*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
THINK FAST: Annual One-Act Play Competition
The Theater Project’s annual short play competition awards the winner for Best Play a $500 prize. The contest is open to adult playwrights, 18 and up. There is no fee to submit your play for consideration, but there is a participation fee for the finalists who present (see below). Plays are accepted in the fall for the March 4,5,6 event. Eight to ten short plays are selected for three prerecorded broadcast performances.
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The Plain Site Theatre Festival returns for a third season and is currently seeking new LGBTQIA2+ centered plays to develop and produce.
The Plain Site Theatre Festival returns for a new season. Curated by Alex Rioux and run by Theatre St. Thomas in partnership with Solo Chicken Productions, the festival has become an annual part of programming on the St. Thomas University campus presenting new LGBTQIA2+ centered plays with the aim of fostering queer visibility in the local arts scene and on campus.
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At Hominum Journal, we see the writer and the body as indivisible. Beyond the anatomy of narrative, we believe that there is language deep within our bone marrow and muscle tissue. A language that reconciles the mind/body/spirit divide. A language that, when pushed beyond the physical, has the power to challenge, heal, and embody.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** THEATER SCAMS ***
It sounds like something out of a Broadway musical: a producer approaches investors, hyping a fantastic, inspirational show about a famous opera singer, starring a famous actress. Only this was real life, with a real person accused of scamming seven people out of $165,000.
Prosecutors in New York indicted a theater producer who allegedly orchestrated a scheme revolving around a new Broadway play he was producing, The KB Project, which would be based on the life of singer Kathleen Battle, reports NBC 4. Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o would star in the play, he claimed, and he had reserved the Booth Theatre on Broadway for the production. Representatives for all those parties say the man never approached them, and there were no deals in place.
Not only that, but in January 2015, according to court documents, the producer claimed to have a deal with Netflix to run the play on its platform, and allegedly used that as leverage to convince investors to give him more money in a second round of funding. Two of the victims invested additional money, prosecutors said.
The cracks started to show in the fall of 2015 when several investors asked where their money was. The producer sent them all checks — which bounced due to insufficient funds, prosecutors said, and the suspect ceased all communications.
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In December 1794, a young man in London named William Henry Ireland brought his father, Samuel, a devoted collector of antiquities and curiosities, a parchment document sealed with wax. After carefully opening up the parchment, Samuel was astonished at what he saw: a mortgage deed dated 1610, signed by William Shakespeare and John Heminges, an actor in Shakespeare’s King’s Men troupe of players.
At the time, only a handful of signatures were known to have survived from Shakespeare’s handwritten records, so to have a personal document like this was an extraordinary coup. William Henry explained that the document was one of dozens like it he had found while rummaging in an old chest belonging to a rich gentleman whom William Henry described only as "Mr. H." The gentleman wished to remain anonymous to avoid being bothered, William Henry explained, but had assured the young man that he had little interest in the documents and could take whatever he liked.
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“Fraudsters use the power of theater – pretending to be someone they are not – to scam seniors. SAGES fights fire with fire,” says Christine Hamacher, Executive Director of Senior Actors Guild and Education Services.
Hamacher and her team at SAGES invite seniors from across Tampa Bay to experience their newest production, “Phoney Baloney,” an original play that spotlights reality on both ends of a scam phone call. Thanks to grants from the RRF Foundation for Aging and the Pinellas Community Foundation Senior Citizens Services, DVDs of a live performance are free for use at 55+ communities in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties to help keep seniors from falling victim to scams.
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I love it. What is the biggest scam you’ve ever pulled off?
Getting a show on Broadway as a producer. I think that’s the one. Being a producer on Broadway wasn’t financial for me, it was about the title. I don’t need more money for this, but it does now give me the chance to be, like, a producer. Broadway producer Jeremy O. Harris. Which is something very few people can say.
But wait, you also did a public scam once. Like, you did one on a late night talk show.
I did, I did. I scammed [Steph]. That was very fun. I love [Steph] so much.
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The Producers is the story of down-on-his-luck theatrical producer, Max Bialystock, and Leo Bloom, a mousy accountant. Together they hatch the ultimate scam: raise more money than you need for a sure-fire Broadway flop and pocket the difference. Their "sure-fire" theatrical fiasco? None other than the musical Springtime for Hitler.
The day after its opening, The Producers broke the record for the largest single day box office gross in theater history, taking in more than $3 million, and then went on to break its own record in 2003 with over $3.5 million in single day ticket sales.
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Acting scams are made to appeal to the hopes and dreams of aspiring actors. They exist around every corner of the entertainment business. Seasoned actors know what acting scams look and sound like and so should you. Recognize the red flags: promises of instant stardom, amateur phrases like “no experience necessary,” and guarantees of work or representation. For young people who are just starting out in show business, the difference between the legitimate and the bogus is not so obvious, and scammers know that aspiring performers make the easiest prey.
Acting scams are always too good to be true
The best way to tell legit acting opportunities from acting scams is to educate yourself on the audition process. For an industry shrouded in mystery, the mechanics of casting are really quite simple. You book an audition, either through an agent or on your own. The person holding the audition, after seeing you, decides if you are right for the part. If you are what they are looking for then they ask you to return for a callback or you just might book the job then and there. If they don’t like you, better luck next time and that’s the end of it. It’s that simple.
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Having a literary agent is the dream of many writers. Countless blog posts, forums, and writers’ handbooks begin with the question: How do you get a literary agent? To these sources, it seems that all a writer needs to do is secure an agent, and every other problem, from finding a publisher to making a living as a writer, is solved.
However, there are many ways in which your relationship with a literary agent can go wrong, and end up causing more damage to your career than if you had never contracted to have that person represent you. This applies not just to visibly dodgy agents, who charge fees upfront (never work with these!). Dangers also arise in connection with agents who are entirely legit and respected in the world of publishing.
Below I tell three horror stories relating to highly reputable agents, the kind that writer’s advice columns are geared to helping you secure, and whom writers are congratulated on signing with. These examples show that, while it has its advantages, being represented by an agent is not as uniformly wonderful as it is cracked up to be.
The embezzler: Donadio & Olson
The first literary agent horror story is linked to Darin Webb, the former bookkeeper for Donadio & Olson literary agency in New York City. Donadio & Olson was a major literary agency until it filed for bankruptcy following an embezzlement scandal in 2018.
Its clients included authors like Chuck Palahniuk as well as the estates of Mario Puzo, Peter Matthiessen, Studs Terkel, Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis, Robert Stone, Frank Conroy, Nelson Algren, and Joseph Heller.(Disclaimer: I interned here many years ago, in 2000–1, and was overwhelmed by the agency’s alpha male atmosphere.)
As Donadio & Olson authors later learned, Webb spent years siphoning off millions of dollars of royalties due to them during the course of his work as the bookkeeper for Donadio & Olson’s financial accounts. By the time he was caught, Webb had stolen $3.4 million dollars from the money that the agency owed to its clients.
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