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Great times at Vintage!

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Last night, I had the great pleasure of seeing my thriller “Few Thy Voice” presented by Vintage Theatre Company of Aurora, CO as part of their third annual New Play Festival!

Vintage Theatre in Aurora, CO

I’m very glad I was able to make a quick trip to Denver to attend the staged reading of my play, which opened the new play festival. The play was directed by actor/director Kalond Irlanda, who brought an uncanny thoughtfulness to the task.

The cast was as follows:

  • Steve Kramer……………………….Richard Crenshaw
  • Tracy Denver….Eloise Olympia Pambeck-O’Malley
  • Ronan Viard………………………….Fenno Masterson
  • Patrick Brownson………………………August Jaysen
  • Leroy Leonard………………………..Patrick O’Malley
  • Colleen Lee………………………………….Illyria Swan

I must say I was very, very impressed by the quality of the actors and actresses in the reading. The talent pool stretched very wide, from the deliciously chatty and hammy scheming brought to the role of Richard Crenshaw by Steve Kramer to the shaky, fragile, yet explosive passion brought to the role of Illyria Swan by Colleen Lee. The staged reading format has its challenges and limitations – and the challenges and limitations are obvious – but the cast was so skilled and Kalond’s directing so deft that the play truly came alive for me. The play flowed comfortably from beginning to end, balanced by just the tight amount of exposition and infused with a surprisingly good, steady pace in dialogue (which is unusual for a staged reading format). I also fully enjoyed a post-show talkback with the audience and the actors, most of whom had better ideas about the play than I’ve ever had.

Above all, I have to record how impressed I am with Vintage Theatre itself. I was hosted during my trip by Lorraine Scott, who serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors. Lorraine was extremely welcoming and showed me around the theater and introduced me to quite a few lovely people. Vintage has two theater spaces and produces twelve shows a season, as well as hosting a splendid cabaret space for mid-week shows in their reception hall. I’m especially impressed to see that Vintage has a very dedicated subscriber base – and rightly so. They are truly an asset for the Denver theater community. I’ve seldom met a smaller size theater that appears to be so well-organized and professional.

Many thanks to Lorraine Scott and Artistic Director Bernie Cardell for hosting the new play festival and making this great experience possible!

Vintage coming up!

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In just a little over two weeks my play “Few Thy Voice” will be presented as part of a new play festival sponsored by Vintage Theatre. The festival focuses on new works of mystery/thriller theater.

I will be coming out to visit Aurora, Colorado for the staged reading and can’t wait to see the play being performed for the first time. The play is being directed by local actor/director Kalond Irlanda.

Vintage Theatre New Play Festival

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“Few Thy Voice” at Vintage

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I’m very, very pleased to say that my Hitchcockian thriller “Few Thy Voice” is being performed as part of a new play festival sponsored by Vintage Theatre Company of Aurora, Colorado!

Vintage Theatre Logo

Founded in 2002 over martinis (hence, the logo), Vintage Theatre Company “proudly presents classics and cutting edge theatre, classes, improv, and staged readings that challenge, entertain, and grow our audience and artistic family alike.” The company is now an established part of the theatrical scene in the city of Aurora, with three performance spaces – the Jeffrey Nickelson Auditorium (145 seats), the Bond Trimble Theatre (67 Seats), and the Berg-Young Cabaret Stage (60 seats). Vintage has also “received several Henry Award nominations, Post Ovation Awards, Flombies, and Marlowe Awards in the last decade.”

Over the past few years, Vintage Theatre Company has been producing annual new play festivals, typically asking for plays with certain themes. This year, they were looking for mystery/thriller plays and I thought that “Few Thy Voice” would be an excellent fit. I wrote the play some six years ago – and, while it received a little notice at the time, I generally put the play on my back burner while other plays garnered more attention. It’s particularly thrilling for me now to see the play get some recognition (and, after six years, some revision!).

“Few Thy Voice” will be performed on Thursday, August 22 at 7:30pm.

More details to come!

Great article on Best Medicine Rep

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I had to share this great article by Erick Trickey from “Experience” magazine – “The New Life of a Dying Mall.”

"The New Life of a Dying Mall"

In his article, Mr. Trickey wrote about various attempts to resurrect failing malls across America. He highlights Best Medicine Rep Theater Company as a creative example of a company that is finding new ways to inject life into the (staid) mall scene through the introduction of live theater.

Best Medicine Rep is a Maryland-based theater company that recently produced my historical farce “Philosophus” at their storefront venue in Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg, Maryland (February, 2019). Mr. Trickey happened to be researching his piece while “Philosophus” was being performed by Best Medicine and he mentions the show a few times in his article.

Below are some excerpts from the article that mention “Philosophus”:

*****

John Morogiello has seen his plays staged off-Broadway in New York, in Los Angeles, in Louisville, even in Vienna. But he rarely got to debut his own work in his home state of Maryland, until he opened a theater space in an ailing shopping mall.

Now, Morogiello’s all-comedy theater company, Best Medicine Rep, stages several productions and readings a year — his own plays and many others’ — at Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg, Maryland, 16 miles northwest of Washington, D.C. Best Medicine’s storefront is on Lakeforest’s second floor, next to the Sears. “Performance in Progress: Please be quiet,” reads a sign on a stand — meant to warn the driver of the kiddie train, which carries children and parents past the theater, not to blow the whistle.

One Saturday afternoon, beyond a flame-retardant curtain that absorbs some of the mall noise, 45 people fill the seats around a small stage. A blue-eyed actor with impish comic timing is playing the French philosopher Voltaire, in an historical play that one audience member later calls a “Voltairean sex farce.”

….

Since it started staging plays at Lakeforest Mall, Best Medicine Rep’s audience has grown from Gaithersburg locals to new fans from around the Washington, D.C. region. Newcomers often cite a D.C. theater critic’s favorable review of Morogiello’s play “Engaging Shaw” this past fall. The play about Voltaire, “Philosophus,” by Connecticut writer Colin Speer Crowley, has likewise been well-reviewed. Best Medicine is a professional theater company — it pays its actors, directors, and playwrights — and attracts talent from around the region. The lead actor in “Philosophus,” Terence Aselford, is a 30-year veteran of the D.C. theater scene.

….

Meanwhile, Best Medicine is bringing new traffic to Lakeforest. Ruby Tuesday, the last remaining restaurant at the mall, does great business on theater nights, Morogiello says. Actors not only drink at the mall; they shop before and after rehearsals. “A lot of shopping centers would do well to add something like this,” Morogiello says. He’s happy to bring traffic, and a new gathering place, to his hometown mall.

“What I love about malls is that they always were community centers,” says Morogiello. “It was always a place where you would see your friends, in the old days. You would see your parents and other people from the community hanging out and shopping.” It’s a good fit for Best Medicine Rep, he says, since it aims to build a community through shared laughter. “I feel that we feed into that old-school mall mentality of bringing joy to people,” he says. “It’s just a matter of getting other people to buy into the joy.”

*****

You can read the full article here – it’s a great read!

“Fifteen Men” a finalist

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I’m happy to announce that my historical drama “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room” was a finalist in a new play contest sponsored by HRC Showcase Theatre of Hudson Valley, New York.

“Fifteen Men” was among 13 plays chosen as a finalist out of 200+ plays submitted, putting the play in the top 7% or so of all scripts – a great honor of which I’m very proud!

HRC Showcase Theatre

Many thanks to HRC Showcase Theatre, and best of luck to them in their new play festival!

Enter our new website!

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I’m proud to announce the launch of a website for a new musical I’m working on – “Paul Jennings and The Burning of the White House!”

Paul Jennings Website

“Paul Jennings, the 15-year-old  house slave to President and Mrs. Madison, discovers his true heroism, strength and purpose, living through one of the most momentous event in the nation’s history –  the burning of the White House.”

Paul jennings Website Music Demos Paul Jennings Website Bio

I’m writing “Paul Jennings” with the wonderfully talented and accomplished composer Norman L. Berman.

You can check out some samples of the music from the show HERE!

“The House We Build Here”

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I’m excited to be able to share a demo of another song from my musical with composer Norman L. Berman – “Paul Jennings and The Burning of the White House.”

As I’ve previously mentioned, this musical is based on the early life of Paul Jennings, 15-year-old house slave to President and Dolley Madison, who witnessed and survived the 1814 British invasion and burning of Washington, DC during the War of 1812. The musical traces Paul’s journey of growth and self-discovery from boy to man and his growing awareness of his status as a slave in American society. It also charts his perilous navigation of the dramas surrounding the British conquest of the capital.

This song – “The House We Build Here” – is a choral number sung towards the end of the play after the British army has burned Washington and Paul, President Madison, Dolley Madison, and some other slaves have returned to the burnt-out shell of the White House. Together, the assembled crowd dreams of what the new White House will look like. The young Paul – watched by his older self, who narrates the musical – envisions something different, more practical the others.

Charred White House

Ensemble:  Alvin Chea, Shabnam Kalbasi, Olly Sholotan, Lisa Vroman

You can listen to the song below.

 

“Fifteen Men” in LA!

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I’m thrilled to announce that my historical drama “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room” is being produced by Theatre40 of Beverly Hills as part of their 54th season!

Theatre40 LogoTheatre40 Website Advertisement

Theatre40  is a respected, award-winning professional theater in Beverly Hills. It is “currently comprised of approximately 150 professional actors, actresses and directors” in the Los Angeles area. The name comes from the street number of their original location at 40 Haldeman Road in Santa Monica Canyon, where they started in 1964 as local actors and actresses gathering to read Shakespeare.

Since its founding, Theatre40 has grown into an established theater with six main stage productions a year, as well as readings, seminars, and adult education classes. They currently occupy theater space at Beverly Hills High school (Reuben Cordova Memorial Theatre) designed by acclaimed Broadway designer Ming Cho Lee. They are helmed by Artistic Director David Hunt Stafford.

As Theatre40 explains on their website:

“In the 50 odd years since (its) first readings, Theatre 40 has many achievements for which we can be proud. We are the recipient of the Margaret Harford Small Theatre Award given by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for continuing excellence in theatre, awarded in 1995. Originally we produced only Shakespeare and the Classics, but have broadened our horizons to include American classics, World and Los Angeles premieres and plays by our own members.”

Theatre40 Brochure Page

I’m very proud for “Fifteen Men” to be listed in their distinguished line-up of premieres this upcoming season!

You can pick up a copy of their exciting 2019-2020 season brochure here!

Enter “Dear Mr. Whitefield”

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I am pleased to announce that I have completed a new historical drama – “Dear Mr. Whitefield.” (It’s pronounced “Whit-field.”)

Briefly, “Dear Mr. Whitefield” is a two-act play about the cantankerous, troubled preacher George Whitefield, who swept the Anglican establishment by storm in the 1740’s, preaching the dignity of man in a very status-conscious society, and his personal and professional resurrection at the hands of the patrician, determined Countess of Huntingdon. The play follows the Countess’s quest – sometimes touching, sometimes troubled, but always inspiring – to defy the prejudices of her day and lead a religious revolution… that is, if she can only stop Whitefield from running away from his past, from his demons, but most ultimately from himself.

At its heart, “Dear Mr. Whitefield” is a poetic drama about faith and courage – faith in God, but also faith in each other, no matter the price, and the courage of a man and a woman who, scarred as they might be, bravely and stoically confront the norms of their time. The play is witty, yet also poignant and touching, requiring only a simple, black box set and 8 actors (6 men, 2 women), with two wonderful, rich leading roles in the form of Whitefield and the Countess.

George Whitefield

George Whitefield

Selina Hastings

Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon

In terms of inspiration, I was inspired to write “Dear Mr. Whitefield” because of my love of history and my own spirituality. I wanted to use the play to explore Christian teachings on faith and forgiveness and God’s relentless faith in us, despite our inadequacies, which are analogized in the relationship between the Countess and Whitefield himself, with the former acting in the role of a Christ and the latter acting in the role of mankind. While using “Dear Mr. Whitefield” as a microcosm for teaching Christian philosophy, I also wanted the play to be relevant to a diverse audience, regardless of religious affiliation, and have tried to achieve that by creating relatable characters whose challenges and goals touch on very modern themes – namely, the dignity of working people and the empowerment of women.

I’m looking forward to where this play may go from here… time to start submitting!

“Harriman-Baines” a finalist

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I’m very proud to say that my edgy drama “Harriman-Baines” was a finalist in the 2019 Garry Marshall Theatre New Play Contest!

The Garry Marshall New Play Contest is sponsored by Garry Marshall Theatre of Burbank, California, formerly Falcon Theatre, which was founded by famed actor, director, and screenwriter Garry Marshall.

Garry Marshall Theatre

My Biblical tragedy “The Beggar of Bethesda” was also a finalist for this same contest last year in the inaugural year of the contest.

Many thanks to Garry Marshall Theatre for the second-year nod -= and bets of luck to them on the festival in July!