It’s been a long time in coming, but my collaborator Norman Berman and I have been working hard on our epic new musical “The Burning of the White House” – a (semi-)true story about Paul Jennings, the young house slave at the White House during the presidency of James Madison, who, through the struggles and turmoil surrounding the British invasion and burning of Washington, DC in the War of 1812, reaches manhood and appreciates his deserved place in the world.
Many thanks to Norman, we have had some wonderful demo sessions done for some of our songs for this great production with some of the best singers you can imagine.
While I have collected these songs here, I wanted to share some photos from some of our recent recording sessions for these songs and acknowledge the great talent involved.
Many thanks, as well, to Clear Lake Recording Studios in North Hollywood, CA, which provided the venue for all the recording sessions.
My collaborator, Norman Berman (second from left), with, starting to his left, Joshua Finkel, Tonoccus McClain, and Dink O’Neal, recording the opening song “It’s the End”.
Norman with Tonoccus McClain, Frederika Meek, and Maiya Sykes recording the Act 1 finale “Escape from the White House.”
Lisa Vroman, Olly Sholotan, Shabnam Kalbasi, and Alvin Shea recording the fun number “Give ‘Em A Kick.”
Alvin Shea and Tonoccus McClain recording the wonderful ballad “Here I Is.”
I am thrilled to report that my drama “The Last Flight of the Electra” was recognized as a finalist in the 2024 New Play Contest sponsored by Valley Players of Napa Valley, California.
The Valley Players had well over 200 submissions to their New Play Contest and my script was recognized among the top 10% of all entries, which is a great honor.
Even more to the point, it’s so encouraging to see groups like The Valley Players providing opportunities for new playwrights and their work! In the post-COVID world, it’s even harder to come by theaters that will recognize new plays, especially smaller theaters, so Valley Players deserves tremendous kudos for promoting opportunities for new playwrights to see their work performed.
Not only that, but my “finalist” badge is none too shabby, as well:
Many thanks to Artistic Director June Alane Raif and Valley Players for this honor!
For this Throwback Thursday, I wanted to highlight one of the best experiences in my entire playwriting career – and no, it doesn’t involve New York City or even London (my plays have been performed in both cities) but Northern Kentucky University.
As random as it sounds, Northern Kentucky University has a wonderful theater department and hosts a biennial festival of the new plays – the YES (Year End Series) Festival – which is the oldest collegiate new play festival in the United States and also one of the largest and most prestigious.
Back in 2015, I was very blessed for my tragicomedy “Encore, Encore” (about the famous wit Dorothy Parker and her first marriage) to be one of the three plays selected for production, where, with a wonderful student cast, inspired direction by established Cincinnati director Ed Cohen, and a fine set, “Encore, Encore” came to life before my eyes – and indeed, this production of my work remains one of the best I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing.
As one of the finalists for the festival, I was able to attend some of the early rehearsals in Highland Hills, Kentucky (just across from Cincinnati) and also attend the festival itself, where there was a special reception for the winners and I was given the chance to teach a special class to the theater students (the subject – history as represented in theater) – and in that regard, really have some great discussions with students who were very enthusiastic about my play.
One of the people who saw and reviewed “Encore, Encore” was Rick Pender, former chairman of the American Theatre Critics’ Association – who had some very kind words for the play:
I caught Crowley’s excellent tragicomedy Encore, Encore on Monday evening… The play traces (Dorothy Parker’s) meteoric writing career and her turbulent personal life. We see her become established as the sharp-tongued drama critic for Vanity Fair, and we witness the deterioration of her marriage.
NKU senior Victoria Hawley played the central role in a production directed by veteran guest director Ed Cohen. Crowley’s play, which uses Parker as its narrator as well as its central character, digs deep, providing a portrait of a vulnerable woman who lived her life in the spotlight and never found real happiness. Hawley portrays her from her first confident days at Vanity Fair, through her friendships and relationships with New York’s literary elite. She was known as flippant and brittle, a source of quick-witted, often obscene remarks, and Hawley handles them well — while also conveying Parker’s frustration and vulnerability.
NKU junior Hunter Henrickson rises to the challenge of playing Parker’s husband Eddie. He went off to World War I in France almost immediately after their marriage, returning after two brutal years in the field nursing service, shell-shocked and seriously dependent. Her intervening success became a source of friction and embarrassment between them. Henrickson showed Eddie’s initial, inebriated charm and did a fine job of playing the broken man he became. The show’s other fine performance came from junior Connor Moulton as Parker’s brash writing friend Robert Benchley, a steady source of insouciant foolishness.
For this Throwback Thursday, I will highlight my award-winning historical farce “Philosophus”, which has been produced three times – in New York, Texas, and Maryland – and which is currently published by Eldridge Publishing Company.
Like many works of mine, I actually had the original idea for “Philosophus” many years ago – when I was about 15 – after consuming a biography of Frederick the Great and finding his persecution of the great philosopher Voltaire so amusing and worthy of farce – and not only that, but I even wrote a script for “Philosophus” at age 16 (under a pseudonym, no less), which is not safe for human eyes (though not entirely unamusing).
Years (and years and years) later, I decided to revisit the story of “Philosophus” and, during my 2-hour commute from Westport, CT to New York City while I was VP of Customer Experience at the foodtech company Freshly, I completed a (rather good) first draft of a new version of the play in two weeks (January, 2016) – the fastest play I’ve ever composed – and from there, quickly found the play taking off and winning various contests.
While the play was first read by Best Medicine Rep of Maryland (courtesy of the great playwright and actor John Morogiello – who later produced the show, as well), “Philosophus” subsequently won the prestigious Maxim Mazumdar New Play Award presented by Alleyway Theatre of Buffalo, New York, one of the most interesting and innovative theaters in the US (their theater is actually an old Greyhound bus terminal on Buffalo’s theater row) – and thanks to the late, great artistic director, Neal Radice (“late” because he has since retired, not because he has met his maker), “Philosophus” was given its world premiere production at Alleyway in late 2018 – photos below!
In its various productions, the script has gotten some of the best reviews of any of my work:
“A delightful romp!” Peter Hall of BuffaloRising
“A thinking-person’s farce, Philosophus is a perfect fit for the area and a fun way to start the year… a farce to remedy our times… an up and coming work.” Debbie Minter Jackson of DC Theatre Scene
“Mr. Crowley’s script is chock-a-block with witty dialogue, broad comedy, and is very, very funny. He expertly melds what appears to be complex thought with farce… Philosophus is great fun. I enjoyed it thoroughly.” Ann Marie Cusella of BuffaloVibe
“A rib-tickling farce… For those familiar with British comedy, it resembles Benny Hill meets the Enlightenment, or Carry On Philosopher… a very entertaining evening of theater.” Jennifer Georgia of DC Metro Theater Arts
“The script is a cross between Mel Brooks (“Young Frankenstein”) and the Marx Brothers (“Duck’s Soup”). If you love the ridiculous and lots of double entendres, you will have a good time at this production.” Susan Brall, MD Theatre Guide
While the “film” title may lead you to think otherwise, the Austin Film Festival accepts all types of scripts, including stage plays that may work well as a film.
“A Flower of the Field” was among the top 20% of scripts submitted this year (and I’m happy to say was also recognized similarly in last year’s festival, as well).
One of the many great things the Austin Film Festival does is provide readers’ comments for your script, which I’m happy to include below and which include many kind nods to my writing:
Plot:
In 1349 Kilkenny, Ireland, a Franciscan friar willingly houses and treats those afflicted with the Black Death in the Nave of St. Francis’s Abbey until a witch, disguised as a healthy woman, exposes his dark secret. The conflict with every character and relationship is exposed with a moral dilemma ultimately well resolved in the end.
Concept:
A FLOWER OF THE FIELD is an original story taking place in 1349 Ireland during the Black Death, with the small cast of men and women questioning and experiencing the conflict between God’s will and witchcraft. The writer crafts a very compelling story with both potential and authenticity in the subject matter.
Overall:
A FLOWER OF THE FIELD is a unique and compelling story that begins with a mysterious slow build of tension that comes together for a satisfying resolution for the audience. The writer handles the material with ease and includes vivid stage directions. The cast size is reasonable, cast list is clear and precise, no intermission, simple location and set design all work well for the production. The writer shines with character development and surprising plot twists. The reader is invested in John Clyn’s journey and the multitude of sub-stories supporting the overall narrative arc. John Clyn’s story is complete, and the story concludes with a satisfying ending. The writer’s note on the stage directions is very helpful and makes clear the purpose is for dramatic cadence and visual poignancies. The lengthy directions do not detract from the story nor necessarily indicate the run time of the show.
Dialogue:
The dialogue works well for the created world taking place within the period 1349 Ireland. Though the speech isn’t written with an obvious Irish dialect, it’s presumed the appropriate characters will adapt appropriately. If the writer so chose, including specific dialect or Irish words might help craft more authenticity to the characters.
Structure:
The 90-page one act script can reasonably be performed in less time since much of the pages are filled with stage directions. The story is well-paced appropriately from slow build to dramatic climax with scenes that move the story forward in a consistent tone.
Characters:
The cast of five characters are interesting, compelling, distinct, and developed through backstory and action. The reader is invested in the characters and their journeys. The characters could have more Irish tone brought into the writing, but overall, all of the characters fit their words well.
For this Throwback Thursday, I am going to highlight my psychological drama “Harriman-Baines,” which is actually one of my favorite works, despite the fact that I haven’t been able to get much traction with it – likely not helped by its darker nature.
In point of order, “Harriman-Baines” ended up being the second “real” straight play I wrote (meaning a play that was sufficiently acceptable to be seen by human eyes) after “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room”, authored after I went through an extended phase writing musicals and completed somewhere in mid-2011.
A little over a year later, “Harriman-Baines” won a contest sponsored by On The Brink Productions – some theater enthusiasts and recent graduates from Middlebury College in Vermont – and in conjunction with my own theatrical nonprofit (Speerhead Theatricals), “Harriman-Baines” was accepted into the 2013 Dream Up Festival (hosted by Theater for the New City) and produced in August 2013 during their festival week.
At the time, this was the first time I had the chance to see a play of mine performed, rather than read, and the process was fun from start to finish – as well as challenging – because, due to contest rules, I had to take a 120-minute play and reduce it to less than 80 minutes – which I did and which actually worked rather well – and as for the director (Charles Giardina) and the actors and actresses, I cannot say enough good things about how they handled a rather difficult play.
Now, I say “difficult” because “Harriman-Baines” is my darkest play by far – in full Tennessee WIlliams mode – dealing with a hermetic composer, Carter Harriman, who composes music to the poems of a recently deceased poet, Melody Baines, whose poems are brought to him by Melody’s sister, a bit of a nonentity, named Minnie – and how, over the course of an evening, the lies and abstractions surrounding the identity of Melody Baines are revealed to cutting effect, with an appropriate, surprise denouement.
One of the nice things about having a play about a composer (a modern classical composer, to be precise) involves the use of music – and in the promotional video below, you’ll hear some of the fine music composed by Denise Hoffman for the show.
I am thrilled to announce I have completed another play (one of two in six months) – a historical drama – “Respectfully Yours, Julia Sand.”
As a lover of history, I have often used my theatrical writing to resurrect little-known or under-reported stories from the past, and this story in particular is one that I find very touching, very hopeful, and very relevant, especially in an age where, regardless of political persuasion – right, left, or in-between – Americans have lost faith in our leaders and our institutions.
Considering that rather depressing situation, it helps to turn back the clock to a man who, though widely decried at the time as pleasure-seeking and corrupt, rose to the greatest of challenges and aimed to restore faith in the American government and in American institutions – and all the time being encouraged by a most unlikely, yet remarkable woman.
This is “Respectfully Yours, Julia Sand”…
Chester Alan Arthur and his unlikely penpal, Julia I. Sand
In the year 1880, James A. Garfield is elected President of the United States, with Chester Alan Arthur as Vice-President – but while Garfield is generally well-regarded, Arthur is a creature of the New York political machine and a participant in the rankest corruption. As a devotee of soirees above all, he is content to remain in the largely ceremonial role of Vice-President – until, that is, President Garfield is suddenly shot and killed by a deranged office-seeker. Propelled into history, Arthur has to choose between feeding the corrupt impulses of his friends and doing what is right for the country. He waffles, he wavers – and then suddenly he receives an inspiring letter from a mysterious woman who gives him the courage to stand up for himself and for what he knows is right.
A brisk-paced, two-act drama – funny in parts, heartfelt in others, and even tragic in some – “Respectfully Yours, Julia Sand” is a play about hope and redemption – and specifically, the hope and redemption of the unlikeliest people from the unlikeliest sources.
Classical, yet avant-garde in style, the play requires as few as 6 performers and takes place entirely in an English garden, as Arthur relives his life in memory, and is performed, aside from the actor playing Arthur, entirely by young women of all races, who play over 20 different roles.
In this Throwback Thursday, I am revisiting my one (and so far, only) experience with rock opera with an interesting work called “Memory” – a collaboration with the modern classical composer Andrew Seligson.
While I wish I could claim credit, the genesiss for “Memory” was all Andrew, who was in the final stages of studying for his composition degree and was looking for a collaborator for a one-act rock opera.
Through the magic of cyberspace, Andrew and I came into contact and met in New York City, with Andrew having a score about 75% composed and the genesis of an idea about a man, a woman, and a figure who meet under a giant tree – and oh yes, a name: “Memory” – and from there, the ball was in my court to sketch out a broader narrative.
While initially unsure, I found the rather mystical concept intriguing and Andrew’s music lovely and eventually crafted a story out of the basic concept – namely, a man and a woman who mysteriously meet in a blissful, serene dream and then, later, come face-to-face in the flesh underneath a majestic spruce – but while the woman remembers the dream and the utopian peace it bestowed on her life, the man remains in ignorance, eventually causing a rupture between the two, the healing of which ultimately leads the man to a relationship of greater peace with the world and with his own place in it.
Courtesy of Andrew, “Memory” was given a concert presentation at the DiMenna Center in New York City with an extremely talented trio of actors.
The recording below is the key song sung by the young woman, explaining to the young man the peace her dream of him has bestowed on her mind.
THERE’S A PLACE WE CANNOT SEE. IT EXISTS BETWEEN EACH MOMENT. IN THAT PLACE YOU AND ME WE WERE ONE…
You can listen to more excerpts from “Memory” here!
For this Throwback Thursday, I am highlighting the Beverly Hills/LA production of my historical drama “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room” about the nomination of Warren G. Harding for president at the Republican National Convention of 1920.
Of all my plays, “Fifteen Men” (thus shorteningly called) is very special to me, because it was the first straight play I wrote that was worthy of anyone’s second glance – and indeed, I first wrote the play (as odd as it seems to say, considering how theatrically rich, weighty, and traditional it is) when I was 16 and in full-throttle Arthur Miller/Tennessee Williams/Peter Shafer mode.
Over the years, I never lost faith in “Fifteen Men” and kept tweaking it, with my exertions finally being rewarded when the play was given a staged reading by the Villagers Theatre of Somerset, NJ (thanks to its artistic director, Catherine MacPherson) – which was the first time a straight play of mine got anyone’s attention (my work “Hail and Reign” had already been produced, but that was a musical).
Unbeknownst to me at the time, the staged reading at Villagers would begin a 7-year odyssey where “Fifteen Men” would be recognized in 14 – yes, 14 – playwriting contests – my most awarded play by far – and was given staged readings by Firehouse Center for the Arts (Newburyport, MA), Eventide Arts (Dennis, MA), Dezart Performs (Palm Springs, CA), the Baltimore Playwrights Festival (“it’s obvious”, MD), Long Beach Playhouse (Long Beach, CA), the Historic Elitch Gardens Theater (Denver, CO), and even the North American Actors Association in London, where “Fifteen Men” was read in Covent Garden.
Despite all the attention and recognition, I never could get “Fifteen Man” actually produced, long after other plays of mine had started to make the theatrical rounds – until, that is, an angel named Tom Eubanks, Artistic Director of Elite Theatre Company in Oxnard, CA, gave the play a shot and had it produced at Elite in 2018 – after which a theatre-goer (to whom I am eternally grateful) referred the play to the gentlemanly David Hunt Stafford, Artistic Director of Theatre40 in Beverly Hills, which subsequently did a wonderful production of the play right before COVID threw the world for a loop.
Of all the reviews of the play (some of which didn’t quite understand what I was trying to do with it, as it is NOT a political play, despite the political setting), the best comes from Eric A. Gordon of “People’s World” who understood that, as its heart, “Fifteen Men” is a modern Greek tragedy, using dramatic aspects of Greek theater – everything from the chorus (represented by a radio announcer in the play), to the doom-laden hero, to the uncontrollable and unavoidable pull of fate – or to quote Mr. Gordon: “(Warren G.) Harding is portrayed as an unconscious tool of other men, other forces, almost hounded by inevitable fate, preordained by destiny as if in some ancient Greek play where the gods command the last word in the action.”
For this Throwback Thursday, I will highlight one of my two musical collaborations with the great composer Paul Robert Bartsch called “One Little Wish.”
Briefly, “One Little Wish” is based on an old French fairytale (in some tellings, it is a Cuban or Puerto Rican fairytale – which just goes to show that stories “get around”) about a miserable old man with a pear tree, who, after helping a stranger (who just happens to be St. Peter in disguise!), is offered the ability to have one wish and subsequently wishes thay anyone who tries to steal pears from his pear tree will stick to the tree until he (the old man) wishes them back down again.
Some 20 years ago now (I am dating myself), I learned about this fairytale during a French history class at Northwestern University, stored it somewhere in the back of my mind as a wonderful idea for a musical, and then, some years later, after I worked with Paul (Bartsch) on the musical “Hello World”, I proposed that we work on a musicalized version of this very yarn together.
Notably, “One Little Wish” has a special place in my heart because it was my first foray into the world of the theater producer, as I self-produced the show after founding the theater company Speerhead Theatricals – and not only that, but I harnessed my inner actor (from college days) and even took a role in the show, starring as the arch-villain tax collector, Morínigo.
Long story short, “One Little Wish” was produced way back in 2012 – including a great concert presentation at The Lambs in New York City and then two productions in Connecticut – with much credit to the Director of Production, Shawn Amdur – and while admittedly not my best work, the show had a typically lovely score by Paul, who simply couldn’t not write tuneful melodies.
The below excerpt is quite extended and taken from very early in Act One – after the opening song – where we meet three people who pester the old man with his pear tree – a pair of young lovers and the aforementioned tax collector, played by yours truly – and of course, in both cases, the old man will suffer no one taking his pears and demands that they all “Leave Me Alone.”
