Youth Troupe at Playwrights Theatre

Back by popular demand, Playwrights Theatre's Youth Troupe will return to our class offerings this year!

Youth Troupe (for students in grades 6-8) is a long-term production and performance project for students with a strong interest in creating theatre. During Troupe sessions, students will work collaboratively, under the direction of Jim DeVivo, Playwrights Theatre's Director of Education, to conceive, write and present an original performance piece based on a predetermined theme. Youth Troupe is in part a training program, as students will build skills that prepare them for continued involvement in theatre. It is also a unique forum for exploring thoughts and opinions, and expressing them creatively through a structured art form.

Above all, the process is fun, rewarding, and requires a great deal of dedication, discipline, and energy. The ideal Troupe candidate is a young person who is enthusiastic about theatre, interested in growing as an artist, eager to learn, has a cooperative spirit, and believes that he/she has something valuable to contribute to the company.

Applications are available online via our account with the website SurveyMonkey - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=3W3d_2bXvW6CzTHlIuQRcsdA_3d_3d

Applications must be received by November 20, 2009. After that time, Jim DeVivo will contact applicants to schedule an interview with both the student and parent(s) to further discuss the program and the applicants' interested in joining.

Youth Troupe is scheduled to run for 15 Saturdays beginning January 23, 2010 and ending with a public presentation on May 8, 2010. (No class on April 3.) Troupe meets from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm on those days; however, the final day will also include the presentation at 2:00 pm. The cost for the prorgam is $475.00 for the 15 sessions and performance. Scholarships for students with financial need may also be available.

Questions? Contact Jim DeVivo at 973.514.1787 X14 or jdevivo@ptnj.org

NOT WHAT YOU THINK by Joe Sutton

On stage Saturday, November 7, join us for a reading of "Not What You Think" by Joe Sutton. Among the scheduled performers are Len Cariou (Tony-winner, original Sweeney Todd, Little Night Music) who will play George Orwell.

About the Playwright: Joe Sutton's plays about topical issues include Voir Dire (nominated for the Pulitzer), As It is in Heaven, and Restoring the Sun. Joe’s plays have been produced by such theatres as the New York Theater Workshop, Seattle Rep, and, most recently the Old Vic which produced his play Complicit. Joe is a recipient of fellowships from NYFA, the NEA, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. When not in rehearsal, Joe resides in Montclair, NJ with his wife Anne and their sons James and Nicholas.

About the Director: For Playwrights Theatre: Sedition, The Good German, Circumference of a Squirrel, Sunrise at Monticello, adapted & directed Jim Lehrer’s Flying Crows and The Special Prisoner (w/William Schallert). Elsewhere: Death of a Salesman (w/Frankie Faison), Bluff (w/John Astin), The Value of Names (w/Jack Klugman), The Price (w/Orson Bean & Stephanie Zimbalist), All My Sons (w/Richard Benjamin & Paula Prentiss), The Gin Game (w/William Schallert), Mrs. Warren’s Profession (w/Paula Prentiss & Prentiss Benjamin), Macbeth (w/Frankie Faison), Spread Eagle (w/Ed Asner, Sharon Gless, Jamey Sheridan, Fred Savage).

Reserve your tickets online or by calling the box office at 973.514.1787 X10

THE EXCEPTIONALS by Robert Clyman

On stage tonight, 7pm, a reading of Robert Clyman's "The Exceptionals."

About the Playwright: Robert Clyman's plays have been produced Off-Broadway and at regional theatres, including the Alley Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Repertory Theatre at George Street Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and L.A. Theatre Works in addition to touring Scotland. His awards include a Eugene O’Neill Summer Conference Fellowship, Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award Geraldine Dodge Fellowship, New Jersey State Arts Council Award and an Edward Albee Foundation Fellowship He was nominated for an Outer Circle Critics Award for best script in 2008.

About the Director:
John Wooten is the Producing Artistic Director of Premiere Stages, a professional Equity theatre dedicated to the development of American dramatists. He has directed numerous world premieres and is a resident director for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. John’s plays have been produced Off-Broadway, in London, Australia, India, South Africa, Canada and in regional Equity theaters across America. Published by: Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, Playscripts Inc. and Dramatic Publishing Company. John teaches Playwriting and Inside Television at Kean University. His film Cat in the Pan recently premiered at the Montreal Film Festival.

FRATERNITY reading tonight

Come see the staged reading of "Fraternity" by Samuel Brett Williams tonight at 7pm, directed by John Pietrowski.

About the playwright: Samuel Brett Williams hails from Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he was raised in a strict southern Baptist environment. His plays have been developed at the Eugene O'Neill National Playwright's Conference, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Lark Play Development Center, Naked Angels, Yale University, and P73 Productions. Brett's plays have been produced at Cherry Lane Theatre, Ars Nova, Stageworks/Hudson, Mile Square Theatre, the D.C. Center and New Oreleans Theatre Experiment.

About the Director: John Pietrowski is the Artistic Director of Playwrights Theatre, where he has directed numerous world premiere productions of plays in his 19-year tenure. A winner of the Agnes E. Nixon playwriting award at Northwestern University for two of his plays, he has had readings and productions of plays at theatres in New Jersey and New York. A graduate of Northwestern University’s Performance Studies Department, he also holds an Masters of Public Administration in non-profit management from Seton Hall University, and teaches at both Fairleigh Dickinson and Seton Hall University.

FORUM begins this week

FORUM: 14 Staged Readings of New Plays

All readings begin at 7pm

Attend 1 reading for $10 or attend up to all 14 readings with a FORUM pass for only $25

Playwrights Theatre announces the return of the popular roundtable reading series FORUM with staged readings of 14 innovative new plays by some of the country's best writers with intimate discussions between author and audience following each performance.

On tonight's schedule is "Super" by Lia Romeo, directed by Artem Yatsunov.

About the Playwright: Lia Romeo earned her B.A. from Princeton University and her M.F.A. in playwriting from Rutgers University. She was last year's Emerging Playwright-In-Residence at Playwrights Theatre. Her short plays have been produced in fourteen different states and internationally, and she has world premieres of two new full-lenth plays coming up this season in Kansas and California. She is also the author of the humor book 11,002 Things To Be Miserable About, available in bookstores nationwide.

About the Director: Artem Yatsunov is one of the founding members of the troupe StrangeDog Theatre, http://www.strangedogtheatre.com/, with whom he has been directing for over a year now. Some of his past credits include: subUrbia by Eric Bogosian (Jersey City); Bootstraps (Luna Stage) and New.Tricks! (Playwrights Theatre) by Ben Clawson. Up next, he's directing the world premiere of Omnivores by Ben Clawson, opening the day after Thanksgiving, right here at Playwrights Theatre. Montclair State University Alum.

To reserve your tickets, call our box office at 973.514.1787 X10 or reserve online.

Click here for directions to the theatre.

NaNoWritMo Is Coming....

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a month-long adventure where your goal is to write a 175-page (50,000) word novel between November 1-November 30. It's a wild, crazy and extremely fulfilling process. It's fun. It's free. It's fabulous. Click here to find out all the details.

Blocking Scenes, Measuring Costumes and Handling Props

Rehearsals are going well for "Our Dad Is In Atlantis". The first seven scenes have been worked through and blocked. The actors will be measured for their costumes today and the Assistant Stage Manager has become the "official paper airplane engineer & contractor". Bet you didn't know that such a position existed in theatre?