NYCPlaywrights
Sat 10/3/2020 5:02 PM
*** FREE THEATER ONLINE ***
Keep Your Distance: six short
musicals about separation - THE STREAMING EVENT
October 10, 10:30 PM - October 11,
12:30 AM EDT
The suggested donation is $10.00.
Join us for the STREAMING
PRESENTATION of all six of our 15 Minute Musicals from the 2020 season,
followed by a Q&A sessions with the writers, directors, and performers.
NMI’s annual 15 Minute Musicals have
sold out for the past ten years…they’re the hottest ticket in town. “But, NMI,
theatres aren’t open right now!” you say? That didn't stop the 15 Minute
Musicals. This year, we’ve shot three of them in a greenscreen studio and three
of them through Zoom - and now we’re bringing them to you on the small screen.
A View from the Moon. Set in a
tropical paradise, in which a Covid-stranded couple has run out of money, and
an entitled rich woman thinks she can buy their gratitude and the affection of
the hotel proprietor. This is a bittersweet, aching romance. Book by Richard
Holland, music by Ben Ginsberg, lyrics by Stacey Weingarten.
The Traitor. Set in a dystopian
post-Covid future in which touching has become outlawed and even
insurrectionistic. We’re in a prison cell, in which an interrogator is trying
to get two of the prisoners to turn on the third…any two…so long as someone’s
found guilty. It has a dramatic, almost operatic score. Book and lyrics by
Stephen K. Nolly, music by Ron Barnett.
I Need Space. Poor Andrey…he’s scheduled
to leave on a flight for Mars in two hours, but fear of germs and sudden lack
of toilet paper confines him to a bathroom, to the eternal horror of his
roommates who have been trying to get rid of him for months. Can the
unscrupulous Toilet Paper Blackmarketeer save the day? Book and music by Sergei
Stern, lyrics by Jordan Toopes.
Close (But Not Too Close). Too
nervous to meet that special someone in person just yet? Why not try
“CloseButNotTooClose.com” where you can check out the person of your dreams
online. But watch out for scammers who may be looking for something other than
love! Book by Paloma Sierra, music by Dusty Sanders, lyrics by Julia Koyfman.
Breakout. Siblings Jean and Jake are
finding it extremely difficult to move on with their lives when divorced Mom
and Dad are still openly feuding. One family Zoom session probably can’t make
up for all the lost time, but can it at least help find a path forward? Book by
Lalit Sritara, music by Evan Johnson, lyrics by Kellan Meador.
*** PRIMARY STAGES ***
OCTOBER ONLINE CLASSES: First Draft
and Comedy Writing Classes Online at Primary Stages ESPA!
Start a First Draft with Winter
Miller or Adam Kraar - or learn how to craft a laugh with Kate Moira Ryan in
Comedy Writing! Faculty includes ADAM KRAAR (Writer, Wild Terrain at EST),
WINTER MILLER (Writer, In Darfur at The Public), KATE MOIRA RYAN (Writer, 25
Questions for a Jewish Mother), and many other award-winning writers who
provide practical skills and expert guidance in a collaborative
atmosphere.
Flexible, artist-friendly payment
plans available.
http://primarystages.org/espa/writing
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS
***
Pumphouse Players is now accepting
short plays for Fall 2020 online events! Though our physical theatre is dark,
we have an ongoing commitment to providing artistic opportunities and creative
outlets to our community members and supporting various creative endeavors.
***
“Prologue Theatre understands that
it can be difficult, at times, to begin conversations about “certain topics”
and focuses on presenting theatre that can serve as that starting point.
Through theatrical performance, coupled with community discussion, we strive to
challenge our community to examine and discuss their views of the world and
those around them. Our focus is on those who are in the process of finding
their own voice - whether 15 or 115 years old – and are looking for a place
where they can hone those viewpoints by examining world issues within (and
with) their community.”
***
Garage Theatre Ensemble seeks work -
We will pair you up with an extraordinary emerging director and actors who will
help you bring the words on your pages to life. Over the course of this
week-long intensive program, you will have multiple opportunities to work with
your team, make edits, add pages, etc. before your final reading at the end of
the week.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these
and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** DEUS EX MACHINA ***
Here's how to pronounce deus ex
machina: day-us eks mah-kee-nuh
A mechane (/ˈmɛkəniː/; Greek:
μηχανή, mēkhanḗ) or machine was a crane used in Greek theatre, especially in
the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Made of wooden beams and pulley systems, the
device was used to lift an actor into the air, usually representing flight.
This stage machine was particularly used to bring gods onto the stage from
above,[1] hence the Latin term deus ex machina ("god out of the
machine"). Euripides' use of the mechane in Medea (431 BC) is a notable
use of the machine for a non-divine character. It was also often used by
Aeschylus. It was used to allow actors playing gods to fly through the air.
More…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechane
***
It’s when some new character, force,
or event suddenly shows up to solve a seemingly hopeless situation. The effect
is usually unexpected, and it’s often disappointing for audiences. It’s as if
the author has brought us to the climactic moment of tension and suspense, and
then simply said, “But then everything was suddenly OK.” It undermines the
tension of the story, and seems to suggest that sheer blind luck is the
ultimate determining force in the hero’s life. How unsatisfying!
More...
https://literaryterms.net/deus-ex-machina/
***
What Mozart and Da Ponte offer
instead is a deus ex machina of Christian morality but of conspicuously
Greco-Roman inspiration (there’s even a reference to “Proserpina and Pluto” to
make the point). Don Giovanni, taking refuge in a secluded garden, stumbles
upon the tomb of the Commendatore, which speaks to him and seeks his
repentance. In a terrifyingly sublime roar of hubris, Don Giovanni invites the
spirit of the Commendatore to join him for dinner. The ultimate result, of
course, is that the Commendatore opens the earth and sends Don Giovanni to the
flames of Hell, restoring order, through divine intervention, that couldn’t be
restored through human authority.
More...
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/revelations-don-giovanni-met
***
FOUR COUPLES MARRIED BY A GREEK GOD
IN FRANCE
(but in Arden, which we all know is
in England)
Okay, picture it: We get the couple
of Rosalind and Orlando (love at first sight at the top of the play: genius).
Then we add another couple with Touchstone and Audrey (Rosalind and
usurping Duke Frederick’s witty sidekick and his country lass). We get
one more when the tables turn on Phebe and she’s forced to marry Silvius.
And finally to add the cherry on top of our newly-newly-newly-weds’ cake
Oliver and Celia (who’ve just met) tie the knot too. These things happen.
Tell me more about the Greek God,
you say? While there are many traditions of Hymen’s origins, I like to
think that Shakespeare had the story of the child of Dionysus (god of Theatre,
and other wonderful things like wine) and Aphrodite (goddess of Love) in mind.
What a beautiful blend that would be on any stage. Present at all weddings, and
running this one. Really, how else can we make sense of four weddings at the
same time?
More...
https://americanshakespearecenter.com/2018/08/as-you-like-its-ending-explained/
***
In Medea, Euripides makes use of
deus ex machina to facilitate Medea's killing of Glauce and King Creon, a way
of undermining the audience's sensibility. In reality, however, murder cannot
be executed so simply as sticking out one's foot to trip one's enemy.
Pre-meditated murders do not come cheap and easy. Euripides must know this,
thus, to have the most convenient way out, he uses witchcraft to carry out
Medea's act of murder.
Euripides seems to have quite a
number of problems thinking of ways to untangle
conflicts. At the end of the play,
Medea escapes through the sudden introduction of a chariot drawn by dragons.
Like manna from heaven, comes the chariot to suit the requirements of the plot.
And the poet expects the audience to believe that, and hopes to get away with
it, the way Medea just got away with the crime.
More...
http://pinkhamper.blogspot.com/2012/02/medea-too-evil-for-deus-ex-machina.html
***
“It is so forceful, it really takes
your breath away,” says director Brian Clowdus. He’s not lying.
The Serenbe Playhouse production of
Miss Saigon is set in the secluded hills of Georgia, in a 1,000-acre
residential and commercial community called Serenbe, located in Chattahoochee
Hill Country. Audiences must find their way to the setting of Saigon’s
Dreamland, deep in the woods where a shipping container lies in front of a dirt
hill and a small pool of water. Off in the distance is a landing spot for the
Huey helicopter once used in the Vietnam War and now flown by actual war
veterans for the show.
As day turns to night before
audiences’ eyes, Saigon takes shape. A young, angelic Kim emerges from behind
the shipping container to enter the movie in her mind—a cinematic take on the
production conceived by Clowdus—and marines ride in on trucks as dusk
approaches. By the time the show reaches Act II, the chopper rides in from a
hidden location, circles overhead and descends—slightly kicking up water and
grass with a powerful gust of wind—to land in the distance.
More…
***
Whirligig Productions and playwright
Liz Fisher seem to have turned a corner in theatre with their production of
Deus ex Machina, now enjoying its spectacular premiere run at the Rollins Studio
Theatre at the Long Center. The production is a new play by Fisher, her
compound of the three plays in Aeschylus’ Oresteia, about the House of Atreus
after the Trojan War. Her work also incorporates some of Sophocles’ and
Euripides’ follow-on works (fan fiction?) on the same trilogy, both entitled
Electra.
What sets Fisher’s work apart from
all other productions or offshoot plays about these classical Greek tragedies
is the production’s strong embrace of digital technology. Using several
packages of software, the cell network, and the internet, the technology
producers, headed by Benjamin Bradley, have managed to integrate the media
fields of the play in real time during each performance. This means that
audience members can send texts from their cell phones to the producers to
convey choices offered them during the performance. The characters on stage
then act out the decisions of the “gods” accordingly. And this opens new
territories for theatre and the collaboration between performers and audiences.
This collaboration is the vital heart of Deus ex Machina ('God out of the
machine' in translation). As Fisher writes in her director’s notes: “From its
inception, the story was crafted around the idea of empowering the audience to
choose….So it seems natural to return to agency as an answer to weighty
questions. This play cannot exist without you. Without your voice, the play
stops.”
More...
https://ctxlivetheatre.com/reviews/review-deus-ex-machina-by-liz-fisher/
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