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Welcome
John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

Greetings NYCPlaywrights

 Greetings NYCPlaywrights


*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***

Dramatic Performance by Patrick Boucheron

Patrick Boucheron explains why he likes to combine history with theater and the other arts: “To be a proper historian, you should not content yourself with simply being one. That is why I try to make history inviting to all that extends beyond it—literature, cinema, painting, and theater—as I look for new forms of writing that are simultaneously conceptually demanding and narratively stimulating… I try to make history relate to our lives. I try to make people realize that they do not have to choose between knowledge-teaching and emotion-sharing.”

Patrick Boucheron is a Professor and Chair of the History of Powers in Western Europe from the 7th to the 16th at Collège de France. He specializes in the Middle Ages, particularly in Italy. His work also concerns the writing of history and changes in the discipline. It was in this spirit that he wrote Histoire mondiale de la France (Seuil, 2017). Since 2017, he has partnered with the Théatre National de Bretagne (TNB) headed by actor and stage director Arthur Nauzyciel. For each program, he invites associates, academics, and artists to imagine and create with him a monthly gathering, “Rencontrer l’Histoire” (“A Rendez-vous with History”), based on the program’s themes or current affairs.

February 8, 2023
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST

Columbia University
Maison Française
515 West 116th Street

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dramatic-performance-by-patrick-boucheron-tickets-489689373097?aff=ebdssbdestsearch



*** HUNTER COLLEGE MFA PLAYWRITING PROGRAM ***

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: David Adjmi, Clare Barron, Mia Chung, Lisa D'Amour, Maria Striar, and Lloyd Suh. Visiting artists for 2021-2022 include: Eboni Booth, Sharon Bridgforth, Sheila Callaghan, Morgan Gould, and Daniel Alexander Jones.
 
For more information, visit: https://www.huntertheatre.net/mfa


*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***

Anacostia Playhouse is seeking new and non-produced 10-minute and one-act plays for the 2022-2023 New Voices, New Works Festival: Love: Make Ya Do Right / Make Ya Do Wrong. Selected playwrights will have the opportunity to work with a professional director and actors to prepare for a final staged reading performance.

***

“Premiere the Play” is a podcast featuring audio performances of new stage plays. The podcast can be found on all major podcast platforms.

· Our goal is to fill our season with diversity, so all topics, time periods, cultures, etc. are welcome.
· English, however, must be the primary language.
· The play must be an unproduced STAGE play (not radio play, screen play, or zoom play).
· The play should run no less than 30 mins and no more than 2 hours.
· Maximum cast size of 6.
· No musicals... yet...

***

Onstage/Offstage is looking for several 10-12 minute plays to produce and air on its podcast.
This year there are TWO OPPORTUNITIES:
1 - Our annual themed opportunity (see below); and,
2 - Inspired by Halloween, an opportunity for A SCARY PLAY THAT INCLUDES A GHOST.

The 2023 opportunity theme is “EXPLORATION.” Three characters maximum. Plays must include a journey, and the protagonist must end up somewhere different than where they started and changed irrevocably. Spiritual/emotional growth could very well be a factor. Comedies and dramas welcome. **No monologues.**

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


*** RULES OF COMEDY ***

Sometimes called trebling, the Rule of Three is a pattern used in stories and jokes, where part of the story is told three times, with minor variations. The first two instances build tension, and the third releases it by incorporating a twist.


Three is the smallest number required to create a pattern, so it's especially common in storytelling.The third of three siblings succeeds after their older siblings each failed. The protagonist is given three tests and receives the prize after the third. It's fairly unusual to find a folktale that does not incorporate the Rule of Three in some form.

 

More...

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfThree

 

***

Forrester shares an important television comedy writing tip for screenwriters in his interview with BBC Writersroom.

"Don't start with premise. Start with character. Most hit shows are a collection of good characters in a location. There are two kinds of locations, generally, in the history of TV. Family, which has its location in the home... or the office... workplace shows. Cheers, Taxi, The Office are all workplace shows. They're both essentially collections of characters."

More...
https://screencraft.org/blog/5-rules-of-comedy-according-to-the-office-showrunner/


***

Comedy is often found in the gap between how a character perceives himself and how we perceive him. For example, consider Valere in David Hirson’s La Bete. He is a buffoon who believes himself to be an inspired playwright, much to the chagrin of the acting troupe who’s stuck with him. He’s a close cousin to Corky St. Clair in Christopher Guest’s Waiting for Guffman. Both of these men believe they possess theatrical genius, but this is nonsense, and we know it.

More...
https://pwcenter.org/playwriting-toolkit/tips-writing-comedy-writers-who-don’t-write-comedy


***

An oft overlooked literary aspect of standup is its poetics. Indeed, Kevin Cummings writes, “Humor and poetry often make use of the same literary techniques, except that humor doesn’t know how to behave for company.” As Cummings further points out in his article “Words That Sound Funny,” words with hard consonants, especially the K-sound, are more likely to elicit laughs. This “comedy K” has actually long been part of comedy lore, though comedians may also haphazardly discover it on their own through trial and error at open mics. Besides diction, poetic techniques like assonance, consonance, and even rhyme—in the form of phrases like “itty-bitty” or “rinky-dink”—are all part of the comedian’s toolkit. 

 

Another shared priority between poets and comics is word economy: a joke improves as you “trim the fat,” making it concise and more to the point. As a poet myself, it’s no wonder that my jokes often come in the pithiest form: one-liners. In similar fashion, comedians pay close attention to rhythm and pauses, much as a poet does with line breaks and syllable counting. In fact, Jerry Seinfeld admitted that he counts syllables in his jokes. (For more info about his scrupulous writing process, watch his 2012 New York Times interview here.) Like a slam poet, comedians choreograph pauses into their routine, allowing the audience to digest the words, visualize the scene, and feel the tension, before a quickly-delivered surprise punchline. And then we pause for laughs, too. TLDR: comedians are essentially poets.

More...
https://hothouselitjournal.com/2020/03/12/3568/


***

For non-Catholic readers, here they are again: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Anger, Envy and Pride. I keep a framed copy of the Seven Deadly Sins on my desk.

A couple of them may need further explanation: Gluttony is either a sin of over-indulgence, or of status, or withholding from the needy.
Greed, also known as Avarice and Covetousness, is about the pursuit of wealth and power. (The church knows a thing or two about that). It would include treachery, disloyalty or deliberate betrayal, all for personal gain.
Vanity and pomposity, essential qualities for characters in comedy, are presumably sub-sections of the sin of Pride.

More...
https://www.chortle.co.uk/features/2011/09/06/13934/my_13_favourite_rules_of_comedy


***

The real difference is that comedy shows or segments that are legitimately funny always punch up. Instead of wasting their time going after people who are typically in the minority, they go after people with tangible power that’s being abused. A basic tenet of humor — and I mean real basic, we’re talking ancient Greece here — is that your best stuff will come from going after people bigger than you. But Watters and Southern, and their respective networks, are too dedicated to maintaining the status quo to be remotely entertaining.

More...
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/scaachikoul/why-punching-down-will-never-be-funny


***

Here are five great tips for writing a comedy scene:

Take a typical situation and exaggerate it
Let tension build
Use specificity
Embarrass someone
Finish with a bang

More...
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-write-comedy/

 

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