TRASH BAG TOURIST by Brett Williams (directed by Daniel Gallant)
...SECOND PRIZE WINNER - ...NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2006
A dilapidated trailer in Arkadelphia Arkansas. Dorothy, desperately afraid of being alone, searches for ways to thwart her daughter Molly's dreams of becoming a touring rodeo clown. Molly has an affair with a black man pretending to be a Katrina evacuee in order to get a FEMA trailer. Dorothy sees through his scheme and exposes his lies to Molly. In the end Dorothy is victorious.
3 ONE-ACTS by Mark Borkowski
**WITHIN THE SKINS OF SAINTS (Directed by Roger Hendrick Simon) A young woman is standing on the edge of a subway platform, waiting for the train. A man enters and has until the subway comes to talk her out of jumping.
**I LIKE TO WATCH 'EM BEG, MA (Directed by Robert Haufrecht) An elderly mother is desperately trying to communicate with her self-destructive son. If he leaves the house she is afraid she will never see him again.
**TWILIGHT CHILD (Directed by Richard Masur) Grieving parents revisit a diner where they used to take their son who died 9 months earlier. They are trying to deal with their agony and sorrow.
MAY 2007
*OUT OF IGNORANCE by Peter Langman (Directed by Daniel Gallant) chronicles a relationship between an elderly Jewish Holocaust survivor and a young man on the fringes of a neo-Nazi group. This gripping, provocative work is based on a true story.
LADIES OF THE LEFT BANK by Gloria Goldsmith (Directed by Stephan Morrow) 1938: a young American girl arrives in Paris and is thrust into the lap of the Sapphic ‘salon’ of Natalie Barney and her fellow artists who see themselves above the fray of politics. In denial, they pursue instead the purer holy grail of beauty only to find themselves engulfed by the tidal wave of Nazi occupation.
JUNE 2007
THE HOLOCAUST KID by Sonia Pilcer (Directed by Karen Raphaeli) Sonia Pilcer’s theatrical adaptation of her novel explores how the trauma of the Holocaust persists in the lives of two survivors, their daughter, and her lover.
*CHOKING OUT THE KUDZU Book: Billie Colombaro and Betty Ladas; Music and Lyrics: Betty Ladas (Directed by Billie Colombaro) A new musical based on a true story of two women – Stella, a middle aged, mealy-mouth soccer mom, and Bessie, a feisty octogenarian discarded in a nursing home -- who ultimately form an alliance which empowers Stella to pursue her dream of becoming a song writer and Bessie to have the will to live.
*BEGGARS RAIN by Robert Firpo-Cappiello (directed by Mark Bloom) A whiskey-fueled, guitar-driven odyssey through Depression-era America.
*BANANA RAT by Phoebe C. Rusch (directed by Joanna Zelman)
...THIRD PRIZE WINNER - ...NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2006
Zoe, an interrogator at Guantanamo Bay, is assigned to Imad, an enigmatic detainee suspected of planning to blow up the U.S. embassy in Dubai. As the interrogations progress, they strike up an unlikely rapport, one which is complicated by manipulation and deceit.
JULY 2007
**ORPHANS by Joel Shatzky (directed by Joanna Zelman) Teenage Lu is a foreigner in her own family, adopted at five years old from a country she remembers only as warm and beautiful. She learned not to ask questions about her past and how she came to be an American. Then terrifying nightmares and a visit from a stranger who knew her as a baby topple the wall of secrets that has surrounded this teenager all her life.
AUGUST 2007
MARIA MERCILESS by Philip Radameyer, follows the course of Maria's relationship with Simon over twenty years. She toys with, cheats on and lies to Simon, but later in her life she is consumed with regret and loss.
** OUT OF IGNORANCE by Peter Langman (directed by Daniel Gallant) chronicles a relationship between an elderly Jewish Holocaust survivor and a young man on the fringes of a neo-Nazi group. This gripping, provocative work is based on a true story.
DECEMBER 2007
**NUNCHUCK NINJA NUNS by Lauren Cavanaugh (directed by Michael Flanagan) is a comedy about how distorted reality is and the strangeness of living in a world with so many rules and so few morals. Join Jesus, Mary, frat boys, zany psychologists, communist poets, and a habit of nunchuck-swinging nuns in their crusade to find enlightenment. Or at least a little sump'n sump'n.
JANUARY 2008
**NUNCHUCK NINJA NUNS by Lauren Cavanaugh (directed by Michael Flanagan) is a comedy about how distorted reality is and the strangeness of living in a world with so many rules and so few morals. Join Jesus, Mary, frat boys, zany psychologists, communist poets, and a habit of nunchuck-swinging nuns in their crusade to find enlightenment. Or at least a little sump'n sump'n.
MARCH 2008
**SOW AND WEEP by Nitzan Halperin (directed by Marianna Loosemore)
…SECOND PRIZE WINNER- …NEW WORKS OF MERIT PLAYWRITING CONTEST - 2007
Sow and Weep is an unconventional exploration of the lives of two families amidst a vicious cycle of hatred and killing that perpetuates the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Pulled deep into the conflict by the pain of sudden loss, Iman, a Palestinian law student, and Talia, an Israeli peace activist, seek a way out only to discover confrontation is their only hope. The play challenges the distance between the two sides, asking us to question the walls we put between ourselves and the Other Side.
JERICHO by Jack Canfora (directed by Jerry Mond) explores the heroic struggle required to reconstruct our lives in the face of unexpected and inexplicable human tragedy.
