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John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

I haven't posted in a while because I've been moving into my new house




Writer Of Perhaps The Greatest Headline Of All Time Dies At 74
“Headless Body In Topless Bar” started trending nationwide on Twitter today — for a mix of reasons sad, tragic, and nostalgic. The hashtag came from a dark (but amazing) 1983 New York Postheadline — and it's back in the news because the exalted wordsmith who penned it, Vincent “Vinnie” Musetto, has died. The retired news editor and film critic was 74.
Doctors diagnosed Musetto with pancreatic cancer just three weeks ago. His wife of 50 years, Claire, was with him in hospice care at Calvary Hospital wherehe died in his sleep. “He wasn’t in any pain,” his daughter, Carly VanTassell,tells The Post. “He was comfortable.”

Although Musetto wrote many remarkable headlines during his 40-year reign at The Post, “Headless Body In Topless Bar” remains the indisputable public favorite. It refers to a grisly encounter in a Jamaica, Queens bar on April 13, 1983. A patron named Charles Dingle fatally shot the owner, Herbert Cummings, during an argument. He held several women hostage, forcing them into violent acts, demanding one to completely remove Cummings’s head. Dingle was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. He never received parole and died in 2012.
Apparently, though, this iconic headline almost never got laid in ink. A city editor challenged Musetto on the topless detail of the murder scene tavern. Musetto lept to his desk and bellowed, “It’s gotta be a topless bar! This is the greatest fucking headline of my career!” Charlie Carillo, who worked for The Post and was in the newsroom that fateful night, told The Huffington Post. A young reporter was sent to the locked-down bar and saw a neon light inside that confirmed it.
Musetto later said he changed his mind about “Headless” being his favorite of all the headlines he had written. Instead, he favored, “Granny Executed In Her Pink Pajamas.” It’s all preference, really. Some other rather choice titles he penned for The Post include: “I Slept With A Trumpet,” “500-Pound Sex Maniac Goes Free,” “Mayhem In The Street,” and “Khadafy Goes Daffy.”










France's Centre Pompidou explores the Beat GenerationFrom June 22 to October 3, 2016, the Parisian museum will be paying homage to the literary and artistic movement of the beatniks with an exhibition entitled "Beat Generation."
Spanning a period from the late 1940s to the late 1960s, the Beat Generation scandalized America in the dawning days of the Cold War. The movement laid the foundations for the liberation of youth culture and is now recognized as one of the major cultural movements of the 20th century. The Beat Generation is now also the subject of an exhibition at the French capital's Centre Pompidou.
After forming when beatnik novelists and poets William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac met in New York, the heart of the Beat Generation then shifted to San Francisco on the USA's west coast. From 1957, the movement gained ground in Europe, with Paris becoming an important center of activity. The city's Beat Hotel proved a particular focal point, with regular guests including William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky and Brion Gysin.
In homage to its shifting centres, the "Beat Generation" exhibition is organized geographically. It is split into three main sections covering New York, California and Paris, as well as smaller sections on Mexico and Tangiers.
The New York section focuses on the relationship between music and literature, and explores the technology of the age, such as vinyl records and typewriters. The California area focuses on the literary and artistic scene from 1952 to 1965. The show then takes visitors to Mexico, exploring the many factors that drew beatniks over the border, including the country's violent yet magical appeal. Next, the show heads to Tangiers, highlighting the influence of trance music recorded by Paul Bowles during his visits to Morocco in 1959. The exhibition ends with a section on Paris, where several major Beat poetry works were written, particularly at the Beat Hotel.
The exhibition is accompanied by a program of readings, concerts, meetings, films and other events.
"Beat Generation" runs June 22 to October 3, 2016, at Centre Pompidou, Paris.



Drug-fueled 18-page letter Neal Cassady wrote to Jack Kerouac which inspired On The Road goes up for sale and is expected to fetch $600,000
•Neal Cassady wrote 16,000 word letter over three days in December 1950
•Later admitted to having been on amphetamine Benzadrine the whole time
•Kerouac said the 18-page note was 'the greatest piece of writing I ever saw'
•Letter was lost for 60 years but was found in a defunct publishing house

By CHRIS PLEASANCE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
It was the 16,000 word letter that inspired the Beatnik generation - and it is now going up for sale more than 60 years after it was thought to have been lost over the side of a houseboat.
The 18-page script, penned by Neal Cassady over three drug-fueled days in 1950 and sent to Jack Kerouac, is credited with inspiring the spontaneous style of his masterpiece, On The Road.
Speaking in 1968, Kerouac said the letter 'was the greatest piece of writing I ever saw' saying he got his own style from 'seeing how good old Neal Cassady wrote his letters to me, all first person, fast, mad, confessional, completely serious, all detailed'.
In his response to the letter, Kerouac added: 'I thought that it ranked among the best things ever written in America. It was almost as good as the unbelievably good "Notes from the Underground" of Dostoevsky.
'You gather all the best styles... and utilize them in the muscular rush of your own narrative and excitement.
'I say truly, no [Theodore] Dreiser, no [Thomas] Wolfe, has come close to it; [Herman] Melville was never truer.'
Known as the 'Joan Anderson Letter' because of one of the love interests that it discusses, it was thought to have been lost for almost 60 years.
Kerouac said he loaned the letter to poet and fellow Beat Allen Ginsburg, who had passed it along to an unknown third party who was said to have dropped it off the side of a boat.
Only a small extract was known to exist after being retyped by Kerouac himself and then included in the 1964 book 'Notes from Underground #1' by John Bryan.
However, the full script resurfaced in 2012 after being found in the 'to read' pile of a now-defunct publishing house in San Francisco called Golden Goose Press.
According to Jean Spinosa, who found the letter among her late father's possessions, Ginsburg had been trying to get it published when he mailed it, to no effect.
The letter was due to be auctioned in 2014, but was withdrawn from sale after it sparked an ownership dispute between Spinosa, Cassady's children, and Kerouac's estate, who were unaware of its existence.
The trio have now reached an 'amicable settlement' according to the San Francisco Chronicle, with Cassady's family retaining ownership of the content, which they plan to publish at a later date.
The letter itself is due to go under the hammer on June 16 at the Rockefeller Center in New York where it could fetch as much as $600,000.
Dennis McNally, a Kerouac biographer, said: 'The letter is invaluable. It inspired Kerouac greatly in the direction he wanted to travel, which was this spontaneous style of writing contained in a letter that had just boiled out of Neal Cassady's brain.'
Cassady, a prominent member of the Beat generation known for his love of both drugs and women, admitted writing the letter to Kerouac during a Benzadrine binge.
He formed the basis for the hopelessly energetic 'holy fool' character of Dean Moriarty in On The Road, while Kerouac himself appeared in hedonistic adventures alongside him as Sal Paradise.




World Poetry Day: 28 of poetry's most powerful lines ever written
Because I could not stop for Death, / He kindly stopped for me; / The carriage held but just ourselves / And Immortality
'Because I could not stop for Death', Emily Dickinson

And when wind and winter harden / All the loveless land, / It will whisper of the garden, / You will understand
'To My Wife', Oscar Wilde

But the dark pines of your mind dip deeper / And you are sinking, sinking, sleeper / In an elementary world; There is something down there and you want it told
'Dark Pines Under Water', Gwendolyn MacEwen

This is the way the world ends / not with a bang but a whimper 'The Hollow Men', T.S Eliot

Out of the ash I rise / With my red hair / And I eat men like air 'Lady Lazarus', Sylvia Plath

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, / Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, / Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs / And towards our distant rest began to trudge.'Dulce et Decorum est', Wilfred Owen

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved / in secret, between the shadow and the soul. 'Sonnet XVII', Neruda

I would like to be the air / that inhabits you for a moment / only. I would like to be that unnoticed / & that necessary 'Variation on the Word Sleep', Margaret Atwood

they speak whatever’s on their mind / they do whatever’s in their pants / the boys i mean are not refined / they shake the mountains when they dance 'the boys i mean are not refined', E. E. Cummings

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; / The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won  'O Captain! My Captain!', Walt Whitman

Don’t like the / fact that he learned to hide from the cops before he knew / how to read. Angrier that his survival depends more on his ability / to deal with the “authorities” than it does his own literacy 'Cuz He’s Black', Javon Johnson

The weight of the world / is love / Under the burden / of solitude, / under the burden / of dissatisfaction / the weight, / the weight we carry / is love 'Song', Allen Ginsberg

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill/ Of things unknown but longed for still/ And his tune is heard on the distant hill/ For the caged bird sings of freedom'I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings', Maya Angelou

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned; / The best lack all conviction, while the worst  / Are full of passionate intensity The Second Coming', William Butler Yeats

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave / Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind; / Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave. / I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned 'Dirge Without Music', Edna St. Vincent Millay

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love / If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles' Leaves of Grass', Walt Whitman

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! / The world forgetting, by the world forgot. / Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! / Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd
'Eloisa to Abelard', Alexander Pope

Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, / Or bends with the remover to remove: / O no; it is an ever-fixed mark, / That looks on tempests, and is never shake 'Sonnet 116', William Shakespeare

Tree you are, / Moss you are, / You are violets with wind above them. / A child - so high - you are, / And all this is folly to the world 'A Girl', Ezra Pound

You may write me down in history / With your bitter, twisted lies, / You may trod me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I’ll rise  'Still I Rise', Maya Angelou

you are much more than simply dead/  I am a dish for your ashes / I am a fist for your vanished air / the most terrible thing about life/ is finding it gone 'The Unblinking Grief', Charles Bukowski

At twenty I tried to die / And get back, back, back to you. / I thought even the bones would do./ But they pulled me out of the sack, / And they stuck me together with glue
'Daddy', Sylvia Plath

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, / dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix / angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night  “Howl', Allan Ginsberg

She had blue skin,/ and so did he./ He kept it hid/ and so did she./ They looked for blue/ their whole life through./ Then passed right by--/ and never knew 'Masks', Shel Silverstein
Do not go gentle into that good night, / Old age should burn and rave at close of day; / Rage, rage against the dying of the light 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night', Dylan Thomas

Water, water, every where, / And all the boards did shrink; / Water, water, every where / Nor any drop to drink 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', Samuel Taylor Coleridge
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart / I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars / I am the red man driven from the land, / I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek - / And finding only the same old stupid plan / Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak
'Let America Be America Again', Langston Hughes

  



Iconoclast 
1 : a person who destroys religious images or opposes their veneration
 2 : a person who attacks settled beliefs or institutions
Icon comes from the Greek eikōn, which is fromeikenai, meaning "to resemble." Iconoclast comes to us by way of Medieval Latin from Middle Greek eikonoklastēs, which joins eikōn with a form of the word klan, meaning "to break." Iconoclast literally means "image destroyer."


Jovial 
 1 : (capitalized Jovial) of or relating to Jove
 2 : markedly good-humored especially as evidenced byjollity and conviviality
Jupiter, also called Jove, was the chief Roman god and was considered a majestic, authoritative type—just the kind of god to name a massive planet like Jupiter for. Our word jovial comes by way of Middle French from the Late Latin adjective jovialis, meaning "of or relating to Jove." When English speakers first picked up jovial in the late 16th century, it was a term of astrology used to describe those born under the influence of Jupiter, which, as a natalplanet, was believed to impart joy and happiness. They soon began applying jovial to folks who shared the good-natured character of Jupiter, regardless of their birth date.



Lout 
An awkward brutish person
Lout belongs to the large group of words we use to indicate an undesirable person, a boor, a bumpkin, a dolt, a clod. We've used lout in this way since the mid-1500s. As early as the 800s, however, lout functioned as a verb with the meaning "to bow in respect." No one is quite sure how the verb sense developed into a noun meaning "a brutish person." Perhaps the awkward posture of one bowing down led over time to the idea that the person was personally low and awkward as well.

Nomic
1. Relating to a gnome (an aphorism or a pithy saying).
2. Puzzling, ambiguous, or incomprehensible yet seemingly profound.
From Greek gnome (judgment, opinion), from gignoskein (to know). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gno- (to know), which also gave us knowledge, prognosis, ignore, narrate, normal, and gnomon. Earliest documented use: 1815.

Hoity-toity 
1: thoughtlessly silly or frivolous : flighty
2: marked by an air of assumed importance : highfalutin
Before it was an adjective it was a noun meaning "thoughtless giddy behavior." The noun, which first appeared in print in 1668, was probably created as a singsongy rhyme based on the dialectal English word hoit, meaning "to play the fool." The adjective hoity-toity can stay close to its roots and mean "foolish" ("… as though it were very hoity-toity of me not to know that royal personage." — W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge), but in current use it more often means "pretentious."

 Felicitous 
1: very well suited or expressed : apt
 2: pleasant, delightful
The adjective felicitous has been a part of our language since the late 18th century, but felicity, the noun meaning "great happiness," and later, "aptness," was around even in Middle English (as felicite, a borrowing from Anglo-French). Both words ultimately derive from the Latin adjective felix, meaning "fruitful" or "happy." The connection between happy and felicitous continues today in that both words can mean "notably fitting, effective, or well adapted." Happy typically suggests what is effectively or successfully appropriate (as in "a happy choice of words"), and felicitous often implies an aptness that is opportune, telling, or graceful (as in "a felicitous phrase").

Negotiate 
1: to confer with another so as to arrive at the settlement of some matter; also : to arrange for or bring about by such conferences
2: to transfer to another by delivery or endorsement in return for equivalent value
 3: to get through, around, or over successfully
For the first 250 years of its life, negotiate had meanings that hewed pretty closely to its Latin root, negotiari, meaning "to carry on business." Around the middle of the 19th century, though, it developed the meaning "to successfully travel along or over." Although this sense was criticized in the New York Sun in 1906 as a "barbarism creeping into the language," and Henry Fowler's 1926 A Dictionary of Modern English Usage declared that any writer who used it was "literally a barbarian," it has thrived and is now fully established.

  
Wroth
From Old English wrath. Ultimately from Indo-European root wer- (to turn or bend), which is also the progenitor of words such as wring, weird, writhe, worth, revert, and universe. Earliest documented use: 893.


Knavery
Dishonest dealing or an instance of this.
From knave, from Old English cnafa (boy, servant). Earliest documented use: 1528.

Defalcation 
 1: the act or an instance of embezzling
2: a failure to meet a promise or an expectation
Defalcation is ultimately from the Latin word falx, meaning "sickle," and it has been a part of English since the 1400s. It was used early on of monetary cutbacks (as in "a defalcation in their wages"), and by the 1600s it was used of most any sort of financial reversal (as in "a defalcation of public revenues"). Not till the mid-1800s, however, diddefalcation refer to breaches of trust that cause a financial loss, or, specifically, to embezzlement.

Qua 
The etymology of qua, a term that comes to us from Latin. It can be translated as "which way" or "as," and it is a derivative of the Latin qui, meaning "who." Qua has been serving English in the capacity of a preposition since the 17th century. It's a learned but handy little word that led one 20th-century usage writer to comment: "Qua is sometimes thought affected or pretentious, but it does convey meaning economically."

Attenuate 
1: to make thin or slender
2: to make thin in consistency: rarefy
3: to lessen the amount, force, magnitude, or value of weaken
4: to reduce the severity, virulence, or vitality of
Attenuate ultimately comes from a combination of the Latin prefix ad-, meaning "to" or "toward," and tenuis, meaning "thin." It has been on the medical scene since the 16th century, when a health treatise recommended eating dried figs to attenuate bodily fluids. That treatment might be outmoded nowadays, but attenuate is still used in medicine to refer to procedures that weaken a pathogen or reduce the severity of a disease. Most often, though,attenuate implies that something has been reduced or weakened by physical or chemical means. You can attenuate wire by drawing it through successively smaller holes, or attenuate gold by hammering it into thin sheets. You can even attenuate the momentum of a play by including too many costume changes.

Ponceau
A bright red color.
From Old French pouncel (poppy), diminutive of paon (peacock), from Latin pavo (peacock). Peacocks are not red, so why this word after a peacock? The poppy flower got this name because its vivid red color was compared to the bright colors of a peacock. A related word is pavonine.

Licit 
conforming to the requirements of the law : not forbidden by law : permissible
Licit is far less common than its antonym illicit, but you probably won't be surprised to learn that the former is the older of the two. Not by much, though: the first known use of licit in print is from 1483, whereas illicit shows up in print for the first time in 1506. For some reason illicit took off while licit just plodded along. When licit appears these days, it often modifies drugs or crops. Meanwhile, illicit shows up before words like thrill and passion (as well as gambling, relationship, activities, and, of course, drugs and crops.) The Latin word licitus, meaning "lawful," is the root of the pair; licitus itself is from licēre, meaning "to be permitted."

Extirpate 
A: to destroy completely : wipe out
 B: to pull up by the root
 2: to cut out by surgery
Extirpate finds its roots in roots (and stumps. Early English uses of the word in the 16th century carried the meaning of "to clear of stumps" or "to pull something up by the root." Extirpate grew out of a combination of the Latin prefix ex- and the Latin noun stirps, meaning "trunk" or "root." The word stirp itself remains rooted in our own language as a term meaning "a line descending from a common ancestor."

Probative
Serving to test something or providing a proof.
From Latin probare (to test or prove), from probus (upright, good). Ultimately from the Indo-European root per- (forward), which also gave us paramount, prime, proton, prow, German Frau (woman), and Hindi purana (old). Earliest documented use: 1453.




   


Greetings NYCPlaywrights

*** TESTIMONIAL ***

“…Giving us a place to share our 'call for submissions' was definitely a great help to our festival. More importantly, I write myself, and wanted to thank you for creating this wonderful space which enables people to follow their passion.”
Abby Judd - General Manager | NYNW Theatre Festival 2016
http://www.nynwtheatrefestival.com/

~ Thanks to Abby Judd for allowing us to share her kind words about the NYCPlaywrights web site - glad if we can help!

*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
New York Classical Theatre
120 minutes, no intermission.
All performances begin @7pm.
No tickets required!

DATES/LOCATIONS

Central Park
(Enter @ West 103rd St. & Central Park West)
Thursdays through Sundays, June 2-26
+++
Nelson A. Rockefeller Park in Battery Park City
(North end of Battery Park City, west of River Terrace)
Wednesday through Saturday, June 29-July 2
+++
Prospect Park
(Enter at Grand Army Plaza)
Wednesday through Sunday, July 6 - 10
+++
Carl Schurz Park
(Enter @ East 86th St.)
Tuesday, July 12
Thursday through Sunday, July 14-17
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More information:
http://www.newyorkclassical.org


*** SEEKING ONE-ACT PLAYS ***

Seeking fully produced one act plays 
(cast, directed & ready to perform)
7 to 20 minutes for 

SUMMER ONE ACT PLAY COMPETITION
July 25 - August 12, 2016
at Manhattan Rep, 303 W.42nd St.

$1000 for BEST PLAY!

3 performances, (and 4 more performances if your play moves to the FINALS.)

Please email:
The complete play,
synopsis of the play,
running time,
Set/lighting requirements,
playʼs production history
your mailing address,
and a contact email address to:

manhattanrep@yahoo.com

by July 5, 2016.

Put “Summer Competition” in the subject heading.

NON-EQUITY ONLY.

Once accepted, there’s a $155.00 participation fee.

www.manhattanrep.com



*** PLAYWRIGHTS OPPORTUNITIES ***

The Owl and Cat Theatre are currently seeking new works to be produced as part of their 4th season. The Owl and Cat Theatre is an independent theatre located in Melbourne, Australia. They are dedicated to sourcing and producing contemporary plays that reflect the voices of today.
*Plays must explore the theme of sexuality on some level.
*One act or full length only.
*Submissions are accepted worldwide.
*Confronting and provocative works are encouraged.

***

The Bridge Initiative is accepting new plays and musicals written by women for this year’s “Playwright of the Year” award. Stipulations are that the work must be in development with a cast limit of eight (8) and that the writer has an understanding of the next stages needed towards the creation of their play. The playwright will be submitting her piece with the intention of committing time, work, and rewriting within a conscious and measured pipeline of development that will be generated with The Bridge Initiative: Women in Theatre and three other theatre companies committed to the shepherding of the work and writer throughout the process. A panel of professional theatre artists nationwide will adjudicate the submissions.

***

Crossing Borders Repertory is a theater venture showcasing new and emerging writers and new work. Our mission is to explore topics that either directly or indirectly involve the crossing of borders between people: countries, religions, generations or life-stages; class, gender or racial differences—and the walls that must come down to allow the crossing—stereotypes, prejudices, hatred and blindly held customs.


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

   
NYCPlaywrights June 18, 2016
Nancy_GMAIL


6/18/16


 Groups, Newsletters
To: NYCPlaywrights





Greetings NYCPlaywrights

*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***

AS YOU LIKE IT
BAREFOOT SHAKESPEARE
Sunday, June 19, 2016 4PM
At Summit Rock in Central Park
http://www.barefootshakespeare.org/#!productions/cb3i
Map of Summit Rock
http://www.centralpark.com/maps/group/attractions/summit-rock


*** Getting Your (Second) Act Together ***

July 16-17: Screenwriting Workshop: Getting Your (Second) Act Together with Kate Cortesi: In this 2-day workshop at Primary Stages ESPA, you will confront your screenplay’s Second Act Problems head-on, and explore strategies for developing a problem-proof premise and conflict. With Kate Cortesi (Screenwriter, New Line Cinema), you will take an in-depth look at how to excite your audience with a hero who is challenged along a meaningful journey and proceed through your second act with two principles in mind: how your hero needs to be tested, and how your audience empathizes and delights in the hero’s process.  Payment plans available:
http://primarystages.org/espa/writing/workshop-getting-your-second-act-together


*** PLAYWRIGHTS OPPORTUNITIES ***

South Street Players (southstreetplayers.org) is seeking short (20 minutes or less), original, HALLOWEEN-themed one-act plays for its Tri-State Theatre Festival: Halloween Edition. The event will take place October 21-23, 2016 in Spring Lake, NJ.
This event is an offshoot of SSPs popular Tri-State Theater Festival, and will serve as an artistic fundraiser. All proceeds go to SSP to help maintain its commitment to producing high-quality, extremely engaging theatrical experiences for the 2016-17 season… and beyond.

***

Northern Kentucky University | School of the Arts is once again calling for submissions for its award- winning, 18th Biennial Year End Series Festival of New Plays - THE Y.E.S. FESTIVAL, running April 20-30, 2017
• Full-length plays are eligible. All rights must be fully owned by the author.
• No children’s theatre, one-acts, or reader’s theatre pieces will be considered.
• Adaptations will be considered only if the adapted work is in the public domain.
• A submitted play may not have had a previous professional or university

***
The Bridge Initiative is accepting new plays and musicals written by women for this year’s “Playwright of the Year” award. Stipulations are that the work must be in development with a cast limit of eight (8) and that the writer has an understanding of the next stages needed towards the creation of their play. The playwright will be submitting her piece with the intention of committing time, work, and rewriting within a conscious and measured pipeline of development that will be generated with The Bridge Initiative: Women in Theatre and three other theatre companies committed to the shepherding of the work and writer throughout the process. A panel of professional theatre artists nationwide will adjudicate the submissions.

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

*** THEATER GOSSIP ***

New York Theatre Guide Online - Rumors and Gossip

Will Taylor Louderman star in Clueless on Broadway?
Clueless Broadway alum and "Peter Pan Live!" star Taylor Louderman took on the role of Cher in a recent workshop reading of Clueless, opposite Dave Thomas Brown as Josh. Is a Broadway staging far behind?

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Cooper & Miller in The Philadelphia Story on Broadway?
Bradley Cooper According to Showbiz 411, Oscar and Tony nominee Bradley Cooper may reunite with onscreen co-star Sienna Miller in a Roundabout revival of Philip Barry’s romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story.

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Will Jake Gyllenhaal return to Broadway in Burn This?
Jake Gyllenhaal According to the New York Post, Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhall may star in a Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson's 1987 drama Burn This, to be directed by Tony winner Michael Mayer.

More…
http://www.newyorktheatreguide.com/news/rumors.htm

***

London Theatre Gossip & Rumors

New Take That Musical Heading to London?
Take That frontman Gary Barlow doesn't seem content enough with having two musicals running in the West End next year, as The Girls and Finding Neverland open in London. It has been announced that a new musical featuring the songs of Take That will open in 2017 and will tour the UK, but could London also be on the cards?
The show will be called 'The Band' and has been created in association with Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald. It will be cast via a BBC1 series named 'Let it Shine', which will scour the country in the hope of finding five performers to head up the leading cast. The TV talent search marks a return to the format by the BBC who previously ran similar competitions to find Dorothy and Nancy in new West End productions of 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'Oliver!'.

More…
https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/theatre-news/rumours

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Michael Riedel, New York Post

If anything’s ripe for parody, it’s “Hamilton,” which rode a wave of hype to sweep the Tonys on Sunday. And who better to take a few potshots at “Hamilton”-mania than Gerard Alessandrini, creator of the legendary revue “Forbidden Broadway”?
“Spamilton,” Alessandrini’s affectionate sendup, debuts July 13 at the Triad on West 72nd, known as Palsson’s Supper Club when “Forbidden Broadway” premiered there in 1982. “Spamilton” isn’t a new edition of “Forbidden Broadway,” but an 80-minute spoof of “Hamilton,” though it takes potshots at other shows — “American Psycho,” “Waitress” and “An American in Paris” — along the way.

More…
http://nypost.com/2016/06/16/a-new-show-will-mock-hamilton/

***

New York Post - Page Six

Scott Rudin tells his actors not to talk about Orlando at Tonys
June 16, 2016 | 9:42pm
A p.r. pro applauded the move: “The actors are not media trained. It was a developing story.

+++

Angela Lansbury took ‘Murder, She Wrote’ role for the money
"We had to have an annuity,” she said.

+++

De Niro co-directing ‘A Bronx Tale’ on Broadway
The show will start performances Nov. 3 at the Longacre Theatre.

http://pagesix.com/tag/theater/

***

Broadway World Message Boards

http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/

***

Jezebel - Broadway

Phillipa Soo will play the lead in the upcoming Broadway production of Amélie after she’s done with Hamilton. I’m sorry to have to relay the news that Hamilton continues to completely fall apart.

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Wicked, a word guaranteed to conjure vivid memories for anybody who’s been in a marching band or drama club for the last decade or so, is officially going to be a movie.

+++

Look, I know you want to see Hamilton. And I know tickets are impossible to get unless you’re willing to spend thousands of your hard-earned dollars. And I know you were sort of friendly with Audra McDonald in the early 2000s after doing that one episode of SVU together. And I know you haven’t really spoken to her…


More…
http://jezebel.com/tag/broadway

***

Out Magazine - Michael Musto

The horrifying massacre in the Orlando gay club Pulse early Sunday truly took a lot of the urgency out of "Best Lighting in a Musical goes to..." But the Tony Awards kept going, dedicating the telecast to the families and friends of those affected, and managing to keep celebrating Broadway, which made sense to me since it’s all about diversity, culture, and freedoms that we cherish. But as a chill crept over the proceedings—even as some of the self-congratulators willfully ignored current events--I thought, “Wow, the deranged shooter must have really hated gays to mess with my poor Tonys” (not to mention Gay Pride month). It really redefines American Psycho.
Before I get to the specifics of the Tonys, let me say how awful it is to hear certain political sectors follow the biggest shooting in American history with cries of, “We need more guns!” Ironic much?
May I dare to also bring up the fact that gays can give their blood while being slain by a homophobic psycho with weapons, but they’re not allowed to give blood to save lives in the same situation!

More…
http://www.out.com/michael-musto/2016/6/13/wake-tragedy-tony-awards-celebrated-diversity-hate-will-never-win



NYCPlaywrights, July 9, 2016
Nancy_GMAIL



Greetings NYCPlaywrights


*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***

PRE-SHOW COMEDY
T. Schreiber Studio will present standup comedy at 7:30, right before performances of HYSTERICAL, a new play by Jim Geoghan on July 15, 16, 22, and 23.

While they hope you will stay for the ($18 ticket) performance of the play, the standup comedy is FREE.

T. SCHREIBER STUDIO & THEATRE
151 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001
212.741.0209 info@tschreiber.org

More information…
http://tschreiber.org/hysterical/


*** SEEKING ONE-ACT PLAYS ***

Seeking fully produced one act plays 
(cast, directed & ready to perform)
7 to 20 minutes for 

SUMMER ONE ACT PLAY COMPETITION
July 25 - August 12, 2016
at Manhattan Rep, 303 W.42nd St.

$1000 for BEST PLAY!

3 performances, (and 4 more performances if your play moves to the FINALS.)

Please email:
The complete play,
synopsis of the play,
running time,
Set/lighting requirements,
playʼs production history
your mailing address,
and a contact email address to:

manhattanrep@yahoo.com

by July 10, 2016.

Put “Summer Competition” in the subject heading.

NON-EQUITY ONLY.

Once accepted, there’s a $155.00 participation fee.

www.manhattanrep.com



*** PLAYWRIGHTS OPPORTUNITIES ***

We're now accepting full length play submissions for the 2017 Caleb Reese Festival of New Plays and Musicals. The Festival will be held between May 1st and May 14th 2017.
The Festival presents four staged readings of new unproduced plays or musicals, an Evening of New Short Plays and a Composer/Lyricist Cabaret.

***

Theatre Now New York has announced that it is now accepting submissions for the Sound Bites 4.0 musical theatre festival. The festival offers composers, lyricists and librettists the opportunity to showcase their work in front of musical theatre enthusiasts and industry professionals. The selected scripts will be presented live onstage in New York as well as compete for festival awards and for the chance to receive further development.

***

12 Peers Theater is accepting unsolicited submissions of new full-length plays to be recorded and released monthly on a podcast about and featuring new plays. In an effort to maximize exposure for playwrights and assist them in securing full productions, 12 Peers Theater will record and release readings of new plays to be aired on our Modern Myths Podcast throughout 2017.


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



*** DRAMATIC CONVENTIONS ***


CHORUS

Chorus, in drama and music, those who perform vocally in a group as opposed to those who perform singly. The chorus in Classical Greek drama was a group of actors who described and commented upon the main action of a play with song, dance, and recitation.

More…
https://www.britannica.com/art/chorus-theatre

***


DIRECT ADDRESS

Theater Talkback: Stop Talking To Me
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD
“Talk amongst yourselves!”

That old “Saturday Night Live” catch phrase has been popping into my mind a lot lately at the theater, complete with the shrill Long Island accent of Mike Myers’s Linda Richman.

The reason? At far too many new plays in recent seasons the characters seem to spend more time chatting to the audience than they do talking to each other. Instead of interacting with their fellow characters, they keep turning away from the action to give us commentary on what just happened, or explain what we’ve missed.

They spout lyrical tangents describing their impressions or zoom into dazzling riffs that reveal the playwright’s comic gifts. They seem to be doing anything, in short, but talking to each other, which is to say exchanging dialogue, once the standard format of modern drama.

Direct address, as it is called in the trade, has become the kudzu of new playwriting, running wild across the contemporary landscape and threatening to strangle any and all other dramaturgical devices. Hence my furtive impulse to stand up and hurl Linda Richman’s memorable exhortation at the stage.

More…
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/theater-talkback-stop-talking-to-me/

***

DRAMATIC IRONY

Dramatic irony is an important stylistic device that is commonly found in plays, movies, theaters and sometimes in poetry. Storytellers use this irony as a useful plot device for creating situations where audience knows more about the situations, the causes of conflicts and their resolutions before leading characters or actors.

More…
http://literarydevices.net/dramatic-irony/

***

DREAM SEQUENCE

A dream sequence is a technique used in storytelling, particularly in television and film, to set apart a brief interlude from the main story. The interlude may consist of a flashback, a flashforward, a fantasy, a vision, a dream, or some other element…

The dream sequence that Atossa narrates near the beginning of Aeschylus' Athenian tragedy The Persians (472 BCE) may be the first in the history of European theater.

More…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_sequence


***

FORESHADOWING

Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a story or a chapter and helps the reader develop expectations about the coming events in a story. There are various ways of creating a foreshadowing. A writer may use dialogues of characters to hint at what may occur in future. In addition, any event or action in the story may throw a hint to the readers about future events or action. Even a title of a work or a chapter title can act as a clue that suggests what is going to happen.

More…
http://literarydevices.net/foreshadowing/

***

FOURTH WALL

…the Fourth Wall is the fact that in any work of fiction the characters are unaware of the fact that they're fictional characters in a work, the audience observing them, and whatever medium conventions occur in between the two.
Breaking the fourth wall is when a character acknowledges their fictionality, by either indirectly or directly addressing the audience. Alternatively, they may interact with their creator (the author of the book, the director of the movie, the artist of the comic book, etc.). This is more akin to breaking one of the walls of the set, but the existence of a director implies the existence of an audience, so it's still indirectly Breaking The Fourth Wall. This trope is usually used for comedic purposes.

More…
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BreakingTheFourthWall

***

LAZZO

(Italian: “joke”) plural Lazzi, improvised comic dialogue or action in the commedia dell’arte. The word may have derived from lacci (Italian: “connecting link”), comic interludes performed by the character Arlecchino (Harlequin) between scenes, but is more likely a derivation of le azioni (“actions”). Lazzi were one of the prime resources of the commedia actors, consisting of verbal asides on current political and literary topics, manifestations of terror, pratfalls and other acrobatics, and similar actions.

More…
https://www.britannica.com/art/lazzo

***

OBFUSCATING INSANITY

It's pretty much a given that no-one takes crazy people seriously. It's also a given that a lot of people give crazy people a wide berth lest they flip out on them. A lot of people are aware of this and choose to take advantage of it, although their reasons for doing so vary from one character to the next. Sometimes the apparent nutcase is actually perfectly sane, other times they actually are a little on the Cloudcuckoolander side (or maybe more than a little) but deliberately play it up to the Nth degree so that they appear to be far crazier than they actually are. If they are not the point-of-view character, the question may be left open...

The title character of Hamlet. Among his tactics were absurd self-contradictions, irrational and sudden tirades, and general oddness. How much of his insanity is simulated, is the subject of some debate. Depending on how you look at it, the same might also apply to Ophelia.

More…
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ObfuscatingInsanity

***

SELECTIVE PERCEPTION

When either the audience only, the audience and one or more on-stage characters, or one character only can sense something (by sight, sound, etc.) on stage. Usually a sign of insanity or the supernatural.

Examples

In A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, Oberon is invisible to the Athenians, but not to the audience or Puck. He lets the audience know this fact because he states: “I am invisible;”

In HAMLET

The ghost of Hamlet’s father is seen by Horatio, soldiers, Hamlet and the audience in opening scenes, but in the scene with Gertrude, only Hamlet and the audience can see and hear the ghost.

In MACBETH, only Macbeth can see a dagger floating before him, and only Macbeth can see Banquo’s ghost.

The term is borrowed from psychology.

More…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_perception

***

SOLILOQUY/MONOLOGUE

A soliloquy is a word taken from Latin and it means ‘talking by oneself.’ It’s a device that dramatists – and Shakespeare to great effect – used to allow a character to communicate his or her thoughts directly to the audience. The character may be surrounded by other characters but the convention is that they can’t hear the soliloquy because it is essentially a piece in which the character is thinking rather than actually speaking to anyone…

A monologue is a speech made by a character to other characters, sometimes to a crowd. It is not a dialogue, where two or more people are in conversation with each other.


More…
http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/definition-monologue-soliloquy/

***

STOCK CHARACTER

A stock character is a stereotypical person whom audiences readily recognize from frequent recurrences in a particular literary tradition. Stock characters are archetypal characters distinguished by their flatness. As a result, they tend to be easy targets for parody and to be criticized as clichés. The presence of a particular array of stock characters is a key component of many genres.[1][2]

List of stock characters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stock_characters


***

TEICHOSCOPY

One of the oldest techniques that has been used often, is that of teichoscopy or the "viewing from the wall", in which actors observe events beyond the confines of the stage, such as a distant battle, and discuss it on stage while the battle is taking place, as opposed to the event being reported by messengers at a later time after the event has happened. Shakespeare uses this technique in the final scenes of Julius Caesar.

More…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_technique


***

UNSEEN CHARACTER

An unseen character is a fictional character referred to but not directly observed (seen or heard) by the audience...

Unseen characters occur elsewhere in drama, including the plays of Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Edward Albee.[4][5] Author Marie A. Wellington notes that in the 18th-century, Voltaire included unseen characters in a few of his plays, including Le Duc d’Alençon and L’Orphelin de la Chine.[6]

More…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unseen_character