2015 ARCHIVE
MAIN STAGE
By Ken Jaworowski
Directed by Alex Dmitriev
'Believers' intertwines the stories of a young couple and their older selves, and looks at the tragedy and comedy that changes their lives and faith.
by The Playwrights of The WorkShop Theater.
A veritable cornucopia of new short works inspired by the greatest of life's necessities... FOOD!
by Allan Knee
Twelve years after the close of A Christmas Carol - Timothy Cratchit - now 19 - leaves the home of his benefactor, Ebenezer Scrooge, in order to find his place in the world. On his path he encounters many trying, eye-opening and comical situations, but it is with the magnificent stage clown, Grimaldi, and his troupe of lively performers that he discovers his true identity.
3 DAY READINGS
by Greg Oliver Bodine
Adapted from the classic, short novel by Joseph Conrad
Directed by Leslie Kincaid Burby
In 1909, an inexperienced, young sea captain is torn between his duty to his ship and his loyalty to a fugitive, to whom he has offered refuge after the murder of a mutinous crew member. Set against the background of the sea at the end of the "Age of Sail," the play explores the themes of race, morality and self-identity.
Book and Lyrics by Dana Leslie Goldstein
Music by Rima Fand
Sally Kaplan is so in love with the world she's created in her hit comic book Cyclone, she lets it seduce her away from her real life. Set in the glitzy, seedy, sexy Coney Island of the Roaring 20's, her heroines fight the bad guys and always save the day. But when tragedy strikes in the real world, Sally must find a way to rescue herself.
By Jennifer Fell Hayes
Two Yorkshire women working side by side in an English boarding school discover they share a dark secret from the past which leads them to hardship and struggle, as they try to navigate their future together and reinvent their relationship.
by Rich Orloff
If you could observe your parents at the time of your birth, what do you think you'd learn?
1953. Chicago.
Jennifer is about to discover more than she can handle.
by Ken Jaworowski
'Christian' intertwines the stories of a young couple and their older selves, and looks at the tragedy and comedy that changes their lives and faith.
by Allan Knee
Twelve years after the close of A Christmas Carol - Timothy Cratchit - now 19 - leaves the home of his benefactor, Ebenezer Scrooge, in order to find his place in the world. On his path he encounters many trying, eye-opening and comical situations, but it is with the magnificent stage clown, Grimaldi, and his troupe of lively performers that he discovers his true identity.
SUNDAYS@SIX
by Tom Cole
In April of 1971, a Doctor specializing in "impact grief" arrives at Valley Forge Army Hospital in Pennsylvania from NYC to treat a "special case": Dale Jackson (D.J.), an African American soldier and recent recipient of our nation's highest military honor, is suffering from the extreme effects of PTSD and immeasurable survivor's guilt. During the course of the Doctor's session with D.J., the two verbally spar until the physician draws out the horror and disgust that has traumatized the patient and reveals similar shared experiences although two people could not seem initially more different, in the hopes of helping this severely wounded hero begin to heal before it becomes too late.
by Cathy Hamilton and Carol Starr Schneider
Brushes: A Comedy of Hairs is about the complicated relationship between women and their hair since time immemorial. Brushes with disaster, vanity, envy, self-doubt, sex, death - even the law - are explored in hilarious and poignant style. Woven together with strands of universal wisdom by a b-list goddess, the follicular follies flow from ancient Greece to the Bad Hair Days Inn to a new salon on the block called Blow Me Now. Grab your mother, daughter, best friend, better half and ex-stylist as we drink to our mistakes and celebrate our collective crowning glory.
by Vincent Marano
Fresh out of foster care, a young woman is contacted by the birth mother she never knew. Or was she? A mysterious journal unlocks the mystery of a family tragedy, but is it the whole story. And will her real family ever match up to the imaginary one she has nurtured for so long. Sometimes ignorance is more than bliss, it's safer.
by Tony Sportiello
Coach Jeffries utters an offensive remark while talking on his phone from his own home. The remark is recorded and suddenly Coach Jeffries is on every front page in the country. The President of the University, John Grayson, now has a decision on his hands. Fire the coach, as the student body, faculty and media demand, or listen to his own conscience, which wonders - "at what point are our private conversations open to public scrutiny?"
by Dave Dannenfelser
It’s the possible last days of Stephen Crane’s brief life as he suffers from Tuberculosis in a Sanatorium in Upstate New York. What did the author of The Red Badge of Courage, considered by some to be the first anti-war novel, really think about war? Stephen struggles with this and other questions while dealing with fellow patients Robert Louise Stevenson and Edna Ferber and his memories of his relationships with his wife, Joseph Conrad, H.G. Wells and other literary giants. But his real-life experiences pale in comparison to the visitations he receives from the apparitions of family members and the materializations of fictional characters from his novels and stories.
by Walter Brandes
Suspense and paranoia surround an archaeological dig that uncovers an unknown foreign object in the Akuhma Desert. It is up to an unlikely team of a physicist, a geologist, and two cooks to reveal the secrets of the mysterious find. In this sci-fi thriller with smatterings of comedy, the group of four begin to unravel the truth of what is in the desert and, in doing so, destroy the reality they once knew.
A FAMILY GAME
by Leegrid Stevens
A recent death in the Dudley family is understood and coped with through the world of a classic 8-bit video game. While dodging ghosts, zombies and evil Aunts side-scrolling through the neighborhood, the Dudleys attempt to rewrite history and ultimately win a game they lost long ago.
by Dana Leslie Goldstein
Decades after they marched together for civil rights, the friendship between two academics is tested when a racially charged controversy flares up at the campus where they teach.
TWO ONE-ACT PLAYS ABOUT NEW YORK CITY
by Jack Feldstein
THE VOICES OF JULIE LEVINE
When Julie Levine's father re-appears, he's obsessed with an insane plan concerning the Jews of New York. One that drives Julie crazy in every way.
THE CONFESSIONS OF PETER McDOWELL
In the cut-throat world of New York theater, middle-aged artistic director and playwright Peter McDowell must face his greatest challenge ever when 19 year old playwriting genius, Andrew Livingston enters the scene. And forces Peter McDowell to face his worst nemesis. Himself.
by Ken Jaworowski
Five characters find their lives veering between comedy and tragedy as each comes to a turning point: an ex-con starts a coaching job at an inner-city high school; an accountant struggles to keep her cool amid various disasters; a nun who doubts her faith is presented with a terrible dilemma; a blind man gets a second chance at sight; and a mental patient may just be more sane than those around her.
by Ivana Shein
The Lovers is a play about a Marc Chagall painting which John and Melanie (lovers living in London), are obsessed with. We move back and forth in time between two love stories: Marc and Bella Chagall in Paris and Vitebsk, Russia at the beginning of the 20th century and John and Melanie in London, England at the beginning of the 21st century. As we negotiate between past and present, trauma and romance, the discrepancy between the fantasy of love and the reality of love becomes more apparent. Semi-finalist, 2015 O'Neill Playwrights Conference.
A PLAY WITH MOVEMENT
by John McKinney
A high school math teacher, caught in a troubled marriage and disillusioned with his life in general, is presented with a moral dilemma when he begins to tutor a savant-like Asian girl with ties to the occult -- and a blossoming sexual curiosity. The play explores various psychological and spiritual themes through the use of music and dance.
by Jack Feldstein
Genius or lunatic? Or paradoxically both? In Spain, the final years and decline and ultimate descent of the eccentric and brilliant artist Salvador Dali into madness were decadently intertwined with his wife, Gala. In THE DESCENT TO DALI which is based on real life events, we learn the strange and surrealistic happenings of this powerhouse art -star couple, Gala and Dali, until their controversial deaths in 1982 and 1989 respectively.
A Science Faction Play by Richard Kent Green
Four people participate in an experiment to perfect and enhance the human body with microscopic, robotic technology.
by Colleen Murphy
A mysterious vagrant flies off the roof of a condo development and lands on the balcony of a long-married couple. This strange arrival leads to unexpected revelations about their lives, their marriage and their mutual loneliness with each other, sparking a wild desire to go out on a limb and into the night. This thought-provoking comedic drama by Governor General Award-winning, Quebec-born Colleen Murphy ingeniously achieves a satisfying balance of wry humour and melancholy.
Colleen Murphy won the 2007 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama
The first in a trilogy of new plays
by Greg Oliver Bodine
In March, 1925 a young, neurotic sculptor seeks out a renowned professor and presents him with a strange bas-relief based on his own disturbing dreams, associated with the words, ‘Cthulhu’ and ‘R'lyeh’—words the professor knows from a mysterious cult whose followers worship a gigantic, ancient deity they believe will emerge from the depths of the ocean to once again rule over the earth.
by Jack Feldstein
With songs by Rivky Grossman
A NYC actor, Vincent Grapelli, has lost his way in life... and in THE
KINGDOM OF VINCENT GRAPELLI, a magical show that's both cabaret and
musical theater, he must find it again.
Interwoven with 20 exquisite new songs by musical prodigy, Rivky Grossman.
by Laura Hirschberg
Michael doesn't know what to do with his life. He could easily attribute his latest bout of aimlessness to simply being 28... but a surprising encounter with his brother, and visions of an altogether more exotic sort, send Michael down a far more complicated and painful path of revelation.
by Liz Amberly
When a college student Jessie works at her father’s adoption agency, she meets a Guatemalan woman who claims her son had been stolen. As Jessie tries to unravel the mystery surrounding the adoption, she also faces her own family's past. The two stories intertwine, and everyone must make some unexpected choices.
by Richard Isen
Gregory, a 50 year-old gay, semi-retired Psychology Consultant has a near-death experience, triggering the appearance of THE LADY, an apparition out of the Hollywood silver screen who pushes Gregory into a dangerous relationship with a beautiful young male escort; leading him to a deeper understanding of what it means to love.
by Robert Strozier
You're sitting next to a guy at a play who laughs very loudly--annoyingly so--at all the funny parts. Does he maybe know someone in the cast, you wonder. You pointedly glance his way several times, hoping he'll get the hint and lower the volume. You stand to leave at the end, and he says, "Your looking at me repeatedly was really offensive." Tempers rise, words are exchanged, and you go your separate ways. Luckily, you'll never seen him again. Or…will you?
by Muriel Broadman
What could go wrong for Rose-Red, her Father who gave her a scroll and a pair of magic slippers, and her Grandmother who knows how to talk to birds? Everything, when Father marries a scheming fortune hunter with two nasty daughters. But Grandmother is looking out for her, as is the magic jinni in the well. This Middle Eastern/Jewish Cinderella has been adapted from the old folk tale "The Red Slippers" by Muriel Broadman, a long-time theatre critic and advocate for good children's and family entertainment. Suitable for all ages.
by J. Thalia Cunningham
FIRST, DO NO HARM explores today’s themes of medical ethics, medical error and racial profiling, presented from the rare point of view of the physicians and their world. Surgeon Dr. Elissa Kerry performs a routine appendectomy on 21-year-old African-American Treshaun Clester, who unexpectedly dies on the operating table. Mattie Clester, Treshaun’s mother seeks answers from the hospital’s CEO, who is more concerned about expenditures than a parent's grief. Dr. Kerry is herself in a crisis situation as her eleven year old son Aidan suffers from a fatal disease, and she has to cope with her pain as well as her spouse's agony. As the investigations into the case case of Treshaun progress, Dr. Kerry finds both her professional and personal lives disintegrating.
by Fred Pezzulli
A woman in her early 40s with an aggressive form of breast cancer seeks help from a well-known breast surgeon. Since she has had a full course of conventional treatment without success the only option is an experimental clinical trial. The doctor and patient grapple with the medical and philosophical implications of embarking on this course of treatment.
by Gary Giovannetti
About one in ten Americans suffer from depression in any given year. SOMETHING IN THE WAY is a drama about how depression affects us and those we love. Journey along with the newly-married Grace and Eddie as they battle against this debilitating menace.
A Screenplay by Timothy Scott Harris & Bob Manus
Five actors. Five actors that Hollywood chewed up and spit out. Now this is their last chance, their last chance to score big and produce that dream movie. They’ve studied their craft, rehearsed for months, learned every line, and now it’s gonna take all their acting chops to pull off the heist of the century.
Directed by Robert Kalfin
Sylvia and Eli Pomerantz return home from a long days work at the flea market. It is Sylvia’s 70th birthday, a special day, being treated casually, until Ritchie, their 35-year-old son, drops in unexpectedly. Their intimate relationships unravel as the three of them engage in harsh and tender attempts to be understood and understanding. For the first time, Ritchie and his father become willing to let go of a troubled past and brave the unknown experience of NEW TIMES.
by Vincent Marano
Are there some mistakes we never stop paying for? Twenty years after a neighborhood murder changed their lives for ever, the denizens of a Bronx Coffee shop try build a life in a world they can't recognize.
by Barbara Suter
During the run of an off-Broadway play, five actresses share a dressing room where temperaments collide as the cast prepares for opening night, which results in uneven reviews, personal revelations and some long buried secrets that beg forgiveness. Will the company survive or will the backstage confessions be too much and leave the cast divided and the show in jeopardy?
OTHER EVENTS
Our second annual unGala will be Monday, Oct.19 at 353WEST- that’s 353 W.46th. Our Jewel Box Award will honor Jim Dale and his 50 years on stage. The unGala gives us an opportunity to broaden our reach of support, while celebrating the company with members who can join the party.
By Allan Knee
Music and Lyrics by Andre Catrini
Directed by Thomas Coté
Twelve years after the close of A Christmas Carol - Timothy Cratchit - now 19 - leaves the home of his benefactor, Ebenezer Scrooge, in order to find his place in the world. On his path he encounters many trying, eye-opening and comical situations, but it is with the magnificent stage clown, Grimaldi, and his troupe of lively performers that he discovers his true identity.