Greetings NYCPlaywrights
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
DOWNTOWN LIVE
May 15 & 16, 22 & 23, 2021
12:30pm – 8pm
Downtown Live will bring 36 in-person performances to Lower Manhattan on May 15-16 and 22-23.
The performances will be staged at unexpected locations around the neighborhood, including a covered loading dock (4 New York Plaza), an arcade along the Stone Street Historic District (85 Broad Street) and a plaza with harbor views near The Battery (1 Battery Park Plaza). After a year of lockdowns, these in-person shows offer audience members a long-awaited chance to see LIVE theatre, contemporary performance, and music and to explore all that Lower Manhattan has to offer.
Artists participating in Downtown Live include:
Pulitzer Prize finalist and celebrated writer and performer Eisa Davis with Kaneza Schaal
Obie Award-winning, Off-Broadway favorite playwright and actor David Greenspan with Jamie Lawrence
Popular downtown music and storytelling duo James & Jerome
Hip-hop, spoken word and performance artists Baba Israel & Grace Galu
Classical singer/musical theatre composer and performer Katie Madison
Artistic Director of the Obie-Award winning theater The Tank and accomplished director Meghan Finn with playwright/actress Kaaron Briscoe
Genre-bending songwriter, theatre-maker & solo performer Ellen Winter with Machel Ross
Award-winning New York-based Brazilian Theater Company, Group .BR
Lucille Lortel Award-winning performer Kuhoo Verma with Justin Ramos
Performances occur throughout the day. See exact performance times and make reservations through The Tank's website - thetanknyc.org/downtown-live
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
The Woodward/Newman Award is an exclusive honor offered by Bloomington Playwrights Project, started through the support of Joanne Woodward, Newman’s Own Foundation, and the Newman family, celebrating Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward’s tremendous history of work on stage and screen.
It presents the best unpublished play of the year with a cash prize of $3,000 and a full production as part of BPP’s Mainstage season, along with travel reimbursement.
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The Robert J. Pickering / J.R. Colbeck Award for Playwriting Excellence
This annual award was established to honor past member and playwright, Bob Pickering, and to provide a vehicle for playwrights to see their works produced. Over 30 plays have been produced over since 1984. In 2020, the award was renamed to also honor longtime BCCT member and Pickering director, J.R. Colbeck. $200 is awarded for first place, $50 for second place and $25 for third place.
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Golden Thread produces passionate and provocative plays from and about the Middle East that celebrate the multiplicity of its perspectives and identities. We are a developmental catalyst and vibrant artistic home to artists at various stages of their careers. We bring the Middle East to the American stage, creating treasured cultural experiences for audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** OUTDOOR THEATER ***
Moliere in the Park
We believe provocative and high caliber theater performed in public spaces and available to all, has the power to unite communities. It affords everyone who wishes to participate an opportunity to reflect, rejoice, see each other, and share. Moliere in the Park was born out of the desire to meet Brooklynites in their backyard and offer a space, within an already wonderfully rich park, where all would feel
invited to take part.
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The Historic Shepherd of the Hills Outdoor Drama is the action-packed live reenactment of the famous historical novel by Christian minister, Harold Bell Wright. Published in 1907, this beautiful story tells of life in the rugged Ozark Mountains of Missouri in the late 1800’s.
Over 90 actors and actresses, horses, sheep, mules and donkeys perform on a stage the size of a football field. There’s a shoot-out, the actual burning of a log cabin, a love story, a mystery and a moral message that is as true today as it was over a century ago. Over 8 Million Tickets Sold!
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For a regional theater, performing during a pandemic brings plenty of challenges: Actors in face masks. Smaller casts due to social distancing. Moving performances outdoors.
But this summer there’s something else the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey expects to face as well: cicadas.
In a few weeks, billions of cicadas from Brood X are expected to go from quietly feeding on roots underground to emerging on the surface throughout the country, including in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Residents will notice their presence — arriving for the first time in 17 years — by a distinctive shrill they emit to draw mates.
The Morris County theater’s outdoor stage, located in Florham Park, is surrounded by trees and other greenery — which artistic director Bonnie Monte expects will be fertile ground for the insects.
More...
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Melissa and Clark Nicholson founded Popcorn Hat Players Children’s Theatre (PHP) and Harrisburg Shakespeare Company (HSC) in 1991 and 1994, respectively. The companies merged to become Gamut Theatre Group (GTG), “Home of the Classic Story,” in 2001, combining their missions to focus on presenting and preserving classic plays and classic stories in new and exciting ways. A mission based around the classics necessitates an unwavering focus on educational engagement, and GTG is proud of the fact that its educational initiatives rival the size and scope of theatre companies nearly ten times our budgetary size. All members of GTG’s full-time staff form our Core Company of actors and have professional theatre credits. Additionally, all staff members are involved in teaching in the Gamut Theatre Academy, which annually offers 15-20 classes and camps, for nearly 500 students in the greater Harrisburg area.
More...
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The season premiere of “Unto These Hills” signals an exciting, new day in Cherokee—one with extra considerations and safety precautions for you and your family. More than six million people have loved the heart-wrenching action and soaring triumph of this telling of the Cherokee story. Since its debut on July 1, 1950, “Unto These Hills” has told the tale of Cherokee life from 1780 to the twenty-first century. This is the original production, the Kermit Hunter version, performed again under the stars.
Bring a blanket, a mask, and an appetite for heart-pounding drama.
As you enjoy the fresh air and the 2,100-seat, newly renovated Mountainside Theatre, it’s easy to get lost in the Cherokee story of struggle and uplifting triumph. Experience the power of Cherokee performing arts in a live production certain to move you. And now, in a safe and secure venue.
More...
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Why I Will Never Produce Another All-Female Outdoor Show Again
This summer, my company Maiden Phoenix Theatre Company produced an all-female version of The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare. The production was free to all and produced in a local city park. And after that experience I know one thing for sure: I am never producing another outdoor all-female show again. Ever. And neither should you.
Let me explain.
We performed in a local park in Somerville, Massachusetts. It had to be free and open to the public in accordance with our permit from the city. The show was cast with a group of ten young women. The director, most of the designers, the stage manager, and our full administrative staff were female.
More...
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The Origins of Shakespeare in the Park
Every summer, in large cities and small towns across America, William Shakespeare commandeers the public parks. The local Shakespeare in the Park festivals are almost always free and, to be candid, of varying production values. For some people, it’s the only theatre they’ll see all year.
So how and why did this summer ritual begin?
Most people will point to the genius of Joseph Papp, the founder of the esteemed Public Theater in New York City. In 1954, Papp began offering free productions of Shakespeare plays in parks on the Lower East Side. He later moved the plays to Turtle Pond in Central Park, where audiences grew to the thousands. Papp kept the plays free, but not without a fight. He found a vociferous adversary in New York’s most famous and curmudgeonly park commissioner, Robert Moses, who demanded that Papp charge $1-$2 per ticket to cover the cost of replacing grass damaged by the theatre goers. Papp refused, and the two battled it out in court for roughly one year, during which Moses circulated an anonymous letter calling Papp a communist.
More...
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