Marsha Mason, Pat Golden, Katie Lavelle, JNK Enzo, Tony Macy-Pérez, Demetrius Blocker direct First Acts from New Work—teenage love & hate, rivalry, abuse & inequity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
PROGRAM A
Nov 16 & Nov 18 at 7:00pm
Adult(ish) Material
Attorney—Client
Like a Queen Or Whatever
PROGRAM B
Nov 17 at 7:00pm & Nov 18 at 2:00pm
The Rest of Us
The Dust of the World
Al Gore Rhythm
at HB Playwrights Theatre
124 Bank Street, New York
Adult(ish) Material
by Tiffa Foster
Directed by Marsha Mason
A psychiatrist, his patient, an OB-GYN, and her daughter find their lives thrown into chaos as they each fall in love and try to do what is in each other’s best interest.
Featuring Flannery Bogost, Jason Dietz*, Angela Pierce*, and Kye Stressler
Tiffa Foster is a playwright and librettist who lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota and is the author of Adult(ish) Material. She is a quirky person who especially enjoys writing about people falling in love under bizarre and unusual circumstances. To date, she has written 35 short plays, three full-length plays, and two television pilots. Her works have been produced in the US, UK, France, Madagascar, and Hong Kong.
Marsha Mason has received four Academy Award nominations for her roles in The Goodbye Girl, Cinderella Liberty, Only When I Laugh and Chapter Two and has been recipient of two Golden Globe Awards and Emmy nomination.TV credits: Frasier, The Middle, The Good Wife, Madam Secretary, and Grace & Frankie. Broadway roles include Impressionism with Jeremy Irons, Steel Magnolias, The Night of the Iguana, The Good Doctor, King Richard III, and Cactus Flower. Off-Broadway and Regionally: Terrence McNally’s Fire and Air , Little Gem (Outer Critics Circle Best Actress Award Winner). All’s Well That Ends Well, A Doll’s House, Arms and the Man, Watch on the Rhine. Director credits: Neil Simon’s Chapter Two, Steel Magnolias, An Act of God, Juno Swans, The Man Who Came To Dinner with Walter Bobbie and Brooke Shields and the World Premiere of Tennessee Williams’s Talisman Roses with Amanda Plummer. Recently, she co-directed and starred in Lost In Yonkers at Hartford Stage.
Al Gore Rhythm
by Phil Darg
Directed by Tony Macy-Pérez
In the future, AI will do everything for us – except make us happy. Al Gore Rhythm explores the current trajectory of the deep integration of computer technology into our daily lives, the explosion of AI-generated content, and increasingly sophisticated software algorithms that increasingly affect people and their relationships with others.
Featuring Noah Kleinberg, Michelle Leicht*, Will Snyder, and Donna Svennevik
Phil Darg is the author of many plays/musicals including: Sasquatched! The Musical (NYMF 2013 Next Link); The Pound: A Musical for the Dogs (2017 Theatre Now New York Sound Bites); The ABC’s of LGBT at the Rainbow Valley B ‘n’ B (Winner, 2020 Robert J. Pickering Award for Playwriting Excellence); Evolution (Winner, 2018 William Faulkner Literary Competition); Thespis (third place, 2020 Tennessee Williams One-Act Play Contest); Hero (Alternative Theater, New York); Facility (2017 William Inge). www.PhilDarg.com
Tony Macy-Pérez is a Cuban-American actor, director and playwright. His plays “90 Miles of Separation” and “Requiem for a Life” initiated the first season of theatre at the Merkin Concert Hall at Lincoln Center. His play “Requiem for a Life” was also a finalist at the 2004 Summer Strawberry One-Act Festival and is now published in “The Best Plays from the Strawberry One-Act Festival Volume 3”. He has directed plays in NYC, Miami and Atlantic City. He had two consecutive productions on Theatre Row, “Social Security” at the Clurman and “Days of Wine and Roses” at the Lion. In 2008, the Serling Awards voted him Best Director for “Title Fight” in their Vignettes for the Apocalypse Series. Then again in 2009 they nominated him for “Lick the Boot” and he had a successful run of “Sex on Trial” at the Duplex Cabaret. In 2019 he directed “The Good, The Bad and the Fabulous” and “The Neighbors” at HB Studios as part of Pat Golden’s Directors’ Lab. He was nominated as Best Director for the Spanish-language version of “The Trapped Language of Love.” Most recently he had a Zoom production of “90 Miles of Separation” available on YouTube.
Attorney—Client
by Alex Ladd
Directed by Pat Golden
Enmeshed in the criminal justice system, friends become co-defendants, each one pit against the other. Two actors play all four roles.
Featuring Nicholas Capriotti and Justin Linville
Alex Ladd is a literary translator, interperter and writer residing in Brooklyn. He produced The Asphalt Kiss at 59E59 Theaters, based on his translation of Nelson Rodrigues’ O Beijo no Asfalto. The play was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. He also co-produced Pornographic Angel (also based on his translation) at the Ohio Theater. The play had its debut at Yale Summer Cabaret.
The Dust of the World
by Rhys Samuel Washington
Directed by Demetrius Blocker
When the patriarch of a well-off family is forced to house an offspring he didn’t know he had; his entire family must come to terms with their contradicting views on race, activism and civil systems.
Featuring Chris Jaymes*, Wynn McClenahan*, Laura New, Oluwafemi Olosunde, and Ryan Sheehan
Rhys Samuel Washington is an award-winning writer and actor. Recent acting credits: Louise the Destroyer, “Hope Deferred”, Lifetime Achievements…, Luke & Eli, and The Laramie Project. As a writer: “Hope Deferred”, “Forget Me Not”, The Dust of the World, and Lifetime Achievements… (New Circle Theatre Company & NY Theatre Festival). @Iamrhys__ & rhyssamuelwashington.com
Demetrius Blocker is an accomplished graduate with honors from the New World School of the Arts, holding a BFA degree. He has furthered his studies at HB Studios and has had the privilege of collaborating with renowned choreographers and dance companies such as Shades In Rhythm, Freddick Bratcher and Company, Garth Fagan Dance, Inc., and Medicine Show Theatre. In addition to his successful career as a dancer, Demetrius is currently represented by Bella Agency in New York and Wild Models Talent in Los Angeles as a commercial, fashion and print model. His acting credits include notable appearances on television in HBO’s “Girls’ ‘ (Episode: Boys), SNL and in the film “The Other Woman’ ‘. He has also showcased his acting skills in productions such as “Fish,” “My Dinner with Schwartzey,” “Fragments of Isolation,” “Good For You” and “Breakthrough” among others. Noteworthy theatrical performances include “Horse,” “Mr. Chekov Mr. Porter,””Caligula,””Starr Street,””The Good – The Bad – The Fabulous”, “The Children From the Blue Mountain”, “Andy Warhol For Senate” and the staged reading of “Noel Coward’s Design For Living”. Beyond his artistic pursuits, Demetrius is a dedicated teaching artist who is passionate about creating tailored programs for students with special needs. He aims to foster artistic enrichment, facilitate classroom learning, encourage student involvement, and promote cultural awareness. Moreover, he holds the position of Creative Director at the CUNY LGBTQIA+ Pride Planning Consortium, further contributing to the creative community. The Dust of the World is his Directorial Debut.
Like a Queen Or Whatever
by Grant MacDermott
Directed by Katie Lavelle
Liz Windsor needs to be president of Saxon All Girls Boarding School. All she has to do is betray her best friend, Mary. A fight during the elections gets her expelled from the school – her only home – and now she must take over the school in order to survive. This is not just high school. This is Shakespeare.
Featuring Stephanie Adumatioge, Madison Alexander, Susannah Crowell*, John Druzba*, Delilah Jane Dunn, Annie Kefalas, and Eileen Sugameli*
Grant MacDermott’s play Jasper was presented by Yonder Window Theatre Company & Grace Street Productions in the fall of 2022 off-broadway at The Signature Theatre. Two-year residency with Yonder Window Theatre Company. Two commissions from The Farm (Always, Wilde; Everyday Monsters). He has been a semi-finalist or finalist at PlayPenn, the O’Neill, Wordsmyth, TRU New Voices, the Harold Clurman Award, the Lanford Wilson New Play Award, Risk Modern Tragedy Award. The full version of Like a Queen or Whatever and all his other plays can be found on New Play Exchange
Katie Lavelle is a cabaret performer and director. She has been working with Pat Golden through the Art of Directing classes at HB Studios, and is thrilled to be a part of the New Play Directors Lab. You can next see Katie on stage in her solo show “Goodbye 20’s” at Don’t Tell Mama in February 2024. Currently, she is working on her Masters in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship at The New School.
The Rest of Us
by Amy Tofte
Directed by JNK Enzo
A group of high school seniors gather for a special, student-run detention after school. As the group of less-than-popular girls gets to know one another through their “punishment”, they commune and collide over a controversial abusive relationship that tests the strength of each of their characters.
Featuring Satchel Bell, Casey Burke, Marjorie Chamberlain, Natalie Hammonds, Kolbe Handal, Chynna Holder, and Charlotte Manning
Amy Tofte is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter who won the 2015 Nicholl Fellowship in screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She has been in residence at the Autry Museum of the American West, Brush Creek, The Kennedy Center and Yaddo with work produced/developed throughout the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and twice at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild. MFA, CalArts.
JNK Enzo (they/ze) is a non-binary, queer, trans-anti-disciplinary artist from Cleveland, Ohio. Ze are a trained actor, director, and screenwriter and work in the mediums of performance, film/video, painting, photography, digital technologies, and new media arts. Enzo holds an MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts, BA in Theater and BA in Film Production. Enzo recently directed, choreographed, and danced in the play “Words of the Prophets” by Vayl Larkin at The Cell Theater. Enzo’s international works are on flesh-for-capital, sustainability, and disability in “PH-@-L3$H” (flesh), shown at Artes Mota Galiza, & Galleria Geraldes da Silva in Porto, Portugal, Sept.2022; “what t**y won’t do is…aka mygreenhome” was shown at Art Bazaar at Pragovka Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic, July 2022. This work is through sustainability and accessibility, combating poverty, famine, and climate change in the Czech Republic, building a solar powered hydroponic garden. Enzo has been seen as Nina in “Sunset Baby”, Henrietta Iscariot in “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot”, and Glinda in “The Wiz.” IG: @og.enzo / jnkenzo.com
