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John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

Greetings NYCPlaywrights



*** NYCPLAYWRIGHTS 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY ***

It's the 10 Year Anniversary of NYCPlaywrights and we've asked readers to share their stories of productions, readings etc. they may have found through of our blog and weekly email (sign up here for weekly emails.)
Do you have a story to share? 
Send it to us at info@nycplaywrights.org - thanks! 

More playwrights stories to read:

Kevin Curley

Pam Kingsley

Aaron Leventman

More are coming this week.


*** FREE THEATER ONLINE ***

Polaris North invites you to be our guest for a ZOOM READING —
TWO SHORT PLAYS
by C S JONES
Director: Bonnie Cole*
Stage Manager: Ali Walensky
Co-Hosts: Gayther Myers & Bonnie Cole*

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2020
7 PM (EST)
RSVP: LeslieLynnNow@gmail.com - Reservations will be confirmed by email and a
Zoom Link will be sent to you prior to the reading.

HOLD ONTO YOUR HATS
Horror writer Darko regales friends Mandu and Graham with
the creepy story of how he met his new girlfriend, but leaves it
half-finished. The other half is supplied by his lady in red,
Jezzie, who brings the story to its terrifying or funny climax.
You decide.

THE LOVE ASTRONAUT
In this docudrama parody, Ad Man Humph on the rebound
from model Clarise wades into even greater romantic danger
when he encounters wrestler Arlene. Russian cameraman
Vladi can’t believe his eyes. All four characters double as
narrators to bring to life the ultimate showdown.
With an All-New cast:
Shannon Dempsey, Theo McKenna,
Justin Pope, Crystal Ray



** HUNTER COLLEGE MFA ***

The Hunter College MFA Playwriting Program is accepting applications through January 15th! The program is a highly selective, rigorous, and affordable two-year playwriting program located in the heart of NYC. We seek writers eager to develop their craft and challenge assumptions about what theater is and will become.

Students study with award-winning writers, working theatre professionals, and esteemed guest artists. The program offers workshop opportunities and fosters a collaborative, close-knit artistic community. Teaching Assistantships and tuition waivers are available. 

Current and recent faculty include: Clare Barron, Oliver Butler, Lisa D'Amour, Maria Striar, Lloyd Suh, and Anne Washburn. Visiting artists for 2020 include: Mia Chung, Will Davis, Michael R. Jackson, Jen Silverman, and Whitney White.

For more information, visit: https://www.huntertheatre.net/mfa 


*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***

Submissions are now being accepted for the 2021 Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award for Playwriting. Submissions of full-length plays and other full-length works for the theater will be accepted; all submissions must address the question "What does it mean to be a human in a computerized, digitized world?" Playwrights with either traditional or experimental theater pieces, including multimedia productions, are encouraged to submit works to the award program.

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WSRT is looking for ensemble pieces that have a run time of 70-90 minutes, or roughly 50-80 pages. Additionally, all scripts need to be conducive to a virtual setting; for example, pieces reliant on physical action, slapstick comedy, or direct character interaction may not translate well to a virtual platform. We’re not particular about content, setting, character tropes, etc. All options are on the table.

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Barely Seen Featured Writer of the Month
Each month, one play will be featured with a special author bio. These writers will always be someone who's submitted their work to Barely Seen. Each month I'll review all of the plays that have been sent to me and choose one play to be featured. I will notify the author of the chosen work by the end of the month, and if necessary, they'll supply me with a short bio about themselves and their writing journey.


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


*** MYSTERY PLAYS ***

The mystery plays and morality plays of the 15th and 16th centuries were very different from modern drama. They were performed in public spaces by ordinary people, and organised and funded by guilds of craftsmen and merchants. Hetta Howes takes us back in time to show how these plays portrayed scenes from the Bible, conveyed religious doctrine and encouraged their audiences to lead Christian lives.

The words ‘theatre’ and ‘drama’ conjure a specific set of ideas, writers and images for us today. Shakespeare may well be the first name to spring to mind – followed perhaps by Ibsen or Chekhov. Then, most likely, comes the image of a fixed stage, a darkened room and a reverent hush as the lights go down and the curtains go up. What kind of stories do we expect to be performed for us? Tragedy, often, as well as romance, explorations of the meaning of humanity, or, at the other end of the spectrum, slapstick comedy. Theatre may be rich in variety, but it nonetheless comes with its own set of associations and expectations attached.

More...


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The staging of the York Mystery Plays is one of the city’s greatest literary and theatrical traditions and is a hugely popular part of York’s cultural heritage.

York Festival Trust is a charitable company, incorporated in 1979, that has staged the Mystery Plays on the streets of York on behalf of the city’s historic Guilds every four years since 1998 and is the only organisation currently staging large scale productions on a regular basis.

In medieval times, the Guilds would present the plays on moving pageant waggons, parading through the city streets from one location to another. Trade guilds arose in the 14th century as craftsmen united to protect their common interest. In 1415, there were 96 (?) craft guilds; there are now just eight – five that date back to the 14th and 15th centuries, two formed in the 1950s, with the Guild of Media Arts becoming the city’s eighth guild at the end of 2015.

More...

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After last week’s post about medieval dancing, there were some comments about miracle/mystery plays, so I thought we’d have a look at them.  They were medieval plays based on events from the Bible. They were usually performed at Corpus Christi or at Whitsun, both movable church feasts i.e. feasts which did not take place on the same date every year.

Corpus Christi is the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, which in turn is the first Sunday after Pentecost. Pentecost (Whitsun in England) is the seventh Sunday after Easter. For example, this year Easter is on 1st April, Pentecost is 20th May and Corpus Christi is 31st May. Easter is early this year. This will be important later.

More...

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I see in the press that Chester Cathedral has recently completed a programme of the Chester Mystery Plays. These plays are only performed every five years and they are always well received.

Coventry Cathedral used to have its own series of Mystery Plays, that were performed every three years up until 2006. I was fortunate to be able to perform in the last two productions in 2003 and 2006.

The Coventry Mystery Plays date back to the early Medieval Mystery Plays which were perhaps best known as the source of the Coventry Carol. Performances of the Coventry plays are first recorded in a document of 1392–3. It is very likely that the young Will Shakespeare saw them as he quotes from the Mystery Plays in some of his own plays with scenes and events from them. Various Coventry Trade Guilds would put on small plays on mobile stages around the city. The plays were mostly taken from scenes from the Bible. Each Guild would perform a scene while the other guilds were changing in preparation for the scene that they would perform. Unfortunately few records of the plays now exist but the Shearmen Guild and Tailors' Guild plays were transcribed and published by Thomas Sharp and most recent performances are loosely based on these plays, from Adam and Eve to Noah's Ark then Annunciation, Nativity, Massacre of the Innocents to Christ's Crucifixion.

More...

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Mystery Plays were created all across Europe from the 13th century as a means of celebrating the stories of the Old and New Testaments for the Feast of Corpus Christi. Other famous Mystery Play “Cycles” in England were written in Coventry, York and Wakefield. The scripts, as in the case of the Chester Cycle, were often written by medieval monks. Originally performed inside the churches, from the 14th century they were produced by Crafts Guilds and performed in the open streets and market places on pageant carts ("waggons"). The mounting of the Plays in the nave of Chester Cathedral in 2013 was the first time in hundreds of years that they had been performed inside a church, and it was the first time they had ever been produced inside the cathedral nave itself. Performed by local people, both scripts and performances changed each year to remain current and have popular appeal.

More...

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The list of plays thus presented commonly included: The Fall of Lucifer; the Creation of the World and the Fall of Adam; Noah and the Flood; Abraham and Isaac and the promise of Christ's coming; a Procession of the Prophets, also foretelling Christ; the main events of the Gospel story, with some additions from Christian tradition; and the Day of Judgment. The longest cycle now known, that at York, contained, when fully developed, fifty plays, or perhaps even more. Generally each play was presented by a single guild (though sometimes two or three guilds or two or three plays might be combined), and sometimes, though not always, there was a special fitness in the assignment, as when the watermen gave the play of Noah's Ark or the bakers that of the Last Supper. In this connected form the plays are called the Mystery or Miracle Cycles. In many places, however, detached plays, or groups of plays smaller than the full cycles, continued to be presented at one season or another.

More...

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Medieval Mystery Play Staging: Scenery and Fire Effects for Mystery Plays
The Medieval Period started around the 6th century and lasted through the 16th century. It is from this period that the various mystery plays appear. During the Medieval Period, there was no political power or ruling system, so the Roman Catholic Church took control of the populous. In response to this, Christian values became prominent in the culture and the Church was present in every aspect of daily life.

More...

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House on Haunted Hill

Interview with author Dennis Ganahl

playwrights

 



*** NYCPLAYWRIGHTS 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY ***

It's the 10 Year Anniversary of NYCPlaywrights and we've asked readers to share their stories of productions, readings etc. they may have found through of our blog and weekly email
Do you have a story to share? Send it to us at info@nycplaywrights.org - thanks! 

You can see the first reader story from Allie Costa here. Congratulations Allie.


More readers stories are coming this week.


*** FREE THEATER ONLINE ***

The Episcopal Actors’ Guild and the House of the Redeemer will present an online holiday party featuring carols and a benefit reading of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol on December 14 at 6:00 P.M. EST.
Tickets: Free (donations accepted) available at www.ticketstripe.com/holidayparty2020
Event Contact: Rebecca Lovett - (212) 685-2927, rebecca@actorsguild.org


*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***

B3 Theater of Phoenix, Arizona, seeks scripts for their Fourth Festival of Shorts. The Festival will be held in June/July of 2021. The Shorts will be fully rehearsed shows, whether they take place live or virtually. 

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Young writers with disabilities are invited to submit a 'ten-minute script' of any genre. Scripts may be for theater scripts, musicals, multimedia, video, film, or TV scripts, non-linear scripts, or other writing for performance. Entries may be the work of an individual student or a collaboration by a group of up to five students that includes at least one student with a disability. A panel of theater professionals selects division winners.

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We are looking for unproduced plays to feature in our “Stage to Screen” series. These plays should have 6 or fewer actors, and no previous productions. The chosen play(s) will be produced as an elevated workshop production. Additionally, each production will be filmed and a trailer will be made available to the author as a means to assist in promoting the work. The play(s) chosen will be awarded a monetary prize of $1000.00.

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


*** SOCK & BUSKIN ***

The nine Muses were the daughters of Zeus, king of the gods, and Mnemosyne, the personification of Memory. The Romans adopted the idea of the Muses from the Greeks and assigned functions to each one. Thalia, whose name means ‘flourishing’, became the Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry, which portrayed country life. She was portrayed in statues and art as a joyous young woman, crowned with ivy and holding a comic mask in her hand. Sometimes she was also seen holding a bugle, or trumpet, which was used to amplify actor’s voices in ancient comedy. Melpomene’s name means ‘one who is melodious’, because she was originally the Muse of singing before becoming that of tragedy. She was portrayed holding a tragic mask and wearing buskins, the laced calf-length boots which tragic actors wore to appear taller on stage. Comic actors wore socks instead; to this day ‘Sock and Buskin’ is a way to refer to drama, and is the name of many dramatic societies.

More...

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Within our cemeteries, it is common to find among different symbols objects that may reflect either the profession of the buried person, or act as a reference to their affiliations or membership (i.e. Freemasonry). They may also represent their hobbies, leisure or fields of interest.   

A mask or, more commonly, two masks would symbolise the world of theatre/ drama. Found on a grave, it is usually associated with comedians and actors.   

The two masks together are known as the Sock and Buskin.   

The sock and buskin are two ancient symbols of comedy and tragedy. In Greek theatre, actors in tragic roles wore a boot called a buskin (Latin cothurnus) that elevated them above the other actors. The actors with comedic roles only wore a thin soled shoe called a sock (Latin soccus).


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buskin (n.)
"half-boot, high laced shoe," c. 1500, of unknown origin. The word exists in different forms in most of the continental languages, and the exact relationship of them all apparently has yet to be determined. The English word is perhaps immediately from Old French broissequin "buskin; a kind of cloth" (14c., Modern French brodequin by influence of broder "to embroider"), or from Middle Dutch brosekin "small leather boot," which is of uncertain origin. OED suggests Spanish borcegui, earlier boszegui.

Figurative senses in English relating to "stage tragedy, tragic drama" are from the word being used (since mid-16c.) to translate Greek kothurnus, the high, thick-soled boot worn in Athenian tragedy; contrasted with sock, the low shoe worn by comedians. Related: Buskined.


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The cothurnus also has a long history in theater. In classical Greek and Roman theater the cothurnus was the shoe worn by the players in tragedies, serious plays that showed the conflict between a great man and powerful forces such as destiny or fate. Depending on the importance of the character in the play, the cothurnus was made of different heights. The taller the actor, the more important his role. The cothurnus is still worn in reenactments of classical tragedies, and the word cothurnus has come to stand for the unique style in which such ancient dramas are performed.

More: http://www.fashionencyclopedia.com/fashion_costume_culture/The-Ancient-World-Rome/Cothurnus.html

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SOCCUS, dim. SO′CCULUS, was nearly if not altogether equivalent in meaning to Crepida, and denoted a slipper or low shoe, which did not fit closely, and was not fastened by any tie (Isid. Orig. XIX.34).º Shoes of this description were worn, more especially among the Greeks together with the Pallium, both by men and by women. But those appropriated to the female sex were finer and more ornamented (Plin. H. N. IX.35 s56; Soccus muliebris, Suet. Calig. 52, Vitell. 2), although those worn by men were likewise in some instances richly adorned according to the taste and means of the wearer (Plaut. Bacch. II.3.98).
For the reasons mentioned under the articles Baxa and Crepida the Soccus was worn by comic actors (Hor. Ars Poët. 80, 90), and was in this respect opposed to the Cothurnus (Mart. VIII.3.13; Plin. Epist. IX.7). The preceding woodcut is taken from an ancient painting of a buffoon [Mimus], who is dancing in loose yellow slippers (luteum soccum, Catull. Epithal. Jul. 10). This was one of their most common colours (De L'Aulnaye, Salt. Théat. pl. IV). [Solea.]


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The Use of the High-Soled Shoe or Buskin in Greek Tragedy of the Fifth and Fourth Centuries B. C.
Author(s): Kendall K. Smith
Source: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology , 1905, Vol. 16 (1905), pp. 123-164 Published by: Department of the Classics, Harvard University

...Even the most conservative agree that actors in classic Greek tragedy walked about in shoes with soles of more than ordinary thickness.

In the face of such unanimity of opinion it may seem strange that I have ventured to investigate the subject afresh. It was the doubt expressed by Professor Edward Capps, of the University of Chicago, that first prompted my investigation of the evidence on the use of the buskin or high-soled shoe in the fifth and fourth centuries before Christ. This evidence I found to be both insufficient and contradictory; but I present it in full in the hope that it may be valuable for reference, even though it lead us to no positive conclusion.

Many difficulties arise in treating a subject of this nature. None of the works of art have been accessible except through publications, and these in many cases, I fear, inexact. For this reason my calculations of the height of different soles is only approximate. Furthermore, I have not had time to take up the problem of which Dierks' says did not have a high so have used evidence for the Greek buskin whic cothurnus. In any case, it has not been my shape or size of the buskin, but simply to fin made use of the high sole.

EVIDENCE FROM CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
Two passages from Aristophanes furnish all the evidence from con- temporary literature on which can be based arguments in support of the high-soled tragic shoe; and this evidence is extremely uncertain. In Ranae, 35, we see Dionysus before -the door of Heracles...

Downloadable at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/310339

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Sock & Buskin was founded in 1901 by Professor Thomas Crosby of the Brown University English Department. There has since been an unbroken record of seasons, first at the Providence Opera House and various theatres in downcity Providence, then in Rockefeller Hall, and finally in 1931 at the Faunce House Theatre, which was restored and reopened as Stuart Theatre in 1993. When the Isabelle Russek Leeds Theatre and Ashamu Dance Studio were built in 1979, they joined the Stuart Theatre and together became the Catherine Bryan Dill Center for the Performing Arts.

In 1927, Sock & Buskin, which was at the time an all-male organization, began using actresses in its productions. Soon Komians, the all-female theatrical group from Pembroke college, merged with Sock & Buskin to create the co-ed group that exists today.

More...

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Sock ‘n’ Buskin, Council Rock North’s theatre club, was founded in 1967 under the direction of Mr. David R. Harris. At that time, about thirty young students with an intense interest and excitement about theatre began doing plays at Council Rock. More than forty years later, the club has an annual membership of one hundred fifty students. Instead of one advisor, Sock ‘n’ Buskin has many committed adults who are willing to share their expertise, time and energy with students who want to learn more about theatre. Instead of just a fall show and spring show, the club does as many as seven plays a year and is involved with many other school related activities.
New members of the club often wonder what, after all, is a “sock” and a “buskin”. The club’s name comes from footwear used in ancient Greek theater. Like the masks of comedy and tragedy, the “sock” refers to a soft shoe worn by ancient actors - usually used in comedies or lighter fare. A “buskin” was a harder shoe or boot worn in more serious dramatic work.

The Sock and Buskin Theatre Club Handbook

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The latest something funny in a long line of funnies in the intimate underground room at the American Place Theater, 111 West 46th Street (2470393), where humor with an American flavor has been a weekend staple for several seasons, gets its laugh on film. This is the first cinematic ha‐ha in the American Humorists Series. The offering this weekend is an hour‐and‐45minute reel of drollery that embraces humor from its most rustic to its most rugged.

There's something funny going on at the Subplot Cabaret.
This is how it goes, and stop me you've heard this one. The version is the one told by Wynn Handman, director of the American Place, who gets as much charge out of the Subplot's sock as he does out of the larger hall's more somber buskin.


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