Coming Soon!

Tomorrow night, November 2nd, Bara Swain's The Boob Tube Plays opens at The Tank, featuring a short play that I'm directing, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.

The Boob Tube Plays consists of five short works, all by Swain, all inspired in one way or another by television. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt features Megan Greener as a woman who's watched way too much Law & Order: SVU, and Nick Walther as her terrified husband-to-be.

If you miss the show on Saturday, you'll have two more chances to see it: on Thursday, November 7th and on Friday, November 8th. All shows are at 7:00pm and tickets are $22. The evening is produced by American Renaissance Theater Company (ARTC) and includes work by directors Kim T. Sharp and Vincent Scott, in addition to one play directed by Swain herself.

Next month, we will be entering the season of A Christmas Carol, and I'll be appearing on a virtual program hosted by the Rosenbach Library, speaking about the legacy of Charles Dickens's beloved novella. There have been countless stage adaptations of the classic, including my own, which was produced by the Epiphany Theater Company in New York and Passage Theatre Company in New Jersey.

And if you happen to be in Brazil in December, the short film The Rainbow, for which I wrote the screenplay, has been chosen as an official selection for FINTCH - Festival Internacional de Cinema de Humor in Rio de Janeiro. More information on that coming soon!

Secret One Acts Open This Week

This week the Secret Theatre in Queens is opening its festival of one-act plays, and you won't want to miss it!

The important thing is to get tickets to Program D, which includes my own play My Fellow Americans. It will premiere on Wednesday, July 13th, and will be repeated the following three Wednesdays, July 20th, July 27th, and August 3rd.

My Fellow Americans features Rebecca Ana Peña as President of the United States. The play is directed by Rachael Langton, who I got to know through her work with the Metropolitan Playhouse. Both have done an amazing job, and I'm eager for people to see the piece.

If you've never been to the new Secret Theatre since it re-opened in Woodside, it really is a delightful place. The theatre is more homey and less industrial-feeling than their old space in Long Island City, which previously hosted my play Burns Night during their 2019 one-act festival.

Curtain time is 7:30, and you can get your tickets here. Also being performed as a part of Program D are Love Locks Bridge by D Lee Miller, A Twilight of Joy by Paul K. Smith, Soar Spot by Allison Fradkin, Happier Days by Jennifer Ju, The Gatekeepers by Dan Perry, Envenomed by Lisa Siebert, and The Mitochondria by Ruth Zamoyta.

That last play is being directed by Kim T. Sharp, who always does good work, so I'm excited about the line-up we're going to have. See you at the theatre!

Blackbird Revisited

When I first saw David Harrower's play Blackbird on Broadway in 2016, it quite impressed me, so when I heard that Kim Sharp would be directing a revival of the piece, I knew I wanted to see it.

Sharp's direction is spot on, and actors Francesca Ravera and Lenny Grossman deliver compelling performances. I had seen Ravera before in a production Sharp directed of Neil LaBute's The Way We Get By at Urban Stages. Originally from Italy, she speaks with a slight accent, but this worked for the character of Una, giving her the feeling of someone slightly different, someone the character of Ray might have found exotically attractive when he had an affair with her fifteen years ago.

The hook here is that fifteen years ago Una was only twelve years old. She tells us right from the beginning that this was abuse--he abused her--no doubt about it. Once we establish that Ray was an abuser, the interest in the play hinges on what being an abuser really means. Grossman does an excellent job of exploring the nuances of his character, not charming us into finding him attractive and likable, but not making Ray into a slimy monster, either.

As a playwright, I enjoyed watching the play a second time around and seeing all of the twists and turns in the script. Harrower certainly knows what he's doing in the piece, and crafts the shifts and surprises quite deftly. If you've never seen it before, you're in for a treat.

Act quickly, though, because the play closes on Sunday, October 3rd. Performances are at the New Ohio on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village.

ALICE Opens Next Week!

I'm very excited that my stage adaptation of Alice in Wonderland will receive its world premiere in North Carolina next week.

East Carolina University students Nick Lease and Michael Eubanks are directing the production, and I've been in touch with them over e-mail. We've made a few changes to the script, some of which I'll be keeping for future productions, others of which are necessary for a younger audience, but might be adjusted for different productions going forward.

The piece will open on Friday, March 16th, but I'll be having to miss that performance, as my plane doesn't get in until quite late. I will see the performance on the following day at the Children's Museum in Jacksonville, as well as the performance on March 18th at the Turnage Theatre in Washington. (Apparently, North Carolina has a lot of towns named after presidents.)

Though this production will be the world premiere, Kim Sharp previously directed two staged readings of the piece at the Abingdon Theatre Company.

If you live in North Carolina and you're in the area, maybe you can pop in for tea!

Alice Premieres Next Month

Next month, I'll be heading down to North Carolina for the first fully staged production of my adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

The production is being directed by Nick Lease and Michael Eubanks, two students at East Carolina University who are putting it together as their senior project. Their professor, Patch Clark, is mentoring them.

I'll be missing the first showing of the piece on Friday, March 16th, but I'll be there for a Saint Patrick's Day performance at the Children's Museum in Jacksonville, N.C. I'll get to see it again on March 18th at the historic Turnage Theatre in Washington, N.C.

I first wrote the adaptation at the request of the late great Christopher Catt. Kim Sharp at the Abingdon Theatre Company later directed two staged readings of the piece, the latter of which starred Mckenna Cox as Alice. She passed the script on to the folks at her alma mater, E.C.U.

And now, the play will be getting a full production! I'm looking forward to seeing it.

And next up is...

Thanks to all who came out to see The January Plays at Urban Stages! It was loverly to work with director Ilanna Satzman and actors Heather Massie, Maria de Vries, and Doug Rossi.

It was also an honor to share the stage with other great theatre artists, including Bara Swain, Daniel Damiano, Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich, Kim Sharp, Dev Bondarin, and Russell Jordan. Here's a picture of the whole gang!

Now that The January Plays are over, I'm moving on to my next project. My play I Hate You: A Love Story will have a staged reading at 7:00 pm on Sunday, January 15th at IATI Theater, 64 E. 4th Street. Dev Bondarin is directing, and the cast includes Doug Rossi and Sandra Maren Schneider.

The reading is free and open to the public, so please come!

Alice This Weekend!

This Saturday and Sunday, the Abingdon Theatre Company's Pop Up Playhouse will present my adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. We have a great cast, including Glenn Beatty, Alanna Chuyan, Mckenna Cox, David Meyers, and Maayan Schneider. Kim Sharp directs.

The family-friendly performances will be at 11 am this Saturday and Sunday mornings in the June Havoc Theatre. That's on the second floor of the Abingdon Arts Complex, 312 W. 36th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues in Manhattan.

Admission is free, but if you want to make reservations, e-mail Vincent Scott at:

vscott@abingdontheatre.org

For more information, check out:

The Abingdon Theatre Company

http://www.abingdontheatre.org/