Kevin Christopher Snipes

Aurora Theatre's GAP to Feature "Ashes, Ashes"

2011-11-05T14:23:00.007-07:00

Kevin Christopher Snipes' dark-comedy Ashes, Ashes will be part of the Aurora Theatre's Global Age Project (GAP). The play will receive a one-night-only staged reading on February 27, 2012. The Global Age Project is Aurora Theatre Company's annual new works festival exploring the 21st century and beyond. It showcases new plays that directly respond to our complicated present and our possible futures. The festival celebrates the diversity of perspectives, styles, voices, concerns, and stories that make up the world today. In addition to Snipes' work, the festival will also feature new plays by Garret Jon Groenveld, Joel Drake Johnson and Lauren Yee.

In Ashes, Ashes, two couples find their marriages tested when a rumor of infidelity pits the four friends against each other. The reading will be directed by Rhonnie Washington. Washington is a professor at San Francisco State University, where he has directed Much Ado About Nothing and The Glass Menagerie.

The Aurora Theatre is located at 2081 Addison Street in Berkeley, CA. To read more about the GAP Festival, you can read the full story on Broadway.com.

"4 Photos of Pluto" part of TinyRhino Tuesdays

2011-07-05T13:25:00.011-06:00

Kevin Christopher Snipes' ten-minute play 4 Photos of Pluto will be part of TinyRhino Tuesdays at the Brooklyn Lyceum. The "theatrical drinking game" features staged readings of six short plays by Nick Gandiello, Tariq Hamani, Ross Harris, T. Michelle Murphy, Evan Twohy and Snipes. TinyRhino Tuesdays begin at 7:30 PM on July 12th and 19th. Tickets are $10 online or at the door. For more info, go to the UglyRhino website here.

Kahn, Leedes, McNamara & Sedgwick set for New Group reading of "Ashes, Ashes"

2011-01-06T19:50:00.026-07:00

Ian Kahn, Julie Leedes, Annie McNamara & Robert Sedgwick will play the four friends whose marriages start to unravel in the New Group's January 18th reading of Ashes, Ashes. The plot of this new dark comedy by Kevin Christopher Snipes is as follows: When Jeremy (Sedgwick) informs his wife Emma (Leedes) that her best friend's husband might have made a pass at him, he sets into motion a sexually charged chain of events that soon envelopes their best friends Margot (McNamara) and Paul (Kahn), and threatens to tearboth couples apart.

Ian Kahn made his Broadway debut in Enron. Off-broadway he appeared in MCC's Still Life. Julie Leedes previously appeared in Snipes' short play Party Lights. In addition to appearing in several plays at EST, she is also one-third of the singing trio The SkanDivas. Annie McNamara's theater creditsinclude the Elevator Repair Services' GATZ at the Public Theater and God's Ear. Robert Sedgwick's television credits include Another World and Law & Order. He also appeared on stage in Bliss and Finder's Fee at Rattlestick Theatre

Ian Morgan will direct the reading,which starts at 7:00 PM at the Studio Theatre on Theatre Row, located at 410 West 42nd Street. To reserve complimentary tickets, RSVP to james@thenewgroup.org.

"Ashes, Ashes" Reading at the New Group

2011-01-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

The New Group will host a reading of Kevin Christopher Snipes' new play Ashes, Ashes on January 18th as part of their New Group/New Works reading series. Directed by Associate Artistic Director Ian Morgan, the reading will take place at the Studio Theatre on Theatre Row at 410 West 42nd Street at 7:00 PM. Casting will be announced shortly.

In Ashes, Ashes two couples find their marriages and friendships tested when a rumor of infidelity insinuates itself into their already shaky relationships. Morgan's previous directing credits with the New Group include Critical Darling and the Drama Desk-nominated The Accomplices.

To reserve complimentary tickets to the reading, please RSVP to james@thenewgroup.org.

Orlando Sentinel Names "The Chimes" Best of 2010

2010-12-31T17:59:00.008-07:00

(Kramer, Aronowitz, Alonso & Layner in UCF's The Chimes)

Orlando Sentinel theater critic Matt Palm has named UCF's production of The Chimes as one of his favorite shows of 2010. In his round-up of Central Florida's 2010 theater scene, Palm writes, "My favorite male ensemble? The four guys of The Chimes from UCF Conservatory Theatre. Under the direction of David Lee, actors Zachary Layner, Robert Aronowitz, Kevin Alonso and Ian Kramer formed a tight group of believable friends that made the eventual unraveling of their relationships all the more moving." The cast also included Mark Brotherton, Bob Dolan, Tom Nowicki and Trevin Cooper. To read Palm's full article, go here.

Photo Call: "The Chimes" at UCF

2010-09-28T19:36:00.012-06:00

Photos from UCF's production of The Chimes, directed by David Lee.

Nick (Ian Kramer) confronts Marcus (Zachary Layner).

Birdie (Robert Aronowitz) and Vivian (Kevin Alonso) perform The Merchant of Venice.

Gordon (Bob Dolan) and Nicholas (Mark Brotherton) drink the night away.

Nicholas (Mark Brotherton) looks back on his past: Nick (Ian Kramer) and Marcus (Zachary Layner).

Nick (Ian Kramer) performs Shylock under the watchful gaze of Carlyle (Trevin Cooper).

Elizabeth Maupin's Review of "The Chimes"

2010-09-25T08:34:00.009-06:00

(Mark Brotherton & Bob Dolan in The Chimes.)

UCF's production of The Chimes has garnered another rave review. This time from Elizabeth Maupin, the former Orlando Sentinel theater critic turned independent theater blogger. In her review on Elizabeth Maupin on Theater, she writes, "To most of us, prep school seems like a rarefied setting – all the jackets and ties, the secret societies, the breaking in and out of dormitories at all hours of the night. But playwright Kevin Christopher Snipes sends the boys of a New England boarding school crashing up against the larger world in The Chimes, a bittersweet drama in which truth and brotherhood are no match for a maelstrom of more powerful forces sweeping four students into its path." To read the full review, please visit Maupin's blog.

The Orlando Sentinel Review of "The Chimes"

2010-09-24T21:04:00.016-06:00

(Zachary Layner & Ian Kramer in The Chimes.)

The Orlando Sentinel has given UCF's production of The Chimes a rave review. Critic Matt Palm writes, "Adults like to tell children that some of life’s most important lessons are learned at school — but not in the classroom. UCF Conservatory Theatre’s The Chimes shouts that message loud and clear in a moving, engrossing production that vividly shows how youthful decisions — whether to stand up for what’s right, or be true to one’s self — can have lifelong repercussions." To read the full review, go to the Orlando Sentinel theater blog.

"The Chimes" opens at UCF

2010-09-23T00:00:00.005-06:00

September 23rd marks the opening night of The Chimes at UCF's Black Box Theater in Orlando, Florida. Directed by David Lee, the play will run September 23th - 25th and then October 5th, 8th and 10th. Set in 1939 on the eve of the Second World War, The Chimes focuses on four boys in a New England boarding school who are drawn together by their love of Shakespeare and torn apart by the administration's anti-Semetic policies.

The cast features Robert Aronowitz (Birdie McAllister), Mark Brotherton (Nicholas Ross), Bob Dolan (Gordon McAllister), Ian Kramer (Nick Ross), and Zachary Layner (Marcus Hale), who reprise the roles they played in Orlando Shakespeare's workshop production of the play last year. They are joined by Kevin Alonso (Vivian Porter), Trevin Cooper (Professor Carlyle) and Tom Nowicki (Headmaster Barrow).

Tickets are available by calling (407) 823-1500. Or visit the UCF theater website.

"The Chimes" makes Orlando's Top 20 List

2010-09-17T21:22:00.006-06:00

In the September issue of Orlando Home & Leisure, theater critic Elizabeth Maupin names the upcoming UCF production of The Chimes as one of the 20 Can't Miss Cultural Events in Central Florida. The production will run September 23th-25th and October 5th, 8th and 10th in the Black Box Theatre at the University of Central Florida. To read the Orlando Home & Leisure article, go here.

"The Chimes" will open UCF's 2010-11 Theater Season

2010-04-08T17:29:00.009-06:00

The Chimes will open the University of Central Florida's 2010-11 fall theater season. Beginning September 23, the play will run in UCF's Black Box Theater with performances set for September 24 & 25 and October 5, 8 and 10. David Lee, who directed a workshop production of The Chimes at Orlando Shakespeare in 2009, will helm the UCF production.

Set in a New England boarding school on the eve of World War II, The Chimes focuses on four teenage boys who are brought together by their love of Shakespeare and torn apart by the impending war. For tickets or more information about the UCF 2010-11 theater season, go here.

"Hip-Skidoo" in Arts & Letters

2010-03-21T18:35:00.007-07:00

The Spring 2010 edition of Arts & Letters (Issue #23) will feature the complete text of Kevin Christopher Snipes' one-act Hip-Skidoo. Set in 1967, Hip-Skidoo focuses on Joanne West, a Macon housewife, who "kidnaps" her teenage son and takes him on a cross-country road trip that seems to have no end in sight. To celebrate the play's publication in Arts & Letters, Georgia College & State University presented two performances of Hip-Skidoo March 12 & 13 in their Max Noah Recital Hall. To order a copy of issue 23, go to the Arts & Letters website here.

Davis, Harbour, Pourfar & Yaegashi to read "Ashes, Ashes"

2010-03-19T21:00:00.001-07:00

Casting is complete for the staged reading of Kevin Christopher Snipes' new play Ashes, Ashes, which will be presented at the Public Theater on March 22nd as part of the Emerging Writers Group Spotlight Series. Eisa Davis, David Harbour, Susan Pourfar and James Yaegashi will play the four friends whose marriages are tested when a rumor of infidelity insinuates itself into their lives and starts to turn them against each other. Peter DuBois (Becky Shaw, Measure for Pleasure) will direct the reading.

Eisa Davis recently appeared in This at Playwrights Horizons. Previous theater credits include Passing Strange and Angela's Mixtape. Davis was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for her play Bulrusher. David Harbour received a Tony nomination for his portrayal of Nick in the Broadway revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? His film credits include Brokeback Mountain, Quantum of Solace and Revolutionary Road. Susan Pourfar is currently appearing in When the Rain Stops Falling at Lincoln Center. Last season she appeared in Craig Lucas' Singing Forest at the Public. James Yaegashi's Broadway credits include Take Me Out and The Naked Girl on the Appian Way. He also appeared in Durango at the Public.

The reading of Ashes, Ashes will take place at the Public Theater on March 22nd at 7:00 PM. It is free and open to the public though reservations are recommended. For more information about the Spotlight Reading Series, go here.

"Ashes, Ashes" Reading at the Public

2010-02-26T00:10:00.004-07:00

On March 22nd the Public Theater will host a reading of Kevin Christopher Snipes' new play Ashes, Ashes as part of its Emerging Writers Group Spotlight Series. In this biting dark comedy, Jeremy informs his wife that her best friend's husband may have made a pass at him. In doing so, he sets off a sexually charged chain of events that threatens to tear both couples apart.

Peter DuBois, artistic director of the Huntington Theatre in Boston, will direct the reading. At the Public, DuBois previously directed Richard III and David Grimm's Measure for Pleasure. He also helmed Gina Gionfriddo's Becky Shaw at Second Stage.

The reading of Ashes, Ashes will begin at 7:00 PM in the Public's Martinson Theater. Admission is free but reservations are recommended. To reserve tickets or for more information about this event, please go the Public Theater's website here.

Evening of Excerpts at the Public

2010-02-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

February 25th at 7:00 PM the Public Theater will present an Evening of Excerpts featuring staged readings of selections from new plays written by the 2009 Emerging Writers Group. Included in the evening will be an excerpt from Kevin Christopher Snipes' new play Ashes, Ashes.

A scathing dark comedy, Ashes, Ashes explores two marriages that begin to self-destruct when one husband accuses another of making a sexual pass at a dinner party. May Adrales will direct the reading which will feature Jennifer R. Morris and Greg Keller. Keller recently appeared in the Women's Project's Smudge and has also appeared in Zayd Dohrn's Reborning at SPF and The Seagull at CSC. Morris is a member of The Civilians and has appear in their productions of Gone Missing, The Ladies and Paris Commune.

The Evening of Excerpts will begin at 7:00 PM at the Public and will be followed by a reception in the theater's lobby. Admission is free but reservations are required.

SPF 2009 In Review

2009-08-31T10:21:00.003-06:00

Watch the above video to see clips from the eight shows performed in SPF 2009 at the Public Theater. The plays include Kevin Christopher Snipes' The Chimes, Zayd Dohrn's Reborning, Alena Smith's The Sacrifices, Ken Urban's The Happy Sad, Dougal Irvine's Departure Lounge, Tim J. Lord's We Declare You a Terrorist, Rick Viede's Whore and Nicki Bloom's Tender.

The retrospective video contains two clips from the roof scene in Act One of The Chimes. The first features Brian C. Johnson, Elan Moss-Bachrach, and Andy Phelan. The second features Andy Phelan and Jeff Ward.

"The Chimes" Concludes Sold-Out Run at SPF

2009-07-12T00:01:00.001-06:00

(Jeff Ward & Andy Phelan in The Chimes. Photo Credit: Graeme Malcolm)

The Chimes concludes its run as part of the Summer Play Festival (SPF) today, July 12th. Under the direction of Adam Immerwahr, the sold-out run ran for eight performances in the Public's Martinson Theater. Set on the eve of World War II, The Chimes focuses on four boys drawn together by their love of Shakespeare and torn apart by the War. The show starred Richard Bekins, Brian C. Johnson, Graeme Malcolm, Elan Moss-Bachrach, John O'Creagh, Andy Phelan, Peter Van Wagner and Jeff Ward.

"The Chimes" on NY1

2009-07-08T21:34:00.003-06:00

The Chimes is highlighted in a news story about SPF over at NY1. The local news agency recently interviewed Kevin Christopher Snipes about his play. To watch the interview and see backstage stage rehearsal footage of the play featuring actors Andy Phelan, Jeff Ward, John O'Creagh and Richard Bekins, go to NY1 here.

Sold Out Run of "The Chimes" Opens at SPF

2009-07-07T00:31:00.006-06:00

(John O'Creagh and Richard Bekins in The Chimes. Photo Credit:Graeme Malcolm)

The Chimes begins its sold out run tonight, July 7th, as part of the 6th Annual Summer Play Festival (SPF). The coming-of-age drama set on the eve of World War II is directed by Adam Immerwahr and stars Richard Bekins, Brian C. Johnson, Graeme Malcolm, Elan Moss-Bachrach, John O'Creagh, Andy Phelan, Peter Van Wagner and Jeff Ward. The design team includes Laura Jellinek (set), Kristin Fiebig (costumes), Cat Tate (lighting) and Karin Graybash (sound). Laura Kurinskas is the stage manager. The play will run until July 12th in the Martinson Theater at the Public Theater located at 425 Lafayette Street. The run is presently sold out but for more information, go here.

The Just Shows to Go You Interview

2009-07-01T22:15:00.002-06:00

This week theater critic and blogger Patrick Lee interviews Kevin Christopher Snipes over at his website Just Shows to Go You. Lee and Snipes discuss the impending production of The Chimes at SPF as well as the Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group. The article also features interviews with fellow SPF playwrights Ken Urban (The Happy Sad) and Rick Viede (Whore). To read the full interview, go here.

Bekins, O'Creagh and Van Wagner join "The Chimes" at SPF

2009-06-23T02:23:00.001-06:00

(L to R: Bekins, O'Creagh & Van Wagner)

Casting is complete for the SPF production of The Chimes. Richard Bekins, John O'Creagh, and Peter Van Wagner will join the previously announced Brian Charles Johnson, Graeme Malcolm, Elan Moss-Bachrach, Andy Phelan, and Jeff Ward.

In The Chimes, Nicholas Ross (Bekins) returns to his boarding school still haunted by the decisions he made forty years ago. As the past overtakes the present, the play flashes back to four young friends drawn together by their knack for Shakespeare and torn apart by the onset of World War II.

Richard Bekins is best known for his role as Jamie Frame on Another World. His stage credits include Keen Company's The Maddening Truth, Abingdon's Texas Homos, and Wilma Theater's A Number. He also appeared in the film United 93. John O'Creagh will play Nicholas' alcoholic best friend, the jovial Gordon McAllister. O'Creagh has appeared at North Shore Music Theater, Goodspeed Opera House, Paper Mill, and the McCarter Theatre. Rounding out the cast is Peter Van Wagner as the cantankerous Professor Carlyle. Van Wagner appeared in Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending and on Law & Order, One Life to Live, and Rescue Me. He also appeared in the Lost Musicals Concert of Silk Stockings.

The Chimes is directed by Adam Immerwahr and will be performed in the Public's Martinson Theater from July 7 to July 12. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased here.

"Beautiful World" Opens at Gallery Players

2009-06-18T00:00:00.004-06:00

Kevin Christopher Snipes' new play Beautiful World opens today, June 18th, at the Gallery Players as part of the 2009 Black Box New Play Festival. Directed by Seth Soloway, the one-act features Jeff Campanella, Andrew Davies, Patricia McNamara, Jared Rinaldi, Hank Sbrocco and Rachel Wright. In Beautiful World, two teachers and four students on a school field trip sneak off into the woods for a romantic rendezvous only to find that love is more elusive than any of them could ever have imagined. The play runs through June 21st. For tickets or more information, go here.

Johnson, Moss-Bachrach, Phelan and Ward are "The Chimes" at SPF

2009-06-12T00:15:00.011-06:00

(L to R: Johnson, Moss-Bachrach, Phelan, Ward)

Brian Charles Johnson, Elan Moss-Bachrach, Andy Phelan and Jeff Ward will play the four rambunctious students - known as the Chimes - who are drawn together by their knack for Shakespeare and torn apart by the advent of World War II in SPF's production of The Chimes. They join the previously announced Graeme Malcolm, who plays the Headmaster of the Barrington School for Boys.

In The Chimes, a young Nick Ross (Phelan) attempts a new start at Barrington after being expelled from his previous school. Soon, though, he's drawn into a secret society of political pranksters consisting of the perpetually charismatic Vivian Porter (Moss-Bachrach), the much-put-upon Birdie McAllister (Johnson) and the group's fearless but intense leader, Marcus Hale (Ward).

Andy Phelan previously appeared in Snipes' one-act Virgin Rock (Best Play - Riant's Strawberry Festival). He also starred in SPF's Missing Celia Rose, Classic Stage Company's Richard III, and in Peccadillo's The Ladies of the Corridor. Elan Moss-Bachrach appeared in A Perfect Couple at the DR2 and has made guest appearances on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Gossip Girl. Brian Charles Johnson made his Broadway debut in Spring Awakening reprising the role of Otto that he played at the Atlantic Theatre Company. Jeff Ward will be making his New York theater debut.

The Chimes is directed by Adam Immerwahr and will run in the Public's Martinson Theater from July 7th to July 12th. For more information or tickets, go to the SPF website.

Graeme Malcolm will rule the school in SPF's "The Chimes"

2009-06-05T10:39:00.005-06:00

Stage and screen veteran Graeme Malcolm will star as Headmaster Erasmus Barrow in the SPF production of The Chimes at the Public this July. Malcolm most recently appeared on Broadway in the revival of Peter Shaffer's Equus opposite Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths. He also appeared in MTC's revival of Brian Friel's Translations and in Elton John's Aida. Regionally Malcolm starred in the world premier of Moises Kaufman's 33 Variations at Arena. He has appeared on "Law & Order" and in the film National Treasure. He has also been a narrator for Books for the Blind for over twenty years.

In The Chimes Malcolm will play the dangerously eloquent headmaster of the Barrington School for Boys, whose seductive but fascist policies drive a wedge into the friendship of the students. The play will run from July 7th to the 12th in the Martinson Theater at the Public. Additional casting will be announced shortly. Tickets are $10 and available on the Public's website.

Tickets to SPF "The Chimes" on Sale

2009-06-01T07:00:00.001-06:00

Tickets for the SPF production of The Chimes go on sale today, June 1st. Directed by Adam Immerwahr, the play runs from July 7th to July 12th in the Martinson Theater at the Public. The performance schedule is as follows:

July 7 (Tuesday) at 6:30 PM
July 8 (Wednesday) at 3:00 PM and 7:30 PM
July 9 (Thursday) at 7:30 PM
July 10 (Friday) at 7:30 PM
July 11 (Saturday) at 3:00 PM and 7:30 PM
July 12 (Sunday) at 3:00 PM

In The Chimes, Nick Ross returns to his New England boarding school still haunted by the decisions he made 40 years ago. The past overwhelms the present as this thrilling drama flashes back to four young pranksters drawn together by their knack for Shakespeare and torn apart by the onset of World War II.

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased through the SPF website, here.

Design Team Announced for SPF "Chimes"

2009-05-18T01:03:00.004-06:00

The SPF production of The Chimes, under the direction of Adam Immerwahr, has assembled its design team. While the play will feature an all-male cast, the all-female design team includes Laura Jellinek (set), Karin Graybash (sound), Kristin Fieberg (costumes) and Catherine Tate (lighting). Sarah Pace will serve as assistant director and Lauren Kurinskas as stage manager.

The Chimes will run from July 7th - July 12th at the Public Theater. Tickets go on sale June 1st. For more information about SPF, go here.

Cast Announced for Gallery Player's "Beautiful World"

2009-05-12T15:00:00.003-06:00

Casting is complete for the Gallery Players' production of Kevin Christopher Snipes' one-act Beautiful World, which will be part of the theater's 12th Annual Black Box New Play Festival. Playing the errant teachers who sneak off into the woods during a school field trip to find romance will be Hank Sbrocco as Finch and Patricia McNamara as Gertrude. As their equally amorous and truant students are Jeff Campanella as Ryder, Rachel Wright as Hester, Andrew Davies as Swan, and Jared Rinaldi as Demme. Beautiful World is Snipes' modern re-interpretation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Seth Soloway will direct the play, which runs from June 18th to the 21st. The Gallery Players is located in Park Slope at 199 14th Street, Brooklyn, New York. For more information or tickets, click here.

Camargo, Cox, Rees and Saxe are "Small Gods" for NYFA/Public Reading

2009-05-06T01:00:00.005-06:00

(L to R: Camargo, Cox, Rees and Saxe)

Christian Camargo, Veanne Cox, Roger Rees and Gareth Saxe will star in a staged reading of Kevin Christopher Snipes' Small Gods, hosted by The Public Theater in conjunction with the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). The reading will be held May 12th at 3:00 PM at the Paradise Factory in New York City. Based on the lives of England and America's leading Shakespearean actors in the nineteenth century, Small Gods examines the notorious and fatal feud between William Charles Macready and Edwin Forrest, whose off-stage rivalry resulted in one of the bloodiest tragedies in the American theater.

Barry Edelstein, Director of the Shakespeare Initiative at the Public, will direct the reading. Edelstein previously directed Troilus & Cressida and Julius Caesar for Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte. From 1998 to 2003, Edelstein was also the Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company.

Roger Rees will step into the shoes of Britain's greatest Shakespearean actor when he plays the dying William Charles Macready. Rees won the Tony Award in 1982 for his performance in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Christian Camargo, who recently finished playing the title role in Theater for a New Audience's Hamlet, will play Macready's younger counterpart Charlie. Playing his American rival, Gareth Saxe will take on the role of Edwin Forrest. Saxe recently appeared on Broadway in the revivals of Pinter's The Homecoming and Shaw's Heartbreak House. Veanne Cox, who mostly recently played Olivia in the McCarter's Twelfth Night and who previously appeared at the Public and on Broadway in Caroline or Change, will play Death.

Snipes is a 2008 Artist Fellowship recipient of the NYFA. The reading of Small Gods is co-sponsored by Artists & Audiences Exhchange, a NYFA public program. The reading is free and will be followed by a brief talk-back with the playwright. The Paradise Factory is located on the 4th Floor of 64 East 4th Street, New York City. To RSVP for the event, please contact the Public by email at intern-ap2@publictheater.org.

Florida Studio Theatre to Host "Chimes" Reading

2009-04-27T00:13:00.007-06:00

Florida Studio Theatre will host a workshop reading of The Chimes as part of its 2009 Richard and Betty Burdick Reading Series. The reading will take place May 4th at 7:00 PM in the Keating Theatre (Mainstage). The Chimes follows the lives of four boys in a New England boarding school who are brought together by their love of Shakespeare and torn apart by World War II. A post-show discussion will follow with the playwright, director and cast.

Mikel Sarah Lambert will direct the reading. Lambert worked twelve years in Great Britain in the West End, regional theaters and extensively for BBC-TV. As an actress she was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In New York she was nominated for a Drama Desk for her performance in the Mint Theater's production of D.H. Lawrence's The Daughter in Law. The Chimes cast includes Michael Baldwin as Nick, Jack Eddleman as Barrow, Stuart Fingeret at Birdie, Dan Higgs as Carlyle, Stephen Hope as Nicholas, Adam Ratner as Vivian, Justin Sease as Marcus and Roy Sorensen as Birdie.

FST is located at 1241 North Palm Avenue, Sarasota, FL 34236. The reading is free but reservations are highly recommended. For reservations call the FST box office at 941-366-9000. To read more about the reading series, go to Broadwayworld.com here.

"The Chimes" at SPF

2009-04-22T18:07:00.001-06:00

Kevin Christopher Snipes' coming-of-age drama The Chimes will make its New York City premier as part of the 2009 Summer Play Festival (SPF). Founded by Broadway producer Arielle Tepper Madover, SPF has produced over 450 public performances of new plays by 75 emerging writers since its inception in 2004. This year marks the sixth summer of SPF and the second year of its collaboration with the Public Theater. In addition to The Chimes, the seven other plays which will be performed at SPF are Douglas Irvine's Departure Lounge, Ken Urban's The Happy Sad, Zayd Dohrn's Reborning, Alena Smith's The Sacrifices, Nicki Bloom's Tender, Tim J. Lord's We Declare You a Terrorist, and Rick Viede's Whore.

The Chimes follows the lives of four teenage boys at a New England boarding school who are brought together by their love of Shakespeare and torn apart by the Second World War. Adam Immerwahr will direct the New York premier which will run eight performances from July 7th to July 12th in the Public's Martinson Theater. Immerwahr previously staged Ian August's Missing Celia Rose for SPF in 2007. He also directed a staged reading of Snipes' Small Gods last year at Luna Stage, which featured Tony-nominee Brian Murray.

Tickets for all SPF shows are $10 and available on June 1st. For the full schedule of performances of The Chimes, go here. For a listing of the other plays included in SPF this year, go here.

SPF Launch Party: Kevin Christopher Snipes (The Chimes) and Alena Smith (The Sacrifices)

"Beautiful World" at The Gallery Players

2009-03-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

The Gallery Players' 12th Annual Black Box New Play Festival will feature Kevin Christopher Snipes' new one-act Beautiful World. The Brooklyn-based company will produce the play in its Park Slope theater from June 18th to 21st as part of an evening of new short plays. Also included in the line-up alongside Beautiful World are Honey & Candy by Lauren Cavanaugh, Distastefully Yours by Denis Meadows, and Inhale by Victoria T. Joseph.

Beautiful World puts a contemporary twist on William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. When two teachers and four students steal into the woods during a school field trip, unexpected passions bring various lovers together while others are torn apart. Seth Soloway, who staged The Underpants earlier in the company's season, will direct. Casting is to be announced.

Show times are scheduled for June 18, 19 and 20 at 8:00 PM and June 21 at 3:00 PM. The Gallery Players is located at 199 14th Street in Brooklyn. For more information about the Black Box Festival, go to the Gallery Players' website.

The Public Announces 2009 Emerging Writers Group

2009-02-04T01:19:00.000-07:00

The Public Theater has selected Kevin Christopher Snipes as one of the new members of its 2009 Emerging Writers Group. The Emerging Writers Group, now in its second year, seeks to target playwrights at the earliest stages in their careers. In so doing, the Public hopes to create an artistic home for a diverse and exceptionally talented group of up-and-coming playwrights. Also joining EWG for 2009 are J. Julian Christopher, Deen, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Bridget Kelso, Mona Mansour, Vickie Ramirez, Jordan Seavey, Alena Smith, and Lauren Yee.

For more information on the Emerging Writers Group and bios on all the 2009 playwrights, please read the article on BroadwayWorld.com.

The Orlando Sentinel Interview

2009-01-29T21:15:00.004-07:00

This week theater critic Elizabeth Maupin interviews playwright Kevin Christopher Snipes for The Orlando Sentinel. On Maupin's online theater blog Attention Must Be Paid, Snipes discusses his impetus for writing his new play The Chimes, which concludes its run at Orlando Shakespeare's PlayFest this weekend. Snipes, incidentally, once served as a film critic on the Orlando paper in the mid-nineties. To read the full interview, go to Elizabeth Maupin's blog here.

"The Chimes" opens at PlayFest

2009-01-24T00:00:00.001-07:00

Ian Kramer, Robert Aronowitz, Taylor Jeffers & Zachary Layner (Photo by Rob Jones)

The Chimes opens tonight at Orlando Shakespeare's PlayFest. Directed by David Lee, the play follows the lives of four boys in a New England boarding school who are brought together by their love of Shakespeare and torn apart by World War II. The cast includes Robert Aronowitz, Mark Brotherton, Bob Dolan, Taylor Jeffers, Ian Kramer, Zachary Layner, Donald Seay and Eric Zivot. Performances are January 24 at 8:15 PM, January 25 at 2:15 PM, January 31 at 3:00 PM, and February 1 at 8:00 PM. The play will be presented by OST in the Mandell Studio Theater located at 812 E. Rollins St., Orlando, FL 32803. A post-show discussion with the playwright, director and various cast members will follow the January 24 & 25 performances. Tickets are available online here.

Design Team for Orlando Shakespeare's "The Chimes" Announced

2009-01-14T18:36:00.004-07:00

The design team for Orlando Shakspeare's workshop production of The Chimes has been selected. Joining director David Lee will be Chantry Banks (costumes), Tommy Mangieri (sets), Mary Heffernan (lighting) and Andy Felt (sound). Additionally, Amy Nicole Davis has joined the production as stage manager, and Luigi DiGangi is the Assistant to the Director.

The Chimes will open January 24 and run until February 1. The cast includes Robert Aronowitz (Birdie), Mark Brotherton (Nicholas), Bob Dolan (Gordon), Taylor Jeffers (Vivian), Ian Kramer (Nick), Zachary Layner (Marcus), Donald Seay (Carlyle) and Eric Zivot (Barrow). For more information or tickets, go to the Orlando Shakespeare PlayFest website here.

Speaking Engagement: Stetson University

2009-01-03T15:35:00.006-07:00

In January Kevin Christopher Snipes will return to his undergraduate alma mater when he speaks about playwriting at Stetson University. Snipes received his BA from the Deland, Florida university, which is currently celebrating its 125th anniversary. On January 22nd from 7:30 - 8:30 PM, Snipes will be on campus to talk to students enrolled in the English department's creative writing class. He will discuss his life as a playwright as well as the process that goes into researching and writing literary or historically inspired plays. His Shakespeare-inspired play The Chimes will open at Orlando Shakespeare's PlayFest the weekend immediately following his Stetson appearance. Snipes' speaking engagement is sponsored by the Tim Sullivan Endowment for Creative Writing.

To read more about this event on The Orlando Sentinel's website, go here.

Cast Announced for Orlando Shakespeare's "The Chimes"

2008-12-22T08:01:00.012-07:00

(L to R: Zivot, Kramer, Dolan, and Jeffers)

Casting is complete for the forthcoming workshop production of The Chimes at Orlando Shakespeare's PlayFest. Stepping into the roles of the four Barrington Boys brought together by their love of Shakespeare and torn apart by the Second World War are Ian Kramer, Taylor Jeffers, Zachary Layner and Robert Aronowitz. Kramer will play Nick Ross, the lonely transfer student who is soon pulled into the political shenanigans of The Chimes, a group of crafty and clever classmates determined to upset the school's complacent faculty. Layner plays the group's idealist leader Marcus Hale, while the charming and chattering Vivian Porter will be played by Jeffers. Aronowitz plays the much abused and often befuddled Birdie McAllister.

Keeping a careful watch over the boys will be Eric Zivot and Donald Seay as members of the Barrington faculty. OST veteran Zivot, who appeared in King Lear, Julius Caesar and Twelfth Night, will play the calculating Headmaster Barrow. Seay will play the cantankerous Professor Carlyle. Rounding out the cast will be Mark Brotherton (OST's Othello) as Old Nicholas, and Bob Dolan (OST's The Comedy of Errors and Kiss Me, Kate) as the gregarious alcoholic Gordon McAllister.

The Chimes will be performed in the Mandell Theater on January 24 at 8:15 PM, January 25 at 2:15 PM, January 31 at 3:00 PM and February 1 at 8:00 PM. David Lee directs. For more information, go here.

"The Chimes" at Orlando Shakespeare's PlayFest

2008-12-16T09:40:00.002-07:00

In January The Chimes will receive a workshop production as part of Orlando Shakespeare Theater's PlayFest! The Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays. The two-week festival showcasing new work with a classical or literary bent also includes Another Side of the Island by Olympia Dukakis, Margo Whitcomb and Gregory Hoffman and Missing Celia Rose by Ian August. The Chimes will receive four workshop performances directed by OST Associate Director of Play Development David Lee. Lee previously directed OST's production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie earlier in the season.

The Chimes follows the lives of four boys in a New England boarding school who are brought together by their love of Shakespeare and torn apart by the Second World War. The play will be presented by OST in the Mandell Studio Theater located at 812 E. Rollins St., Orlando, FL 32803. Performances are scheduled as follows:

January 24 at 8:15 PM
January 25 at 2:15 PM
January 31 at 3:00 PM
February 1 at 8:00 PM

For more information or tickets, go here.

Lin and Vilmont join Murray for "Small Gods" Reading

2008-10-24T05:01:00.009-06:00

Angela Lin and Carrington Vilmont will join Drama Desk winner Brian Murray in the forthcoming reading of Small Gods at Luna Stage. The previously announced Murray will play famed Shakespearean actor William Charles Macready who, looking back on the exploits of his younger self (played by Vilmont), strikes a deal with Death (Lin) to reveal his deepest secrets in exchange for the death of his rival Edwin Forrest.

Vilmont has appeared on Broadway in The Phantom of the Opera and off-Broadway in Tom Rowan's The Second Tosca. Angela Lin's Broadway credits include Coram Boy and Top Girls. Off-Broadway she appeared in Sake with a Haiku Geisha.

Small Gods will be presented as a staged reading at Luna Stage on November 16th at 3:00 PM. Adam Immerwahr will direct. For more information, go here.

Brian Murray to star in "Small Gods" Reading

2008-10-20T05:00:00.001-06:00

Three-time Tony nominee Brian Murray will star as the famous 19th Century Shakespearean actor William Charles Macready in Luna Stage's staged reading of Small Gods on November 16th. Most recently Murray appeared on Broadway in the revival of Sheridan's The Rivals. His performances in the Broadway revivals of Hellman's The Little Foxes and Miller's The Crucible, as well as his performance in Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (originating the role of Rosencrantz in the New York production), each earned the actor a Tony nomination. Other Broadway credits include Uncle Vanya, Twelfth Night and Noises Off. On television he most recently appeared as Alec Baldwin's father on the first season of 30Rock.

In Small Gods Murray will play the brilliant but cantankerous actor William Charles Macready. In the 1800s Macready was the eminent Shakespearean actor of London, and his rivalry with the American actor Edwin Forrest became one of the greatest feuds in theater history - especially after the Astor Place Riot in New York City, which left 26 people dead. In Small Gods the aged Victorian actor, determined to outlast his rival, strikes a bargain to reveal his deepest secrets in exchange for the death of Edwin Forrest.

The staged reading of Small Gods is set for November 16th at 3:00 PM at Luna Stage in Montclair, New Jersey. Adam Immerwahr will direct.

Cast Announced for "Chimes" Reading

2008-10-07T19:48:00.013-06:00

Greg Coughlin, Dave Gelles-Hurwitz, Corey Johnson and John D. Ivy will reunite October 19th when the Carnegie Collaborative stages a reading of The Chimes at the Epiphany Theater Space. Coughlin, Gelles-Hurwitz, Johnson and Ivy all previously appeared in The Chimes when it was presented as part of Ensemble Studio Theatre's Project35 reading series in 2006 under the direction of Catherine Ward.

The play follows the lives of four boys in a New England boarding school who are brought together by their love of Shakespeare and torn apart by the Second World War. Coughlin, who recently appeared in NY Fringe's Boots, reprises the role of the idealistic Marcus Hale. Gelles-Hurwitz, last seen at EST in Close Ties, will play the eccentric and charming Vivian Porter. Johnson will reprise the role of the ghost-obsessed Birdie McAlister, and Ivy will play the cantankerous Professor Carlyle.

Joining the play for the first time will be Dale Carman, Matthew Conlon, Curzon Dobell and Chris Henry. Carman, who recently appeared in Peccadillo's Johnny on a Spot, will take on the role of Headmaster Barrow. Dobell will play the alcoholic Gordon McAlister. He recently appeared in the Irish Repertory Theatre's production of George Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple. Matthew Conlon, who previously collaborated with the playwright on Glory Days at Jesus High at EST, will play the tormented Nicholas Ross while Chris Henry will play his teenage counterpart, Nick Ross.

The Chimes will be presented as a staged reading on October 19th at 7:00 PM at the Epiphany Theater Space, suite 2B, located at 154 Christopher Street. Kathleen Amshoff will direct.

Photos: Dave Gelles-Hurwitz (top left), Chris Henry (middle right), and Matthew Conlon (bottom left).

"Small Gods" Reading at Luna Stage

2008-09-26T17:50:00.005-06:00

On November 16th Luna Stage will present a staged reading of my new play Small Gods as part of the theater's Fall 2008 New Moon Reading Series. Based on the nineteenth century's most infamous feud, Small Gods is the story of William Charles Macready and Edwin Forrest. As the two eminent tragedians of their age, the actors pursued immortality on the stage, but their ambitions soon destroyed their friendship and gave rise to the bitterest rivalry.

Adam Immerwahr, who directed Ian August's Missing Celia Rose (SPF 2007), will direct the reading. No cast has been announced. The reading of Small Gods will take place at 3:00 PM on November 16th and will immediately be followed by a talk back session with the playwright.

The New Moon Reading Series lasts from November 15th to 16th. In addition to Small Gods, the series will feature new plays by Michele Aldin Kushner, Guy Glass, and Bekah Brunstetter. Luna Stage is located at 695 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair, NJ. There is a $5.00 suggest donation for each reading. For more information, go to Luna's website here.

"The Chimes" - A Staged Reading with the Carnegie Collaborative

2008-09-22T11:07:00.000-06:00

The Carnegie Collaborative will host a staged reading of my play The Chimes on October 19th at 7:00 PM at the Epiphany Theater Space. The Chimes kicks off this year's reading series, which is sponsored by Carnegie Mellon's New York Drama Alumni Clan (NYDAC). Set in a New England boarding school in 1939, The Chimes follows the lives of four boys brought together by their love of Shakespeare and torn apart by the advent of World War II. The play, which received the Larry Corse International Prize for Playwriting, recently had a workshop production at Columbus State University and was also part of Ensemble Studio Theatre's Project35 Reading Series.

Kathleen Amshoff will direct the October 19th reading. Casting has yet to be announced. The Epiphany Theater Space is located at 154 Christopher Street, New York, NY. For more information, please visit the NYDAC website.

No Such Thing As Too Many Playwrights

2008-09-05T16:29:00.003-06:00

The back cover of the recently released July/August issue of The Dramatists features a collage of playwrights from across the country who are currently members of the Dramatists Guild of America. Under the title "No Such Thing as Too Many Playwrights" the collage features the headshots of 99 playwrights, including Kevin Christopher Snipes (9 columns over, 6 rows down) and E.M. Lewis (7 columns over, 8 rows down).

"Party Lights" Extends Run at Algonquin

2008-07-07T21:08:00.005-06:00

Party Lights will return to the Algonquin Theatre on July 13th for a special encore performance. The First Annual One-Act Festival, which features Party Lights, is currently running at the Algonquin Theatre from July 7th to July 11th. On July 13th the theatre will offer audiences a chance to see the five best one-acts of the festival (as adjudicated by the theatre) with a special encore performance of the plays that begins at 1:00 PM. Party Lights, which stars Julie Leedes and Paco Tolson (pictured), will be among the returning five plays. Tickets for the Sunday performance are $15 and can be purchased at SmartTix here.

"Party Lights" with Leedes and Tolson returns to NYC for 1 Night Only

2008-06-24T06:07:00.006-06:00

Party Lights will return to New York City for one night only when the play is presented as part of Algonquin Theatre's 2008 One Act Festival. Original cast members Julie Leedes and Paco Tolson will both return to reprise the roles they originated in 2006 when the play was first presented at the Kraine Theatre as part of Youngblood's Asking 4 Trouble. Party Lights is the story of a charming but dangerous woman who seeks to make a desperate connection with a hapless stranger on her birthday. The new production will be part of the July 7th evening of one acts at the Algonquin Theatre located at 123 E. 24th Street in Gramercy Park. Showtime is 7:00 PM and tickets are available through Smarttix. For more information, go here.

Photo Call: Hip-Skidoo

2008-06-10T21:13:00.006-06:00

Photos from the current production of Hip-Skidoo, directed by Michael Shutt, which is part of Moving Arts' 14th Annual One-Act Festival running in Los Angeles until the end of June.

Above and below: Stewart Calhoun as Finn and Daria Balling as Joanne.

* * *

"Hip-Skidoo" Opens in L.A.

2008-06-05T01:00:00.008-06:00

This week Hip-Skidoo makes its L.A. premier as part of Moving Arts' 14th Annual One-Act Festival "Beginnings & Endings." Directed by Michael Shutt, Hip-Skidoo features Daria Balling and Stewart W. Calhoun as a mother and son who find themselves stranded in the desert when their impromptu road trip goes off course. Other plays in the evening include About the Deep Woods Killer by Lee Wochner, Tangled by Terence Anthony, The Big Ride by Stephanie Alison Walker, Rising Hot Air by Jonathan Caren, and Compression of a Casualty by Kevin Doyle (which also stars Shutt, pictured).

"Beginnings & Endings" officially opens Saturday (June 7th) at 8:00 PM and is followed by a gala party in the theater. Friday (June 6th) is a special "Pay What You Can" Preview Performance. The show will run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday until June 29th at the Studio/Stage Theater located at 520 N. Western Avenue. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased here. For more information about Moving Arts, go here.

NYFA Fellows in Playwriting & Screenwriting Announced

2008-06-03T09:44:00.003-06:00

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has named Kevin Christopher Snipes one its 2008 Fellows in Playwriting/Screenwriting. NYFA's mission is to empower artists at critical stages in their creative lives and provides the public with opportunities to experience and understand their work. Artists' Fellowships are awards made to artists living and working in the state of New York for unrestricted use. Since the awards began in 1985, NYFA has awarded over $22 million to over 3,688 artists. Along with Snipes, the 2008 Playwriting/Screenwriting receipients are Keith Bearden, Noelle Brower, Jorge Ignacio Cortinas, Michael Crowley, David Greenspan, Joie Lee, Ethan Lipton, A. Ray Pamatmat, J.T. Rogers, Jeff Seymann, Alena Smith, Zoje Stage, Ela Thier, Andrea Thome, Avi Weider. Previous receipients in this category (to name a few) include Tony Kushner, Julia Cho, Edwin Sanchez, Lisa Kron, Romulus Linney, Donald Margulies, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Betty Shamieh. For more details about the 2008 Fellows, go here.

Photo Call: "The Chimes" Closing Night Party

2008-06-01T19:50:00.004-06:00

The cast and crew of CSU's production of The Chimes.

Caleb Z. Lawton (Barrow), Chase Anderson (Carlyle)

Jeremiah Hobbs (Vivian), Jim Pharr (Birdie),
Evan Fricks (Nick), Nicholas Wolfe (Marcus)

Boys of "The Chimes" in The Ledger-Enquirer

2008-05-29T20:40:00.006-06:00

Evan Fricks, Nicholas Wolfe (pictured), Jeremiah Hobbs and Jim Pharr, who play the four Shakespeare-obsessed students in The Chimes, were recently interviewed by Columbus and the Valley's Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper the Ledger-Enquirer about their roles in Columbus State University's premier of the play. To learn more about the actors and their thoughts on their roles and the play, go here.

"The Chimes" at Columbus State University

2008-05-26T08:36:00.003-06:00

This week marks the opening of the The Chimes at Columbus State University. The play, which won the 2006 Larry Corse Prize for Playwriting, will run from May 30th to May 31st at RiverCenter's Studio Theatre in Columbus, Georgia. Set on the eve of World War II, the play follows the lives of four boys at a New England prep school who are brought together by their love of Shakespeare and torn apart by the impending war. Kate Musgrove directs a cast that includes Evan Fricks, Nicholas Wolfe, Jeremiah Hobbs, Jim Pharr, Caleb Lawton, Chase Anderson, J.J. Musgrove and Larry McDonald. Showtimes are 7:30 PM. Tickets are available by phone at 706-507-8444. For more information about the event, go here.

Cast Announced for LA Premier of "Hip-Skidoo"

2008-05-11T14:42:00.009-06:00

Daria Balling and Stewart W. Calhoun will play mother and son in Moving Arts' LA premier of Hip-Skidoo. Daria Balling, a resident artist at Moving Arts who has appeared in E.M. Lewis' Infinite Black Suitcase and in Matt Casarino's The Boy Who Was Born with a Tail, will play Joanne West, the vivacious Southern housewife who "kidnaps" her teenage son and takes him on a cross country trek. Playing her son Finn West will be Stewart W. Calhoun, who recently won rave reviews in the Havok Theatre's production of Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story, directed by Nick DeGruccio. Hip-Skidoo is part of Moving Arts 14th Annual One Act Competition "Beginnings & Endings." Moving Arts company member Michael Shutt directs the production, which runs from June 6th to June 29th.

"Hip-Skidoo" to make LA Premier with Moving Arts

2008-05-05T10:08:00.006-06:00

"Hip-Skidoo" will make its Los Angeles premier as part of Moving Arts 14th Annual One-Act Competition. Set in 1967, the comedy-drama focuses on a vivacious Southern housewife who kidnaps her sulking teenage son and takes him on a cross-country roadtrip. When their car breaks down in the middle of a desert, mother and son are forced to confront the issues they've desperately been trying to leave behind. "Hip-Skidoo" will be part of an evening of six one-acts making their LA debuts. The other five plays are "About the Deep Woods Killer" by Lee Wochner, "The Big Ride" by Stephanie Alison Walker, "Compression of a Casualty" by Kevin Doyle, "Rising Hot Air" by Jonathon Caren, and "Tangled" by Terence Anthony. The 14th Annual One-Act Competion will run from June 6th to June 29th at the Studio/Stage Theater, located at 520 N. Western Avenue. "Hip-Skidoo" was first presented publicly at Ensemble Studio Theatre as part of the company's OctoberFest. Dawn Evans read the mother and Andy Phelan read the son. No cast has been announced for the LA production. Michael Shutt will direct. For more information, go to the Moving Arts website here.

More Reviews of Bailiwick's "A Bitter Taste"

2007-08-13T11:16:00.000-06:00

Ruth Smerling reviews Bailiwick's production of A Bitter Taste this week for Theatreworld Internet Magazine. Smerling calls the play a "sure fire winner" and goes on to say:

"Pride Fest 25 is well underway at the Bailiwick Rep. A theatre fest can often be anything from mediocre to downright awful. Pride Fest has detonated that notion with an eclectic selection and one play in particular that is a sure winner, A Bitter Taste by Kevin Christopher Snipes, directed by Matt Trucano. A Bitter Taste is a gripping drama, with a superb cast, that plays out like an exciting novel. The kind you will miss work to finish reading... A Bitter Taste is an honest, no holds barred look at the weakness and strength of human nature."

Meanwhile Zak Thompson reviews the play for the Chicago Reader:

"A teenage hustler's entrance into the lives of two male friends--one a cocky lawyer, the other an uptight academic--brings violence and years of suppressed desire to the surface in this unsettling drama by Kevin Christopher Snipes. With its misogynistic characters and cruel power games, the piece is reminiscent of Neil LaBute... Playing a familiar type--the arrogant attorney--Jeff Ruether gives the character an air of amused self-loathing that is both unexpected and thoroughly convincing."

The play continues it run through August 26th. Tickets are available here.

Chicago Tribune reviews "A Bitter Taste"

2007-07-26T10:44:00.000-06:00

Nina Metz of The Chicago Tribune reviews Bailiwick's current production of A Bitter Taste in Friday's paper. Praising the "deft writing," Metz says:

"There are straight men and there are gay men. Sometimes the line between gets crossed. This is nothing new but the topic is rarely addressed on stage with any kind of serious inquiry. Most plays won't go there. A Bitter Taste, by Kevin Christopher Snipes, does. A drama soaked through with inky, dark comedy, it debuted in New York last year and arrives in Chicago as part of Bailiwick Repertory's Pride Series 2007. Sex is the central issue of the play—but more than that, the script is a disquisition on men and their atrocious behavior. "

To read the full review, please go to the Tribune website. For a dissenting view on the play, you can read TimeOut Chicago's review at their website. It's funny how two people can see the same show and reach two extremely different conclusions. Obviously, I'd like to think the truth lies closer to the Tribune.

"A Bitter Taste" Opens at Bailiwick July 18

2007-07-16T09:40:00.000-06:00

The Chicago premier of A Bitter Taste opens July 18 at Bailiwick Repertory. Directed by Matt Trucano and produced by David Zak, the play features Topher Reed, Ian Daniel McLaren and Jeff Reuther. In A Bitter Taste a mild-mannered professor (Reed) and a brash lawyer (Reuther) find their world turned upside-down when they're seduced by a scheming male prostitute (McLaren). The play opens Wednesday July 18 as part of the Bailiwick Pride Series and will run until August 26. The complete performance schedule is as follows:

July 18 (Wednesday) at 8:00 PM
July 21 (Saturday) at 2:00 PM
July 22 (Sunday) at 8:00 PM
July 25 (Wednesday) at 8:00 PM
July 28 (Saturday) at 2:00 PM
July 29 (Sunday) at 8:00 PM
August 1 (Wednesday) at 8:00 PM
August 4 (Saturday) at 2:00 PM
August 5 (Sunday) at 8:00 PM
August 8 (Wednesday) at 8:00 PM
August 11 (Saturday) at 2:00 PM
August 12 (Sunday) at 8:00 PM
August 15 (Wednesday) at 8:00 PM
August 19 (Sunday) at 8:00 PM
August 22 (Wednesday) at 8:00 PM
August 26 (Sunday) at 8:00 PM

Bailiwick is located at 1229 West Belmont, Chicago, IL. Tickets are $25. For more information or tickets call 773-883-1090 or go here.

Supporting CATF and Rachel Corrie

2007-05-09T08:32:00.000-06:00

The Contemporary American Theater Festival recently announced that their 2007 Season will include My Name is Rachel Corrie. As a result, one of their board members resigned, withdrawing a $100,000 pledge. The theater blogging community, led by Mr. Excitement, has been attempting to offset this financial loss by encouraging concerned artists (and non-artists) to show their support of CATF by making donations to the theater.

There are many good reasons to support CATF and My Name is Rachel Corrie, but here's the top three.

1. Theaters must be allowed to produce work without fear of financial retribution. When one person or sponsor has the ability to shut down a show, then theater stops being for the people and starts being about corporate or political interests. If theaters start censoring themselves to please investors, then challenging and relevant plays will be the first casualties.

2. When is that last time a play has stirred so much controversy? People picketing and boycotting theaters, board members resigning, productions cancelled or postponed? Anyone who doubts that theater can affect people need only look to My Name is Rachel Corrie to see that theater is still a force to be reckoned with. This is a play that scares and angers people because it says something most people don't want to hear. Isn't that what theater should be about? Or, at least, shouldn't there be room in theater for plays which attempt to do that? From a dramatic perspective My Name is Rachel Corrie may not be the greatest piece of theater ever written, however, what it has to say about the world is more important than anything you're likely to learn at any other modern play.

3. If the theater community isn't going to stand up and support daring new work, how can we expect audiences to?

The Contemporary American Theater Festival, to quote its mission statement, "is dedicated to producing and developing new American theater. The centerpiece of CATF’s commitment to new work is an annual repertory festival of four new plays by American playwrights, most often premieres or second or third productions. CATF focuses on plays that deal with contemporary issues, and challenge as well as boldly entertain audiences." Here's two things you can do to support them and their choice to produce My Name is Rachel Corrie.

1. You can make a donation here. I did. We're all starving artists, but every donation helps. None of us can probably give close to the $100,000 that CATF reportedly lost, but a show of solidarity will help the theater know that their decision to move forward with Corrie wasn't in vain.

2. If you have a blog or website, let others know about CATF and encourage them to support CATF through their own donations.

A Bitter Taste to make Chicago Premier at Bailiwick

2007-05-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

A Bitter Taste will makes its Chicago premier this summer at Bailiwick Repertory Theatre. My play, which premiered in New York in 2006 at Ensemble Studio Theatre, focuses on two best friends who share a more than healthy obsession with each other and whose lives are turned upside down when they are blackmailed by an underage male prostitute.

The Chicago premier of A Bitter Taste will be directed by Matt Trucano. Previews begin July 18 with the opening scheduled for July 22. The play will run until August 25 at the Bailiwick Arts Center as part of the 2007 Pride Series. Bailiwick was founded in 1982 and produces both classical and cutting-edge work. The company has been recognized with more than 150 Citations, Nominations, and Recommendations from the Jeff Committee. The Pride Series has been inducted into the City of Chicago's Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame and has been the recipient of the Torch Award from the Human Rights Campaign, the only theatre in the nation to be so honored.

For more information or to purchase tickets, go here.

The Chimes at Columbus State University

2007-05-06T18:27:00.001-06:00

My full length play The Chimes will receive a workshop production at Columbus State University in May 2008. The play recently won the 2006 Larry Corse Prize for Playwriting, established by Dr. Larry Corse, Professor Emeritus of Theatre and English at Clayton State University, in 2003 to encourage the development and production of new works for the stage. The Chimes will be presented by the CSU Theatre Department on May 30 and 31, 2008 in CSU's new state-of-the-art facilities Theatre on the Park, part of the recently finished RiverPark performing arts campus in downtown Columbus, Georgia.

The Chimes focuses on a group of talented but mischievous boys in a New England boarding school who are drawn together by their love of Shakespeare and torn apart by the approaching World War. Last November The Chimes was part of Ensemble Studio Theater's Project 35: 35 nights of staged readings of 35 new plays. The cast was headed by stage and television veterans James Murtaugh and Christopher Murney.

Quote of the Day: Edward Albee

2007-03-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

"Playwrights are expected to have their text changed by actors they never wanted. Directors seem to feel they are as creative as the playwright. Most of these changes are for commercial reasons... I’m in the lucky position where I just say, ‘Go fuck yourself; if you don’t want to do the play I wrote, do another play.’"

~ Edward Albee in LA Weekly

Quote of the Day: Sarah Ruhl

2007-02-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

"Dramaturgs kept asking me: 'Sarah, what did you learn from this reading?' And I would silently think: 'I learned that if I keep re-writing this play for chairs, it will die a slow death before ever being what it was meant to be.'"

~ Sarah Ruhl, playwright of Eurydice, in the New York Sun

The Chimes Wins the Larry Corse Prize for Playwriting

2007-02-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

Columbus State University Theatre has announced that Kevin Christoper Snipes' The Chimes has won the Larry Corse Prize for Playwriting. The university is scheduled produce the play as part of its 2007-2008 season. The Larry Corse Prize for Playwriting was established in 2003 by Larry Corse, Professor Emeritus of Theatre and English at Clayton State University, to encourage the development and production of new works for the stage. Previous winners include Robert Karmon, William Missouri Downes and Ian Walker. Set at the dawn of World War II, The Chimes follows a group of boys at an elite boarding school who are drawn together by their love of Shakespeare and torn apart by the approaching war. The Chimes had its first staged reading at Carnegie Mellon University as part of the Summer New Play Festival, where it was directed by Laura Gross and featured a cast including Martin Giles, Jason Planitzer and Greg Coughlin. Most recently the play was included in Ensemble Studio Theatre's 35th anniversary reading series Project 35, where it was directed by Catherine Ward and featured the talents of Christopher Murney, James Murtaugh, David Gelles-Hurwitz and Greg Coughlin.

Michael Lew Interviews Kevin Christopher Snipes

2007-01-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

It's Mike Lew. I sat down with playwright Kevin Snipes at his home in Sag Harbor for what I thought would be a fruitful interview. What followed was six straight hours of incoherent ranting as I drank Odwalla from an eco-friendly recycled bottle and he drank straight ethanol from a sippy cup. Here are the answers he slurred out when he was conscious, or at least what I could transcribe from the tape after listening seven times straight and then throwing up my hands in utter frustration.

1. Your full-length plays feature all male characters, yet you've used actress Julie Leedes as your muse for several short works. How do gender considerations affect your writing, and what is your source of inspiration for characters male or female?

One of the things that interests me is the way in which men interact with each other, whether it be socially, sexually, violently or a combination of all three. For that reason my plays do tend to have large (if not exclusively) male casts. The more men I have, the more varieties of interactions I can play with and examine. There are certain ways men are expected to act with each other. There are behaviors and feelings that are considered appropriate and inappropriate. When a man steps out of line with those expectations, the conflicts and tensions that arise are usually quite dramatic. Or at least they become a starting point for something I can make dramatic. The men in my plays are always aware that there is an expected norm that they are defying and, by doing so, they are setting themselves up for a terrible fall (my plays rarely end happily). What interests me is what makes men willing to risk this defiance. Usually it's an emptiness they're trying to fill. Emptiness will drive people to some pretty interesting extremes. It's good fodder for a playwright. As for Julie Leedes. She's an amazing, amazing actress. And if you have the opportunity to work with her then you do what any smart writer would do and you build plays around her.

2. Your play A Bitter Taste was produced last year at Ensemble Studio Theatre as Youngblood's mainstage production. Can you comment on the transition between imagining your play on paper and seeing it realized as a specific production?

A Bitter Taste was (and is) a very dark play. I think one of the challenges was getting everyone involved to realize how dark it is. There's a lot of humor in the play and that often masks some of the atrocious behavior that the characters commit. It was only a few days before we opened that everyone started realizing just how fucked-up their characters were. Perhaps in future productions I will make a disclaimer speech at the beginning of the rehearsal process, "Yes, this is a fucked-up play. Your character is as dark and twisted and messed-up as you can imagine. Now, have fun." It's a play that asks a lot of its actors. To use a boxing analogy, the actors have to come out swinging, and they don't get to stop until the play is over two hours later. It's very demanding.

3. What drew you to theater initially, and what sustains your interest?

I've always written plays. Even as a child. I think I wrote plays before I'd ever read or seen one. Before I knew what plays were. I would write out scenarios and make my friends act them out. Perhaps that was just an early manifestation of my need to be a control freak. I liked things scripted in advance. So I don't know what prompted me to want to write for the theater. I have a bit of a God-complex. Or maybe a Creator-complex. So the idea of inventing entire worlds that I get to populate and control in order to advance my own ideas has always been appealing to me. What sustains my interest is the electric rush I get when I see that the worlds I've created are affecting people in the audience. I think all writers write because we think we have something important to say that no one else is saying. When I write a play about something that I feel needs to be discussed - something that needs to be in the spotlight - and other people respond to it, it's very gratifying. It's a validation that what I'm trying to communicate about the world - about who we are - is important. The theater is one of the few mediums where artists can portray humans as complex individuals and not just black & white stereotypes. I find most film and television to be dehumanizing. Theater is the only performance medium where people are allowed their full humanity. That's important. That's so important.

4. Write your own eulogy.

Shakespeare. Shaw. Snipes. They were, are, and will be all that theater ever needed.

* * *

Michael Lew is a playwright/director. His play THE ROOSEVELT COUSINS, THOROUGHLY SAUCED will be part of Youngblood's THICKER THAN WATER 2007 this February at EST.

A Remembrance: Curt Dempster (1935 - 2007)

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I was warned to fear the Gypsy. For those unfamiliar with the term in its theatrical context, a “Gypsy” is a dress rehearsal for Curt and other members of the EST staff to attend so that they can evaluate the progress of the theater’s current production to make sure it is fit to open the following week. Curt, I was informed, had a reputation of being a particularly harsh critic – so much so that one member of EST affectionately rechristened the Gypsy “How Long Until Curt Makes You Cry?” The most frequent advice I was given before the Gypsy of my play A Bitter Taste was, “Bring a box of tissues.”

I knew as I sat down for our Gypsy rehearsal that things would not go smoothly. A bout of the flu had meant a lost week of rehearsals for the cast. Nor was there – for various and temperamental reasons - an excessive amount of love and devotion amongst our actors. They were under-rehearsed, under-prepared, still fumbling through lines and generally adrift. Two hours later, after sitting through the most painful dress rehearsal of my brief career, I watched the actors wheeze across the bloated finish line that marked the end of what had once been my play. Curt politely thanked the actors for their time and talent; he then took the director, the co-artistic director, and me into his office to talk.

If Curt had wanted to cancel the opening (which was less than a week away), he would have had my full support. I had, by this late point in the game, lost most of my faith that my New York theater debut would be a successful one. It wasn’t simply the lost week of rehearsals and the unsteadiness of the actors that dampened my hopes. It was the fear that this unsteadiness that seemed to permeate the production stemmed from the fact that no one seemed to understand what my play was about - and no was getting closer to figuring it out. To explain it in the simplest terms: I thought I had written a battle to the death; I was getting something closer to a very intense thumb-wrestling match.

“What is this play about?” Once we were all assembled in Curt’s office, that was the first question he asked. No threats. No warnings. No catalogue of flaws of what he’d just suffered through. Just a simple question, “What is this play about?” My heart stopped because I thought he was being literal. I thought we had failed at the most basic level of storytelling and he had not understood the plot (even though he’d seen a workshop production a year earlier at Carnegie Mellon University). A moment later I realized Curt was not talking about plot. He was asking – as all good theater practitioners do – what we were trying to communicate. Before we could answer, Curt proceeded to tell the room what my play was about.

Playwrights – particularly fledging playwrights looking for their first production – can spend a lot of time explaining or defending their work to people. But in Curt’s office that day, someone other than me did the explaining. More importantly, he got everything right. Everything I felt was important in the play, everything that needed to be communicated to the audience – he understood it all. And it didn’t take him more than five minutes to impart this to those gathered in his office. What he was essentially saying was “Kevin’s play is about X, Y, Z and what I’m seeing is A, B, C.”

The production had gotten off track, and Curt knew it. He knew it wasn’t just line flubs and missed blocking that was standing in our way. He knew what he had just seen wasn’t my play, but some spiteful doppelganger posing as my play. The production had strayed from the play. (His wittiest observation that I recall concerned the role of the underage male prostitute, “This kid lives on the street, and you’ve got him dressed like he orders his clothes from L.L. Bean.”) Curt might not have been saying anything new to the people assembled in his office. But it served as a wake-up call. We had five days before we opened and a lot – a lot – of work to do to get this play back on track. It wasn't just Curt lighting a fire under our asses, it was Curt reminding everyone in that room that there was already a fire - in the play that I had written - and we needed to use that.

That hour in Curt’s office was the first time since coming to New York that I felt like I was taken seriously as a playwright. Only two weeks earlier the photographer taking publicity shots for A Bitter Taste overheard some of the more risqué dialogue and remarked rather snarkily in front a full room of people, including the actors, “Do your parents know you write this kind of stuff?” (Imagine such a remark being addressed to Neil LaBute or Adam Rapp or Christopher Shinn and expecting them to take it in stride.) I was used to being treated like a kid who didn’t know what he was doing. But Curt trusted the text. He trusted the play I had written. He not only understood the play, but championed it to room full of people, telling them, “This is what this play is about. Do THAT.”

I have great memories of A Bitter Taste and rather depressing memories of A Bitter Taste. I have pleasant memories of Curt, and I have frustrating memories of Curt. What I will remember the most, though, is the first time I was treated like a playwright. For that memory, I will always be grateful to Curt.

Youngblood 2006: A Year in Review (September – December)

2007-01-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

(Yale Rep.'s The Mistakes Madeline Made by Elizabeth Meriwether.)

As we finish our review of Youngblood’s accomplishments in 2006, it’s time to look at the closing months of the year.

September
Daria Polatin’s one-act Ninja: The Musical is part of Unbound, a theater workshop on Theatre Row, produced by Despina and Company. R.J. Tolan directs a cast that includes Jessica Bhargava, Leanne Cabrera, Kay Trinidad, and Nitya Vidyasagar in this tale of three singing ninjas.

October
Two new plays and the return of two others cram this month full of Youngbloodiness. Over at the Bank Street Theater, the 3Graces Theater Company produces a staged workshop of Sharyn Rothstein’s Neglect. William Harper and Geany Masai star as two neighbors who face a tense stand-off during a fatally hot summer day. Catherine Ward directs this show, a new version of which will be coming to Ensemble Studio Theatre in February as the full-length mainstage production in Youngblood’s annual Thicker Than Water. Masai and Harper will reprise their rolls. Over at Abingdon, the Visible Theater presents Krankenhaus Blues, a new play by Sam Forman about a group of artists held in a Nazi asylum. Donna Mitchell directs a cast that includes Christine Bruno, Bill Green, Joe Sims, and Angela DeMatteo.

Outside of New York, two theaters host the return of two Youngblood classics. Yale Rep is the new home for Elizabeth Meriwether’s The Mistakes Madeline Made. Directed by Mark Rucker, this production sees the return of Colleen Werthmann reprising her role of Beth. She is joined by Patch Darragh, Michael Chernus, David Jenkins and Aubrey Dollar as Edna. In LA, the Secret Rose Theater plays home to Kevin Christopher Snipes’ ten-minute play Party Lights, which is part of their ActoberFest. The LA premier is directed by David Robinson and stars Susan Savage and David DeSantos.

Meanwhile six new playwrights are welcomed into Youngblood. After a grueling elimination process that left hearts broken and faiths challenged, Youngblood admits into its ranks Delaney Britt Brewer, Jihan Crowther, Justin Deabler, Matt Schatz, Michael Sendrow and Emily Chadick Weiss.

November
It’s the return of the Youngblood Sunday Brunch! For the first Sunday of every month for the next seven months at EST, audiences will feast on pancake, bacon and four new ten-minute plays all written around a unifying theme. November’s theme? Naked Brunch. New naughty plays are revealed by Kevin Christopher Snipes, Edith L. Freni, Emily Conbere and Sam Forman.

Also in November, Ensemble Studio Theatre celebrates its 35th Anniversary with Project 35. 35 staged readings of 35 new plays span 35 days at the theater. Alongside new plays by Romulus Linney, Anton Dudley, Frank D. Gilroy and Jose Rivera are new works by Kevin Christopher Snipes and Annie Baker. The Chimes, written by Snipes and directed by Catherine Ward, follows a group of boys in a New England boarding school on the eve of World War II who slowly find their world torn apart. Christopher Murney and James Murtaugh head a cast that includes Greg Coughlin, David Gelles-Hurwitz, Corey Johnson, Alex Organ, John D. Ivey and Kurt Everhart. In Annie Baker’s Three Knocks Grant (Murphy Brown) Shaud plays as man at war with his girlfriend’s daughter. Dana Eskelson, Adam Horowitz, and Spenser Leigh star. Melissa Kievman directs.

December
Matt Schatz, Annie Baker, Courtney Lauria, Sharyn Rothstein and Sam Forman pen How the Brunch Stole Christmas, a collection of holiday themed ten-minute plays for the Sunday Brunch at EST.

In their end of the year retrospectives, David Cote in Time Out NY names Elizabeth Meriwether’s The Mistakes Madeline Made as one of the best shows of 2006, while actor/waiter/general hottie David Bell at Hot Guy Alerts names Heddatron the Best Off Off Broadway play.

With the year coming to an end, Youngblood heads to the Catskills for its Winter Retreat and a little rest and relaxation. New York waits in anticpation for the new year and all the great theater Youngblood will bring to it.

* * *

Thus concludes Youngblood 2006: A Year in Review. Be sure to check out all the upcoming projects that will happening this year by visiting the Youngblood website.

Youngblood 2006: A Year in Review (May - August)

2007-01-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

Today we continue our three-part review of Youngblood’s accomplishments in 2006 with a look back at those sizzling summer months.

May
Qui Nguyen has his second production of the year, this time at Center Stage with his own company Vampire Cowboys. Living Dead in Denmark, an action-adventure / horror sequel to Hamlet in which Shakespeare’s feistiest heroines battle the undead, is directed by Robert Ross Parker and stars Carlo Alban, Jason Liebman, Maggie Macdonald, Tom Myers, Melissa Paladino, Jason Schumacher, Maureen Sebastian, Andrea Marie Smith, Temar Underwood, & Amy Kim Waschke. Living Dead in Denmark goes on to win the New York Innovative Theater Award for Best Choreography (Marius Hanford).

June
The Youngblood Sunday Brunch comes to an end as Glory Days at Jesus High and Sexmento reach their finales. On the first Sunday of every month for the last eight months, the scribes of Youngblood slaved backstage to cook bacon and pancakes for their hungry audiences, while on stage the actors performed their serialized episodes of the mysterious Sexmento and the sacrilegious Jesus High. The cast of Sexmento includes Diana Ruppe, Dawn Evans, Emily Mostyn-Brown, R.J. Tolan, Graeme Gillis, and J.J. Kandell. Jesus High stars Julie Leedes, Anna Stumpf, Steve Sanpietro, Gregg Mozgala, and Josh Haness

Over at the 31st Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Original Short Play Festival, Sharyn Rothstein’s RelationTrip wins First Prize. This tale of couples coming together and falling apart over the course of a train ride is directed by Catherine Ward and stars Will Harper and Youngblood alum Zakiyyah Alexander. The play will be published later this year.

Also on the publishing front, Kevin Christopher Snipes’ Virgin Rock is published as part of The Best Plays of the Strawberry One-Act Festival, Volume 3. The one-act previously won Best Play during the Summer 2005 Strawberry One-Act Festival at the Producers Club.

Youngblood sells their artistic vision, their playwriting, and their very souls - to the highest bidder as part of the Brick Theater’s $ellout Festival. In early April, Youngblood ran an eBay auction to dramatize the true-life story of the highest bidder. Tom Ritchford wins and his life of wild parties, terminally-ill parents and (possibly) underage sex become fodder for playwrights Qui Nguyen, Michael Lew, Courtney Lauria, Daria Polatin, Emily Conbere, Edith L. Freni, Sharyn Rothstein and Annie Baker who pen The True Life Story of Tom Richford. R.J. Tolan directs a cast including Lucia Brizzi, Helen Coxe, David Gelles-Hurwitz, Debbie Jaffe, Moira Lael MacDonald, Gregg Mozgala and Steven Sanpietro.

Over at Ars Nova, Elizabeth Meriwether has a reading of her new play Bobby, starring Josh Hamilton and Tony-nominee Jayne Houdyshell.

And last but not least, Time Out New York lists the ten most promising playwrights in New York City. Two Youngblooders make the list: Qui Nguyen and Elizebeth Meriwether.

July
Needing to refuel their creative sprits, Youngblood heads to Lexington for their annual Summer Retreat. Much merriment is had despite the thunderstorms.

August
Still refueling, Youngblood goes on hiatus.

* * *

After all that refueling, you’re probably curious what amazing things Youngblood did when it returned in the fall. The only way to find out is to check back in a few days when we present the third and final chapter of Youngblood 2006: A Year in Review.

Youngblood 2006: A Year in Review (January – April)

2007-01-24T07:44:00.000-07:00

(A scene from Elizabeth Meriwether's Heddatron at HERE Arts.)

Here’s a look back at 2006 - a year in which it can be fairly stated that without Youngblood there would not have been much theater in New York City. Or, at least, not very much interesting theater. What follows is a brief summary of all that Youngblood accomplished in those twelve theatrical months of 2006.

January
Youngblood comes out swinging with the first part of Thicker Than Water at Ensemble Studio Theatre. On the double bill are one-acts by Maggie Smith and Amy Herzog. In Smith’s Henrietta Hermaline’s Fall from Great Heights, directed by Abigail Zealey Bess and starring Nicol Zanzarella-Giacalone, Denny Bess and Brendan McMahon, a socially backward, chronically allergic young secretary is swept into a world of romance, heartbreak and despair when the pigeons on her roof proclaim her the rightful Queen of the Bird People.

In Amy Herzog’s Hungry, directed by Christine Farrell and starring Lucia Brizzi, Erin McMonagle and Rebecca Pace, three friends - in the middle of the 90s, in the middle of New Jersey - try to hold onto each other.

February
Thicker Than Water continues with Kevin Christopher Snipes’ full-length drama A Bitter Taste, in which a mild-mannered college professor (Peter O’Connor) and a smooth-talking divorce attorney (Paul Clark) explore the underbelly of their lifelong friendship after their world is thrown off balance by an underage male prostitute (Haskell King). The New York Times praises that, "the play offers some taut drama."

Meanwhile the ever-irreverent Les Freres Corbusier team up with Elizabeth Meriwether and a couple of real honest-to-god robots for Heddatron at HERE Arts. Directed by Alex Timbers, Heddatron follows the adventures of a housewife abducted by robots and forced to act out Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. In the New York Times Ben Brantley calls the show an “exultant celebration of the cathartic powers of theater.” Carolyn Baeumler, Gibson Frazier, Nina Hellman, Ryan Karels, Julie Lake, Daniel Larlham, Spenser Leigh, Michael Schulman, Ian Unterma, and fellow Youngblooder Sam Forman star.

March
In front of judges Sigourney Weaver, Julia Stiles, Christopher Durang, Oskar Eustis, Jo Bonney and David Cote, Youngblood squares off against rival New York theater companies including Partial Comfort, Vampire Cowboys, and Labyrinth at the 2nd Annual Battle of the Bards at Crobar. Ed Murray pens the entry (a journey through a Dantesque gym hell) and R.J. Tolan directs. Sadly, Youngblood gets its ass handed to it by Ma-Yi, which takes home first place.

Meanwhile two new plays by Youngblooders open in New York: Qui Nguyen’s Trial by Water (produced by Ma-Yi) at the Culture Project and Edith Freni’s Baby Girl (produced by Partial Comfort) at Center Stage. John Gould Rubin’s directs Nguyen’s historically-inspired tale of a group of Vietnamese immigrants trapped at sea and forced to savage lengths to survive. Dinh Q. Doan, Genevieve DeVeyra, Jojo Gonzalez, Karen Tsen Lee, Arthur Acuna star. Baby Girl, directed by Padraic Lillis, focuses on a recent drug addict turned mother who must decide whether or not to sell her baby. Curran Connor, Sarah Hayon, Chris Kipiniak, Trisha LaFache, Andrew Stewart-Jones, and John Summerour star.

After Battle of the Bards, Youngblood decides it can play well with others and rounds out the month by teaming up with local theater groups for its annual ten-minute play festival Asking 4 Trouble 5. In addition to acting and directing collaborations from Partial Comfort, Les Freres and Labyrinth, A4T5 finds a new home at the Kraine Theatre. New short plays are served up by Annie Baker, Emily Conbere, Courtney Lauria, Michael Lew, Elizabeth Meriwether, Edward Lee Murray, Daria Polatin, Sharyn Rothstein, Kevin Christopher Snipes and Maggie Smith.

April
Elizabeth Meriwether’s The Mistakes Madeline Made opens at the Culture Project, directed by Evan Cabnet and starring Colleen Werthmann. It is subsequently named one of the Best Plays of 2006 by Time Out New York.

* * *

Want to know what contributions to New York theater Youngblood made from May to August? Check back here in a few days for the second part of Youngblood 2006: A Year in Review.

The Top 10 Plays of 2006

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People like Top 10 Lists. I like telling people what to think. This list is my way of ensuring that everyone wins. However, to set it apart from the other Top 10 lists currently flooding the Year in Review periodicals, I’m limiting my Top 10 List only to new plays/musicals (on and off Broadway), since it’s the new works that will maintain the theater as a growing, vibrant and necessary medium. As a disclaimer I should admit that I missed many shows last year (Grey Gardens among them), so the list is undoubtedly incomplete. Also, I’ve excluded my own play A Bitter Taste, which premiered at Ensemble Studio Theatre last year and would obviously be on any Top 10 List for New York Theater. So in no particular order, here are my favorite new plays of 2006.

The Pain and the Itch
by Bruce Norris

A Thanksgiving Day party centered around possible child molestation is the backdrop of this devastating critique of liberal hypocrisy. Vicious, cutting dialog and alternately loveable/despicable characters flesh out a play that contains one of the cleverest dramatic structures of the year.

My Name is Rachel Corrie
by Katharine Viner, Alan Rickman, Rachel Corrie

Granted, the production left me a little cold, but there’s no denying the power, passion and persuasiveness of Corrie’s condemnation of Israeli’s American-backed occupation of Palestine. It’s a brave play that is more politics than drama, but I applaud Viner, Rickman and the Minetta Lane Theater for attempting to raise the collective New York consciousness about the conflict in Palestine.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore
by Martin McDonagh
Euripides meets Quentin Tarantino. A brilliant and bloody play.

Spring Awakening
by Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater, Frank Wedekind

With embarrassment I must confess that I didn’t care for this show when I first saw an early preview at the Atlantic, and I still have problems with some of the conventions, but I’ve always said that a show is great not despite it flaws but because of them. Broadway needs more shows like Spring Awakening that are willing to push the boundaries of form and content. Also, the nebbish Ernst’s (Gideon Glick) seduction by blond bad boy Hanschen (Jonathan B. Wright) is probably the sexiest scene in theater for 2006.

The Mistakes Madeline Made
by Elizabeth Meriwether

Elizabeth Meriwether’s dark comedy about surviving the daily grind and absurdities of life had me laughing and crying within minutes of each other. Favorite moment that punched me in the gut both times I saw the show: Edna's breakdown when she laments her insignificance in the world with, “I have this life. I have this little life.”

The History Boys
by Alan Bennett
Do I really need to defend this choice?

The House in Town
by Richard Greenberg

I’ve got a thing for fragile but quirky heroines struggling to keep it together, and Greenberg’s play provided Jessica Hecht with the chance to out-DuBois Blanche DuBois. Greenberg didn’t reinvent the wheel with this play, but he gave us a solid and entertaining period piece that examines how fragile our sense of self truly is.

Post Mortem
by A.R. Gurney

A small, simple and (intentionally) self-indulgent play, but Gurney’s wit has never been sharper, whether turning it against the Bush administration or himself. Missing his Indian Blood is one of my great regrets of 2006.

Stuff Happens
by David Hare

Hare turns the Bush administration’s decision to wage war on Iraq into a Shakespearean epic. Political theater at its best.

The Internationalist
by Anne Washburn

Cultural and language barriers create an atmosphere of menace and wonder in Washburn’s dreamlike play about an American struggling to understand his place in a foreign country. Few playwrights can earn an ambiguous ending that leaves so much unresolved, and while it frustrated me, I also respect her decision not to provide easy answers in a play that so strongly examines the impotence of communication.

L.A. Premier of Party Lights

2007-01-24T07:35:00.000-07:00

Kevin Christopher Snipes' ten-minute play Party Lights recently concluded its Los Angeles run as part of the Secret Rose Theater's ActoberFest. Party Lights was originally written for Youngblood's Asking 4 Trouble V at the Kraine Theatre, where it was directed by Brian Roff and starred Julie Leedes and Paco Tolson. The L.A. production at the Secret Rose Theater last month marks Snipes' West Coast premier. The play was directed by David Robinson and starred Susan Savage (pictured) and David DeSantos. Savage's many television credits include Star Trek: Voyager, Angel, Boston Public and Carnivale. DeSantos' television credits include Ugly Betty and House, M.D.

Youngblood in Print

2007-01-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

(The cast of Vampire Cowboy Trilogy by Qui Nguyen & Robert Ross Parker)

You’ve seen the plays of Youngblood. Now you can own them. The following is a list of some of the plays currently in print by Youngblood members. The one thing everyone loves to unwrap is great theater written by playwrights under thirty. Also, be sure to keep an eye out for the forthcoming publication of Elizabeth Meriwether’s Mistakes Madeline Made (recently produced at Yale Rep.) and Sharyn Rothstein’s RelationTrip, winner of this year’s Samuel French Original Short Play Festival.

THICKER THAN WATER
Published by Dramatis Play Service, this collection contains one-acts by previous and current members of Youngblood.
“Heights” by Amy Fox
At two A.M. on an apartment rooftop, three young New Yorkers face conflicts of sexuality and trust that jeopardize their relationships.
“Waterborn” by Edith L. Freni
Nothing comes naturally to Marc and Leslie—so it’s a really good thing that she’s pregnant.
“Charlie Blake’s Boat” by Graeme Gillis
Charlie Blake’s ex-girlfriend, the one who got away, tries to keep him from going to Scotland in a boat he’s built himself.
“D.C.” by Daria Polatin
Two overachieving teens get an after-school lesson in spelling and a bitter dose of R-E-A-L-I-T-Y.
“Welcome Back, Buddy Combs” by Ben Rosenthal
In a sexually charged atmosphere of obscured realities and hidden truths, Buddy gets the welcome of his life upon returning from basic training and finding his best friend shacked up with his wife.
To purchase, click HERE.

"Yit, Ngay (One, Two)" by Michael Lew
Published in PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS 2006
A one-woman show that examines the tensions that arise as a Chinese-American family attempts to acclimate to the American way of life.
To purchase, click HERE.

"Vampire Comedy Trilogy" by Qui Nguyen & Robert Ross Parker
Published in PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS 2005
A trio of irreverent action comedies about a paranormal detective, a pair of Cold War-era superduper-heroes, and a sassy teenage warrior princess.
To purchase, click HERE.

"Trial by Water” by Qui Nguyen
Published in SAVAGE STAGE by Ma-Yi Theater.
Two Vietnamese brothers set off for America with dreams of a better life, but when the boat's engine breaks down, their journey turns into a nightmare.
To purchase, click HERE.

“A Fair Affair” by Daria Polatin
Published in BEST STUDENT ONE ACTS: VOLUME 7
Based on a Chekhov short story, this bittersweet love story unfolds with a timely twist as two secret lovers attempt to reconcile their romantic dreams.
To purchase, click HERE.

“Virgin Rock” by Kevin Christopher Snipes
Published in THE BEST PLAYS OF THE STRAWBERRY ONE-ACT FESTIVAL: VOLUME 3
Two teenage boys share one hot summer together and are left with a lifetime of regrets.
To purchase, click HERE.