Welcome

Welcome
John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

Greetings NYCPlaywrights

 Greetings NYCPlaywrights



*** FREE THEATER ONLINE ***

Disney Cruise Line’s ‘Frozen, A Musical Spectacular’ | #DisneyMagicMoments

Get ready for another fun family night hosted by Disney Cruise Line! This time we’re bringing the world of Arendelle into your homes with a virtual watch party of our Broadway-style stage production, “Frozen, A Musical Spectacular.” 



*** 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 ***

Appalachian State University’s Department of Theatre and Dance is looking for ten-minute plays in a zoom setting to be performed by the directing class of Spring 2021. We are looking to find new playwrights who are interested in having their works produced in an academic setting for a 3000-level undergraduate class.

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Triangle Rainbow Productions artistic director Anthony Joseph is currently accepting submissions from Playwrights for their first annual Gay Play Fest 2021. Because of our current situation the festival will live stream via zoom on February 27th & 28th. Each play will be scheduled for both dates at 3:00pm. Running order will be worked out before your tech rehearsal. All submissions must be no longer than 15 minutes running time and no less than 10 minutes. All plays must be LGBTQ themed, or have at least one gay character written in the script. 

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Live & In Color is looking for playwrights, composers, and lyricists of color and/or other underrepresented communities interested in developing their new musical. 
The work must be able to be performed with a multiethnic cast. The winning musical submission will have a two-week workshop this fall at The Bingham Camp in Salem, Connecticut culminating in a staged presentation to an invited audience. 


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


*** TRUMP THEATER ***

THE NOVEL AND PLAY THAT PREDICTED DONALD TRUMP’S RISE

...The stage version of IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE opened on October 27, 1936. Twenty-one productions across 17 states took place in cities as varied as Birmingham, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Omaha.

It was adapted to appeal to diverse audiences. In Tampa, it was performed in Spanish. A Yiddish version was staged in New York City. And in Seattle, an African-American theater company produced a version. Nine national touring companies were formed in all.

In the end, over 500,000 people saw the production, which ran for five years. Few in the U.S. could have missed hearing about the play, and from coast to coast, the press debated the production. MGM had even started producing a film version, but canceled it in deference to the objections of Nazi Germany, which wielded influence over the studio.

More...


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The writer who foresaw the Trump era

...(Nottage's) research had pointed her toward the schisms dividing modern America, showing how abruptly communities can fracture along fault lines of race and class. While writing the play she felt as though she had a hammer in her hand. “I was really angry that people were not awake, “ she says. “I wanted to, like, hit people and say, ‘Hello? Do you see what I see?’”

Shifting between 2000 and 2008, SWEAT explores how the shuttering of factories devastates a community. Set mostly in and around a nameless bar frequented by the workers at a steel-tubing manufacturing plant, it centres on Tracey, who is white, and Cynthia, who is black. “When I put on my jacket, I knew I’d accomplished something,” says Cynthia, who has worked at the plant for two decades, reminiscing about happier times. “I was set. And when I got my union card, you couldn’t tell me anything. Sometimes when I was shopping I would let it slip out of my wallet onto the counter just so folks could see it.”

More...


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The theater of Trump: What Shakespeare can teach us about the Donald

To anyone bewildered by the eruptions of violence at the Trump rallies, “Julius Caesar” and “Coriolanus” reveal just how easy it is to transform anxious citizens into mobs. The personality of the demagogue isn’t a central concern in either tragedy, but the plays carefully expose the wily business of political control and the ease with which unscrupulous leaders can manipulate the fear and frustration of the masses. 

More...


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In 'The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui,' Trump's rise to presidency compared to Hitler's

...Before the play, Will Averill, the director, spoke to the audience about how the show was originally put on in May to joke about Trump's presidential campaign. But, he said, the recent performances were shown with a much more serious tone after Trump's election.

The dark comedy attempted to capture Trump’s image and rise to presidency throughout the show, he said. Although the play seemed to mock Trump with its dialogue, Averill said the original script was performed for the night with no alteration.

“It is all the original text,” he said. “We were constantly running into situations where we were blown away by some of the words and how resonant they were today.”

More...


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Donald Trump’s One-Show Career As a Broadway Producer If Paris Is Out! had been a smash, we might be living in a different America.

Paris Is Out!, a slight Broadway comedy starring Molly Picon and Sam Levene, opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on February 4, 1970. But opened is not quite the right term: The play’s producer, David Black, had hit on a novel idea, one that gave the playwright, Richard Seff, some misgivings: There would be no traditional opening night. Instead, the play would run for two weeks of previews, starting on January 16, after which critics, should they choose, could attend the show gratis. “This is an audience play,” Black told Seff at the time. “I don’t trust the critics. I don’t want them to see it till the audience tells them they love it.” As Seff, now 92, told me, it was “a concept which I should never have permitted. But I did, I did.” This was the kind of concession a reluctant playwright made for a chance to debut on Broadway.

More...

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Arsht Center to stage free reading of play that predicted Donald Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy

...President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy did not exist when Robert Schenkkan’s cautionary play “Building the Wall” opened in September 2017 at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, but the similarities are unmistakable.
Set in 2019, the play takes place after the Trump administration rounds up and detains millions of immigrants following a terrorist attack in Times Square. Now, less than a year after “Building the Wall” opened, Trump’s crackdown on illegal U.S.-Mexico border crossings in May has led to some 2,300 children being separated from their families, prompting a humanitarian outcry.

More...


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VIDEO: Randy Rainbow Channels His Inner Tevye with Latest Parody- 'Sedition!'
A twittler with no proof...
         
In the words of Randy Rainbow, "How does a desperate, lame duck President and his boot-licking minions with no hope or evidence try to overturn an election they've clearly lost multiple times?... Sedition!" Watch below as Rainbow takes on a Fiddler on the Roof classic in his latest parody.

More...

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Amok

 

Amok

In a violently raging, wild, or uncontrolled manner,  in a murderously frenzied state

 Print evidence of amok in English was first recorded in the 1600s, when the word was used as a noun meaning "murderous frenzy." Visitors to Southeast Asia had reported witnessing the suffering and effects of a psychiatric disorder known in Malay as amok. Typically, the afflicted person (usually a man) attacked bystanders in a frenzy, killing everyone in sight until he collapsed or was himself killed.



Time



 

*** NYCPLAYWRIGHTS 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY ***

 


It's the 10 Year Anniversary of NYCPlaywrights and we asked readers to share their stories of productions, readings etc. they may have found through of our blog and weekly email. Many playwrights shared their stories:

Most recently playwright Reggie Jackson shared his story

Here's to more great opportunities for playwrights in 2021 - and in-person performances!


*** FREE THEATER ONLINE ***

Mint Theater is offering free on demand streaming of archival video of six past productions. These recordings are available during the dates listed below and require password to view. Enter your name and a valid email and you will be added to our mailing list and receive the first password.

DAYS TO COME by Lillian Hellman — January 4th through February 22
KATIE ROCHE by Teresa Deevy — February 1 though March 28
WOMEN WITHOUT MEN by Hazel Ellis — February 22 through March 21
YOURS UNFAITHFULLY by Miles Malleson — March 22 through May 16
A PICTURE OF AUTUMN by N.C. Hunter — March 29 through May 23
THE FATAL WEAKNESS by George Kelly — May 17 through June 13


*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***

The Evanston 2nd Act Players is announcing its short-play script competition for the coming year entitled 2021: It’s not 2020, or is it? Plays that look at people changing in a changing world.
“There’s no question 2020 was a year of immense change for America, whether you looked at health issues, social justice issues or political issues. We’re looking for scripts with characters who are dealing with all those changes to create 2nd acts in their lives,” says 2nd Act Players’ Artistic Director John N. Frank. “We want scripts that deal with the issues of the past year and the coming year, either seriously or comically.”

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SOUND BITES is an Annual 10-Minute Musical Festival, which showcases ten 10-minute musicals, all in one evening. Any 10-minute piece that can be performed, has a beginning, middle, and end story arch, and includes music qualifies! Now in its seventh year, SOUND BITES offers an opportunity for talented musical theatre writers, composers, and lyricists to present their work in front of audiences and industry professionals. 

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The Actors Studio of Newburyport, MA is dedicated to New Play Development and will be holding its fourth annual Short Play Festival in the Fall, 2021. 
Length: 5-15 minutes. Send us your best. There is no theme and no restrictions on content.
Workshops, readings, and several previous productions are okay.
Limit: One play per playwright. There is no fee to submit.

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

*** THEATER GLOSSARIES ***

PROMPT BOOK is the master copy of the script or score, containing all the actor moves and technical cues, and is used by the deputy stage manager to run rehearsals and later, control the performance. It’s sometimes known as the ‘book’, Prompt Copy or Prompt Script. The member of stage management (often the DSM) cueing the show is said to be ‘On the Book’. (e.g. ‘Clare’s on the book for the next show’).
As well as the script and/or score of the show, the prompt book also contains contact lists for all concerned with the production, information about the venue(s), show reports, local amenities, emergency procedures and any other information that may be needed during the run of the show. It’s rightly known as the production ‘bible’.
The book is usually laid out so that the script is on one side of a folder, and the cues are on the opposite side, with a line between the cue word / line, and the cue itself. Left-handed DSMs may prefer the cue page to be on the left of the folder. Most prefer it to be on the right, as below.


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DENOUEMENT - In a dramatic work, the falling action after the climax, the unwinding of the complications of the plot.


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GHOST LIGHT – A light that stays illuminated on a stage when the auditorium is otherwise unoccupied. Naturally this term was coined by a thespian and therefore super dramatic (and creepy).


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UNITIES of time, place and action, the three elements of drama introduced into French dramatic literature is actually based on a misinterpretation of Aristotle's Poetics. They demanded that a play should consist of one action, represented as occurring in not more than 24 hours, and always in the same place. According to The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre, Aristotle "insists only on the unity of action, merely mentions the unity of time, and says nothing about the unity of place". The influence of Shakespeare in England was such that the three unitities were never adopted as a rule of dramatic construction.


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LIMELIGHT was the first gas lamp alternative for lighting theatres. Invented in the early 1800s, limelight was generated by heating calcium oxide with a blend of oxygen and hydrogen. Theatres first began using limelight in the 1830s as the first spotlight. Now, we continue to say that those in the limelight are the center of attention.


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PROSCENIUM is a frame or arch separating the stage from the auditorium. The proscenium opening was of particular importance to the Realistic playwrights of the 19th century, such as Ibsen and Shaw, for whom it was a picture frame or an imaginary fourth wall through which the audience experienced the illusion of spying on characters.


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ADITUS MAXIMUS is the most important or greatest entrance: the Roman entrance to the orchestra, typically located between the cavea and the scaena, one on either side of the orchestra; corresponds to the parados in the Greek theater.





Killers All

Marihuana, the Devil's Weed

Maniac

Suffrage

 

Why would a 17th-century writer warn people that a chapel was only for "private or secret suffrages"? Because suffrage has been used since the 14th century to mean "prayer" (especially a prayer requesting divine help or intercession). So how did suffrage come to mean "a vote" or "the right to vote"? To answer that, we must look to the word's Medieval Latin ancestor, suffrāgium, which can be translated as meaning "vote," "support," or "prayer." That term produced descendants in a number of languages, and English picked up its senses of suffrage from two different places. We took the "prayer" sense from a Middle French suffrāgium offspring that emphasized the word's spiritual aspects, and we elected to adopt the "voting" senses directly from the original Latin.



Targeted killings of journalists surged in 2020, group says

 

 PARIS (AP) — More journalists are being killed outside of war zones, and the overwhelming majority of this year's grim total of at least 50 dead were deliberately targeted, many of them murdered while investigating organized crime, corruption and environmental degradation, Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday.

Its tally of journalists and media workers killed in connection with their work by mid-December was just slightly lower than in 2019, when the press freedom group counted 53 dead, even though many journalists reported less from the field in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The group said 68% were killed outside of war zones this year. That confirms a trend noted by the group since 2016, when only four out of 10 deaths were in countries not at war.

Targeted killings of journalists surged in 2020, accounting for 84% of deaths, sharply up from 63% in 2019, the group said.

It again listed Mexico as the deadliest country for media workers, counting at least eight journalists killed there in connection with their work in 2020. Among them was Julio Valdivia, a newspaper reporter whose decapitated body was found in September in an area ridden with organized crime.

Among six media deaths that the group counted in Iraq was the killing in July of Hisham al-Hashimi, a leading expert on the Islamic State and other armed groups, who was shot dead outside his Baghdad home.

Reporters Without Borders also noted an increase in the killings of investigative journalists, including four who were looking into organized crime groups, 10 who were reporting on corruption and the misuse of public funds and three who were working on environmental issues including illegal mining and land grabs.

Reporting on civil unrest also proved particularly deadly, the group said, with seven journalists killed while covering protests — four of them in Iraq, two in Nigeria and one in Colombia.

Reporters Without Borders report: https://rsf.org/sites/default/files/rsf_round-up_killed.pdf

be all you can be

 


God



Franchise

 Franchise was voted into early 14th-century English as both a noun and verb. It is from the Anglo-French verb franchir, meaning "to free," itself from franc, "free." To be perfectly frank, the word franchise  is most often encountered today with reference to restaurant chains or professional sports teams (e.g., "a franchise quarterback"), not to mention branded retail stores and sequel-driven movies and novels. These commercial meanings are far from the original meaning of the word in English: "freedom or immunity from some burden or restriction vested in a person or group." This meaning evolved into the "right to vote" sense of the word.



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