I am very happy to announce that my play “Encore Encore” has a great cast and director!

For a director, I am pleased to be working with Paula D’Alessandris, Artistic Director of Mind The Gap Theatre, a theatrical company in New York City “dedicated to producing the best new British plays in NYC” and to encouraging “an exchange of new works between the US and UK.”

For a cast, we have a wonderful crew of actors and actresses, with a surprisingly international background, who are bringing their fresh talents to the Off-Off-Broadway stage and who are all enthusiastic about bringing Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin Round Table to life again.

Janette Johnston

Sergio Lodolce

James Lindsay

Brad Howe

Helen McMillan

Gary Kozak

Hugh Buller

I had the great pleasure of learning today that my tragicomedy – “Encore Encore” – is going to be produced by The Gallery Players of Brooklyn, New York as part of their Black Box New Play Festival!

The Gallery Players hosts a Black Box Festival every year to showcase new theatrical works. This year will be the 17th annual Black Box Festival. The festival itself will take place over several weekends in June (starting the weekend of May 29). “Encore Encore” will be one of two full-length plays featured in the contest. It will be performed the weekend of June 12 or the weekend of June 19 – actual date TBD.

“The Gallery Players (TGP) has provided Brooklyn audiences with quality theater since 1967. Located in Park Slope but beloved on both sides of the Brooklyn Bridge, The Gallery Players is dedicated to producing classic and contemporary plays and musicals as well as premiering new works. Recipient of the Off-Off Broadway Review’s 2000 Award for Lifetime Achievement, and Innovative Theater (IT) awards for outstanding musical for Urinetown, Yank, and Like You Like It. The Gallery Players’ season comprises three plays and three musicals, covering a remarkably wide range of dramatic and comedic styles. The season finale is the annual Black Box New Play Festival, which gives world premier performances of works by playwrights.”

Thank you to The Gallery Players – and especially Black Box Festival producer Dominic Cuskern – for his wonderful opportunity! I am looking forward to working with Dominic and the play’s director in the upcoming weeks!

I learned today that my new comedy “Encore Encore” has been recognized as a finalist in the 2014 TNT POPS! New Play Project.

TNT (Texas Nonprofit Theaters) “was formed in 1971 to encourage programmatic and managerial excellence in the nonprofit community and professional theatres of Texas.” The group is dedicated to providing “the developmental services needed to ensure survival and quality programming” among community theaters – a GREAT goal!

TNT received over 90 theatrical submissions for its 2014 contest and my play has been recognized among the top 10 scripts (roughly the top 10%).

Thanks so much to TNT for their kind consideration!

Today I finished a final “first draft” of my new play – “Encore Encore.” The play details the problematic relationship between noted wit Dorothy Parker and her troubled husband Eddie. Eddie was a First World War veteran who suffered greatly from his wartime service and ended up being addicted to morphine and alcohol.

The story juxtaposes the meteoric rise of Dorothy’s career as a drama critic with the dismal decline of her marriage and the means she used to deal with that abrasive dichotomy.

At work, she is the insurmountable wit – always armed  and ready with a quip and a comeback.

At home, she is a vulnerable soul – dependent emotionally on a husband who cannot communicate affection.

The play concerns, ultimately, the public personas we create for ourselves to hide the pain we experience in our personal lives – and the danger of being trapped in those personas when it appears they are the only thing in which we can trust and believe.