'Absence' in NYC

BPT's Absence team reunited in NYC last week for a reading at Manhattan Theatre Club. Here, they nosh at legendary haunt Joe Allen (clockwise from L): Beverly Diaz, Cheryl D. Singleton, Anne Gottlieb, Megan Schy Gleeson, Joanna Merlin, Kate Snodgrass, Kippy Goldfarb, Peter M. Floyd, Bill Mootos, and Russell Garrett (not pictured: Dale Place).

Thanks for the photo, Cheryl!

First preview of Noone's The Compass Rose tonight

Ronan Noone's The Compass Rose opens in previews tonight, part of NYC's 1st Irish Festival. Break a leg, Ronan!

Previews to begin for Bauer's 'My Occasion of Sin' at Urban Stages this Friday

Monica Bauer’s award-winning My Occasion of Sin opens in previews this Friday at NYC’s Urban Stages. This off-Broadway production – which as already been extended(!) – represents the most recent leg of an adventure we have followed here. Tickets are available through SmartTix; Dramatists Guild members can use the discount code DRAMAP for $15 tickets during previews, and DRAMA1 for $24 tickets during the March 23-April 15 run.

And, of course, this kind of event means I had to torture Monica with some questions. Thanks for being a sport during such a busy time, Monica, and congratulations!

KAM: You’ve been working hard for this moment in your playwriting life – your Off-Broadway debut – for a long time, toiling in the off-off and Fringe worlds. What’s been the most exciting part about preparing for the Urban Stages production of My Occasion of Sin so far?

MEB: Casting is so crucial. It helps when there is agreement in the room, when the callbacks are over and decisions have to be made. I’ve been very lucky here, in that my director, Frances Hill, and my producer, Peter Napolitano, have agreed with me on every role. The day the cast is announced to the press is a special day; it’s the official kick-off to the production. So when the press release went out, I was able to see it go up on Broadway World and TheaterMania, and see the announcement of our cast and creative team bounce around the interwebs, and around various Facebook pages as actors announced to their friends, that was a moment when I really felt that we were on our way, on a good journey.

Off-Broadway debut for Bauer, with award-winning play at Urban Stages

Monica Bauer

My Occasion of Sin will mark Monica Bauer's off-Broadway debut with a production this spring at Urban Stages.

Here’s the official announcement:

Urban Stages is proud to announce its spring production of My Occasion of Sin by Monica Bauer – a play that was submitted during our 'Words By Women' Reading Series. 



1969. Omaha, Nebraska. Around town feet tap to new types of rhythms – to Soul, to Rock and Roll and, most of all, to Jazz! Mary and Vivian, two young girls from two different sides of town – the white side and the black side – vow to drink the jazz scene in for their own private reasons. Music seems to unite and uplift everyone around despite creed or color…that is, for a little while. Soon racial tensions grow louder than beats on a drum and the lives of the young girls are the first demolished. 



Previews begin March 16, with opening night set for March 21.

My Occasion of Sin received a workshop production at Omaha’s Shelterbelt Theatre last April. That production won two of Omaha’s Theatre Arts Guild Awards (one for outstanding script), and is currently nominated for an Omaha Arts and Entertainment Award (in the Best New Script category). The play was also was a finalist for The Abingdon Theatre’s (NYC) Christopher Brian Wolk Award in 2011.

Monica shared her account of My Occasion of Sin’s “meandering” journey to production with us here.

Congratulations on the next stop on the journey, Monica! Road trip!

Alumni news, in brief:

Cha Cha Picante was in the house for opening night of Molly Smith Metzler's Close Up Space at Manhattan Theatre Club...

Lydia Diamond's Stick Fly made Bloomberg News' list of best shows of 2011...

Q&A: Zayd Dohrn on 'Want' and 'Outside People'

Zayd Dohrn’s Want opens tonight at Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s First Look Repertory of New Work, and in January his Outside People opens Off-Broadway in a co-production by The Vineyard Theatre and Naked Angels. Of course, we had questions for him…

KAM: Wow – you have a one play (Want) at Steppenwolf, and another (Outside People) opening Off-Broadway in January. I guess we could say this is shaping up to be a really busy fall and winter for you. How are you managing your time?
 

ZD: It’s been busy, but the timing worked out well. Right now I’m in the middle of rehearsals for Want. We open October 27 and run through November 20. Then Outside People rehearsals start two days later, so they’re close, but not completely simultaneous. Luckily, I don’t have to be in two places at the same time.

Alumni news, in brief:

The Book Club Play

Check out the new Web site for Joyce Van Dyke’s Deported… 

Stick Fly meets the press…

Zayd Dohrn’s Want opens 10/27 as part of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s 7th Annual First Look Repertory of New Work (watch this space for more on this project later in the week)…

Actress Kate Snodgrass was featured in the reading of Don Cohen’s Length of Stay at the Munroe Center for the Arts, directed by Melinda Lopez…

New video for Karen Zacarías’ The Book Club Play, now at Arena Stage…

Gregory Fletcher interviewed Sons of the Prophet star Santino Fontana for the Stage and Cinema blog…

Will Fancher’s The River Was Whiskey opens this week right here at BPT…

Q&A: Sinan Ünel discusses 'Mad Person'

Sinan Ünel

Sinan Ünel’s play A Mad Person’s Chronicle of a Miserable Marriage – about the tumultuous marriage of Leo and Sonya Tolstoy, narrated by one "mad" actor (John Andert) who portrays both characters – just finished a successful weekend at Whaler’s Wharf (produced by Counter Productions) in Provincetown, and beginning on November 6, will settle in for a run at Stage Left Studio in New York City. In the interim, Sinan answered a few questions about the project…and offered a glimpse of his current project. (And yes, this space will certainly feature a follow-up with Sinan about that play, too.)

KAM: Mad Person was originally produced in 1995. Are you evolving the script at all this time around?

SÜ: Actually, no. The script has not changed very much at all. Just a few small changes. The direction has changed quite a bit and the performance as well. John and I are both a lot more mature!

Un luchador en la ciudad

Este fin de semana pasado, el luchadore El Demonio Rosa tuvo un recorrido a pie de algunos de los teatros en Nueva York donde las obras dramáticas por dramaturgos de BPT (y nuestros amigos) aparecerá este otoño...

“Stick Fly! Viva Lydia!”

Alumni news, in brief:

What is this?*

Melinda Lopez’s Sonia Flew graced the stage at Bowling Green State University last weekend…

Monica Bauer’s new play Porter’s Will will receive a reading at The East End Naked Stage Company in November…

K. Alexa Mavromatis’ one-act True Blue will be part of NYC-based Playhouse Creatures' From Page to Stage Festival of Original Work in November, and her short play Bastard will be included in Looking Glass Theatre’s Writer/Director Forum in December…

Werner Trieschmann shared thoughts on monologue writing on the Playscripts blog last week…

At this theatre

Ever notice the “At This Theatre” feature included in every Broadway Playbill? Maybe not. It’s the page or so that gives a brief history of the theatre you’re sitting in, and of the notable productions that have played there. You might’ve missed it (back in the day, it used to be more prominent in the program) or skipped over it, thinking “Who reads that stuff?”

If the latter is the case, I’ll answer that question: Me. I read that stuff. I’m that guy. If I’m sitting inside one of those great theatres waiting for a play to begin, you can bet that I’m a) excited about what I’m there to see and b) that I’m loving the architecture and history of the house too. And yeah, I’m geeky enough to be super-excited when I go to a Broadway show in a theatre I haven’t visited before…and when I am revisiting an old “friend” (e.g., at the St. James waiting for the 2008 revival of Gypsy to begin, remembering the concert revival of Sunday in the Park With George at the same venue 15 years earlier). I tend to keep most of this geekery to myself. Until now, of course.

Alumni news, in brief:

Lydia Diamond's Broadway-bound Stick Fly (full casting announcement here) made Time Out New York's list of 20 theater shows to see this fall. Members of the extended BPT family Theresa Rebeck and Kirsten Greenidge also made the list, for Seminar and Milk Like Sugar, respectively...

Walt McGough is on a roll: Not only is the BPT production of his play The Farm one of Boston.com's critic's picks for the fall, his Priscilla Dreams the Answer has been added to Fresh Ink's winter calendar... 

Rosie Perez will join the cast of Molly Smith Metzler's Close Up Space at Manhattan Theatre Club in December...

John Greiner-Ferris' 'Turtles' will be part of Interim Writers' An Evening of Staged Readings on October 11...

No bugs in the 'Stick Fly' marketing strategy

Okay, I admit it: I’m a sucker for a fun marketing idea. How much do I love this? A lot!

Dohrn's 'Outside People' set for world premiere Off-Broadway

Alum Zayd Dohrn’s play Outside People will receive its world premiere – a co-production of the Vineyard Theatre and Naked Angels – at the Vineyard Theatre, starting in December 2011. The play was developed in Naked Angels’ ‘Angels in Progress’ series, and the production will be directed by Evan Cabnet.

Synopsis from the Naked Angels Web site: A dark, comic look at China-U.S. relations – economic, political, and sexual. In modern-day Beijing, a young American guy falls for a Chinese girl and then struggles to understand where she’s coming from. A play about loneliness, culture-shock, language, and trying to make connections across borders.

For more information, visit www.vineyardtheatre.org or www.nakedangels.com.

Come and meet those dancing feet

A day that started at Jerusalem (Go – seriously!) ended here: Theatre 80 St. Marks on the Lower East Side. Well, sort of. I was walking by, and couldn’t help but smile at the sight of hoofer Ruby Keeler’s footprints in the cement. Just look at how my enormous foot (size ten, yep) has the power to dwarf even a Broadway giant! Or, at least, the footprint of a Broadway giant.

Also in front of the theatre are footprints and hand prints of Joan Blondell, Joan Crawford (…the hands that held those wire hangers!), Gloria Swanson, and…Dom DeLuise(?!) among others. Hmmm. You know me. Stumbling across things like this can mean only one thing: Google Party.

As a venue, Theatre 80 St. Marks – not unlike so many of us theatre people – has been reinvented again and again to survive the ever-changing times. It's been a speakeasy, a Jazz club, an Off-Broadway house (where You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown opened), and, in the 1970s and 80s, a movie house that screened classic films. It eventually re-opened as an Off-Broadway theatre, as the long-time home of the Pearl Theatre Company; today it hosts magic shows, fundraisers, and music and dance events. Read more about this intriguing NYC landmark here and here. I love, love, love discovering things like this.

But, back to those feet. From what I gather, the Keeler prints are from the period when the Theatre was operating as a movie house and Keeler was starring in the Broadway revival of No,No, Nannette. And to celebrate all this new found trivia: Writers, here is Keeler (with Lee Dixon) tapping on a gigantic typewriter in Ready, Willing and Able (1937). Fabulous!

Metzler's 'Close Up Space' to premiere at MTC

Molly Smith Metzler

Molly Smith Metzler’s play Close Up Space will receive its world premiere in December at Manhattan Theatre Club, starring Michael Chernus and David Hyde Pierce.

Synopsis from the MTC Web site: Tony and Emmy Award winner Pierce will play Paul Barrow, an obsessive book editor on a major deadline. With an assistant who’s been camping in the office (Chernus), a famous author threatening to bail on him and an intern who is no help at all, Paul’s just about had it! But when his fiery daughter shows up and lambasts him in Russian, Paul faces a glaring personal error that can’t be corrected with red ink. Leigh Silverman (Well, In the Wake, From Up Here) returns to MTC to direct this funny and poignant new play about how hard it can be to communicate…in any language.

Earlier this spring, Molly's play Elemeno Pea (which she talks about here) was a hit at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New Plays.

What a MASSIVE year – go, Molly, go!

Award-winning play by Obolensky to be featured in Samuel French's OOB fest

Alum Masha Obolensky’s ten-minute 'Girls Play,' sponsored by the Huntington Theatre Company, has been selected to participate in Samuel French’s Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival.

Chosen from more than 1,000 submissions from producing companies, playwriting workshops, and university theatre programs, 40 plays will be presented at the 36th annual festival at The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row July 19-24. The week-long event features a full program of plays performed each night.

'Girls Play' was the winner of the 2010 KCACTF National Ten-Minute Play Award, and was also featured in Boston Theater Marathon 12 and at The Source Festival in D.C.

Congratulations, Masha!

Cinco de mayo: LBD opens in NYC

Bostonians past and present celebrate Little Black Dress with Ronan on opening night

LBD in NYC: Q&A w/RLN

Ronan Noone’s Little Black Dress (which debuted at BPT last season) opens Off-Broadway in a production by The Exchange tonight. Get tickets here. Of course, we couldn't let the event pass without convincing him to answer a few questions for us.


American pop culture as metaphor is central to Little Black Dress. Was that challenging, particularly since you are not originally from this country? What made you settle on the icons you did (the little black dress, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra)? Have those choices evolved/changed during the lifecycle of the play?

Those choices have not really changed, if anything they have become even more embedded into the content of the play. But it does make sense that you see American pop culture as metaphor in the play, because I see the play, ultimately, as an emigrant play, with Amy representing the emigrant, Jimmy Jr. is the family left behind, Jimmy Sr. is Ireland, and America is the Gigolo. And I don't mean to be derogatory with this symbolism in any way. It is only recently I understood where this play was rooted. I am trying to capture the mixed, frightening, challenging, upheaval of emotions an emigrant feels when they leave their original home behind.

What lessons did you learn working on the BPT production of Little Black Dress last season? In preparation for the play’s production by The Exchange, were there particular aspects of the script you knew you wanted to address?

The BPT production allowed me to work out the kinks during rehearsal, to cut, add and create as we came closer to opening. In truth you can cut, add, and create all you like in a reading or in your writing room but there is nothing like having it on its feet, and actors aware that an opening night is only a couple of weeks away. There is a superb clarity and focus with that awareness. You don't have that time in New York. I have never found New York suitable towards workshopping or on the feet adaptability. In New York, I tweak the play. But I’m lucky -- BPT lets me create the play I want and gives it the production I envision.

LBD in NYC: Update

As reported in this space last fall, our very own Ronan Noone’s Little Black Dress (which debuted at BPT last season) will open Off-Broadway at The Exchange next month. The production is helmed by The Exchange’s Artistic Director Ari Edleson, who also directed the production here. The play is beginning to get some press, including this blurb from Theatermania and a longer article on OffBroadwayWorld.com.

Ronan has promised to keep us all in the loop as the play nears opening, and had this to say: Tuesday [April 5] was the first day of rehearsal and due to all sorts of madness I couldn't be there so I was Skyped in. I strained to hear a third of the play before the Skype blew up and I got to hear the rest of the play through iPhone on speaker. Regardless of the ingenuity on board here, I could tell the changes I made to the piece didn't work. In truth, I sensed they wouldn't work. All along the way I found the play pushing back at my attempts to clean it up.

Ronan has been very candid about LBD's wild -- and fascinating (if you're not the playwright living through it!) development history; I, for one, can’t wait to see the next step in the evolution of this terrific play.

Get tickets here.