Great opening night!

I had the tremendous pleasure of attending the opening night for my play “Encore, Encore” at Southeastern Louisiana University. I’m so impressed by the breadth and the depth of the actors in the production. This is nothing short of an excellent adaption of my play.

Southeastern Louisiana University is nestled in quaint, picturesque Hammond, Louisiana. The play itself was presented in the 400-seat Vonnie Borden Theater on the university’s campus. The people at Southeastern have been extremely pleasant during my stay.

Hammond D Vickers“Encore, Encore” runs from March 8 to March 12 (Tuesday-Friday) of this week.

Go here if you want to get tickets!

Meet the cast of “Encore”

I want to introduce people to the WONDERFUL cast for “Encore, Encore” at Southeastern Louisiana University. What a marvelously talented and dedicated group!

From counter clockwise:

  • Angela Griffitt as Dorothy Parker
  • Matthew Dale Carona as Eddie Parker
  • Taylor Sinclair as Robert Benchley
  • Neal Eli as Robert Sherwood
  • Shelly Sneed as P. G. Wodehouse (et al)
  • Duncan Martin as Charles MacArthur (et al)
  • Bennett Cockerham as Alexander Woollcott (et al)
  • William Hyde as Frank Crowninshield

Rehearsal photos are in!

Below are some rehearsal photos from the production of “Encore, Encore” at Southeastern Louisiana University… very exciting!

BPF – Part Two

I am pleased to announce that my play “Shadows of Men” will be featured in the Baltimore Playwrights Festival (BPF) of 2016. My play will be given a reading at Fells Point Corner Point Theatre on March 26 at 11am. Admission is free to all those who would love to attend. The mission of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival is “to provide an environment that nurtures the talents of Maryland and DC playwrights. The BPF does this through public readings, discussions, critiques and workshopping of new plays.” Their subsequent summer season “is devoted to the presentation of these newly developed works, for the entertainment and cultural edification of … audiences.”

Baltimore Playwrights Festival

The Baltimore Playwrights Festival was kind enough to give my play “Fifteen Men In A Smoke-Filled Room” a reading back in March of 2013. Check out this little tidbit from Memory Lane.

I used to live down in Baltimore and Washington, DC while studying for my master’s degree at Georgetown University (2007-2008). It’s always a pleasure to go back down to the area!

A GREAT honor!

I want to extent my sincere thanks and appreciation to the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center located in my home state of Connecticut. I learned today that my play “Shadows of Men” is a semi-finalist for the extremely prestigious O’Neill Theater Conference.

From the O’Neill website:

“Each year a community of professionals gathers in the serene setting of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in order to support playwrights and new works for the theater.  The National Playwrights Conference strives to create a supportive environment that empowers playwrights to their own process and to experience the play with a professional company.

In the years since its inception the National Playwrights Conference has developed more than 600 plays… Virtually every major American playwright has been part of the Conference, including Julia Cho, Rebecca Gilman, Regina Taylor, John Guare, Israel Horovitz, David Henry Hwang, David Lindsay-Abaire, Adam Rapp, Lanford Wilson, Wendy Wasserstein, and August Wilson.”

2008 LOGO REMAKE_FINAL

The very fact that my play is a semi-finalist is a tremendous distinction of which I am very proud. It is very difficult to get a nod from the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.

This nod makes me very happy.

That was quick…

I received a nice little gift in the mail today – a note from Branch County Community Theatre (BCCT) – informing me that my new play “Philosophus” placed third in the Robert J. Pickering Award for Playwriting Excellence.

BCCT Logo

Branch County Community Theater is based in Coldwater, MI and is a vital artistic component to its community. The Robert J. Pickering Award specifically “was established to honor past member and playwright, Bob Pickering, and to provide a vehicle for playwrights to see their works produced.”

Out of 125 entries this year, “Philosophus” was third place – a great honor! I only completed the play about a month ago, so, when I sent it to BCCT, it was “fresh off the presses.” I have never completed a play and had it recognized so quickly – especially among such a large pool of applicants – by such a respected organization.

Many thanks to BCCT (and Robert Pickering) and best of luck to the first place winner!

Yay for TNT POPS!

Today I received the news that my play “Shadows of Men” ended up as a finalist in the TNT POPS! New Play Project of 2016. “TNT” (or “Texas Nonprofit Theatres, Inc.“) is “a statewide service organization” designed to promote and support theatrical organizations in Texas. My script about John Dos Passos during the Spanish Civil War made it into the top 15 scripts submitted for the contest – a great honor!

My play “Encore, Encore” was previously a finalist in the 2014 TNT POPS! New Play Project contest. The play has since gone on to receive one staged reading and three productions.

Thanks so much to the judges for their interest and best of luck to the eventual winner!

Many thanks to ATHE!

I am very pleased to say that my play “Encore, Encore” is officially a finalist in the Association for Theatre in Higher Education Award of Excellence – a top pick among 150+ other plays. The award “honors a new play marked by sophisticated and nuanced storytelling, with the potential to make a major artistic impact on contemporary theatre.” This is the second year that play submissions have been accepted for this award.

The award itself is sponsored by the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) – a comprehensive non-profit professional membership organization that advances theatrical interests in college and university theatre departments and among administrators, educators, graduate students, and theatre practitioners.

You can find out more about ATHE here!