The Eighth Annual Midtown International Theatre Festival (MITF for those who like acronyms) starts on July 16, which is, like, way too soon. Not for the festival, but July wasn’t supposed to happen until June was over. And June is… wait a minute, June ended already. Oh yeah, the fireworks. July 4th. Independence Day. Excessive heat. Stupid calendar.
Anyway, its festival time again. So come on people! Smile on your brother and sister and cousin and go see a show!
Full release with the full schedule for the FULL FREAKIN’ FESTIVAL (!) follows…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Judd Hollander / 212-242-1648 / BNCHPEOP@AOL.COM
Over 40 Shows! 4 Separate Venues! More than 240 performances in 21 Days!
The Eighth Annual Midtown International Theatre Festival
Promises All This and More, Beginning July 16th
With a lifespan lasting longer then most television shows (we’ll tie “Friends” next year), the
Midtown International Theatre Festival will kick off its eighth annual presentation of performances,
staged readings, talkbacks, dancing girls (well, maybe not dancing girls) and a selection of shows
which include:
o A musical about immigrants seeking asylum in America
o A gay musical romp based on Charles Dickens’s “Oliver Twist”
o Revivals of John Guare’s “House of Blue Leaves” and George Axelrod’s “Will Success
Spoil Rock Hunter?”
o A look at the land of the living dead, with three separate entries exploring that shadowy
realm and running the gamut from comedy to outright horror
o A series of short pieces and monologues based on works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
o A pair of short comedies that examine the civil liberties of Americans in the post-9/11 world
o A look at unfair labor conditions in the coal mines of 1869 Pennsylvania and the secret
society formed in retaliation by Irish immigrants working there
o A documentary-style play about the Columbine High School shootings
o A film-noir tale about a long-lost movie and the “curse” it supposedly carries
o A black comedy about a group of people doomed to celebrate Christmas every day
o The story of Elvis Presley as told through the women in his life
Plus stories about dismembered corpses, people searching for the meaning of life, dramas, solo
shows, multi-media presentations and more!
Beginning on July 16th and running through August 5th, MITF8 will take place at the MainStage
and Jewel Box spaces at the WorkShop Theater, located at 312 West 36th Street (on the 4th
floor), the Where Eagles Dare Theatre, located at 347 West 36th Street (also between 8th & 9th Avenues) on the ground floor, and Stage Left Studio, located at
348 West 37th Street (between
9th & 10th Avenues), on the 5th floor.
“It’s always exciting when we prepare for the Festival,” noted MITF executive producer John
Chatterton. “We always have a wide-ranging and eclectic line-up to pick from. We naturally
hope each of them will strike a chord with the audience, and each year more than a few do
just that.”
Inaugurated in 2000, the Midtown International Theatre Festival was created to offer an
opportunity for productions and performances that might otherwise not be seen by as broad
an audience as possible. Since its inception, the MITF has presented over 300 different works.
The lineup for the 2007 Midtown International Theatre Festival (MITF8) is as follows):
MainStage Space
WorkShop Theater
312 West 36th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues)
Fourth Floor
Bloody Lies (comedy/thriller)
by Greg Machlin
directed by Samantha Shechtman
presented by Purple Pillow Thief Productions
featuring: Gabe Belyeu, Michael Buckley, Carrie Cimma, Thomas Lash, Brian Decaleue,
Larry George, Kate Hamill & Marlene Morreis
An Equity Showcase
www.homepage.mac.com/gregmachlin
Running Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes
In the spirit of Charles Ludlam and Joss Whedon comes the ultimate Dracula-meets-Monty-
Python play: Bloody Lies. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll bleed from the neck!
Fresh from the hit production at the University of Iowa: A young man named Clem travels to a mysterious Eastern European country to save his family’s house from the clutches of his evil
landlady. While there, he and his best friend Barney meet the menacing Count and his beautiful
daughter Nina. Nina and Clem are smitten with one another, but Nina is strangely pale, doesn’t
like the sun, and certainly seems to enjoy biting Clem’s neck. But then Clem discovers the
Count’s plans to take over America and turn everyone into blood slaves. And that’s when
things really get cooking! Can Clem find love with a beautiful vampire? Can he stop the evil
Count? Find out in Bloody Lies!
Show Times for Bloody Lies are as follows:
Monday, July 16th at 8:30pm Sunday, July 29th at 11:30am
Saturday, July 21st at 4:45pm Sunday, August 5th at 3:30pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 7:30pm
The Executioner (drama/comedy/gay)
written by Jon Kern
directed by Pedro Salazar
featuring: Kelly Eubanks, Melinda Helfrich, Walker Lewis, Tania Molina, Scott Sweatt,
Isaac Hirotsu Woofter, Sebastián Cruz, Ed Perez, and Sam Sadigurski
www.myspace.com/theexecutionerplay
Running Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
Cross over into a world saturated in the red hues of death, love and cherry pie in The Executioner,
a new play that combines dark humor and violence to interrogate the meaning of justice in America.
Set in Texas, the story centers on a young waitress, Barbara Ann Quartermain, and her kung fu- obsessed brother Cort, as they take revenge on those in the state penal system who executed
their mother. The local sheriff is hot on their trail, but can she overcome her attraction for Barbara
Ann, or will she turn away from the law and follow her aching heart? A contemporary noir in the
Coen Brothers tradition, The Executioner features a live band and original music and was created
by recent graduates of Columbia University’s MFA theatre program.
Show times for The Executioner are as follows:
Tuesday, July 17th at 8:30pm Tuesday, July 24th at 6:30pm
Friday, July 20th at 7:30pm Sunday, July 29th at 3:30pm
Saturday, July 21st at 8:45pm Saturday, August 4th at 9:45pm
Exhibit This! – The Museum Comedies (comedy/family)
by Luigi Jannuzzi
directed by Elizabeth Rothan*
Produced by The Metropolitan Theatre Company (Jannuzzi/Rothan)
featuring: Bruce Barton*, Emily Beatty, Dustin C. Burrell, Joseph Franchini*, Billy Lane*,
Dawn E. McGee, Perryn Pomatto, Jasmin Singer, Peter Stoll*, & Charles F. Wagner IV*
An Equity Showcase
www.LuigiJannuzzi.com
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has come to life! This is a fast-paced series of comedic plays
and monologues based on more than 40+ different works of art at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art. What happens when paintings, sculpture, antiquities, drawing, and fertility gods, emerge
from their molds, frames, and cases? Mix in artists, guards, critics, lovers, curators and one very
special night, and you have…Exhibit This: The Museum Comedies. The play has won 4
Samuel French Finalist Awards, an OOBR award, the 2006 Perry Award for Best Original
Production in New Jersey Theatre. The playwright has six plays published by Samuel French Inc.
Show times for Exhibit This: The Museum Comedies are as follows:
Friday, July 20th at 9:30pm Tuesday, July 24th at 8:30pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 1:30 pm Saturday, July 28th at 1:00pm
Monday, July 23rd at 8:30pm Saturday, August 4th at 7:45pm
The House of Blue Leaves (farce with music)
by John Guare
presented by Metzler Productions
Running Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
A zookeeper/nightclub pianist struggles to improve his lot in life despite his hypochondriac wife,
insistent mistress, homicidal son, absent best friend (he’s famous too!) and a gaggle of nuns.
The clock is ticking and their opportunities to be rich, famous, and successful – or at least
geographically near to those enjoying such fortune – are slowly expiring. Against the backdrop
of an overseas war, one apartment in Queens becomes, briefly, the battleground for an entire
empire.
Show times for The House of Blue Leaves are as follows:
Thursday, July 19th at 6:00pm Saturday, July 28th at 7:15pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 11:00am Monday, July 30th at 8:00pm
Friday, July 27th at 7:00pm Sunday, August 5th at 9:30pm
Patriot Acts (comedy)
A world premiere by Marshall Jones III
directed by Rico Rosetti
produced by Emerge Theater Company
Featuring: Julie Cotton, Deidre Da Silva, Nick Farco, Andrew Kaempfer*, Asad Khan,
Sarah Koestner*, Stacie Lents*, Paul O’Connor*, and Shanti Wesley
www.EmergeTheater.org
An Equity Showcase (approval pending)
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
A pair of short comedies that examine the civil liberties of Americans in the post-9/11 world
of today. The first work is a series of vignettes that follow the zany adventures of two federal
agents vigorously enforcing provisions of the Patriot Act. The second one-act looks at a pair
of NYC roommates who become entangled in a farcical case of “identity fraud” that leads to
an eventful undertaking of vaudevillian proportions.
Show times for Patriot Acts are as follows:
Saturday, July 21st at 6:45pm Sunday, July 29th at 1:30pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 3:30pm Monday, July 30th at 6:00pm
Saturday, July 28th at 11:00am Friday, August 3rd at 6:15pm
Secrets Women Share
presented by Dancing With The Moon Productions
written by Meri Wallace
directed by Leah Bonvissuto
featuring: Anne Ackerman,* Sabrina Bogen, Allison Colby, Maureen Griffin,* Angus Hepburn,* Annalisa Loeffler, Torey Marks & Erin Leigh
www.meriwallace.com
Running Time: 1 Hour, 10 Minutes
Secrets Women Share is a series of intimate and unexpected encounters, depicting six situations
(in such places as the ladies’ room, the hair salon and the mammography waiting room) in which
women confront each other and themselves, and celebrate the innate bond they share: their strength
and their unique ability to be intimate.
Show times for Secrets Women Share are as follows:
Monday, July 16th at 6:45pm Friday, August 3rd at 8:15pm
Saturday, July 21st at 11:00am Saturday, August 4th at 1:30pm
Sunday, July 29th at 7:45pm Sunday, August 5th at 5:30pm
Sons of Molly Maguire (drama)
written by John Kearns
directed by Candace O’Neil Cihocki
featuring: Michael Basile*, J. Dolan Byrnes, Dani Cervone, Mary Egan, Dain Geist,
Susan McBrien*, Emily Moment, Julia Morrissey, Brendan Ryan and Gary Troy*
Presented by Boann Books and Media LLC
An Equity Showcase
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
In the coal mining towns of Pennsylvania circa 1869, first-generation Irish American Jack
Kilbride, dismayed at the brutal working conditions and the corrupt mine bosses (who usually
had the local law and the courts in their back pockets) joins a secret society known as the Molly Maguires: a group who made their point via intimidation, violence, arson, and murder. However,
those in power would not sit still for these methods for long, and schemes are hatched to destroy
the society via the power of the yellow press and, more insidiously, by a betrayal from within.
Inspired by actual events still remembered today, Sons of Molly Maguire looks at a time when
life was cheap and rights were for the privileged only. (June 21, 2007 marks the 130th anniversary
of the Molly Maguire hangings.)
Show times for Sons of Molly Maguire are as follows:
Tuesday, July 17 at 6:30pm Sunday, July 23rd at 6:30pm
Friday, July 20th at 5:30pm Saturday, July 28th at 3:00pm
Saturday, July 21st at 12:45pm Saturday, August 4th at 3:15pm
Stray Dog Hearts (black comedy/World Premiere)
written by Padraic O’Reilly
directed by: Jennifer Gelfer
produced by Kimberly Bailey / Velocity Theatre Company
featuring: Marc Santa Maria, Kimberly Bailey, Rainbow Dickerson, Mike DiGiacinto, Stephen Jutras
www.velocitytheatre.org
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes (no intermission)
“Glengarry Glen Ross meets Ab Fab!” When a mysterious dwarf crashes the office of a failing
art book publisher, what unfolds is an irreverent black comedy with hothouse intensity and
whip-smart humor. Stray Dog Hearts skewers the art world, corporate culture and the search
for the perfect mate.
Brianna’s pregnant, Brodsky’s nostalgic, and Lila’s a firecracker who’s always “in her cups”.
When the three of them are confronted with an interloping well-dressed dwarf on the day that
they are handed over to their new parent company, the hostile takeover is the least hostile thing
that happens that day.
Show times for Stray Dog Hearts are as follows:
Wednesday, July 18th at 6:30pm Wednesday, August 1st at 10:30pm
Saturday, July 21st at 2:45pm Thursday, August 2nd at 8:30pm
Wednesday, July 25th at 10:30pm Friday, August 3rd at 10:00pm
Thursday, July 26th at 6:30pm Saturday, August 4th at 11:30am
Saturday, July 28th at 9:45pm – SOLD OUT!! Sunday, August 5th at 1:30pm
The Street (musical comedy)
libretto by Ronnie Cohen (with support from Jane Beale)
music/lyrics by Ronnie Cohen
director/choreographer: Heidi Lauren Duke
musical director: Daniel Cataneo
produced by Michael Roderick
featuring: Leslie Anne Friedman, Fiona Choi, Anthony Aloise*, Theresa Rose, Ryan Hillard*,
Jonathan Whitton, Jen Percival, Nicole Dalto, Joshua Walter
An Equity Showcase (approval pending)
Running Time: Two Hours
Killer Dames take on Wall Street! Stock shorts, long odds, undercover moles and a misanthropic metrosexual all collide on America’s “Street of Dreams”. It’s a wild ride as we take on the big g
uns of Wall Street… only to run head-on into accounting improprieties and business shenanigans.
Show Times for The Street are as follows:
Wednesday, July 25th at 6:00pm Wednesday, August 1st at 6:00pm
Friday, July 27th at 4:30pm Saturday, August 4th at 5:15pm
Tuesday, July 31st at 8:15pm Sunday, August 5th at 11:00am
Take Me America (musical) – “It’s not a story. It’s my life.”
book and lyrics by Bill Nabel
music by Bob Christianson
directed by Gregg Wiggans
musical direction by Nate Patton
choreography by Denny Paschall
dramaturgy by Peter Flynn
produced by Double Play Connections, LLC and Meredith Lucio
featuring: Ana Andricain*, Eric Chan*, Michelle Liu Coughlin*, Jan Leslie Harding*,
Mike Mitchell, Jr., Ellen Mittenthal*, Natasha Tabandera*, Ernest Williams*
Equity Showcase (approval pending).
www.takemeamerica.com
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes (no intermission)
Take Me America is a new musical about asylum in America, inspired by the P.O.V.
documentary “Well-Founded Fear.” Follow nine refugees in their quest for asylum in the
U.S. and the three INS agents who decide their fate. Do they stay or do they go? How
would you decide? Get it wrong and you might as well sentence them to death….or worse.
Inspired by true stories from the asylum process, these are stories of life and death. They
are real, sometimes humorous, but always compelling.
Show times for Take Me America are as follows:
Monday, July 16th at 10:30pm Thursday, July 26th at 4:30pm
Thursday, July 19th at 10:45pm Monday, July 30th at 10:30pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 9:30pm Friday, August 3rd at 4:15pm
To The Contrary (drama)
written by Craig Jacobs
directed by: James Valletti
assistant director: Rachel Evans
presented by Jonathan Tessero
featuring: Laura Jordan*, Jim Weitzer*, Diane J. Findlay*, Todd Detwiler, James Mills*
An Equity Showcase
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
The story of Bernice “Bernie” Phillips, a savvy, successful New York City photographer who,
in a moment completely against character, falls in love with Michael, one of her most inexplicably attractive subjects. With him and her best friend, the aging-and ageless-soap opera star Leslie,
at her side, Bernice explores the ins, outs, ups, and ultimate downs of life, love, and sex. With
the writer’s eye targeted toward imbuing the play with elements completely “contrary” to the
norm, this work demonstrates that love is not always all you need.
Show Times for To The Contrary are as follows:
Tuesday, July 17th at 10:30pm Sunday, July 29th at 9:30pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 5:30pm Tuesday, July 31st at 10:30pm
Tuesday, July 24th at 10:30pm Thursday, August 2nd at 11:00pm
Twist (musical/gay)
book & lyrics Gila Sand
music by Paul Leschen
additional music by Gila Sand & Garrit Guadan
directed by Gila Sand
featuring: Reymundo Santiago, Garrit Guadan, Ryan Mercy, Hannah Fairchild, Jake Lemmenes,
Amanda Sasser, Martin Gould Cummings, Jason Griffith, Lee Cavellier
www.themusicaltwist.com
Running Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes
A pop-rock musical based on “Oliver Twist,” with a Drama Desk 2007-nominated score.
By turns outrageous, provocative, and emotionally riveting, Twist weaves Victorian erotica,
dark comedy and gender-bending into Dickens’s famous tale as it re-imagines Oliver as an
attractive young man, still searching for love, but driven by physical desire. Whether submitting
to punishment at the Workhouse, or succumbing to the charms of a flirtatious Artful Dodger,
Twist is always begging for more. Set in London’s late 1800s, Twist’s journeys land him in
underworld household of prostitutes and pickpockets, ruled over by Fagin, a stunning male
dominatrix with a nasty temper.
A unique retelling of a classic, Twist entertains with exquisite drag, arch wit, a bit of kink
and a catchy set of new contemporary songs. Yet the show remains surprisingly true to Oliver
Twist, a coming-of-age tale of loneliness, craving, adventure, and finally, redemption. First
performed in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in the fall of 2006, the show went on to New
York workshops at the Kraine Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Source. For the MITF
production, the author and composers have added new material, expanding on a score that
has already been called “instantly memorable”.
Show times for Twist are as follows:
Thursday, July 26th at 10:30pm Sunday, July 29th at 5:30pm
Friday, July 27th at 9:30pm Tuesday, July 31st at 6:00pm
Saturday, July 28th at 5:00pm Sunday, August 5th at 7:15pm
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (comedy)
written by George Axelrod
directed by Holly-Anne Ruggiero
produced by Wildcat Theatricals
Equity Approved Showcase
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
A new production of the rarely-produced Broadway smash about sex, stardom, and
the silver screen. A novice reporter gets more than he bargained for when he interviews
silver screen sex goddess Rita Marlowe in this devilishly funny satire by George Axelrod
(author of the play “The Seven Year Itch” and the screenplays “Bus Stop”, Breakfast at
Tiffany’s”, and “The Manchurian Candidate”.)
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? was originally produced on Broadway in 1955,
where it ran for 444 performances. The original Broadway cast included Orson Bean,
Jayne Mansfield, and Walter Matthau.
Show times for Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? are as follows:
Wednesday, July 18th at 8:30pm Thursday, July 26th at 8:30pm
Thursday, July 19th at 8:30pm Wednesday, August 1st at 8:30pm
Wednesday, July 25th at 8:30pm Thursday, August 2nd at 6:30pm
Jewel Box Space
WorkShop Theater
312 West 36th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues)
Fourth Floor
As Long a Time as a Long Time is in Long Time Land
written by Todd Pate
directed by Barbara Suter
featuring: Christopher Hurt and Michael Rushton
produced by Broken Blade Theatre Company
www.aslongatime.com
Running Time: 60 Minutes
Two men are trapped in a single cell. One believes that amnesia will set him free as the
other goes to the depths of pain to remember everything beyond the locked door. Which
man holds the key to their freedom?
Show times for As Long a Time as a Long Time is in Long Time Land are as follows:
Saturday, July 21st at 4:30pm Saturday, July 28th at 11:00am
Monday, July 23rd at 8:00pm Wednesday, August 1st at 6:00pm
Tuesday, July 24th at 9:30pm Saturday, August 4th at 5:30pm
DupleX (suspense thriller)
written by Scott Brooks
directed by Sam Viverito
presented by Badlands Theatre Company
featuring: Jen Scott Mobley, Michael Ferrell, Diana De La Cruz*, Benim Foster*,
John Di Benedetto* and Andrew Stewart Jones*
An Equity Showcase
Running Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes
There’s no doubt that we live in greedy times, and it is no accident that Scott Brooks’
new play is set in a Manhattan apartment for rent. The American dream of working hard
and getting rich somewhere along the line has gotten abbreviated to just the “getting rich”
part. But “found money” rarely has no strings attached.
Nick, a young man just “passing through” the real estate business by renting luxury apartments,
one night decides to “crash” in a furnished duplex he’s been showing. There he meets a
mysterious woman who seems to have gotten the same idea. Before they have a chance to
compare notes, they witness the brutal murder of a diamond salesman who somehow let
himself right into the apartment. While the smart thing to do would be to call the police, the
two strangers become complicit in the deed after greed drives them to hide the body and
keep the diamonds for themselves. Soon, Nick finds himself in a game of nerves with grifters,
killers and cops, where his dream of easy money becomes a prayer to stay alive.
Brooks’ last work, “Bag Fulla Money”, also directed by Viverito, and also looking at the theme
of getting something for nothing, (albeit as a farce) was presented at the Clurman Theatre on
New York’s Theatre Row this past January.
Show times for DupleX are as follows:
Monday, July 16th at 6:00pm Tuesday, July 31st at 9:30pm
Saturday, July 21st at 9:00pm Thursday, August 2nd at 9:45pm
Sunday, July 29th at 2:45pm Saturday, August 4th at 1:00pm
Five By Three
written by Nicole Greevy, Uma Incrocci, & Erica Jensen
directed by Nicole Greevy & Erica Jensen
presented by Numerical Productions
featuring: Mike Caban, William Franke*, Deborah Green*, Nicole Greevy*, Armistead Johnson*,
Sarah Malkin*, Kirk McGee*, Christian Pedersen*, Ninon Rogers*, Alison Saltz, Andi Teran,
Dan Truman*, Melanie Wehrmacher
Running Time: 1 Hour, 15 Minutes
Learn how to breakup with a friend, move without packing, bite your friend’s face and hide
from zombies in these five short plays by three funny women.
Show times for Five By Three are as follows:
Saturday, July 21st at 11:00am Thursday, August 2nd at 6:00pm
Friday, July 27th at 8:15pm Saturday, August 4th at 7:30pm
Tuesday, July 31st at 6:00pm Sunday, August 5th at 2:45pm
I’m In Love With Your Wife (comedy)
written by Alex Goldberg
directed by Tom Wojtunik
presented by Changuitos Productions
featuring: Shane Jacobsen*, Katie Kreisler*, Ron Palillo*, Ean Sheehy*, Marion Wood*,
and Monica Yudovich*
An Equity Showcase
www.changuitosproductions.com
Running Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes
I’m In Love With Your Wife is a comedy about multiple seductions where everybody’s
getting some, except Gary. When Gary’s friend Paul confesses to an affair with Gary’s wife,
and Paul’s wife confides in Gary her own dirty secrets, Gary must face his demons in this story
of sexually obsessed New Yorkers. With the help of his therapist, played by Ron Palillo (Arnold Horshack from “Welcome Back, Kotter”), Gary confronts everyone at a dinner party, but
will sexual mania trump morality?
The writer, Alex Goldberg, is a member of the award-winning sketch comedy group FEARSOME.
Show times for I’m In Love With Your Wife are as follows:
Tuesday, July 17th at 8:30pm Wednesday, July 25th at 5:45pm
Friday, July 20th at 6:00pm Saturday, July 28th at 3:00pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 8:45pm Friday, August 3rd at 8:00pm
The Last One Left (comedy/drama)
written by Jason Pizzarello
directed by Dev Bondarin
produced by Geek Ink
featuring: Phil Bartolf, Marco Formosa, Deborah Johnstone, Maria McConville ,
John Stillwaggon, and Emily Zempel
www.thelastoneleft.com
Running Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
Middle child Danny returns home from fighting a senseless war against killer robots with a
war buddy in tow. His younger sister Anna longs to be anywhere but these tight quarters,
while older sister Emma dreams of moving to the Big Apple. As these three siblings struggle
to escape the only home they have ever known, they instead encounter unimaginable battles
in the family’s living room. Part John Guare, part David Lindsay-Abaire, with The Last One
Left, Jason Pizzarello presents us with a quirky world…not so unlike our own.
Show times for The Last One Left are as follows:
Friday, July 20th at 9:45pm Sunday, July 29th at 6:30pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 1:15pm Wednesday, August 1st at 8:00pm
Thursday, July 26th at 9:30pm Sunday, August 5th at 11:00am
A Line in the Sand (solo show/drama)
written and performed by Adina Taubman
directed by Padraic Lillis
produced by Gemini Productions
www.alineinthesandtheshow.com
Running Time: 1 Hour, 15 Minutes
A documentary-style play about the Columbine High School shootings, A Line in the Sand
is a mesmerizing collage of a community struggling in the wake of horrific loss, based on
interviews Adina Taubman conducted in Littleton, Colorado. Taubman portrays over twenty
characters, including a student recalling the sounds of gunshots as she hid under a desk in the
library; a mother speaking of planting the section of sidewalk on which her son died in her
garden; and a young girl who must decide whether to go to the funeral of her friend, the victim,
or to the funeral of her friend, the killer. Interspersed with powerful monologues are voice-overs
taken from Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s diaries and their videotape transcripts.
In 1999, immediately after the massacre at Columbine, Taubman felt the tragedy had drawn
“a line in the sand” that our country would never cross again. Unfortunately, since 1999, there
have been over 40 school shootings in the United States, including the recent massacre at
Virginia Tech. How can we stop this epidemic of violence? (There will be a post-show
discussion after every performance.)
Show times for A Line in the Sand are as follows:
Friday, July 20th at 8:00pm Tuesday, July 24th at 7:45pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 5:15pm Wednesday, July 25th at 9:45pm
Love and Israel (monologues/comedy/drama)
produced by Sissy Block and Ilana Lipski
original script compiled/edited by Sissy Block & Ilana Lipski, with
monologues written by various authors
directed by Ilana Lipski
featuring: Sissy Block, Nathan Brisby, Iuliana Gedo, Jordana Oberman, Mindy Raf, and
Avi Reinharz
Running Time: 1 Hour, 15 Minutes
Love and Israel explores the human side of Israel through the eyes of different writers
who have a personal relationship with the country. A series of funny, serious, sexy and
soul-baring monologues are performed by an ensemble cast. The show takes the focus
away from politics, war and the media, and puts it instead onto the personal experiences of
people living in Israel, covering a diverse range of subjects including Israel as a young woman’s
first love, falling in love with Israeli music, food and even Israeli cats, as well as a New
Yorker’s experience serving in the Israeli army, separating from Israel and how to say
goodbye.
Show times for Love and Israel are as follows:
Wednesday, July 18th at 530pm Sunday, July 29th at 11:00am
Saturday, July 21st at 2:45pm Thursday, August 2nd at 7:45pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 7:00pm Sunday, August 5th at 4:30pm
Outroverted (comedy/monologue/solo show)
presented by I Ate What? Theatre Company
www.outroverted.com
A show for the chronically unaccepted, Outroverted shows “reality” through the colorful eyes
of those who are different: frustrated gamer geeks, fat lunatic wenches, struggling black actors,
closeted virgins, and socially stifled women, all struggling to find acceptance and define who
they are.
Show times for Outroverted are as follows:
Thursday, July 17th at 6:00pm Thursday, July 26th at 7:00pm
Wednesday, July 18th at 9:15pm Sunday, July 30th at 8:00pm
Saturday, July 21st at 6:30pm Saturday, August 4th at 3:00pm
Papa’s Will
written and directed by Rob Egginton
presented by Panicked Productions
featuring: Marshall Sharer, Sam Antar, Brett Friedmann, Stu Richel*, Kat Lower
Running Time: 1 Hour, 10 Minutes
An Equity Showcase
Through his fractured adolescence and early manhood, Will McCarthy discovers and
accepts the inevitability of his family’s fate. Papa Gene, his grandfather, provides him unique
life lessons, a few handy clichés and a smidgen of hope to get through the rough patches.
Jack Daniels, a touch of ecstasy, and his best friend, Carl, play supportive roles on Will’s
travels through darkness.
Will our hero accept his fate and the life lessons Papa Gene insists on delivering to a reluctant
grandson? Will he embrace an existence that is lifeless yet familiar? Will he stay rooted in
darkness and fulfill his father’s low expectations of him or will he accept Papa Gene’s offer of
hope? Is there a happy ending for Will and his family? Will he offer Papa Gene the relief he
seeks? Will he grant his father forgiveness? Is there a future for Will and his girlfriend? There’s
only one way to find out!
Show times for Papa’s Will are as follows:
Thursday, July 19th at 5:45pm Sunday, July 29th at 4:45pm
Saturday, July 22nd at 11:30am Tuesday, July 31st at 7:45pm
Friday, July 27th at 6:30pm Saturday, August 4th at 9:15pm
The Shadow-Pier (drama/film noir)
by Jonathan Wallace
directed by James Edward Duff
presented by Howling Moon Cab Company
featuring: Jared Morgenstern, Paul Pryce, Peter Reznikoff*, and Gayle Robbins
An Equity Showcase
www.spectacle.org/shadowpier/
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
In 1952 “The Shadow-Pier,” a film about gangsters and star-crossed lovers, is abruptly
seized by the F.B.I. due to its “Un-American” subject matter and possible Communist taint.
Fifty years later, the movie’s creator is contacted by a mysterious man offering to sell him a
copy of that long-lost film. Thus begins a dangerous game of cat and mouse, which quickly draws
the F.B.I., who still has an interest in the matter, into the mix. With almost everybody connected
with the film having died under unhappy circumstances, “The Shadow-Pier” has acquired a “cursed” status among conspiracy buffs. But that can’t really be true, or can it? In a world where desiring something too much can be a very dangerous thing, some secrets are perhaps better left buried
for all time.
Show Times for The Shadow-Pier are as follows:
Monday, July 16th at 8:00pm Sunday, July 29th at 8:30pm
Saturday, July 21st at 12:45pm Friday, August 3rd at 6:00pm
Tuesday, July 24th at 5:45pm Sunday, August 5th at 8:30pm
The Speed Queen
adapted and performed by Anne Stockton
directed by Austin Pendleton
dialect coach – Sam Chwat
based on the novel “The Speed Queen” by Stewart O’Nan
An Equity Showcase (approval pending)
Running Time: 1 Hour, 15 Minutes
Marjorie Standford is on Death Row in Oklahoma. Now she is trying to set the record straight
by answering questions posed to her by American’s most popular horror novelist about her
wild life of sex, drugs, and crime that has led to what may be her imminent execution.
Show times for The Speed Queen are as follows:
Saturday, July 28th at 5:00pm Friday, August 3rd at 4:15pm
Wednesday, August 1st at 10:00pm Sunday, August 5th at 1:00pm
Storia (solo show/World Premiere)
written and performed by Troy Diana
directed by Jennifer Ortega
produced by Troy Diana and Claire Brownell
presented by The Monarch Theater
Running Time: 1 Hour, 15 Minutes
Sometimes where you go in life all depends on where you came from. Troy Diana’s humorous
and poignant work charts five generations of one family on a journey of hope, loss, love and
trial through immigration, assimilation, culture shock and a search for identity. In telling the story,
Troy brings to life nine separate characters (including ones Italian, American, Peruvian and Chinese)
as they all seek to belong.
Storia will be performed on the following dates:
Wednesday, July 18th at 7:15pm Saturday, July 28th at 6:45pm
Thursday, July 19th at 7:30pm Saturday, August 4th at 11:00am
(there will be a free reception following the July 18th performance)
Stuck (drama)
by Jessica Goldberg
presented by Amy Lerner/Hana Mori Taylor
Running time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Two young women from rural American dream of new lives and start down a path of inevitable destruction. When promising love affairs end in disaster, things start to spiral out of control. As
the girls seek to improve their circumstances, they find themselves only moving closer to destroying themselves due to their inability to see their way out.
Show times for Stuck are as follows:
Thursday, July 19th at 9:30pm Monday, July 30th at 6:00pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 3:15pm Friday, August 3rd at 10:00pm
Saturday, July 28th at 1:00pm Sunday, August 5th at 6:30pm
WEBEIME (drama)
written and directed by NAACP Award-Winning playwright Layon Gray
produced by The Black Gents Of Hollywood
featuring: Lamman Rucker, Jay Jones, Eddie Lewis, Justin Biko, Layon Gray, Jason McGhee,
Thom Scott, Donn Swaby
www.myspace.com/blackgents
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Seven Black Men, One Story:
On Death Row, one man searches his soul for inner peace before his execution while his
subconscious ruminates on how he arrived at this place in time. This play took Los Angeles by
storm and will have its New York debut at MITF8.
Show times for WEBEIME are as follows:
Monday, July 23rd at 6:00pm Friday, July 27th at 10:00pm
Wednesday, July 25th at 7:45pm Saturday, July 28th at 8:45pm
Thursday, July 26th at 5:00pm Sunday, July 29th at 12:45pm
Where Eagles Dare Theatre
347 West 36th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues)
Ground Floor
Addicted to Christmas (black comedy)
written by David Patrick Stearns
directed by Sheri Johnson
produced by Greg Miller
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes (no intermission)
An anti-denominational comedy that concerns a cult of Christmas vigilantes who celebrate
Christmas monthly, weekly, sometimes daily. They avenge Santa Claus bashings, rescue
endangered Christmas decorations – and cut off cell phone service to priests who refuse them
absolution. While resorting to green spray paint to freshen wilted trees, their Yule Log video
begins to speak, and it’s not happy. It seem every one of this group committed suicide on
Christmas Eve and they’ve been suck in a sort of “in-between” limbo ever since. Now they have
a chance to amend their karma before leaving for the hereafter. But what they’re doing right
now isn’t worth their borrowed time, so can they change their ways before it’s too late?
Show times for Addicted to Christmas are as follows:
Monday, July 16th at 6:00pm Saturday, July 28th at 6:00pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 1:30pm Friday, August 3rd at 4:00pm
All The King’s Women (Comedy/Family)
by Luigi Jannuzzi
directed by Branan Whitehead
produced by The Metropolitan Theatre Company: Jannuzzi/Whitehead
featuring: Alisha Campbell, Rebecca Bateman, Craig Clary & Salome’ M. Krell and
Jessica Asch
www.LuigiJannuzzi.com
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
All The King’s Women is the story of Elvis Presley told through the eyes of 17 women. Some Enthralled, Some Appalled, ALL OBSESSED! From Tupelo Mississippi, where 12 year-old
Elvis wanted a BB Gun instead of a guitar, to The Steve Allen Show; from President Richard
Nixon’s office to Andy Warhol’s studio; from Cadillac salesmen to Graceland guards, this is a
touching comedy with heart that captures the effects fame, generosity and just being a nice guy
can bring to others!
Show times for All The Kings Women are as follows:
Wednesday, July 18th at 9:00pm Saturday, July 28th at 3:30pm
Friday, July 20th at 7:00pm Wednesday, August 1st at 6:00pm
Monday, July 23rd at 8:30pm Sunday, August 5th at 11:00am
The Broken Jump (comedy/drama/play with music)
written by King Talent
directed by J.B. Lawrence
musical direction by Rebecca Sponseller
produced by Baby Hippopotamus Productions
featuring: The Talented Talent Brothers (King Talent, Melissa Jo Talent, Matt “Mo” Talent
and Tony King) along with Jack Boice, Dan Hernandez, Greg Homison and Caitlin Mehner
www.babyhippopotamus.com
Running Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes (with intermission)
Julius McGowen is a small-time vaudeville comic who has spent twenty years pursuing his dream
of making the big-time and playing the Palace. He arrives in Grand Rapids, Michigan at the end of
a broken jump (a “split week,” as it were) to find a child performer has taken his headlining slot;
not to mention a long lost love struggling to be re-ignited; a politician trying to make a name for
himself; and an epidemic outbreak of the Spanish influenza. Shaken to his core by these events,
he must decide whether it’s better to dream a dream he’s always had or to live one he never knew existed.
Show times for The Broken Jump are as follows:
Saturday, July 21st at 1:15pm Wednesday, August 1st at 8:30pm
Thursday, July 26th at 6:00pm Thursday, August 2nd at 5:30pm
Sunday, July 29th at 11:00am Sunday, August 5th at 4:00pm
The Cholmondeley Chronicles
by Michael Rudez
directed by Michael Roderick
produced by Small Pond Entertainment and Prophecy Productions
featuring: Kenn Mann, Michael Mraz, Daphnie Yang, Elizabeth Owens, and Howard Davidson
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Somewhere in Midtown Manhattan, a twenty-eight year old virgin huddles naked on a suitcase
trying to validate his existence….And somewhere, in Paris, France, exists the woman he wants
to validate…. Existence. Validation. The Cholmondeley Chronicles!
Show times for The Cholmondeley Chronicles are as follows:
Friday, July 20th at 9:30pm Sunday, July 30th at 8:30pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 8:45pm Monday, July 31st at 9:00pm
Wednesday, July 25th at 6:00pm Saturday, August 4th at 9:30pm
The Conjugality Test (drama)
written by Michael Lazan
directed by David Gautschy
featuring: Jacqueline Sydney*, Amanda Sayle, Ed Kershen*, Warren Katz, Shaun Bennet Wilson
An Equity Showcase
Running Time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
A play about the duplicitiousness of interpersonal relationships among the progressive bourgeoisie
of the Upper West Side and a plot to destroy a family’s static dynamic. David is a literate,
progressive Manhattanite with an impressive job, a successful partner, and a bright teenage
daughter. Who is this young attractive woman who woos him? What lurks under the niceties
of a contemporary urban family? This play was developed at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.
Show times for The Conjugality Test are as follows:
Sunday, July 22nd at 4:00pm Saturday, July 28th at 1:00pm
Tuesday, July 24th at 6:00pm Sunday, July 29th at 9:15pm
Thursday, July 26th at 8:45pm Friday, August 3rd at 6:30pm
four unfold: a story with song
presented by Kate Lemos
Running Time: Two Hours
“If no one sees us or hears us, do we exist?” four unfold is an unconventional story with song
witnessing the lives of four New York twenty-somethings and the life that is shaped and stolen
away. The story centers on a year in the life of Sam, an optimistic young songwriter, who has
always taken things in stride. But it isn’t until his world is complicated by the conundrums his
dearest friends face that he truly begins to reason crucial matters that had once seemed implausible. Together the four explore prominent societal issues that grace their lives with poignancy and
power. As each uncovers a freeing light they are forced to embrace and accept life as they’ve
never felt it before.
Show Times for four unfold: a story with song are as follows:
Tuesday, July 17th at 8:30pm Sunday, July 29th at 1:45pm
Wednesday, July 18th at 6:00pm Thursday, August 2nd at 8:30pm
Saturday, July 21st at 6:00pm Saturday, August 4th at 1:30pm
i am not a chimpanzee (comedy/drama)
a new play by Michael Stockman
directed by Douglas S. Hall*
consulting producer: Jason Kaminsky (member ssdc)
An Equity Showcase
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
i am not a chimpanzee introduces Sam and Margaret Waxman, a Park Avenue couple
deteriorating after the death of their son Bobby in 9/11. Sam’s a retired corporate lawyer who’s
traded his white shoes for hi-tops and urban leisure wear, and spends his time doing drugs under
his kitchen table. Wife Margaret has left him for the chimpanzees at a sanctuary at the Bronx Zoo,
where she performs increasingly amorous experiments. When they hire a Queens hooker in a last
ditch effort to save their marriage, she overdoses in their kitchen and they’re confronted with the
realities of their lives.
Show times for i am not a chimpanzee are as follows:
Monday, July 16th at 8:30pm Sunday, July 29th at 7:15pm
Saturday, July 21st at 9:00pm Tuesday, July 31st at 6:30pm
Tuesday, July 24th at 8:30pm Saturday, August 4th at 4:30pm
The Hand and The Hen (comedy/drama)
written by Fernando Josseau
translation by Adolfo Perez Alvarez and Oscar A. Mendoza
directed by Oscar A. Mendoza
produced by woken’glacier theater company
featuring: Paul Daily, Jeffery Steven Allen*, Coco Silvera
www.wokenglacier.org, www.oscaramendoza.com
Running Time: 1 Hour, 15 minutes
In The Hand, a calm and retired man suffered a strange and bizarre mutilation of his right hand
when he sticks it out of the window to find out if it is raining. This action repeats itself some time
after with his left hand, and finally with his head. Going beyond the typical depiction of the police
genre in almost all of Josseau’s plays as present here, having ingredients of absurd, enigmatic
and inexplicable anecdotes, it is possible that a metaphorical interpretation related to Chilean
events during a period where people disappeared, were tortured and mutilated existed without
a possible culprit.
In The Hen, on the other hand, the absurd and distorted operate in a more “realistic” way
and its logic has both solution and continuity. The play is the story of a calm and talkative
intellectual man whose wife is violated both mentally and physically by the neighbor. This
neighbor is an intellectual who is a renowned and noted pacifist who maintains an intimate
relationship with intellectuals of his time and is considered a brilliant lighthouse of humanism in a
stormy contemporary world. But precisely that contemporary horror – according to the play-
is twice perverse, since this fine intellectual not only attacks the neighbor’s woman on the street,
but also rapes her in her own house and ends up doing the same with the outraged husband.
Show times for The Hand and The Hen are as follows:
Saturday July 21st at 11:00am Friday July 27th at 6:30pm
Sunday July 22nd at 6:30pm Monday July 30th at 6:15pm
Wednesday July 25th at 8:30pm Sunday August 5th at 9:15pm
Nosferatu: The Morning of My Death (drama/horror)
by Stanton Wood
an adaptation from F. W. Murnau’s classic silent horror film and Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”
directed by Edward Elefterion
featuring: Danny Ashkenasi*, Matt W. Cody, Paul Daily, Emily Hartford,
Jenna Kalinowski*, David Miclei*
Presented by Rabbit Hole Ensemble
www.rabbitholeensemble.com
An Equity Showcase
Running time: 1 Hour, 15 Minutes
The world between the living and the dead become blurred when Count Nosferatu, a creature
of pure evil, comes to London, infecting all he touches, and bringing death, hopelessness and
the promise of eternal life. With an otherworldly cry of “Embrace the Dark and Live,” this
macabre, yet lyrical tale plays out as seen through the eyes of Mina Harker, the object of
the Count’s “affections,” who may be unable to resist his siren calls of despair, death and
seductive offering. This is the second of two plays Rabbit Hole Ensemble has performed
on the Dracula myth. The first, “Land of the Undead”, also adapted by Wood, was presented
as part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival’s Next Step Developmental Series this
past March.
Show times for Nosferatu: The Morning of My Death are as follows:
Tuesday, July 17th at 6:00pm Sunday, July 29th at 4:45pm
Thursday, July 19th at 6:00pm Friday, August 3rd at 9:00pm
Saturday, July 28th at 8:30pm Saturday, August 5th at 1:30pm
Out Of The Flames (horror)
Presented by Opening Night Entertainment
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Everyone has their own will; sometimes you just have to battle the world to follow it.
Out of the Flames is a new play that focuses on the issues of our world, yet wraps the
deep scars around a dramatic take of love, loss, and acceptance. Focusing on a central
character named Delcio, the play initially tells the story of the man the world would come to
call the Devil, and his journey into the light in order to find peace and forgiveness for the sins he
never truly committed. His journey takes us on a dramatic, comedic, and somewhat tragic path
as he comes to understand the flaws that our society offers. We meet many characters, whose
differing personalities build the foundation for the lessons he is to learn.
Show times for Out of the Flames are as follows:
Thursday, July 19th at 8:30pm Friday, July 27th at 8:45pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 11:00am Saturday, August 4th at 7:00pm
Monday, July 23rd at 6:00pm Sunday, August 5th at 6:45pm
STAGE LEFT STUDIO
348 West 37th Street
(between 9th & 10th Avenues)
Suite 5-A
Cat-her-in-e (solo show/comedy)
written and performed by Amy Staats
directed by Jorelle Aronovitch
An Equity Showcase
Running Time: 1 Hour
www.amystaats.com
A solo play about one girl’s conflicted relationship with her brilliantly imaginative but troubled
older cousin.
Show times for Cat-her-in-e are as follows:
Wednesday, July 25th at 8:00pm Friday, August 3rd at 6:30pm
Thursday, July 26th at 6:30pm Saturday, August 4th at 8:30pm
Saturday, July 28th at 4:00pm Sunday, August 5th at 2:00pm
Fix-it: A Comedy about Love, Self-Help and the Recovery from Both (solo show, comedy)
written and performed by Megan Griswold
directed by Leah Davidson and Pam DeVore
edited by Spencer L. Kayden
www.megangriswold.com
Running Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
Can a childhood of self-help therapy prepare Megan Griswold for her husband’s devastating
secret? Fix It: A Comedy about Love, Self-Help and the Recovery from Both is an autobiographical show chronicling Griswold’s unusual rites of passage, her husband’s shocking
arrest and how she stretches the limits of optimism and therapy in her attempts to “fix it”.
From her mantra at age 7 to over 10,000 hours of alternative therapies by age 32, she reflects
on universal and conflicting themes of love, self-help and acceptance. With humor and candor,
this tale captures her painful but comical reflections on life’s tragedies and revelations. Fix It
premiered at The Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder, CO in August 2006.
Show times for Fix It: A Comedy about Love, Self-Help and the Recovery from Both
are as follows:
Friday, July 27th at 8:30pm Wednesday, August 1st at 8:30pm
Saturday, July 28th at 6:00pm Thursday, August 2nd at 6:30pm
Sunday, July 29th at 2:00pm & 6:45pm
The Purpose of Matter In The Universe (solo show/multi-media/comedy/drama)
Written and performed by Joe Hutcheson
Directed by DB Levin
Running Time: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
How can a person face a new life when he can’t get rid of the baggage from the old; especially
while paralyzed by obsessiveness, crippling fears of failure, death, loss, inadequacy and just
not fitting in? Such is the situation Joe finds himself in as he prepares to uproot his comfortable
(if not altogether happy) existence in California for a new life in Florida. Eschewing a plane ride,
he takes a road trip cross-country, but finds himself suffering emotional meltdown almost before
he gets started. Seeing a long and endless road with nothing but emptiness and despair stretched
out before him, he must look deep inside himself to learn perhaps the one true axiom when it
comes to life – sometimes you wonder and other times you just don’t know. And all we can do
every day is the best we can. Along the way, he is joined by several travel mates, including his
born-again mother, his pill-popping step-mother, some old classmates, and his lesbian soul mate.
His adventure culminates in a rather interesting encounter in a techno gay bar in Nashville,
Tennessee.
More than a monologue, The Purpose of Matter in the Universe is a multi-media event,
combining video and film projection, a slide show, music and other audio elements to take the
audience along on this literal and emotional journey.
Show times for The Purpose of Matter In The Universe are as follows:
Friday, July 27th at 6:00pm Thursday, August 2nd at 8:45pm
Sunday, July 29th at 4:15pm Saturday, August 4th at 6:15pm
Transit (solo show)
written and performed by Mary Jane Wells
Directed by Ben Sander (aka Brini Maxwell)
Running Time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
Transit is a story of the pangs of a spiritual awakening and its absurdities. From an epiphany
on Charles Street in Boston to the Howard Johnson Hotel on Houston Street – via Appalachia
and Kansas City – follow the adventures of the white girl in her search for God!
Show Times for Transit are as follows:
Thursday, July 26th at 8:00pm Friday, August 3rd at 8:30pm
Saturday, July 28th at 8:15pm Sunday, August 4th at 4:00pm
STAGED READINGS
All performed at the WorkShop Theatre MainStage space
347 West 36th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues), 4th Floor
Admission is Free / Open to the Public / Not For Review
He Is (inspirational/comedy/drama)
written by Dana F. Joseph
directed by Curtis Von
choreographed by Tanisha Harris-Martin
produced by Faythjo Productions
featuring Jamye Jackson, Elizabeth Earnest, Curtis Von, Derrick Nash, Tiffany Joseph,
Jasmine Parker, Phillip Brent Sr., Tanisha Harris-Martin, Michelle Thomas, Breigh Jiles,
and Danielle Rivers
www.faythjoproductions.com
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
An inspirational adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. We have all heard the story, but not quite
like this. Do you want to see what really happened in the Wizard of Oz? Come along on this
journey that does not lead you down the Yellow Brick Road, but to streets that are paved
with gold. Dee Dee is searching for love, the Scarecrow desires peace, the Lion needs courage,
and the Tin Man wants to know if there is really such a thing as joy. They meet a man who
gives them a book, but is it just a book? This extraordinary production will come to life right
before your eyes with the little minded people, the delightful flowers that spread cheer, the
cynical crows that taunt, and the masked characters that represent good and evil. He Is tells
a beautiful story about love and hope. This powerful production will inspire, enlighten and
encourage audiences of all ages. With its exquisite singing, imaginative dances, and authentic
costumes, this is a must see production.
Show times for He Is are as follows:
Thursday, July 26th at 2:00pm Friday, July 27th at 2:00pm
La Tosca! A New Melodramatic Comedy
written and directed by Hector Lugo
produced by Hector Lugo & LGBT Theatre
assistant director Perry Dell’Aquila
Featuring: Hector Lugo, J. Dolan Byrnes*, Joey Dudding*, George Hahn** and Tony Yazbeck*
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
La Tosca! is inspired by “La Tosca”, the tragic play by Victorien Sardou and it is the story
of Tosca, “The eternal heroine of Love”. In 1887, the great Sarah Bernhardt created the role
for the Paris Stage; in 1956 the legendary Maria Callas immortalized her in the Opera…
witness history today as La Contessa, “That Puerto Rican Star of Stage and Stage,” takes on
the role of her lifetime in La Tosca!, a new melodramatic comic re-telling of the sordid story of
Lust, Lies and Love in 1800’s Rome. (Industry RSVP and reservations recommended at
917-584-0547.)
Show times for La Tosca! are as follows:
Thursday, August 2nd at 1:00pm
Love On Ice (musical)
book and lyrics by Bill Nagel
music by Kevin Conners
directed by Peter Flynn
musical direction by Amy Duran
Running Time: Two Hour, 15 Minutes (with one intermission)
Love On Ice Â- a cryogenic love story.
What would you do to live with the one you love forever?
Show times for Love on Ice are as follows:
Tuesday, July 31 at 3:00pm
Moishe and Mohammad (drama)
written, produced and directed by Phillip W. Weiss
featuring: Bruce Zayde and Phillip W. Weiss
Email: pwnycny@aol.com
Running Time: 75-90 Minutes
Moishe is an Israeli Jew, Mohammed a Palestinian Arab. In a free-wheeling, no-holds-barred
discussion, sparks fly as both men hurl charges and countercharges at each other, each
blaming the other side for causing the Arab-Israeli conflict. Although both men offer frank and
compelling arguments, neither is willing to make concessions. Can their differences ever be
resolved? Can the chasm that separates them ever be bridged? Does peace have a chance?
This will be the first staged reading of this original and thought-provoking literary work.
Show times for Moishe and Mohammed are as follows:
Wednesday, July 25th at 3:00pm
Spokes (drama/satire)
by Chance D. Muehleck
directed by Melanie S. Armer
produced by LIVE Theater Company
www.LIVETheater.4t.com
Running Time: 1 hour, 50 Minutes
Spokes follows Jay Catrell through the rabbit hole of his psyche. Jay is a student of journalism.
He wants a story for his thesis and a position at Spokes International, the largest media group
on earth. But when he encounters a number of people all claiming to be Rolin Spokes, Jay
realizes he’s uncovered something strange.
Show times for Spokes are as follows:
Monday, July 30th at 2:30 pm
Those Whistling Lads: The Poems and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker (comedy/drama)
adapted and written by Maureen Van Trease
produced by TimeSpace Theatre Company
featuring: Maureen Van Trease* as Dorothy Parker and featuring Jessica Grove*, JT Arbogast*, Michelle Enfield*, Eric Starker*, Emily Hagburg and Christian Roulleau
www.timespacetc.com
Running Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Those Whistling Lads is a staged reading that explores the stories, poems and life of Dorothy
Parker. As a member of the famed Algonquin Round Table of the 1920’s and a critic of books
and plays, Dorothy Parker became one of the best known writers for The New Yorker
magazine during the 20’s and 30’s and was especially famous for her stinging and sarcastic
witticisms. A fairly prolific writer who claimed that writing was the most difficult thing for her
to do, she published 3 volumes of poetry and two volumes of short stories. The five stories
presented here, accompanied by thematically related poems, offer a light-hearted look at the
relationship between men and women and also to delve into Dorothy’s personal life, exploring
the experiences that are the basis for the stories.
“The author wishes to thank the National Association For The Advancement of Colored
People for authorizing the use of Dorothy Parker’s works.”
Show times for Those Whistling Lads: The Poems and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker:
Friday, August 3rd at 1:30 pm
Zuly in the Last Place on Earth (musical for kids and adults)
book and lyrics by Anthea Fane
score by John Chin and Christina Kulick
directed by Mercedes Murphy
Running Time: 1 Hour, 15 Minutes
Zuly in the Last Place on Earth is a musical for family audiences about overcoming fears,
and finding peaceful ways to solve conflicts. The story takes place in a junkyard, where two
gangs of dogs are at war. Our hero, Zuly, comes from a long line of fighters, and it is believed
that he will win the war for the mutts, who have suffered years of neglect and abuse. Zuly,
however, is not the dog everyone thinks he should be. When faced with his opponent, he
bursts into song. Shamed and banished from his community, he must find a way to bring peace
to his fellow dogs. Through self-transformation, an idea borrowed from ancient myths such as
the Native American Coyote stories, Zuly finds another way to end the war. As both sides of
the war are ruled by fear, Zuly devises a plan to end the fear, thus ending the war. Finally, both
Zuly and his opponent must learn to accept their own faults and fears. They may not have the
answers but at least they are willing to try to dream of a peaceful world.
Show times for Zuly in the Last Place on Earth are as follows:
Wednesday, August 1st at 3:00pm Thursday, August 2nd at 3:30pm
Running from July 16th through August 5th, the Eighth Annual Midtown International Theatre
Festival will be performed at the MainStage and Jewel Box spaces at the WorkShop Theater,
located at 312 West 36th Street (on the 4th floor), the Where Eagles Dare Theatre, located at
347 West 36th Street (also between 8th & 9th Avenues) on the ground floor and at Stage Left
Studio, located at 348 West 37th Street, (between 9th & 10th Avenues), on the 5th Floor.
Tickets to all shows are $18.00, $15.00 for students and seniors. Tickets can be purchased by
calling 212-868-4444 or by going to www.smarttix.com Additional information on the Festival
can be found at www.midtownfestival.org. The Press is invited to all performances unless
otherwise indicated.
* * *
INFORMATION FOR LISTING EDITORS
WHAT:
Eighth Annual Midtown International Theatre Festival
SYNOPSIS:
With over 40 plays in four separate venues in a 21-day period, the Eighth Annual Midtown
International Theatre Festival presents something for everybody’s palate: from revivals to solo
shows, to a look at the land of the undead, to a gay musical take on Oliver Twist. Other works
include looks at immigration, security in America and the Columbine massacre.
WHEN:
July 16, 2007 – August 5, 2007
WHERE:
WorkShop Theatre, MainStage & Jewel Box Spaces
312 West 36th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues)
4th Floor
Where Eagles Dare Theatre
347 West 36th Street
(between 8th & 9th Avenues)
Ground Floor
Stage Left Studio
348 West 37th Street
(between 9th & 10th Avenues)
5th Floor.
(see attached release for individual show times or go to www.midtownfestival.org) for info.
TICKETS:
$18.00, $15.00 for students and seniors
RESERVATIONS:
212-868-4444 or www.smarttix.com
INFORMATION:
www.midtownfestival.org
SUBWAY INFO:
Take the A, C, E, 1, 2 or 3 trains to 34th Street
