*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***

 

Troy Foundry Theatre is now accepting submissions for the 2025 Half-Baked Festival celebrating works-in-development and the presentation of in-process creative projects which will be presented September 18 - 28, 2025 in Troy, NY.

We seek projects that wrestle with the absurdity of our time – politics, climate change, capitalism, digital dissonance, identity, and societal transformation. We're drawn to projects that are unhinged, hilarious, desperate, or beautifully broken in their honesty.

***

Meanwhile Park is a small, private park in Salt Lake City, UT. The Park hosted its first performing arts evening in 2022. Since 2023, Meanwhile Park has produced and presented a new, one-act play chosen through our Playwright Prize competition. Submissions for the 2026 (and possibly 2027.) Entries into the MPPP should consider the following:

• Plays should run between 30 minutes and one hour including any required or desired breaks.

• The “cast” should be limited to no more than six people. Cast can include actors, musicians, or other artists required to tell the story directly to the audience.

***

The Winters Theatre Company will welcome submissions of original scripts for consideration in our 2026 10-minute play festival. We will only accept original submissions (all submissions must come directly from the original playwright/author) for the festival. You must be 18 years of age or older to submit an application, and there is a limit of 1 submission per author. Every play must be 10-minutes or less. There is no specific theme for the festival so all 10-minute scripts are welcome.

*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***


*** WORTHWHILE CANADIAN INTIAITIVE ***

Back in 1986 The New Republic challenged its readers to come up with a headline more boring than “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative,” the title of a New York Times op-ed by Flora Lewis. They couldn’t. Canada, you see, was considered inherently boring.

As I wrote a couple of months ago, economists have never considered Canada boring: It has often been a laboratory for distinctive policies. But now it’s definitely not boring: Canada, which will hold a snap election next month, seems poised to deliver a huge setback to Donald Trump’s foreign ambitions, one that may inspire much of the world — including many people in the United States — to stand up to the MAGA power grab.

So this seems like a good time to look north and see what we can learn. Here are three observations inspired by Canada that seem highly relevant to the United States.

Other countries are real

I don’t know what set Trump off on Canada, what made him think that it would be a good idea to start talking about annexation. Presumably, though, he expected Canadians to act like, say, university presidents, and immediately submit to his threats.

What he actually did was to rally Canadians against MAGA.

More..
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/worthwhile-canadian-observations

***

Not even Spokane’s visiting production of Hamilton escaped Canadian backlash after President Donald Trump started to talk about annexing the country as the “51st state” earlier this year.

The popular show failed to sell out after many Canadian theatergoers, who can account for up to 10% of ticket sales for Spokane’s annual “Best of Broadway” series, declined to cross the border, requesting refunds. In fact, Spokane boosters are bracing for a summer tourist season potentially dampened by fewer Canadian visitors due to U.S. political rhetoric, threats of tariffs and fears of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

More...
https://www.cascadepbs.org/politics/2025/07/citing-trumps-rhetoric-canadians-skip-spokane-theater-shows/

***

Just before Canada Day, a musical near and dear to Canada’s heart got its own shot at experiencing what St. Louis locals call “Muny magic”: a fully staged production set against the breathtaking sunsets of Forest Park.

In a city all but defined by its equivocal history, Come From Away at the Muny captured yet another tension: the fractured relationship between the U.S. and Canada, spurred by U.S. President Donald Trump’s continuing trade war and past remarks about annexing the country.

Artistically speaking, Come From Away’s Muny premiere signals a new era for the musical. The Mirvish production of the show, which ran for seven years with a medley of co-producers, just two months ago played its final performance at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre. Come From Away’s parallel tour, as well, came to a close this spring.

But as June faded into July – at a time when the relationship between the U.S. and Canada was decidedly fraught – Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s musical about kindness, empathy and finding light in dark times played a weeklong run in the outdoor Missouri amphitheatre, a gathering space so large it could have accommodated every single one of the 7,000 or so passengers who were diverted to Newfoundland on Sept. 11, 2001.

More...
https://archive.ph/GN9aL#selection-2671.0-2711.333

***

Theatre Kingston: Trump's Tariffs go into effect today, so why not come to our truly CANADIAN production? Playwright GEORGE F. WALKER is a CANADIAN TREASURE! So are our CAST Shannon Donnelly, Emily Elliott and Tony Babcock. Directed by Ian Malcolm. So ignore the American Movies and see LIVE CANADIANS! https://www.kingstongrand.ca/events/parents-night  #IAMCANADIAN #YGK #THEATRE #GFWALKER #TARIFFS (and for all you Americans,  who need a break from the white house press releases why not come to CANADA  for a mini-break (Say you are going to a show!) :)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DGx6CApz4sV/

***

If you’re hitting pause on future travel to the United States, you’re not alone. In March, 32 per cent fewer Canadians drove across the American border compared with the same period last year, and the tourism industry shows no signs of recovery as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to wage his unpredictable trade war.

It’s too soon to tell if many of the approximately 3.8 per cent of Broadway tickets sales attributed to Canadians will go unsold this year. Ordinarily, I’d be heading to New York myself right around now, to catch up on recent Broadway hits as well as the rash of Canadian work geared to play the Big Apple this summer.

But like many Canadians, I’m sitting out this year’s southern travel plans.

This April, however, I had the chance to catch a few shows on London’s West End, and I hardly missed my usual springtime jaunt to the Great White Way. If you’re planning a trip to England – and maybe missing out on a planned excursion to the Great White Way – here’s what to see (and skip) in three of the country’s most storied theatres.

More...
https://archive.ph/ol2LX#selection-2409.0-2433.148

***

One thing the U.S. learned early: Trump’s belligerence has driven Canadians to look elsewhere to spend their tourism dollars. By April there were American headlines about Canadians staying away, reports that this year 32% fewer Canadians had driven across the border compared to the same time frame last year, and even Canadian critics offering West End recommendations to readers who have decided to skip Broadway this year and head to London instead.

Just last week NYC Tourism + Conventions reported that foreign tourism to New York City is now expected to plummet by as much as 14% this year, translating to a loss of up to $4 billion in direct spending. In past years, Canadians have been the second-largest demographic of international visitors to the city (after travellers hailing from the U.K.); of the 13 million foreign tourists that came to New York in 2024, ~1 million of them were Canadian. If there is indeed a significant decline this year, it’ll leave a mark at the Broadway box office: In past years nearly 4% of Broadway ticket sales have been attributed to Canadians.

North of the border, international travel is also down, with American traffic significantly lower than last year while domestic tourism is on the rise as Canadians opt to stay in the country rather than go Stateside. It remains to be seen what those shifts will mean to Toronto’s theaters: Mirvish Productions, the city’s major commercial player, estimates that Americans make up just 4-5% of its audience, according to the company’s sales and marketing director, John Karastamatis.

So far, the international tensions seem to have had a muted effect on attendance at Canada’s two biggest theater festivals. The Stratford Festival in Ontario reports that 18-20% of its audiences this year are American, not quite as high as the 25% pre-COVID high, but not too far off either. In a recent piece in Maclean’s, Tim Jennings, the executive director of the Shaw Festival (right over the U.S. border in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario), notes that this year “4% of Shaw’s U.S.-based audience has been reluctant to commit to bookings, even if those who do are staying an average of a day longer.”

The Toronto theatermakers I’ve spoken to this summer tell me that so far, Trump’s talk of tariffs and trade disputes haven’t yet had a significant impact on Canadian production costs—even for the producers who rely on American vendors for some sets, lights, and other assets. But the general atmosphere of economic uncertainty has prompted an overall drop in consumer spending that’s having an identifiable effect on the theater business.

“Canadians are uncertain about the future and worried about the economy,” says Karastamatis, who estimates that such worries have lately prompted a decline in attendance of about 15% at Mirvish shows. “But it’s a really recent thing, and we don’t know how long it will go on.”

More...
https://gordoncox.substack.com/p/toronto-candada-theater-industry-trump-elbows-up

***

The Canadian “elbows up” attitude was showing. Driving through the countryside from Toronto, we noticed it everywhere, in the nicest northerly way. Maple leaf flaglets fluttering from car windows. “True North Strong” yard signs. Banners suggesting, as if in code, “Never 51.”

But once we arrived at the Stratford Festival, situated among the rolling plains of southwestern Ontario, the gloves came off. Though the season was planned well before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, this year’s productions at the country’s (and likely the continent’s) largest nonprofit theater seemed to be sending a message. The message was clearest in the three gripping Shakespeare productions I saw during a six-day, seven-show visit. But “Annie,” no less than Lady Macbeth, had something to say to Canada’s neighbor to the south.

Until experiencing those Shakespeares in quick succession here, I had never deeply absorbed how so many of the canonical plays are set in motion by the same chaotic figure: a man temperamentally unsuited to the wise use of great power. In “Macbeth” he is the quick-rising warrior whose wobbly personality (and overcompensating wife) bring on a blood bath of internecine carnage.

More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/theater/canada-stratford-theater-festival.html

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I love words

  

"Stalwart" originated in Late Middle English as a Scots variant of the obsolete word "stalworth," a combination of the Old English words "stǣl" ("place") and "weorth" ("worth"). Its original but now dated usage applied

 

Adjudicate, which is usually used to mean “to make an official decision about who is right in a dispute,” is one of several terms that give testimony to the influence of jus, the Latin word for “law,” on our legal language. Others include judgment, judicial, prejudice, jury, justice, injury, and perjury. 

Lobbyists

 

The legend in the District is that the term ‘lobbyist’ originated at the Willard Hotel when Ulysses S. Grant was in office (1869-1877). Apparently President Grant would frequent the Willard Hotel to enjoy brandy and a cigar, and while he was there, he’d be hounded by petitioners asking for legislative favors or jobs. It is said that President Grant coined the term by referring to the petitioners as “those damn lobbyists.” The legend has been forwarded by the Washington Post, The Hill, the American Society of News Editors, and, of course, the PR director of the Willard Hotel.

It’s a fun story to tell tourists, and it makes the Willard Hotel even more of a landmark, but the legend is just not true. The verb ‘to lobby’ first appeared in print in the United States in the 1830′s, at least thirty years before Ulysses S. Grant came to Washington. The term is believed to have originated in British Parliament, and referred to the lobbies outside the chambers where wheeling and dealing took place. “Lobbyist” was in common usage in Britain in the 1840′s.

 Jesse Sheidlower, editor-at-large for the Oxford English Dictionary, believes the term was used as early as 1640 in England to describe the lobbies that were open to constituents to interact with their representatives.

Holden and the Central Park Carousel

 

 Holden and the Central Park Carousel

When JD Salinger (Who grew up in the 1930s across the street from Central Park) wrote about the parks Carousel in his 1951 novel Catcher in the Rye, the ride was relatively new to the park.

That is to say, it was the latest installation of the ride. Four other carousels versions had stood exact on the site since 1871, although the 1951 version was the only one built within a covered structure.

Actually, Salinger was probably referring to the carousel, one of the largest in the US, of his childhood since he had started writing the novel in the late 1930s. That version of the ride burned down in 1950 as did the prior version in 1924.

Today’s version of the ride was made by Solomon Stein and Harry Goldstein in 1908. It was originally installed in the trolley terminal on Coney Island in Brooklyn, where it operated until the 1940s.

Over 250,000 people ride the carousel every year.

 

Excerpted from Catcher in the Rye

 After we left the bears, we left the zoo and crossed over this little street in the park, and then we went through one of those little tunnels that always smell from somebody's taking a leak. It was on the way to the carrousel.

Old Phoebe still wouldn't talk to me or anything, but she was sort of walking next to me now. I took a hold of the belt at the back of her coat, just for the hell of it, but she wouldn't let me. She said, "Keep your hands to yourself, if you don't mind." She was still sore at me. But not as sore as she was before. Anyway, we kept getting closer and closer to the carrousel and you could start to hear that nutty music it always plays. It was playing "Oh, Marie!" It played that same song about fifty years ago when I was a little kid. That's one nice thing about carrousels, they always play the same songs.

"I thought the carrousel was closed in the wintertime," old Phoebe said. It was the first time she practically said anything. She probably forgot she was supposed to be sore at me.

"Maybe because it's around Christmas," I said.

She didn't say anything when I said that. She probably remembered she was supposed to be sore at me.

"Do you want to go for a ride on it?" I said. I knew she probably did. When she was a tiny little kid, and Allie and D.B. and I used to go to the park with her, she was mad about the carrousel. You couldn't get her off the goddam thing.

"I'm too big." she said. I thought she wasn't going to answer me, but she did.

"No, you're not. Go on. I'll wait for ya. Go on," I said. We were right there then. There were a few kids riding on it, mostly very little kids, and a few parents were waiting around outside, sitting on the benches and all. What I did was, I went up to the window where they sell the tickets and bought old Phoebe a ticket. Then I gave it to her. She was standing right next to me. "Here," I said. "Wait a second--take the rest of your dough, too." I started giving her the rest of the dough she'd lent me.

"You keep it. Keep it for me," she said. Then she said right afterward--"Please."

That's depressing, when somebody says "please" to you. I mean if it's Phoebe or somebody. That depressed the hell out of me. But I put the dough back in my pocket.

"Aren't you gonna ride, too?" she asked me. She was looking at me sort of funny. You could tell she wasn't too sore at me anymore.

"Maybe I will the next time. I'll watch ya," I said. "Got your ticket?"

"Yes."

"Go ahead, then--I'll be on this bench right over here. I'll watch ya." I went over and sat down on this bench, and she went and got on the carrousel. She walked all around it. I mean she walked once all the way around it. Then she sat down on this big, brown, beat-up-looking old horse.

Then the carrousel started, and I watched her go around and around. There were only about five or six other kids on the ride, and the song the carrousel was playing was "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." It was playing it very jazzy and funny. All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she'd fall off the goddam horse, but I didn't say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them.

When the ride was over she got off her horse and came over to me. "You ride once, too, this time," she said.

"No, I'll just watch ya. I think I'll just watch," I said. I gave her some more of her dough. "Here. Get some more tickets."

 

Palimpsest

 

 Palimpsest

 pa·limp·sest

Long ago, writing surfaces were so highly valued that they were often used more than once. Palimpsest in its original use referred to an early form of recycling in which an old document was erased to make room for a new one when parchment ran short. (The word is from the Greek palimpsēstos, meaning “scraped again.”) Fortunately for modern scholars, the erasing process wasn’t completely effective, so the original could often be distinguished under the newer writing. De republica, by Roman statesman and orator Cicero, is one of many documents recovered from a palimpsest. Nowadays, the word palimpsest can refer not only to such a document but to anything that has multiple layers apparent beneath the surface.

 

*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***

American Bard Theater Company is opening its second Playwright Invitational.

We are seeking full length plays for consideration for our Corner Stone Reading Series. These readings will be free and open to the public, with required reservations.
This invitational will focus on works by female and female-presenting playwrights.

***

Lumos Players Second Annual Playwrights Script Reading Season for 2026 - hear your script read aloud and receive constructive, thoughtful feedback in a supportive community of theater artists. Whether you’ve written a 10-minute play, a one-act, a full-length, a musical, a comedy, a drama—or something in between.

***

In the spirit of Windmill Arts’ effort to create and advance new work, Windmill Arts Production presents blueprint, a short play & film festival running April 16-19, 2026 at Windmill Arts.
The festival is open to any new, unproduced short plays & films.
Beginner to seasoned writers are welcome to submit their plays for production consideration.
Windmill Arts Production will provide a producer, director, actor(s) and technical support for all selected short plays

*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***

Dissociate

Dissociate and its synonymous sibling disassociate can each mean "to separate from association or union with another." Both trace back to the Latin verb sociare, meaning "to join," which comes in turn from socius, a noun meaning "companion." (Socius is associated with many English words, including social and society.) Dis- in this case means "do the opposite of," so both dissociate and disassociate indicate severing that which is united. 

the world according to Machiavelli

 

 There are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, and the third is useless.  Machiavelli

 

Fortune is a woman. You have to fight to dominate         

                                                                    Machiavelli

 

When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content.  Machiavelli

 

Chance governs a little more than half of our actions, and we run the rest Machiavelli

 

There is no other way of guarding oneself against flattery than by letting men understand that they will not offend you by speaking the truth; but when everyone can tell you the truth, you lose their respect.  Machiavelli

 

 

 

On Confidence

 

On Confidence

 

“Don’t be insecure if your heart is pure.” – Lady Gaga

 

“Confidence is contagious. So is the lack of it.” – Vince Lombardi.

 

“You don’t know the best love if you don’t practice a little self-love.”

 

”A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval” – Mark Twain

 

“If you want to be successful in anything, the first secret is getting started.”

 

“Confidence is the most beautiful thing you can possess.” – Sabrina Carpenter

“Never, ever be afraid of failing, because failure is just a stepping stone to success.”

 

“I have great faith in fools – self-confidence my friends will call it.” – Edgar Allan Poe

 

“Choosing to practice unconditional self-love is the first step to overcoming low self-esteem.”

 

“When you have confidence, you can do anything.” – Sloane Stephens

 

“Confidence is the most beautiful thing you can possess.” – Sabrina Carpenter

 

“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan

 

“The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.” – James Madison

 

“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

“Confidence comes with maturity, being more accepting of yourself.” – Nicole Scherzinger

 

“Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy.” – Brian Tracy

 

“It doesn’t matter if thousands of people believe in you unless you believe in yourself.” – Maddy Malhotra

 

“The confidence which we have in ourselves gives birth to much of that which we have in others.” – François de La Rochefoucauld

 

“Confidence and hard work are the best medicine to kill the disease called failure. It will make you a successful person.” Abdul Kalam

“Confidence is the willingness to be as ridiculous, luminous, intelligent, and kind as you really are, without embarrassment.” – Susan Piver

 

“Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it.” – Stan Smith

 

“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” – Benjamin Spock

 

“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.” – Samuel Johnson

 

“If you don’t have any confidence, you’re not going to do anything.” – Stefon Diggs

 

“Concentration comes out of a combination of confidence and hunger.” – Arnold Palmer

 

“Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.” – Confucius

 

“True beauty is the flame of self-confidence that shines from the inside out.” – Barrie Davenport

 

“Confidence in the goodness of another is good proof of one’s own goodness.” – Michel de Montaigne

 

“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.” – Oprah Winfrey

 

“I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time.”

 

“Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it.” – Stan Smith

 

“To carry out a positive action, we must develop a positive vision.” – Dalai Lama

 

“You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough.” – Abraham Lincoln

“Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” – Coco Chanel

 

“What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or even indicates his fate.” – Henry David Thoreau

 

“You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.” – Rosalynn Carter

 

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” – Helen Keller

 

“Self-confidence must come from within. Outside reinforcement and strokes can help, but you have to build your own confidence.” – Steve Jobs.

 

“Be confident in the skin you have because that is the only body you will ever have… You can be beautiful in your own way. All you have to do is accept it and own it.” – Deejae Harper.

“To be yourself when the world is constantly trying to change to something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

“If you have no confidence in yourself, you are twice defeated in the race of life.” – Marcus Garvey

 

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

 

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you’ll make one.” – Elbert Hubbard

 

“When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things.” – Joe Namath

 

“I think about trust and confidence as something that you earn every day, and we will keep at it, earning it every day.” – Lynn Good

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

 

“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.” – Martin Luther

 

“The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you.” – William Jennings Bryan

 

“There is a difference between conceit and confidence. Conceit is bragging about yourself. Confidence means you believe you can get the job done.” – Johnny Unitas

 

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” Norman Vincent Peale

 

“The most beautiful thing you can wear is confidence.” – Blake Lively

 

“With confidence, you have won before you have started.” – Marcus Garvey

 

“Self-confidence is the foundation of all great success and achievement.” – Brian Tracy

 

“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.” – Mark Twain

 

“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” – Arthur Ashe

 

 “It is confidence in our bodies, minds, and spirits that allows us to keep looking for new adventures.” – Oprah Winfrey

 

“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” – Lucille Ball

 

“Have confidence that if you have done a little thing well, you can do a bigger thing well too.” – David Storey

 

“You have to have confidence in your ability and then be tough enough to follow through.” – Rosalynn Carter

 

“When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things.” – Joe Namath

 

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” – Lao Tzu

 

“Confidence is a very fragile thing.” – Joe Montana