French train stations
now have vending machines that dispense short stories to entertain you while
you wait
Which is why France’s idea to install free short story vending
machines is genius.
The idea was trialled a year ago in the country’s Grenoble train
station, where it went down so well that they decided to roll it out across
more stations.
You simply choose your wait-time – one, three or five minutes –
and the machine will dispense a story accordingly. All for free.
The stories are all printed on paper, and topics range from
children’s stories to lyrical poetry.
The authors of the stories are all anonymous, and over 5,000 have
submitted stories.
The machines have been installed at 24 train stations all over
France, with plans to introduce them at a further 11 by the end of the year.
The idea was dreamt up by publishing house Short Edition, which
specialises in short stories.
‘Our ambition is to see distributors pop up everywhere to
encourage reading – and writing – and to promote our artists,’ Short Edition
director Christophe Sibieude told Télérama. ‘The paper medium is a breath of
fresh air, it’s more unexpected that a smartphone screen.’
My House, getting ready for Halloween
Greetings NYCPlaywrights
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
October 15, 2016
3-4 PM
SAMBOMAMMIEJOCKEY
Written by Cesi Davidson
Directed by Isreal McKinney
This timely story explores microaggressions
between two business partners as they cross boundaries within America's
racially divided past through magical realism. Audience members, who shared
their personal experiences with racism in June, contributed to the expansion of
the play.
George Bruce Library
518 West 125th Street
(Between Amsterdam & Broadway)
https://www.nypl.org/locations/george-bruce
*** TICKET GIVE-AWAYS ***
NYCPlaywrights has vouchers for a pair of tickets
to 2 different shows - SWEET and A DAY BY THE SEA
Each voucher is good for two tickets and is
available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Contact us as soon as you get this email, at
info@nycplaywrights.org and let us know which show you want to see.
If you don’t get the voucher for the show you
want, you can still get discount tickets.
SWEET
Written by Harrison David Rivers
Directed by Raelle Myrick-Hodges
www.nationalblacktheatre.org
Limited engagement October 19th thru November 20th
Retha and Nina Baker have always been
close—folding laundry together, chasing fireflies together, and enduring the
summer heat together. But when their mother dies unexpectedly and their
neighbor, George, returns home from college, the sisters’ relationship begins
to fray and long-held desires threaten to tear them apart. Set on the outskirts
of an all-black town in rural Kansas, SWEET is a coming of age story about the
sacrifices we make to hold on to the ones we love.
http://nycp.blogspot.com/2016/10/discount-tickets-sweet.html
A DAY BY THE SEA
By N.C. Hunter
Directed by Austin Pendleton
The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row – 410 West 42nd
Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues
A Day by the Sea is a warm, human and often
humorous depiction of the "crisis" of middle age. Julian Anson, a
once-promising Foreign Service employee, confronts professional disappointment
and personal failure while picnicking along the English seaside. Jolted into
the realization that maybe it’s not too late - he seizes an opportunity to
correct his past mistakes and start fresh - but will the results be any
different?
http://nycp.blogspot.com/2016/09/discount-tickets-day-at-sea.html
*** NYWINTERFEST THEATER COMPETITION ***
BEST PLAY $2,500
Best Director, Actress, Actor and Singer $500 each
Best Musical Score $300
Best Original Play, Stage Manager and Set Designer
$200.
All genres are welcome, including MUSICALS.
PLAYS OR MUSICALS BETWEEN 10 AND 90 MINUTES
ONE ACT
PLAY WELCOME
Our 10th
Festival Season
There is no question why NYWINTERFEST has taken
the world of playwrighting festivals by storm, becoming one of the largest
festival in the country in just 6 years.
for more info
http://newyorktheaterfestival.com/winterfest-festivals/
*** PLAYWRIGHTS OPPORTUNITIES ***
The FIRST FLIGHT New Play Festival is one of the
premiere new play development festivals in Indie Theatre. Each play selected to
participate in the festival received 6 hours of rehearsal time over the course
of one week, culminating in a public reading of the play for a supportive
audience.
1) FIRST FLIGHT develops only new full length
plays--comedies or dramas, adaptations or wholly original--that speak to the
current cultural and historical moment in time.
2) We are especially interested in theatrical use
of language and style.
3) Plays are not limited to cast size, period or
setting.
***
MiniFest is a week-long festival of one-act plays
featuring limited cast sizes and scenographic demands. Every year hundreds of
plays from around the world are submitted for juried evaluation. A Play Reading
Committee creates a short list which is then submitted to an Executive
Committee that selects four to six plays for an actor-centered staging by
members of the Acadia Theatre Company.
***
The Gallery Players in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New
York, is seeking plays for its 20th Annual Black Box New Play Festival to be
held in June, 2017. Each play selected will be given a black box production at
Gallery Players and will be performed in a festival format with non-equity
actors. Playwrights must be available for rehearsals and use this as an
opportunity to continue work on their play.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other
opportunities see the web site athttp://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** SHOW-SCORE MEMBERS REVIEWS ***
https://www.show-score.com
***
THE HUMANS
https://www.show-score.com/shows/the-humans
Absorbing, Great acting, Overrated, Great staging
See it if you enjoy family dramas. The acting is
superb.
Don't see it if you need a play to finish as
strongly as it begins...it fails to deliver on the build up of the first
three-quarters of the play.
Also Spoiler(ish): The final 10-15 minutes have a
totally different (and unwelcome) feel from the rest of the excellent play. If
it weren't for the disappointing ending, I would have LOVED this play.
~~~
Funny, Cliched, Fine, Solid but too everyday, Good
writing
See it if biting family comments make you laugh.
It's a love letter to how shitty it is to live in New York & whether it's
really worth it.
Don't see it if you're bored by common bickering,
no matter how cleverly written. I prefer theatre that challenges &
stretches, not reminds me of normality.
~~~
Disappointing, Overrated, Slow
See it if so you can see what all the hype is
about. It may not seem like it but I did like this just didn't live up to what
I was expecting.
Don't see it if you want to be blown away which is
what I was hoping for. Sorry many other plays that are like this but much
better.
***
A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE
https://www.show-score.com/shows/a-view-from-the-bridge
Absorbing, Ambitious, Exquisite, Great acting,
Great staging
See it if because Van Hove got this one right;
you're ok with minimal sets for the sake of exceptional story telling;
brilliant performances
Don't see it if sliding accents bother you (it did
me) but everything else was superb!
~~~
Ambitious, Great acting, Great writing,
Disappointing
See it if you love Arthur Miller and/or intense
theatrical dramas. Mark Strong delivers an excellent performance as Eddie.
Don't see it if you're over-hyped. Or rather still
do see it, but lower your expectations so you won't be disappointed. Nothing
can live up to that hype.
~~~
Dizzying, Indulgent, Disappointing, Excruciating,
Overrated
See it if . . . . you are a devotee of Faure's
Requiem which is played constantly throughout the evening.
Don't see it if Van Hove sucked the life right out
of this play by making it pretentious. Nothing more than "The Emperor's
New Clothes."
***
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD GAME
https://www.show-score.com/shows/underground-railroad-game
Funny, Great acting, Intense, Thought-provoking
See it if You are interested in race relations in
mostly friendly environments, want to see boundaries pushed involving sex and
nudity
Don't see it if If you don't like house lights
going on or audience participation.
Also Interesting show that brings up great issues
in a really great. Sadly, there are several great threads that just don;t come
together into a great whole
~~~
Original, Ambitious, Edgy, Thought-provoking,
Disappointing
See it if you enjoy how Ars Nova, one of the most
original theatre co's, challenges theatrical conventions & controversy,
this time on race & sex.
Don't see it if you expect any new insight on race
relations. It begins with a clever premise (based on an actual event) but
falters with "backstage" antics
~~~
Ambitious, Disappointing, Irrelevant
See it if Edgy productions that seem to be more
about the performers than about the subject
Don't see it if You are expecting to see something
about the Underground Railroad. The title is a tease - an opening gambit that
gives way to something else
Also The sex, and there is a lot of it, seems
almost gratuitous and totally unnecessary to the story/message.The underlying
message bout race relations is of course complicated, but not best served here
***
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
https://www.show-score.com/shows/sense-sensibility
Clever, Dizzying, Intelligent, Intense,
Entertaining
See it if you would like a quirky and delightful
adaptation with very clever, though simple, staging, and the action happening
right in your face
Don't see it if you don't like adaptations that
change or condense the original, or non-traditional productions with actors
playing multiple roles
~~~
Original, Clever, Quirky, Indulgent, Disappointing
See it if You want to get a laugh from Jane
Austen.
Don't see it if You love Jane Austen's characters
as much as I do. Yes, she wrote them with foibles, but this staging substitutes
mockery for discernment.
~~~
Ambitious, Confusing, Disappointing, Overrated,
Great staging
See it if you remember the movie and know the
plot.
Don't see it if you expect a lovely version of a
good movie and book.
Also VERY cleverly staged; but the screechy voices
of most of the women in the cast spoil the entire evening
***
SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS
https://www.show-score.com/shows/small-mouth-sounds
Original, Absorbing, Ambitious, Intelligent,
Entertaining
See it if you want to remember why you go to
theater instead of binge watching TV. I left feeling as if I had spent a week
in the country,
Don't see it if you need everything spelled out --
subtleties, implied relationships and unspoken backstories are what makes this
production exciting.
~~~
Great acting, Disappointing, Cliched
See it if You need to be reminded that words can
fall short & there are other ways to communicate. Or, if u like unique
staging regardless of message
Don't see it if You don't like experimental
theater or would object to a naked guy on stage.
~~~
Quirky, Banal, Disappointing, Overrated
See it if you both respect alternative therapy and
spiritual practices, but also want to see them tweaked.
Don't see it if you're easily physically
uncomfortable. This play is literally hard to sit through, with most of the
"action" on the far edge of the stage.
--
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We took a quick trip up to
Baltimore recently and had a good time using the water taxi system to get
around (All day pass is $14.00, well worth it)
A First Map of the Entire Milky
Way
Jeffrey Kluger @jeffreykluger
ESA/Gaia/DPACAn all-sky view of
stars in our Galaxy – the Milky Way – and neighboring galaxies, based on the
first year of observations from ESA’s Gaia satellite, from July 2014 to Sept.
2015.
The largest all-sky survey of our
galaxy ever assembled
Nearly a million miles from
Earth, at a gravitationally stable point in space on the opposite side of our
planet from the sun, is the greatest little mapmaker that ever existed. It had
better be great because its job is huge: to paint a three-dimensional portrait
of the entire galaxy. That, if you’re counting, is a structure measuring
100,000 light years across—which is an awful lot of real estate to keep your
eye on.
The mapmaker in question is the
Gaia satellite, a 4,500-lb. (2,030 kg) craft launched by the European Space
Agency in 2013. Gaia’s mission managers don’t pretend they can spot every
object in the galaxy, which includes an estimated 300 billion stars to say
nothing of planets, moons, asteroids and more. But a good 1 billion stars ought
to help them take the Milky Way‘s overall measure and reveal new clues about
its structure, formation and history.
This image, released on Sept. 14,
provides a first rough glimpse at the map to come. So far, Gaia has actually
exceeded its original goal, getting a reasonably good bead on 1.142 billion
stars. Much more precise positional measurements, along with the stars’
apparent motion relative to Earth, are still to come.
Space is a very big place. It
will be a long, long time before we map it all, but Gaia offers a good start.
"Take the picture already"
On weekends this fellow plays bluegrass in the town center in Shepherdtown where I live
7 Reasons Street Photography Is
Good For You
by Chris Wilson
Street photography is good for
you. On many levels I have noticed that street photography has had a very
positive benefit on my life. If you are a street photographer, then I’m sure
you’ve noticed this too, and if you aren’t a street photographer, I’m sure
you’ll want to give it a try now.
1. Street photography gets you
out
Street photography requires you
to get out in public. Sure, you can apply street photography ideas to non
street photos but if you want to take street photos (candid photos in a public
space) then you need to get out. This has a lot of health benefits including…
You end up walking a lot
Many people live pretty sedentary
lives (I’m sure it’s worse in the suburbs of certain cities than living in the
centre of a city) but with street photography you have to get out and walk
(unless you do a series on public transport). That means you will burn off some
calories and stay fit and healthy.
Street photography gets you
exploring around you
If you start doing street photography,
you’ll quickly start exploring the world around you and discovering new places
and spots. You’ll want to go to more interesting places and learn more about
the sides of your city that you don’t know about. This also has the benefit of
encouraging you to get out more and explore as well as helping you to get more
connected with your area.
2. Street Photography is social
Although street photography is
traditionally about being invisible on the street, it is also incredibly
social. You’ll find yourself engaging and meeting many people if you start
going out on the street.
other photographers
One of the big social aspects of
street photography is with other street photographers. Going to meet ups with
other photographers as well as photo walks and conferences (not to mention the
blogging communities. Hi guys.)
street portraits
If you direct people on the
street with street portraits (what I would consider a sub genre of street) then
you’ll start to engage with people and meet many new folks. If you just try and
take one persons photo a day, you’ll end the year meeting 365 people. That’s
not too bad.
3. Street photography gets you
out of your comfort zone
Most of us live most of our lives
stuck in our comfort zones. This might not seem bad but in truth it makes us
unwilling to take risks and missing out on the best things in life. Street
photography can be a way to daily break out of your comfort zone and stretch
yourself. Meaning that when other opportunities come in life, you’re more used
to taking those chances when they arise.
4. Street photography (should)
make you less judgmental
This isn’t true of everyone, but
I know it has been true of me. Street photography has made me less judgmental
of people. That’s not to say I don’t still hold personal beliefs and even think
those ideas would be good for people (i.e. being an alcoholic isn’t a good life
choice…whether it is a choice or not) but I won’t turn my nose up at someone
who look or acts differently to me.
5. Street photography is
inspiring
Photography (including street) is
inspirational. It makes us feel and aspire to different ideas. It can help us
feel empathy for those around us. It can cause us to questions ideas and values
we hold In a way that words sometimes can’t.
6. Street photography keeps your
brain active
Learning something new keeps your
brain active and younger. This helps you to keep learning as you get older and
also stay more mentally sharp.
7. Street photography makes you
more aware of dangers on the street
When you start taking street
photography, you’ll become a lot more aware of all the things going on around
you on the street. This helps you to be more aware of dangerous things going on
around you. Helping you to stay safe while on the street.
I LOVE BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS FROM FILM
July 1938, John William Warde commits suicide at the Gotham Hotel, New York City
AND HERE'S SOME ANIMALS FOR
YOU...................
I LOVE BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS FROM FILM
July 1938, John William Warde commits suicide at the Gotham Hotel, New York City
