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#Samuel French OOB Festival
writemarcus · 2 years
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Joshua Harmon Announced as Honorary Festival Playwright of Samuel French's Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival
The top 30 playwrights will be narrowed down to 10-12 finalists, from which six will be selected.
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by Chloe Rabinowitz Jul. 28, 2022  
Samuel French's Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival has announced that Joshua Harmon (Prayer for the French Republic) is this year's honorary festival playwright.
The distinguished lineup of judges will include playwrights Dennis A. Allen II, Eboni Booth, Karen Hartman and Bryna Turner, along with Executive Director of National New Play Network Nan Barnett, dramaturg Ken Cerniglia, Artistic Director of New Dramatists Emily Morse, Artistic Director of City Theatre Miami Margaret M. Ledford, Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company Jill Rafson, Associate Artistic Director at Playwrights' Realm Alexis Williams, and Associate Artistic Director at Playwrights Horizons Natasha Sinha.
This year's top 30 playwrights were chosen from over 650 submissions around the world. They will present their plays during a week-long festival August 16-20 at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in New York City (416 W 42nd St, 4th Floor). These will be narrowed down to 10-12 finalists, from which six will be selected to be licensed for future productions and published in an anthology of short plays that will become the 47th edition of the Off Off Broadway Festival Plays series.
Presale tickets are available through Sunday, August 14 at $20. Tickets will be available Monday, August 15 through Saturday, August 20 online and at the door for $25. The Festival will also be offering a $90 Festival Pass. This pass gains the holder access to the first four nights of the Festival, allowing them to see all 30 productions at a 55% discount. For tickets and a complete performance calendar, click here.
THE 47TH SAMUEL FRENCH OFF OFF BROADWAY SHORT PLAY FESTIVAL FINALISTS
Thank You, Porcupine by Aurora Behlke The Very Furious Kugel by Clare Fuyuko Bierman Duckass by Dan Caffrey SYZYGY by Rachael Carnes American Made by Christin Eve Cato Big Red Button by Jay Eddy Too Much Lesbian Drama: One Star by Jessie Field How My Grandparents Fell in Love by Cary Gitter Chemistry by Ben Holbrook Georgia Rose by Onyekachi Iwu Domestic Help by Julianne Jigour Blocked by Jay Koepke We Jump Broom by Mildred Inez Lewis f by Ignacio Lopez Validation by Daphne Macy Toxic Norse-culinity by Matthew McLachlan Leaf Hunters by Megan Chan Meinero Bugs by Alex Moon The Pros and Cons of Implosion by R. D. Murphy Shark Week by Erika Phoebus if all that You take from this is courage, then I've no regrets by Nicholas Pilapil Railroad Homes by Jackson Pounds We're All Girls Here by Roni Ragone Big Happy Days by Anya Richkind Wookiees in the Wilderness by Marcus Scott Beautiful People in a Living Room Doing Nothing by Alec Seymour You Will Neva Enter Our High Holy Land of Blackness-HIYA! by Cece Suazo Scary faces happy faces by Danny Tejera The Vagina Read by Amy Tofte The Black & White Minstrel Show by Wind Dell Woods
Originating in 1975, the OOB Festival is one of Samuel French/Concord Theatricals' primary initiatives to introduce the next wave of emerging playwrights. These include Audrey Cefaly, whose full-length version of her 40th OOB Festival-winning play The Gulf won 2018's Lambda Literary Award in the category of LGBTQ Drama, and Martyna Majok, whose play The Cost of Living (originally produced as part of 39th OOB Festival as John, Who's Here from Cambridge) won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Other notable past participants include Bekah Brunstetter, Gloria Calderón Kellett, Sheila Callaghan, khat knotahaiku, Gracie Gardner, Jeremy O. Harris, Shirley Lauro, Theresa Rebeck, Jen Silverman and Steve Yockey.
To stay up to date with all Festival information, follow @OOBFestival on Twitter, facebook.com/oobfestival, and #OOBFestival on all social platforms.
BIOGRAPHIES
SAMUEL FRENCH is proud to have served as a leader in theatrical publishing and licensing for over 180 years. Its catalog features some of the most acclaimed work ever written for the stage and titles by writers at the forefront of contemporary drama. In December 2018, Samuel French became part of Concord Theatricals. With a growing staff of unparalleled experts, Concord Theatricals continues to support and expand Samuel French's ethos of championing playwrights, innovating in the industry, and celebrating all those who create theatre around the world.
Concord Theatricals is the world's most significant theatrical company, comprising the catalogs of R&H Theatricals, Samuel French, Tams-Witmark and The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection, plus dozens of new signings each year. Our unparalleled roster includes the work of Irving Berlin, Agatha Christie, George & Ira Gershwin, Marvin Hamlisch, Lorraine Hansberry, Kander & Ebb, Ken Ludwig, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dominique Morisseau, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Thornton Wilder and August Wilson. We are the only firm providing truly comprehensive services to the creators and producers of plays and musicals, including theatrical licensing, music publishing, script publishing, cast recording and first-class production. concordtheatricals.com
Joshua Harmon's plays include Bad Jews, Significant Other, Admissions, Skintight, and Prayer for the French Republic. His plays have been produced on Broadway and the West End; Off-Broadway at Roundabout Theatre Company, Lincoln Center Theater and Manhattan Theater Club; across the country at Geffen Playhouse, Speakeasy, Studio Theatre, Theater Wit, About Face, Actor's Express, and The Magic, among others; and internationally in a dozen countries. He is a two-time MacDowell fellow and an Associate Artist at Roundabout. Graduate of Juilliard.
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templeofgeek · 2 years
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Interview with Moonshot and Daredevil Actress Sunita Deshpande
Interview with Moonshot and Daredevil Actress Sunita Deshpande
Sunita sat down with Josh LaCount to talk about her journey from working in advertising as a copywriter and interned at UCB Comedy when Donald Glover encouraged her to appear on 30 Rock opposite Tina Fey. They also discussed her film “A Sari for Pallavi” which won the Oscars-Qualifying Flickers Festival for best comedy short & placed at the Samuel French OOB Festival. Interview with Sunita…
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manningajordan · 2 years
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manningjordan · 2 years
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everydayinferno · 7 years
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Glassheart Interview: Meghann Garmany, playing “Only”
GLASSHEART by Reina Hardy presented by Everyday Inferno Theatre Company
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The Access Theater 380 Broadway, NYC October 19th-28th, 2017 Tickets: $5-18
“In the empty living room of a shabby apartment, a Beast is crying. There is just enough light to see that he is monstrous, and clutching something precious to him.”
Beauty never showed up. Centuries after the curse, the Beast and his last remaining magical servant are holed up in a ramshackle apartment, managed by a mysterious landlady with a suspicious taste for gingerbread. When an eligible maiden moves in next door, “happily ever after” feels agonizingly within reach, but we all know that in fairytales, nothing is exactly as it seems. Full of humor, magic, and belief in the life-altering power of love, Glassheart is a witty and decidedly adult take on a classic tale that explores the space between light and dark, and the sacrifices we make in search of an ordinary life.
What household object would you not want to live without? Truthfully, the first thing I do when I get home at night is turn on a lamp and turn off the overhead lighting.  One of my dearest and oldest friends, we’ve known each other since we were six and we were college roommates, loathes over-head lighting.  I do too.  I don’t know if it’s a habit I picked up from her or something I’ve always done, but yeah, I really do love lamps.  They make the home a better place.
What about the play are you most excited to share? There’s so much I’m excited to share, but currently I’m most excited to share the moments of magic.  In the rehearsal rooms, we’ve built in these moments of magic for ourselves surrounded by folding chairs, rehearsal blocks, and fluorescents; I am so excited to explore these moments surrounded by everything the design team has created and to share these moments with an audience.  The feeling of a roomful of people experiencing a moment of wonder together is palpable and so thrilling to be a part of, let alone orchestrate! Also…CANDY. I’m very excited to share candy.
What do you wish the theatre had more of? Ah, here’s my soap-box…now what do I do it with?  The short version, I wish the theatre was as diverse as the world around us, and I wish it was more accessible to the world around us.   The long version, the theatre could use a lot.  It could use more women, people of color, LGBTQIA people, and people with disabilities. They all possess the ability to create and to produce creative work.  Like the world around us, all of these groups could use more representation.  I’d love to see more diverse stories, from life-experiences and identities I’ve never had.  On a personal note, more queer representation and experiences would be great.  I’d love to play a lesbian that gets to be happy and live their life and maybe…I don’t know…not die horribly or have something horrible happen to them.  I’d love to play a lesbian in a story that has nothing to do with being a lesbian.  Sometimes it happens, I’ve had theatre experiences here that have opened my mind to other cultures and experiences, pieces of history I was oblivious to or had only seen through a white perspective, or encountered a gay character in a story-line that had nothing to do with them being gay.  But yeah, “more of” that.  There are lots of voices and stories that aren’t just waiting to be heard, they are already there, you just have to listen.  
I also think it would be great if more people could afford to go to the theatre. Perhaps if the audiences in commercial theatres began to hold as much diversity and experience as the people in the streets, the diversity and experiences on stage would begin to reflect that.  I’m not sure what the answer is here, but I know it’s not found at a “discounted price” of $85.  More ticket initiatives? Government funding? How do we find something that’s feasible, but also sustainable in the commercial world?  I could talk myself in circles on this one.
I’ll also just go ahead and say that I’m really proud to work with Everyday Inferno. They are a very female driven company telling stories centered around women, but they also really work to take whatever steps they can towards inclusivity and affordability. It’s not a perfect check box.  There will always be mis-steps and more that can be done, but to work with a company that keeps trying and to know they’re not alone in that, that other companies and artists are also trying, it keeps me hopeful.
What would your character’s Karaoke song be? I think Karaoke decisions, like many choices in life, are based on current mood and level of consumption.  If Only’s letting loose and shining bright, “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” by The Darkness.  If she’s on a bender and The Beast is having a particularly bad day, “Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia.  But at the end of the night, as the bar begins to clear and the last drinks are poured, she makes herself a warm spotlight and shuts the place down with “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston.
MEGHANN GARMANY* (Only) is a core company member of Everyday Inferno and has been seen previously in EITC productions including Reina Hardy’s A Map to Somewhere Else and the development of Nora Sørena Casey’s Dreams of Malinche and Regina Robbins’ Quicksand as part of the 2017 Access Theatre residency. Other credits include The Mask of the Jaguar King (The Schoolhouse Theatre, Croton Falls NY), Bonesetter: A Tragislasher (Spicy Witch Productions), The Woman American (Samuel French OOB Festival), and Fengar Gael’s Devil Dog Six. Meghann is an alumna of the Theatre Arts Department of Virginia Tech. She is thrilled to go on yet another magical journey with Everyday Inferno and hopes you will continue to join and support us. @MeghannGarmany (Twitter and FB), @TheGarm (Instagram), www.MeghannGarmany.com
*Denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association
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writemarcus · 2 years
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Joshua Harmon Named Samuel French Honorary Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival Playwright; Finalists Announced
The 2022 competition, the festival's 47th, will be held in August.
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BY LOGAN CULWELL-BLOCK
JULY 28, 2022
Significant Other, Bad Jews, and Prayer for the French Republic writer Joshua Harmon has been named honorary festival playwright for the 47th Annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival, presented by Concord Theatricals.
The festival, set for August 16-20 at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in NYC, will see short works from 30 finalist playwrights compete for six winning spots. The winning works will be published in an anthology of short plays and licensed by Concord's Samuel French imprint.
Judging this year's entries will be playwrights Dennis A. Allen II, Eboni Booth, Karen Hartman, and Bryna Turner, along with National New Play Network Executive Director Nan Barnett, dramaturg Ken Cerniglia, New Dramatists Artistic Director Emily Morse, City Theatre Miami Artistic Director Margaret M. Ledford, Classic Stage Company Artistic Director Jill Rafson, Playwrights’ Realm Associate Artistic Director Alexis Williams, and Playwrights Horizons Associate Artistic Director Natasha Sinha.
Tickets for the festival, which is open to the public, are available at OOBFestival.com.
Take a look at this year's finalists, selected from more than 650 submissions worldwide:
Thank You, Porcupine by Aurora Behlke The Very Furious Kugel by Clare Fuyuko Bierman Duckass by Dan Caffrey SYZYGY by Rachael Carnes American Made by Christin Eve Cato Big Red Button by Jay Eddy Too Much Lesbian Drama: One Star by Jessie Field How My Grandparents Fell in Love by Cary Gitter Chemistry by Ben Holbrook Georgia Rose by Onyekachi Iwu Domestic Help by Julianne Jigour Blocked by Jay Koepke We Jump Broom by Mildred Inez Lewis f by Ignacio Lopez Validation by Daphne Macy Toxic Norse-culinity by Matthew McLachlan Leaf Hunters by Megan Chan Meinero Bugs by Alex Moon The Pros and Cons of Implosion by R. D. Murphy Shark Week by Erika Phoebus if all that You take from this is courage, then I've no regrets by Nicholas Pilapil Railroad Homes by Jackson Pounds We're All Girls Here by Roni Ragone Big Happy Days by Anya Richkind Wookiees in the Wilderness by Marcus Scott Beautiful People in a Living Room Doing Nothing by Alec Seymour You Will Neva Enter Our High Holy Land of Blackness-HIYA! by Cece Suazo Scary faces happy faces by Danny Tejera The Vagina Read by Amy Tofte The Black & White Minstrel Show by Wind Dell Woods
Established in 1975, the Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival aims to introduce the next generation of great playwrights. Writers internationally are invited to submit short works, which are traditionally performed in rep at an Off-Broadway venue—last year's festival was adjudicated via online readings due to the pandemic. Past participants include Audrey Cefaly, Martyna Majok, Bekah Brunstetter, Gloria Calderón Kellett, Sheila Callaghan, khat knotahaiku, Gracie Gardner, Jeremy O. Harris, Shirley Lauro, Theresa Rebeck, Jen Silverman, and Steve Yockey.
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writemarcus · 3 years
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Gingold Theatrical Group
 presents six free readings of new plays-in-progress, developed in GTG's Speaker's Corner Development Lab, beginning June 5th
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Posted by: Official_Press_Release 02:14 pm EDT 06/04/21 Gingold Theatrical Group Announces the Phase 1, Plays-In-Progress Readings from Speaker's Corner Writers Group: Kate Douglas, Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, Divya Mangwani, Seth McNeill, Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, and Marcus Scott Six FREE Online Readings June 5th - 17th Gingold Theatrical Group (David Staller, Artistic Director), now in its 16th Season, continues its new play development with the Phase 1 Plays-In-Progress virtual table readings of this year's SPEAKER'S CORNER Writers Group. This season, writers Kate Douglas, Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, Divya Mangwani, Seth McNeill, Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, and Marcus Scott are developing works in response to Shaw's Arms and the Man. To learn more about these closed developmental table reads, and to register in advance to join, please visit gingoldgroup.org. This year's readings will be: The Apiary by Kate Douglas, directed by Colette Robert June 5th at 2:30 PM ET Karma Sutra Chai Tea Latte by Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, directed by Arpita Mukherjee June 8th at 7 PM ET the scold's bridle by Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, directed by Jaye Hunt June 10th at 7 PM ET Untitled Conspiracy Play by Seth McNeill, directed by Lico Whitfield June 12th at 7 PM ET Vigil-Aunties by Divya Mangwani, directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar June 15th at 7 PM ET There Goes the Neighborhood by Marcus Scott, directed by Christopher Burris June 17th at 7 PM ET Named after the corner of London's Hyde Park where George Bernard Shaw and other political speakers have delivered speeches since 1855, GTG's SPEAKERS' CORNER brings together six to ten writers each year who will spend the year exploring a specific Shaw play and writing individual new plays in response to that text and Shaw's forward thinking humanitarian ideals. The group is led by GTG Associate Director Ilana Becker, a producer and director specializing in new play and musical development, community-driven projects, and arts education. In addition to serving as Gingold Theatrical Group's Associate Director, Ilana is The Civilians' R&D Program Director. She has served on the staff of All for One Theater, Lincoln Center Education, and Bret Adams Ltd, and spent a year as the Associate Artistic Director and Interim Artistic Director of Sun Valley Center for the Arts' Company of Fools. Ilana is a proud member of the WP Theater 2018-2020 Producers Lab, an alum of the Civilians' R&D Group, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, DirectorsLabChicago, Fresh Ground Pepper PlayGroup, The Orchard Project's Liveness Lab, as well as a Playwrights Horizons Robert Moss Directing Fellow and an Emerging Leader of NY Arts Fellow. She is the creator of Argument Sessions, an ongoing series of immersive variety-theater events that weave SCOTUS argument transcripts and decisions with ensemble-driven, collaboratively developed original material, and is a member of Producing Blue. "It has been a joy to witness and participate in the from-scratch development of these six ferociously funny, wildly intelligent, and genuinely ambitious plays. While they're all unique pieces in tone and exploration, they're also all distinctly emerging from this moment of vast friction and change. This cohort supported one another's development over the past season, and we look forward to inviting our community into the next stage of their processes," said Ms. Becker. Speakers' Corner members meet virtually, bi-monthly, and GTG will host showings of the works that Speakers' Corner develops at the end of the season. The group's members were identified through an open application process under the guidance of Becker, GTG Artistic Director David Staller, and this season's Speakers' Corner Readers and Advisory Committee: é boylan, Stephanie Rolland, Dina Vovsi, along with Speakers' Corner alumni Hank Kim, Mallory Jane Weiss, and Lorenzo Roberts. Kate Douglas (she/her) is a writer, composer and performer. Recent work includes The Ninth Hour, her operetta with Shayfer James at The Met Cloisters (the first performance of its kind in the Fuentidueña Chapel), her immersive play Extinct (produced with support from a LMCC Engagement Grant) and her audio experience Dandelion Story, which received an Honorable Mention from SPACE on Ryder Farm's CSArt Program. Her work has been developed at The Orchard Project, New Victory Theater, The Civilians R&D Group, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Rhinebeck Musicals and the Writer's Colony at Goodspeed. She is a Dramatists Guild Fellow and a current member of The Orchard Project Greenhouse. As a complement to her artistic practice, she is a student of herbalism, horticulture and biodynamic craniosacral therapy. www.kate-douglas.com Aeneas Sagar Hemphill (he/him) is an Indian-American playwright and screenwriter based in NYC and DC. Weaving through many genres, his work builds new worlds to illuminate our own, investigating the ghosts that haunt our lives and communities with passion, pathos, and humor. He was a 2019 Resident Artist with Monson Arts Center and 2017-2018 Playlab fellow at Pipeline Theatre, as well as semi-finalist for the 2019 Princess Grace Award, semi-finalist for the 2019 Mabou Mines Resident Artist Program, and finalist for the 2017 Many Voices Fellowship. His plays include: Black Hollow (Argo Collective, Dreamscape Theatre), The Troll King (Pipeline), Childhood Songs (Monson Arts), The Republic of Janet & Arthur (Amios), The Red Balloon (Noor Theatre), A Stitch Here or There (DarkHorse Dramatists, Slingshot Theatre), A Horse and a Housecat (Slingshot Theatre). MFA Playwriting, Columbia University. Divya Mangwani (she/her) is a writer and theatre artist from Pune, India, now based in New York. She examines the absurdities of the social, political and mythical. Divya was the founder and Artistic Director of Moonbeam Factory Theatre, where she wrote, directed and produced plays that were staged in India, Singapore and Glasgow. In New York, she has developed work with UNICEF, Soho Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, The Flea, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Mabou Mines, Hypokrit Theatre, Project Y, Pipeline Theatre, Rising Sun, LMCC and Governors Island. Selected work: Elements of Change (UN Climate Change Week), Yes, Uncle (finalist, Leah Ryan Prize 2018), Rise of the River (semi-finalist Playwrights Realm 2019), and One, Two, Three (winner of best script, director, play and audience vote, Short+Sweet Festival). Divya was a NYTW 2050 Artistic Fellow, Hypokrit Theatre Tamasha playwright, Playlab fellow at Pipeline Theatre and is currently in the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Seth McNeill (he/him) is a New York City based playwright and theatre artist. His plays include Bastard (Dixon Place, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Up Theater Company), we're all athletes (Amios First Draughts, Samuel French OOB Festival), and Natchetoches (Fresh Ground Pepper, Hambidge Center, JookMS). Other plays have been presented or developed with Fresh Ground Pepper, Amios NYC, Exquisite Corpse, The Barrow Group, Primary Stages, TinyRhino, The Secret Theatre, and Rule of 7x7, and he has been a semifinalist for the Shakespeare's New Contemporaries Prize and Primary Stages ESPA Drills. As a script reader and dramaturg he has worked with Theatre for a New Audience, the American Shakespeare Center, the Hambidge Center, and The Farm Theater, and he is a two-time recipient of the Vera Mowry Roberts Fellowship. Member of the Dramatists Guild. Education: Masters from Hunter College. Teaching: Hunter College. www.sethmcneill.com. Sophie Sagan-Gutherz (they/them) is a NYC based writer, actor and singer. Their first full-length play Marked Green at Birth, Marked Female at Birth has been supported by Pride Plays (Rattlestick), the Williamstown Theatre Festival and the Tribe Theatre Company. They've written a monologue with the 24 Hour Play Festival (performed by Lea DeLaria) and have devised and performed a 10 minute solo piece Disability & Celebrity Culture (Am I Write Ladies?). They have been a finalist for the Emerging Writers Group (The Public) as well as a semi-finalist for The R&D Group (The Civilians) & PlaySpace (Pipeline Theatre Company). BFA: NYU Tisch in Drama with an Honors Thesis in Theatre Studies. sophiesagangutherz.com Marcus Scott (he/him) is a playwright and journalist. Selected works: Fidelio (Libretto; Heartbeat Opera at Baruch Performing Arts Center, 2018; called "poignant" by The New York Times), Tumbleweed (Finalist for the 2017 BAPF; semi-finalist for the 2017/'18 New Dramatists Princess Grace Fellowship Award), Cherry Bomb (recipient of the 2017 Drama League First Stage Artist-In-Residence; 2017 Finalist for the Yale Institute for Music Theatre) and Sundown Town (Finalist for Abingdon Theatre Company's Virtual Fall Festival Of Short Plays). His work has been developed or presented by Joe's Pub, 54 Below, APAC, Dixon Place, Space on Ryder Farm, Cherry Lane Theater (DUAF), CoLAB Arts, Symphony Space, MicroTheater Miami, among others. Scott is a four-time finalist for the R&D Group at The Civilians, a two-time finalist for NBT's I AM SOUL Playwrights Residency and a 2019 finalist for the Bushwick Starr's Starr Reading Series. His articles appeared in Time Out New York, American Theatre, Playbill, Elle, Out, Essence, among others. MFA: NYU Tisch. In addition to Speakers' Corner, GTG's on-going play development also includes PRESS CUTTINGS, which, in recognition of Shaw's career as a theatre critic, supports the development of new plays written by theatre journalists. Press Cuttings has commissioned new plays by Jeremy McCarter, Robert Simonson, and David Cote, and, in June of 2017, presented an AEA workshop of David Cote's Otherland directed by May Adrales. Now celebrating its 16th year, Gingold Theatrical Group's Project Shaw made history in December 2009 as the first company ever to present performances of every one of Shaw's 65 plays (including full-length works, one-acts and sketches). They are now also including plays by writers who share Shaw's activist socio-political views embracing human rights and free speech, including work by Chekhov, Ibsen, Elizabeth Robins, Rachel Crothers, Pinero, Wilde, Barrie, and Harley Granville-Barker. GTG's other programs include its new play development and educational programs. For those interested in lively off-site discourses, each Project Shaw event is followed by a talk-back with cast members. GTG will be back on stage in person this autumn with a full production of one of Shaw's most provocative plays. Details to follow, soon. Their highly acclaimed Off-Broadway engagement of Shaw's beloved almost historical comedy Caesar and Cleopatra at Theatre Row, hailed as a New York Times Critic's Pick, was named Best Classical Production in Terry Teachout's year-end recap of The Best Theater of 2019 for the Wall Street Journal: "David Staller and the Gingold Theatrical Group nailed it for the second year in a row with another insufficiently appreciated play by George Bernard Shaw, this time a small-scale off-Broadway staging of Caesar and Cleopatra that brought a rarely seen show to persuasive life." In his review earlier this year in The Wall Street Journal he declared "As always, Mr. Staller, who knows more about Shaw than anyone else in America, gets it right, situating the action of the play in a modern-day archaeological dig and keeping the costumes simple and the diction crisp and clear., ...all the more reason to cheer David Staller's splendid new adaptation of one of Shaw's most glittering, least Shakespearean conversation pieces. This is the third of Mr. Staller's small-scale Gingold Theatrical Group productions to be presented off Broadway at Theatre Row. It follows in the wake of his all-but-flawless 2018 Heartbreak House, an uncommonly hard act to follow, and leaves nothing whatsoever to be desired. May his Shaw stagings become annual events!" For more information about Speakers' Corner Writers Group and all the projects of Gingold Theatrical Group, including the acclaimed Project Shaw, call 212-355-7823, email [email protected], or visit online at www.gingoldgroup.org. Linkhttp://www.gingoldgroup.org
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writemarcus · 3 years
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Gingold Theatrical Group Announces 2020-'21 Speakers' Corner Writers Group
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The writers are Kate Douglas, Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, Divya Mangwani, Seth McNeill, Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, and Marcus Scott.
by BWW News Desk
Nov. 19, 2020
Gingold Theatrical Group, now in its 15th Season, is continuing its new play development with the SPEAKERS' CORNER Writers Group. For the 2020-'21 season, writers Kate Douglas, Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, Divya Mangwani, Seth McNeill, Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, and Marcus Scott will develop works in response to Shaw's Arms and the Man.
Named after the corner of London's Hyde Park where George Bernard Shaw and other political speakers have delivered speeches since 1855, GTG's SPEAKERS' CORNER brings together six to ten writers each year who will spend the year exploring a specific Shaw play and writing individual new plays in response to that text and Shaw's forward thinking humanitarian ideals.
The group is led by GTG Associate Director Ilana Becker, a producer and director specializing in new play and musical development, community-driven projects, and arts education. In addition to serving as Gingold Theatrical Group's Associate Director, Ilana is The Civilians' R&D Program Director. She has served on the staff of All for One Theater, Lincoln Center Education, and Bret Adams Ltd, and spent a year as the Associate Artistic Director and Interim Artistic Director of Sun Valley Center for the Arts' Company of Fools. Ilana is a proud member of the WP Theater 2018-2020 Producers Lab, an alum of The Civilians' R&D Group, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, DirectorsLabChicago, Fresh Ground Pepper PlayGroup, The Orchard Project's Liveness Lab, as well as a Playwrights Horizons Robert Moss Directing Fellow and an Emerging Leader of NY Arts Fellow. She is the creator of Argument Sessions, an ongoing series of immersive variety-theater events that weave SCOTUS argument transcripts and decisions with ensemble-driven, collaboratively developed original material, and is a member of Producing Blue.
"These six exceptional playwrights bring their unique perspectives, voices, and visions to Speakers' Corner. We are inspired by their collective compassion and humor as we hone our communal digital space for new play development. GTG's work inherently acknowledges our connection to the generations that came before us, and the experiences of those that follow. It's true a thrill to anticipate how this group of inquisitive creators and arts activists will interpret this moment in conversation with Shaw and his work (no pressure!)," says Ms. Becker.
Speakers' Corner members will meet virtually, bi-monthly, and GTG will host showings of the works that Speakers' Corner develops at the end of the season. The group's members were identified through an open application process under the guidance of Becker, GTG Artistic Director David Staller, and this season's Speakers' Corner Readers and Advisory Committee: é boylan, Stephanie Rolland, Dina Vovsi, along with Speakers' Corner alumni Hank Kim, Mallory Jane Weiss, and Lorenzo Roberts.
Kate Douglas (she/her) is a writer, composer and performer. Recent work includes The Ninth Hour, her operetta with Shayfer James at The Met Cloisters (the first performance of its kind in the Fuentidueña Chapel), her immersive play Extinct (produced with support from a LMCC Engagement Grant) and her audio experience Dandelion Story, which received an Honorable Mention from SPACE on Ryder Farm's CSArt Program. Her work has been developed at The Orchard Project, New Victory Theater, The Civilians R&D Group, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Rhinebeck Musicals and the Writer's Colony at Goodspeed. She is a Dramatists Guild Fellow and a current member of The Orchard Project Greenhouse. As a complement to her artistic practice, she is a student of herbalism, horticulture and biodynamic craniosacral therapy. www.kate-douglas.com
Aeneas Sagar Hemphill (he/him) is an Indian-American playwright and screenwriter based in NYC and DC. Weaving through many genres, his work builds new worlds to illuminate our own, investigating the ghosts that haunt our lives and communities with passion, pathos, and humor. He was a 2019 Resident Artist with Monson Arts Center and 2017-2018 Playlab fellow at Pipeline Theatre, as well as semi-finalist for the 2019 Princess Grace Award, semi-finalist for the 2019 Mabou Mines Resident Artist Program, and finalist for the 2017 Many Voices Fellowship. His plays include: Black Hollow (Argo Collective, Dreamscape Theatre), The Troll King (Pipeline), Childhood Songs (Monson Arts), The Republic of Janet & Arthur (Amios), The Red Balloon (Noor Theatre), A Stitch Here or There (DarkHorse Dramatists, Slingshot Theatre), A Horse and a Housecat (Slingshot Theatre). MFA Playwriting, Columbia University.
Divya Mangwani (she/her) is a writer and theatre artist from Pune, India, now based in New York. She examines the absurdities of the social, political and mythical. Divya was the founder and Artistic Director of Moonbeam Factory Theatre, where she wrote, directed and produced plays that were staged in India, Singapore and Glasgow. In New York, she has developed work with UNICEF, Soho Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, The Flea, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Mabou Mines, Hypokrit Theatre, Project Y, Pipeline Theatre, Rising Sun, LMCC and Governors Island. Selected work: Elements of Change (UN Climate Change Week), Yes, Uncle (finalist, Leah Ryan Prize 2018), Rise of the River (semi-finalist Playwrights Realm 2019), and One, Two, Three (winner of best script, director, play and audience vote, Short+Sweet Festival). Divya was a NYTW 2050 Artistic Fellow, Hypokrit Theatre Tamasha playwright, Playlab fellow at Pipeline Theatre and is currently in the Soho Rep  Writer/Director Lab.
Seth McNeill (he/him) is a New York City based playwright and theatre artist. His plays include Bastard (Dixon Place, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Up Theater Company), we're all athletes (Amios First Draughts, Samuel French OOB Festival), and Natchetoches (Fresh Ground Pepper, Hambidge Center, JookMS). Other plays have been presented or developed with Fresh Ground Pepper, Amios NYC, Exquisite Corpse, The Barrow Group, Primary Stages, TinyRhino, The Secret Theatre, and Rule of 7x7, and he has been a semifinalist for the Shakespeare's New Contemporaries Prize and Primary Stages ESPA Drills. As a script reader and dramaturg he has worked with Theatre for a New Audience, the American Shakespeare Center, the Hambidge Center, and The Farm Theater, and he is a two-time recipient of the Vera Mowry Roberts Fellowship. Member of the Dramatists Guild. Education: Masters from Hunter College. Teaching: Hunter College. www.sethmcneill.com.
Sophie Sagan-Gutherz (they/them) is a NYC based writer, actor and singer. Their first full-length play Marked Green at Birth, Marked Female at Birth has been supported by Pride Plays (Rattlestick), the Williamstown Theatre Festival and the Tribe Theatre Company. They've written a monologue with the 24 Hour Play Festival (performed by Lea DeLaria) and have devised and performed a 10 minute solo piece Disability & Celebrity Culture (Am I Write Ladies?). They have been a finalist for the Emerging Writers Group (The Public) as well as a semi-finalist for The R&D Group (The Civilians) & PlaySpace (Pipeline Theatre Company). BFA: NYU Tisch in Drama with an Honors Thesis in Theatre Studies. sophiesagangutherz.com
Marcus Scott (he/him) is a playwright and journalist. Selected works: Fidelio (Libretto; Heartbeat Opera at Baruch Performing Arts Center, 2018; called "poignant" by The New York Times), Tumbleweed (Finalist for the 2017 BAPF; semi-finalist for the 2017/'18 New Dramatists Princess Grace Fellowship Award), Cherry Bomb (recipient of the 2017 Drama League First Stage Artist-In-Residence; 2017 Finalist for the Yale Institute for Music Theatre) and Sundown Town (Finalist for Abingdon Theatre Company's Virtual Fall Festival Of Short Plays). His work has been developed or presented by Joe's Pub, 54 Below, APAC, Dixon Place, Space on Ryder Farm, Cherry Lane Theater (DUAF), CoLAB Arts, Symphony Space, MicroTheater Miami, among others. Scott is a four-time finalist for the R&D Group at The Civilians, a two-time finalist for NBT's I AM SOUL Playwrights Residency and a 2019 finalist for the Bushwick Starr's Starr Reading Series. His articles appeared in Time Out New York, American Theatre, Playbill, Elle, Out, Essence, among others. MFA: NYU Tisch.
In addition to Speakers' Corner, GTG's on-going play development also includes PRESS CUTTINGS, which, in recognition of Shaw's career as a theatre critic, supports the development of new plays written by theatre journalists. Press Cuttings has commissioned new plays by Jeremy McCarter, Robert Simonson, and David Cote, and, in June of 2017, presented an AEA workshop of David Cote's Otherland directed by May Adrales. 
Now celebrating its 15th year, Gingold Theatrical Group's Project Shaw made history in December 2009 as the first company ever to present performances of every one of Shaw's 65 plays (including full-length works, one-acts and sketches). They are now also including plays by writers who share Shaw's activist socio-political views embracing human rights and free speech, including work by Chekhov, Ibsen, Elizabeth Robins, Rachel Crothers, Pinero, Wilde, Barrie, and Harley Granville-Barker. GTG's other programs include its new play development and educational programs. For those interested in lively off-site discourses, each Project Shaw event is followed by a talk-back with cast members.
GTG continues to present star-studded monthly readings of Shaw plays online curing this global time of transition. Their highly acclaimed Off-Broadway engagement of Shaw's beloved almost historical comedy Caesar and Cleopatra at Theatre Row, hailed as a New York Times Critic's Pick, was named Best Classical Production in Terry Teachout's year-end recap of The Best Theater of 2019 for the Wall Street Journal: "David Staller and the Gingold Theatrical Group nailed it for the second year in a row with another insufficiently appreciated play by George Bernard Shaw, this time a small-scale off-Broadway staging of Caesar and Cleopatra that brought a rarely seen show to persuasive life." In his review earlier this year in The Wall Street Journal he declared "As always, Mr. Staller, who knows more about Shaw than anyone else in America, gets it right, situating the action of the play in a modern-day archaeological dig and keeping the costumes simple and the diction crisp and clear., ...all the more reason to cheer David Staller's splendid new adaptation of one of Shaw's most glittering, least Shakespearean conversation pieces. This is the third of Mr. Staller's small-scale Gingold Theatrical Group productions to be presented off Broadway at Theatre Row. It follows in the wake of his all-but-flawless 2018 Heartbreak House, an uncommonly hard act to follow, and leaves nothing whatsoever to be desired. May his Shaw stagings become annual events!"
For more information about Speakers' Corner Writers Group and all the projects of Gingold Theatrical Group, including the acclaimed Project Shaw, call 212-355-7823, email [email protected], or visit online at www.gingoldgroup.org.
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writemarcus · 3 years
Text
Gingold Theatrical Group
 Announces the 2020-‘21
 Speakers' Corner Writers Group
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Posted by: Official_Press_Release 04:43 pm EST 11/19/20 Gingold Theatrical Group Announces the 2020-'21 Speakers' Corner Writers Group: Kate Douglas, Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, Divya Mangwani, Seth McNeill, Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, and Marcus Scott Gingold Theatrical Group (David Staller, Artistic Director), now in its 15th Season, continues its new play development with the SPEAKERS' CORNER Writers Group. For the 2020-'21 season, writers Kate Douglas, Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, Divya Mangwani, Seth McNeill, Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, and Marcus Scott will develop works in response to Shaw's Arms and the Man. Named after the corner of London's Hyde Park where George Bernard Shaw and other political speakers have delivered speeches since 1855, GTG's SPEAKERS' CORNER brings together six to ten writers each year who will spend the year exploring a specific Shaw play and writing individual new plays in response to that text and Shaw's forward thinking humanitarian ideals. The group is led by GTG Associate Director Ilana Becker, a producer and director specializing in new play and musical development, community-driven projects, and arts education. In addition to serving as Gingold Theatrical Group's Associate Director, Ilana is The Civilians' R&D Program Director. She has served on the staff of All for One Theater, Lincoln Center Education, and Bret Adams Ltd, and spent a year as the Associate Artistic Director and Interim Artistic Director of Sun Valley Center for the Arts' Company of Fools. Ilana is a proud member of the WP Theater 2018-2020 Producers Lab, an alum of the Civilians' R&D Group, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, DirectorsLabChicago, Fresh Ground Pepper PlayGroup, The Orchard Project's Liveness Lab, as well as a Playwrights Horizons Robert Moss Directing Fellow and an Emerging Leader of NY Arts Fellow. She is the creator of Argument Sessions, an ongoing series of immersive variety-theater events that weave SCOTUS argument transcripts and decisions with ensemble-driven, collaboratively developed original material, and is a member of Producing Blue. "These six exceptional playwrights bring their unique perspectives, voices, and visions to Speakers' Corner. We are inspired by their collective compassion and humor as we hone our communal digital space for new play development. GTG's work inherently acknowledges our connection to the generations that came before us, and the experiences of those that follow. It's true a thrill to anticipate how this group of inquisitive creators and arts activists will interpret this moment in conversation with Shaw and his work ( no pressure!)," says Ms. Becker. Speakers' Corner members will meet virtually, bi-monthly, and GTG will host showings of the works that Speakers' Corner develops at the end of the season. The group's members were identified through an open application process under the guidance of Becker, GTG Artistic Director David Staller, and this season's Speakers' Corner Readers and Advisory Committee: é boylan, Stephanie Rolland, Dina Vovsi, along with Speakers' Corner alumni Hank Kim, Mallory Jane Weiss, and Lorenzo Roberts. Kate Douglas (she/her) is a writer, composer and performer. Recent work includes The Ninth Hour, her operetta with Shayfer James at The Met Cloisters (the first performance of its kind in the Fuentidueña Chapel), her immersive play Extinct (produced with support from a LMCC Engagement Grant) and her audio experience Dandelion Story, which received an Honorable Mention from SPACE on Ryder Farm's CSArt Program. Her work has been developed at The Orchard Project, New Victory Theater, The Civilians R&D Group, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Rhinebeck Musicals and the Writer's Colony at Goodspeed. She is a Dramatists Guild Fellow and a current member of The Orchard Project Greenhouse. As a complement to her artistic practice, she is a student of herbalism, horticulture and biodynamic craniosacral therapy. www.kate-douglas.com Aeneas Sagar Hemphill (he/him) is an Indian-American playwright and screenwriter based in NYC and DC. Weaving through many genres, his work builds new worlds to illuminate our own, investigating the ghosts that haunt our lives and communities with passion, pathos, and humor. He was a 2019 Resident Artist with Monson Arts Center and 2017-2018 Playlab fellow at Pipeline Theatre, as well as semi-finalist for the 2019 Princess Grace Award, semi-finalist for the 2019 Mabou Mines Resident Artist Program, and finalist for the 2017 Many Voices Fellowship. His plays include: Black Hollow (Argo Collective, Dreamscape Theatre), The Troll King (Pipeline), Childhood Songs (Monson Arts), The Republic of Janet & Arthur (Amios), The Red Balloon (Noor Theatre), A Stitch Here or There (DarkHorse Dramatists, Slingshot Theatre), A Horse and a Housecat (Slingshot Theatre). MFA Playwriting, Columbia University. Divya Mangwani (she/her) is a writer and theatre artist from Pune, India, now based in New York. She examines the absurdities of the social, political and mythical. Divya was the founder and Artistic Director of Moonbeam Factory Theatre, where she wrote, directed and produced plays that were staged in India, Singapore and Glasgow. In New York, she has developed work with UNICEF, Soho Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, The Flea, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Mabou Mines, Hypokrit Theatre, Project Y, Pipeline Theatre, Rising Sun, LMCC and Governors Island. Selected work: Elements of Change (UN Climate Change Week), Yes, Uncle (finalist, Leah Ryan Prize 2018), Rise of the River (semi-finalist Playwrights Realm 2019), and One, Two, Three (winner of best script, director, play and audience vote, Short+Sweet Festival). Divya was a NYTW 2050 Artistic Fellow, Hypokrit Theatre Tamasha playwright, Playlab fellow at Pipeline Theatre and is currently in the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Seth McNeill (he/him) is a New York City based playwright and theatre artist. His plays include Bastard (Dixon Place, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Up Theater Company), we're all athletes (Amios First Draughts, Samuel French OOB Festival), and Natchetoches (Fresh Ground Pepper, Hambidge Center, JookMS). Other plays have been presented or developed with Fresh Ground Pepper, Amios NYC, Exquisite Corpse, The Barrow Group, Primary Stages, TinyRhino, The Secret Theatre, and Rule of 7x7, and he has been a semifinalist for the Shakespeare's New Contemporaries Prize and Primary Stages ESPA Drills. As a script reader and dramaturg he has worked with Theatre for a New Audience, the American Shakespeare Center, the Hambidge Center, and The Farm Theater, and he is a two-time recipient of the Vera Mowry Roberts Fellowship. Member of the Dramatists Guild. Education: Masters from Hunter College. Teaching: Hunter College. www.sethmcneill.com. Sophie Sagan-Gutherz (they/them) is a NYC based writer, actor and singer. Their first full-length play Marked Green at Birth, Marked Female at Birth has been supported by Pride Plays (Rattlestick), the Williamstown Theatre Festival and the Tribe Theatre Company. They've written a monologue with the 24 Hour Play Festival (performed by Lea DeLaria) and have devised and performed a 10 minute solo piece Disability & Celebrity Culture (Am I Write Ladies?). They have been a finalist for the Emerging Writers Group (The Public) as well as a semi-finalist for The R&D Group (The Civilians) & PlaySpace (Pipeline Theatre Company). BFA: NYU Tisch in Drama with an Honors Thesis in Theatre Studies. sophiesagangutherz.com Marcus Scott (he/him) is a playwright and journalist. Selected works: Fidelio (Libretto; Heartbeat Opera at Baruch Performing Arts Center, 2018; called "poignant" by The New York Times), Tumbleweed (Finalist for the 2017 BAPF; semi-finalist for the 2017/'18 New Dramatists Princess Grace Fellowship Award), Cherry Bomb (recipient of the 2017 Drama League First Stage Artist-In-Residence; 2017 Finalist for the Yale Institute for Music Theatre) and Sundown Town (Finalist for Abingdon Theatre Company's Virtual Fall Festival Of Short Plays). His work has been developed or presented by Joe's Pub, 54 Below, APAC, Dixon Place, Space on Ryder Farm, Cherry Lane Theater (DUAF), CoLAB Arts, Symphony Space, MicroTheater Miami, among others. Scott is a four-time finalist for the R&D Group at The Civilians, a two-time finalist for NBT's I AM SOUL Playwrights Residency and a 2019 finalist for the Bushwick Starr's Starr Reading Series. His articles appeared in Time Out New York, American Theatre, Playbill, Elle, Out, Essence, among others. MFA: NYU Tisch. In addition to Speakers' Corner, GTG's on-going play development also includes PRESS CUTTINGS, which, in recognition of Shaw's career as a theatre critic, supports the development of new plays written by theatre journalists. Press Cuttings has commissioned new plays by Jeremy McCarter, Robert Simonson, and David Cote, and, in June of 2017, presented an AEA workshop of David Cote's Otherland directed by May Adrales. Now celebrating its 15th year, Gingold Theatrical Group's Project Shaw made history in December 2009 as the first company ever to present performances of every one of Shaw's 65 plays (including full-length works, one-acts and sketches). They are now also including plays by writers who share Shaw's activist socio-political views embracing human rights and free speech, including work by Chekhov, Ibsen, Elizabeth Robins, Rachel Crothers, Pinero, Wilde, Barrie, and Harley Granville-Barker. GTG's other programs include its new play development and educational programs. For those interested in lively off-site discourses, each Project Shaw event is followed by a talk-back with cast members. GTG continues to present star-studded monthly readings of Shaw plays online curing this global time of transition. Their highly acclaimed Off-Broadway engagement of Shaw's beloved almost historical comedy Caesar and Cleopatra at Theatre Row, hailed as a New York Times Critic's Pick, was named Best Classical Production in Terry Teachout's year-end recap of The Best Theater of 2019 for the Wall Street Journal: "David Staller and the Gingold Theatrical Group nailed it for the second year in a row with another insufficiently appreciated play by George Bernard Shaw, this time a small-scale off-Broadway staging of Caesar and Cleopatra that brought a rarely seen show to persuasive life." In his review earlier this year in The Wall Street Journal he declared "As always, Mr. Staller, who knows more about Shaw than anyone else in America, gets it right, situating the action of the play in a modern-day archaeological dig and keeping the costumes simple and the diction crisp and clear., ...all the more reason to cheer David Staller's splendid new adaptation of one of Shaw's most glittering, least Shakespearean conversation pieces. This is the third of Mr. Staller's small-scale Gingold Theatrical Group productions to be presented off Broadway at Theatre Row. It follows in the wake of his all-but-flawless 2018 Heartbreak House, an uncommonly hard act to follow, and leaves nothing whatsoever to be desired. May his Shaw stagings become annual events!" Link: http://www.gingoldgroup.org
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