We also are on
Facebook (click here)!
Writing by Johnny
Culver (Click here)
About Johnny Culver (click here)
Equity
Library
Theater
of New
York
(and the Woodside
Players, and The Fifth Avenue Theatre)
___________________________________________________________
Upcoming!
The Woodside Player
of Queens will present a LIVE virtual event, August 20th @7pm EST.
“Short American
Plays from 1870 to Today”
Featuring:
Private Boarding
When Johnny Comes
Marching Home
The Secondhand Man
Doings of a Dude
This Isn’t Drama
101, Folks!
Swing Time
Jingles the Cat
Ski Lovers
Three Sisters Is an
Indigenous Method of Agriculture: A Scene for Zoom
Free and open to
all. To make your reservation, email: woodsideplayersofqueens@gmail.com.
_________________________________________________________________
The Equity Library Theater of New York Summer 2021 Virtual Play
Festival is happening! Links to over 20 plays/submissions are below. Vote for
your favorite by texting (no calls) to 631 898 4205.
A Cheap Maid in Chasteside – Craig Gustafson
A Soul to Squeeze - Meagan
J. Meehan
Amy in Belgrade – Edmund Wilkinson
Aunt Velma Considers
Changing Religion - John Arnold
Bawdy Maudie - Vivian C.
Lermond
Glassblower – Judith Glass
Collins
Hurricane of Love – Maripat Allen
Jamie's Protest by Leonard
D. Goodisman
Meconium Aspirations - Mark Blickley
Plaque Kills - Dana Hall,
performed by John Madison
Six Impossible Things Before Coronavirus –
Matt Cogswell
The Neighbor - Selma Hazouri - A man remembers a neighbor from the past
Visiting Dad - Marj
O'Neill-Butler, performed by Emma Merritt
What If Science Is Real? –
Judy Klass
The Woodside Players of
Queens - Virtual Writing Workshop for Adults, Alternate Fridays 2-4pm. (Begins
June 11, 2021)
Playwright Johnny Culver brings together
writers of all locations, genres and experience to
share their work and receive feedback to improve their craft. Writers are
encouraged to bring their five minute or less length scripts, screenplays,
stories, poems, recipes, and more to share via Zoom. The workshop, free for all
to participate, runs until late summer. The season will end with a coffeehouse
performance of some of our works, live or virtual.
To participate, email woodsideplayersofqueens@gmail.com, or call 631 898 4205,
and you will be sent the Zoom information.
We are seeking
virtual productions to present during the summer of 2021. Send yours to equitylibrarytheater@gmail.com.
Watch them below and text your favorite to 631 898 4205 -
play, actor, actress!
The
Pot Boiler - A Reimagining (1916) - based on a one-act satire by Alice
Gerstenberg
Alice Gerstenberg’s “The Pot Boiler” is a satire about the
pretensions of conventional theater. This “reimagining” transplants the humor
into a modern zoom-age context. Cast: Marty Goldberg, Ted Birke, Valerie
O’Hara, Bill Barry, Perryn Pomatto,
Meredith Sullivan, Sean Buckley, Aleksandar Tasev and
Shelia Spencer – directed by Shelia Spencer.
Directed by Vincent
Mraz – “I will be working with senior citizens across Manhattan teaching a
virtual sketch comedy writing class as a 2021 SU-CASA
teaching artist.” Runs 80 minutes.
Ghosts From The Well – Jack West
A re-imagined
rewriting of Val Burton, Walter DeLeon and Bradford
Ropes' 1946 Abbott & Costello comedy of two people mistaken for traitors
during the American Revolutionary War. Doomed by a curse to be bound to earth
forever, their ghosts now haunt a married couple on Long Island, NY. When an
eccentric ghost hunter and his odd, clairvoyant assistant are brought in to rid
the home of the spirits, the ghost hunter’s mistaken for an old nemesis,
there’s a wacky séance - and even bigger problems. Written by Jack West.
Performed by Jack West and Karen Corrado. © Jack
West. All Rights Reserved.
Godless – Jarrett Winters Morley
'Godless' is a one
act play that delves into the origins of the human psyche between Adam and Eve,
discusses the controversy surrounding humankind's perception of a higher power,
and how each of us defines faith. Directed By: Jarrett Winters Morley. Cast:
Eve: Lauren Curet, Adam: Jarrett Winters Morley.
Garden Party – Judy Klass
This is a reading of
the play Garden Party by Judy Klass, Directed by
Alyssa Borg.
The Girl of my Dreams – Carole Jackson
With Ted Birke,
Richard Callender, Laurel Lockhart, Susan Neuffer.
The play follow Kathryn Coleman, a British girl, from ages 10 to 37. Although
her relationships with her father, grandmother, and husband are important, it's
her mother, Myrna, who is the constant in her life - for better or worse.
Selections from "Trout Day" - Peggy Terry
With: Zoe Avery, Terri
Bonica, Ted Burke, Andrew Dinan, Jennifer Finger, Ann Morelli, Martha
Morenstein, Tom Morwick, Olivia Rubrum, Alexis Tandit.
In this comedy, the first day of school goes all wrong when a frazzled parent
tries to do away with an mysterious small town tradition.
Mag and Ryan, best
friends since college, confront doom with Zoom, social distancing with close-up
romancing in a pandemic fatigued world.
Boyself/Girlself - Jack Seamus Conley
A pre-transition transmasculine person (Girlself),
who is in the early stages of “coming” out and uncertain of what the
future may hold for them, receives a surprise visit from a future version of
their self (Boyself), who only has foggy memories of
the exchange from the “other” side. As they talk together about everything and
nothing, both “selves” learn something unexpected about who they are
collectively. Directed and written by Jack Seamus Conley, and
starring Lea Hulsey (Girlself) and Chase Nuerge (Boyself).
This is my Block - Talara Ruth
Originally printed
in the New York Times Metropolitan Diary, Talara
reminisces about her childhood neighborhood.
All Gummed Up (Comedy 1921) - Harry Wagstaff Gribble
With Ted
Birke/Valerie O'Hara/Bill Barry/Perryn Pomatto/Maggi Veltre (dir. Shelia
Spencer). Shelia Spencer is savoring the serendipity of finding old plays,
dusting them off and giving them new life and vitality here on Zoom. She deeply
appreciates the talent she is connecting with today - as well as that from our
theatrical past.
The Census - Leonard D. Goodisman
Directed by Monica
Hoyt. Director of Photography - Zack Bermack. Cast: Madison
Hemings - Ben Baez, Sally Hemings - Yvette Bedgood,
Census Taker - Gabe Girson, Eston
Hemings - Cole Mackler.
Hippies, Housewives & Watering Holes – D. M. Larson
Performed by Long
Island’s Afternoon Delight Players.
America's Theatre
presents Love Restor'd -- a haunted tale, a
visitation in the dark night. Our play features, in order of appearance: Len Bellezza as Tom, Susan Horowitz as Becky, and Donna Wall as
Susan.
Starring Toni
Tennille, Julie Cargill, and Trisha Tracy, “Out to Lunch” opens in a quaint
restaurant where the two main characters discuss their lives, dead husbands and
the couple seated next to them. Gloria and Lillian are lifelong friends in
their seventies. When the young server engages her customers, we are all left
to wonder if ‘Feminism’ is the new “F-Word”. Exploring themes of the female
bond, experience, and life-challenges, “Out to Lunch” rallies.
The Middle Of The Night -
Elizabeth Robertson Laytin
With Danielle Patsakos, Carolle U. Elizabeth is
a winner of a 2016 Frank McCourt Memoir prize for her short story Black Sugar,
published in Vol. X No.2 Summer/Fall 2016 of The Southampton Review. Her novel Come Here Go Away for the young
adult audience is available on kindle, amazon.com, and at Guild Hall in East
Hampton, N.Y. Short stories have also
been published on ducts.org, deadmule.com, and in The East Hampton Star.
Attention Playwrights!
Submissions are now being accepted for the Equity Library Theater
of New York Summer 2021 Virtual Play Festival. Seeking short plays (no more
than 15 pp/minutes), from playwrights from across the globe. Also seeking
monologues (no more than 4pp/minutes). Musicals welcome! We post your YouTube
link of the performance to the festival site for voting. One submission per
playwright. No submission fee. Please include name,
address, telephone number and email address on your submission. We do not
produce your work, we provide a venue for you to
present actors performing your play. There are no costs involved for anyone.
Seeking actors and directors, too! Deadline: August 30. 2021. Email: equitylibrarytheater@gmail.com.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Now
playing! The Equity Library Theater of New York Winter 2021 Virtual Play
Festival. Links to over 70 performances are below.
(formatted
for desktop viewing, in alphabetical order).
Winners,
based on feedback, in red.
A Mother’s Story – Patrice Hamilton
A Tale of Stockbridge – Charles Gross
A Turkey is NOT a
Rooster – Jinna Kim (Tie – Best Play)
Across the Lake – Johnny Culver
Avoiding Unwanted Pregnancy
-Rom Watson - performed by AnnaLisa Erickson,
Bill
W and Jimmy K - Andrew Matthews (Tie – Best Play)
But Did I Leave The Oven On? – Jake Alexander (Tie - Best Actor
Team)
Chuckles, The Clown – David Lloyd
College Without Walls - Matt Sanders &
Ariel Aliza Sanders
External Monitors - Richard Lyons Conlon
First
Baby – Alex Perry (Tie – Best Play)
Frenchie's Fate - Kannan
Menon
Give Me Something Good to
Eat - John Glass
Going
Up – Joseph Vitale, with Scott Cagney, Gary Glor.
Directed by Will Budnikov
Happy Funeral Day - David T. Anderson. with: Janice Kirkel, Alexis Tandit, Carolle U
Harlem Top To Bottom – Jordan
Young (Best Monologue)
How Did Edward Lose
his Accent? -Teddy Alexis Rodriguez, PhD
How to Survive from REMNANTS
– Hank Greenspan
Introducing
My Crazy – Marlo K. Shaw
Last Night Bluey Died - Sam Affoumado
Mamet Mommies Soccer - Greg
D'Angelo
Millard, Is That You? –
Brian Leahy Doyle
Monologue from “Illspoken”
– Blaire Baron
Morning Coffee – Phil
Blechman
Museum Pieces (Monologue) -
Sherry Chiaroscuro
No Rest for a Soul
- Cindi Sansone-Braff
Phony on a Twig - Rex
McGregor
PhotontheTimesSquareShuttle
– Lawrence Rinkel
Remember Me, Mr. Jones? - Christine
Benvenuto
Santa and Spock –
Heidi Mae (Special Mention)
Scoundrel by Monte D.
Monteleagre, directed by Kevin Snyder
Spiritual
Counseling – Jack Rushen
Steely Resolve – Alan Stoltzer
The Apocalypse Is Here But Where's The Iron – Daniel McKamey
The Ballad Of Leslie - Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend
The Campaign – Hannah Williams
The Carpet Washers – Jack
West
The
Galloping Gourmet, based on The Lying Valet, by David Garrick
The Line Up in the Time of Covid – Barbara Litt
Thomas, Thomas – Leonard D. Goodisman
This Is My Block, Part Two- Talara Ruth, with Anne Morelli
Two Ply – Chef
Rossi (Special Mention)
Unpack -Catalina Florina Florescu
WABI SABI -
Rachael Carnes - Directed by Andra Hunter With Zoe Margolis, Max Gallagher
(Tie - Best Actor Team)
Well and On
My Own - Ellen C. Scherer
What’s in a Name – Lee Franklin
Wise Old Owl: A Trilogy – Phyliss Shanken
Without Whom None of This Would’ve Been
Possible - Kevin J. Miller
Zoom
Mom – Greg Abbott (Special Mention)
The Woodside Players of New York City 2021
winter season. One act plays*, some from over 100
years ago, performed virtually. Watch them below!
(thanks to Shelia
Spencer and her actors)
Finders
Keepers – George Kelly – 1923 - Directed by Kevin Snyder
Suppressed Desires –
Susan Glaspell – 1914 - dir. by Shelia Spencer, with Hannah Abney, Farah
Diaz-Tello & Jacob Lineberry (over 1000 views)
Tickless
Time - by Susan Glaspell and George Cram Cook - 1918 - directed by Shelia
Spencer
Sham - Frank G. Tompkins -
1920
The
Angel Intrudes – Floyd Dell – 1918
Illuminati in Drama Libre- Alice
Gerstenberg – 1922
Attuned
– Alice Gerstenberg – 1922 - with Shelia Spencer
*all free to read on Google Books.
__________________________________________________________
Past Event!
Over thirty-five short plays.
Fifth Avenue Theatre of New York Virtual Fall 2020
Play Festival
Winners
in red!
E Minor Seventh –
Timothy Nolan (Special Mention)
Siggy & Dolph at the Klaustenauer Cafe - by Fred Crecca
Shana The She-Pirate – Emily Battles
Coyotes – Steven Carinci
(Best Play – tie)
Throne of the Third Heaven - Philip Reissman
Glasses
– Barry M. Putt Jr. with Allison Fradkin (Best Monologue – tie)
Who Let The Dogs
Out? – Marian Rosin
Barren Landscape – Steve Gold (Best actress – Alexis Tandit)
Wounded
Birds - Elaine Kuracina
Deeds Not Words - Rose-Mary
Harrington (Performer
Diana Kyle and Technical Director,
Elizabeth Gordon)
Lyre On
The Floor – Jackson Montana
The Waiting
Place - Michael Cunningham, with Regina Yeager (Special Mention)
Invisible Foe -
Michele A Miller, PhD
Confessions:
The Hours - Natascha Graham (Best Monologue – tie)
The Wiggle Room – George D. Morgan
How
I Spent My Quarantine – Ellen Abrams
It's
Not Haunted Real Estate - Sarah Congress (Best Effects)
My
Turkey Redeemer Liveth – Loretta Wish (Best acting duo)
Fred
the Projectionist – Fred Pflantzer
Where For Art Thou, Dougnuts – Michelle Glusto (Best Play – tie)
Smarter
than You - Richard Bonte
Occupied
Countries - Jack Rushton
Tell Me
How I Did – Justin McDevitt
The United States of Huevos - Tavi Juárez & Stephen Tsimpides (Best Play – tie)
Frank and Rachel – Nancy Temple
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In October 2020, Equity Library Theater and
the Instant Shakespeare Company presented a reading of “Catherine and
Petruchio” by David Garrick. Click here to watch.
Equity Library Theater of New York presents a
reading of a full length new play:
The play
is based on a book written by American author, Charles Brockden
Brown (publ. in 2 vols.1798 & 1815). It consists of a dialogue between Edwin Alcuin, a Quaker
schoolmaster, and Mrs. Carter, a widow, in
Philadelphia in 1798. Alcuin and Mrs. Carter argue about women's lack of voting
rights, their need for financial independence, and their inadequate access to
education and employment opportunities. Mrs. Carter speaks for all women,
sharing her insights about marriage and divorce as well as politics. As the two
debate these issues, they become friends and, eventually, lovers. The plot
includes a remarkable sequence in which Alcuin travels to a future utopia, The
Paradise of Women, where men and women are equals and where the word
"marriage" does not exist. Though their conversations are serious,
there are many light moments and a subtle romantic subtext.
Caterina
Nonis is a director, theatre maker and actor from
Milan, now based in New York. She has collaborated with Page 73, The Habitat,
The InHEIRitance Project, NYMadness,
Shotz! Amios, Theatre East,
KIT, Stella Adler, Modern Shakespeare Project, Match:Lit, among others. At the Venice Biennale,
she studied different approaches to theatre making with directors Thom Luz and Jakop Ahlbom. She is an artistic
associate of The InHEIRitance Project, and an SDCF Observership 18/19 Class member. BFA: NYU Tisch, Stella
Adler & RADA. www.caterinanonis.com.
California
native, Dean Linnard is a New York
based AEA actor, singer, solo-performer, and puppeteer. He studied at NYU’s
Tisch School of the Arts, the Stella Adler Studio of Acting and the Royal
Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Since then, he has been
associated with a number of outstanding theater
companies, such as the Portland Playhouse, Vermont Shakespeare Company, and New
Orleans Fringe Festival. Though he specializes in classical material, his
projects have ranged from Shakespeare to experimental performance art, from
children’s theater to Off-Broadway. In 2011, he developed a one-man
adaptation of Hamlet which he performed as a benefit for Young Actors
Workshop in California and as part of Manhattan Repertory Theatre’s New Work
series. He is a Teaching Artist for Broadway.com’s
Broadway Classroom Series. www.deanlinnard.com.
Carolyn Balducci’s publications include fiction &
non-fiction books, articles & reviews as well as translations and poetry.
Her plays include adaptations/translations of
Aristophanes’ Lysistrata; Renaissance comedies, La
Calandra and La Veniexiana; contemporary
Italian comedies; Alcuin: A Fierce & Elegant Plea for the Rights of
Women; and Chekhov in the Hamptons. Original works include Maestro:Pirandello as Recalled by
Ms. Marta Abba; and Giovanni the Fearless, a commedia dell'arte
musical (book and lyrics by Carolyn Balducci; music composed by Mira
J. Spektor). She is a member of the Dramatists’
Guild, BMI and NYWIFT.
___________________________________________________________
Past event!
“Five on Fifth – 2020 Summer Play Festival”, Fifth
Avenue Theater presents video recordings of short plays by local writers! Click
below to watch.
“Goth Principal: A Hunted
Man” By Alaina Hammond
Starring Isaac Scranton as
Jonny/Gothman
and Alaina Hammond as Belinda.
“Waitress!”
with Shelia Spence, Alexis Tandit, Regina Yeager.
“Generation Love” by Nick Bompart.
“Promises”,
by Shirley King, with Julia Genoveva.
“In The
Clair De Lune” - An Online Play, by JB Bruno.
(voted best play)
“All Kinds of Skin” – by Victoria Lau
_____________________________________________
Past event!
The
Woodside Players of Queens Summer 2020 Play Festival. Short plays by local
writers in a virtual setting. Click below to watch!
Baby
Bird On the Isle of Corona written by Rossi (aka Chef Rossi)
with
Celeste Ciulla, Rossi and Charmaine Broad
The
Seal Wife – by Michael Cunningham
(special mention)
Just a Little Mistake - by Mary Elizabeth Gale
Virgins – by Scott C. Sickles, with Elizabeth Carlsen and Kinga Nowak
The Effect
of Magic on The Death Of Will and Grace – by Jaime Sheedy, directed by D.A.G Burgos
(voted best performer)
Anonymous
Recipes - by Dane Rooney (voted best play)
Past event!
Equity
Library Theater’s Summer 2020 Virtual Play Festival.
Twenty
plays, and links to the performances are below!
The Dead Game, by Lisa Stratton, with Regina Yeager
and Alexis Tandit
What Are You Hiding? – by Elizabeth Shannon and Morgan Southwell
Virgins – by
Scott C. Sickles, with Reanna Armellino and Shay
Wisniewski
Book
and lyrics by Mark Evan Chimsky, Music by Zev Burrows
Two
legends meet in the afterlife -- who are they?
With
Jennine Cannizzo (Dot), Emily Iocovozzi
(J), and Ross Neal (The Translator) (tie for best play)
Gloval Covid – by David T.
Anderson, with Yvette Bedgood
Two sisters torn apart
by politics, and a big secret.
With Friends Like That - by Bara Swain, featuring Betzabeth
Castro
Welcome
Wagon – by Peggy Terry, with Regina Yeager,
Alexis Tandit, Elise Valderrama
On
Sacred Ground - by Susan Masters, With Yvette Bedgood (voted best performer)
I Was Here – by Ellen Scherer (tie for best play)
Unmasked
– by Heidi Mae, with Jacob Lineberry, Farah
Diaz-Tello (special mention)
The Other Author – by Tom Misuraca
The Waltz of the Exterminator – by Heather Violanti, with: Woman -- Taylor Lynne, Exterminator--Thomas J. Kane, Mouse--Valerie O'Hara, Stage Directions and Video--Marialana K. Ardolino
It
Ain't Over 'Til the Pink Lady Sings - Written & Directed by Allison Fradkin
Cast:
Nya Noemi as Marva, Emmy Carlyle Albritton as Francine, Briana Velazquez as
Winifred
Crummy – by Johnny Culver, with Elise Valderrama, Haneen Arafat Murphy, Hannah Abney
Faustus and
the Soliloquy - by Dane Rooney
Putting Up The Shed - by Leonard Goodisman, with Jacob Lineberry, Benjamin Willis
In The Toilet – by Madison
Mayer
The Dancer – by William Jess Russell (special
mention)
Humanity at
a Standstill – by Bryan Myers
Real
Friends Help You Move – by KK Gordon
Ann
Fulton – by Charles Lupia,
with Susan Palmer Everly
“The
Last Bag” – by Tain
Leonard-Peck
Past Best Plays from the Equity Library Theater
Summer Play Festival!
2020 - I
Was Here – by Ellen Scherer/J. & Dot
Book and
lyrics by Mark Evan Chimsky, Music by Zev Burrows
2019 –
Tina – TJ Harland
2018 -
Paige Esterly - Eve and Adam
2017 -
Michael Verderber - Unending Repetition/Treason
2016 -
Michael Maiello – Looking Through the Glass
2015 -
Hello Mom – Lauren Snyder/Driving Herd – Sam Graber
2014 -
John Ladd – Ashes to Ashes (Drama)/ Scott Haskell – Womanhood (Comedy)
2013 -
Liza Bulos - Attention Shoppers
Past event!
________________________________________________
Congratulations to the Woodside Players of Queens!
The
2019 Josie Performance Award for best Director of 2018
Best Director: Kate Remelius
– “Epitaph by Moonlight”
Past event and returning on Zoom (view
here)
Equity
Library Theater and the Gingerbread Players of Forest Hills present a staged
reading of the 1921 comedy
"The Dover Road" by A. A. Milne.
Saturday,
February 8, 2020 at 2 PM – 4 PM
New York Public Library 53rd street Branch 18 W
53rd St, New York, NY 10019
Leonard and Anne are two lovers travelling on the Dover Road
when their car breaks down. They are taken to a hotel, which turns out to be
the private residence of the eccentric, wealthy, and reclusive Mr. Latimer.
Leonard and Anne soon discover that they are not the only couple to have been
waylaid on the road. What does the mysterious Mr. Latimer have in store for
these couples?
With: Andrew Dinan, Mike Miller, Kinga Nowak, Suzanne Schick,
Debbie Smith, Johnny Tyrone and Bart DeFinna. Johnny
Culver directs.
More info 631 898 4205. Free admission. Seating is limited.
Past
Event!
This fall, a new theater group begins work in
Manhattan, The Fifth Avenue Theatre of New York!
Our first event will be a reading of new short
plays by local writers, in a casual, free setting, November 9th @12pm in the
atrium on the lower level at 650 Fifth Avenue. Enter on 52nd Street. No
admission fee.
Featuring:
St. John - Lloyd Pace
The Wonderer - Lynda Crawford
Scary Mom – Nancy Davidoff Kelton
And Everything Was Perfect – Monte D. Monteleagre
Lunchtime - Johnny Culver
More info, contact us at: fifthavenuetheatre@gmail.com.
Past Event
November 16, 2019 @12pm, NYPL Alvin Ailey
Auditorium
203 West
115th Street
Equity Library Theater presents a reading a
reading of a new play
EXTRACTED by Dwayne Yancey, Directed by Alexandra Scordato.
A truck
driver sleeping in his cab in southern California is awoken by someone banging
on his door. He opens it to find two teen-age girls who say they desperately
need a ride back to New York -- Sam says she's rescued her sister Libby from
drug gangs in Los Angeles and needs to get her home to her family. Thus begins a strange, cross-country journey full of
mysterious characters -- and a dark allegorical tale about modern politics and
immigration.
Runs about
90 minutes. Free admission. More info 631 898 4205.
Past Event.
The Woodside Players of Queens present
“Miss Molly”, a 1918 comedy by Elizabeth Gale!
December 21st, 2019 @2pm Queens Library
Forest Hills Branch,
108-19 71st Ave, Forest Hills, NY 11375
A simple case of mistaken identities in the home
of a "crabbed old misogynist" provides much laughter and mayhem in
this short two act play.
Reginald - Johnny Culver
Julian - Frankie Wang
Joe - Charles Huang
Annie - Shelia Spencer
Molly - Cheryl Bear
Cissie – Samantha Whitmore
Pearl - Alexis Tandit
Miston – Regina Yeager
Director - Jake Dunham
Free admission. Seating is limited. More info 631 898 4205.
Great for groups!
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Past Event!
Equity Library Theater Summer 2019 Play Festival
Part One - August 3rd, 2019 @12pm, ,
NYPL Alvin Ailey Auditorium 203 West 115th Street
Tina by F.
J. Hartland (best play)
Directed
by Paula D'Alessandris, w/Alex Etling
The
Soldier Returns - Lionelle Hamanaka
Directed by Nicholas Leung, w/ J.R. Carter, Selear Duke
Rosemary -
Charles Lupia
Directed by Charles Lupia,
w/ Susan Palmer Everly
Father
Figure - Liz Amberly
Directed by Leslie Kincaid Burby , w/ Maggie Horan,
Fred Velde
Attention
Shoppers - Barbara Blumenthal
Directed by Valeria Canigla,
w/ Jacob Linberry, Pilar Adara, Cheryl Bear
Valentine
Shrugged - Wayne Paul Mattingly
With Quinn Warren, Emily Mervosh
HOA -
Laura Huntt Foti
With Kristin Samuelson, Rew
Starr
Meaning -
Tommy Nichols
With Clare Casey
Part Two -
August 10th, 2019 @12pm, NYPL Alvin Ailey Auditorium 203 West 115th Street
Questions
- Rob Dames
Directed by Ted Thompson, w/ Martin Goldberg,
William Barry
The
Divorcee Shower - Lavinia Roberts
Directed by Dianna Garten, w/ Brittney Jo Sowards
Going to
the Dog - Barbara Litt
Directed by Conrado
Falco III, w/ Sarah Quane Smyth, Gamal ElSawah
Doctor Penington - Steve Capra
With Oliver Conant, Beth Griffith, Justyna Kostek
Service
Not Rendered – Ray Vagge
With Bridget Sweeney, Donna Ross
Find the
Mole - Ken Langer
Directed
by Naman Gupta
Free
Admission – More info: 631 898 4205.
_________________________________________________________________________
Links to other well respected
theater groups:
PAST EVENT!
Equity
Library Theater presents:
"Princess
Jazzberry’s Wild Ride"
NYPL
53rd Street Branch
18
West 53rd Street, New York
Saturday,
July 13 2019 @12pm
With:
Stephen
Zuccaro - Del
Trevor
Jones - Mason
Bec
Everett - Liz
Christopher
Trindade - Ted
Evelyn
Dumont - Stage Directions
Written and Directed by Kyle A. Smith
Kyle A Smith is
a dramatist living in Brooklyn, NY. He has an MFA in Dramatic Writing
from NYU where he was a recipient of the TSOA fellowship. His plays have
been produced or workshopped at The Queen's Theatre, The Tarragon Theatre, The
Goldberg Theatre, The Emerging Artist's Theatre, The Secret Theatre, and The
Bad Theatre Fest. His screenplays and short film have won multiple awards
across the United States. He was recently a finalist for the Princess
Grace Award and the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild
Residency, and a semifinalist for Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries. His short
play Don was published in 2018. Kyleanthonysmith.com. He holds an MFA in
Dramatic Writing from NYU where he was a recipient of the TSOA fellowship.
Also
presenting “Soo Zoo Me”, by Mark Blickley,
a solo performance by Irish actress Maeve
Price. A tale of interspecies romance at the Congo Gorilla Forest in the
Bronx.
Past
Event!!
Woodside
Players of Queens Summer Play Festival
Saturday,
June 15, 2019 at 2 PM – 4 PM
Queens
Library 37-44 21st St, Long Island City, NY 11101
Short
plays by local authors.
Wild Weekend Fernando Buzzar
Segall
Time to A Phantom
Zachariah Ezel (winner)
Ocean Front Tom
Cavanaugh
Polly
Scott Cohen
Alzheimer's Diary Steve Gold
Breakfast Alan
Stolzer
Unstoppable Ed Adomatis
Your Digital Past Tanya
Sharma
________________________________________________________________________
Past
Event!
Equity
Library Theater presents an afternoon of short plays by Kyle A. Smith.
Saturday,
February 23, 2019 at 12 PM – 2 PM
Ailey
Auditorium Harry Belafonte-115th Street Library 203 West 115th Street, New
York.
"Missed
Connections"
The plays are:
Frisky
Miss Direction
Intrusive Thoughts
Miss Conduct
Don
Miss Education
Free admission. More info 631 898 4205.
Kyle Smith’s plays have been produced and workshopped at The Goldberg
Theater, The Tarragon Theatre, The Secret Theater, The Emerging Artists
Theatre, The Treehouse Theater, The Robert Moss Theater, and Shetler Studios.
His plays include Unstuck in Time, Princess Jazzberry’s
Wild Ride, Whiteout, The Part of Me (Princess Grace Finalist), Blinded
(Goldberg Play Prize Finalist), The Correctable, Inherit the Earth, Revolution,
Don, Frisky, Squashy (selected for Best of Night, Bad Theatre Fest). He was
recently a finalist for the Princess Grace Award, a finalist for the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild Residency, a semifinalist for
Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries, and a semifinalist for the Baltic Writer’s
Residency.
His screenplays include Higher Education (1st place festival-wide Chicago Genre
Screenplay Competition, 1st place for comedy at Chicago Genre Screenplay
Competition, 1st place for comedy Las Vegas Screenplay Contest, Runner-up best
screenplay Portland Comedy Film Festival, Silver Award Winner at North American
Film Festival, Finalist Hollywood Hills Screenplay Competition, Semifinalist LA
Cinefest, official selection Focus International Film
Festival, Houston Comedy Film Festival, LA Live Film Festival), A More Perfect
Union (Winner, Best Historical Screenplay, iHolly
Film Festival, 2nd place for historical screenplay at Las Vegas Screenplay
Contest, Finalist Beverly Hills Screenplay Contest, Finalist Twin Falls
Sandwiches Film Festival, semi-finalist LA Cinefest),
Hair of the Dog (Winner of Dark Comedy Award Avalonia Film Festival, official
selection Bad Film Fest, official selection Portland Comedy Film Festival,
Frostbite International Film Festival, Hellfire Short Film Festival), and
Probert Bound (Winner Best Short Screenplay Laugh or Die Comedy Festival,
official selection Austin Comedy Short Film Festival).
His pilot, The Blackout Menace, won the award for Best Half Hour Comedy
Original Pilot at The Hollywood Hills Screenplay Competition, is a finalist at
the Austin Revolution Film Festival, and an official selection of the Finish
Line Script Competition.
His short play, Don, has an expected publication in 2018 as part of the Act
One: One Act Anthology from Top Secret Books.
He holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU where he was a recipient of the
TSOA fellowship.
_____________________________________________________________________
Past
Event!
The
Woodside Players of Queens presents their spring 2019 production of five rare
one act Broadway comedies from 1910 by Clare Beecher Kummer and Irving Dale.
Saturday
March 9th at 2:30pm
Queens-Forest
Hills Library (108-19 71 Avenue, Forest Hills, NY 11375
E F
R to 71st Avenue)
Clare
Beecher Kummer - The Robbery
Clare Beecher Kummer - The Choir Rehearsal
Irving Dale - Too Much Salt
Irving Dale – Tickets Please
Irving Dale - The Way of a Woman
Local actors perform these short plays. Suitable for the entire family
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Past Event
Saturday, March 16, 2019 at 2 PM – 3 PM
14-01 Astoria Blvd, Astoria, NY 11102, United
States
The Woodside Players of Queens present local
performing artists!
The Woodside Players of Queens present local
artists in a coffeehouse setting for a casual afternoon of theater, poetry,
music, comedy and more! Free admission. More info 631 898 4205. Great for
groups
____________________________________________________________________
Past
Event!
The
Woodside Players of Queens Fall Play Festival!
Saturday
November 10th@2pm
Queens
Library - Astoria
14-01
Astoria Blvd.
M60,
Q100, Q69, Q19 or N train to Astoria Blvd.
Presenting
short plays by these writers:
The
Border - Tony Manzo
With Isaac Conner, Jane Park
Ventroquilist
- Marjie Conn
With Ms. Crow
Willie - Donald Loftus
With Rosina Fernhoff,
Joanne Halev, Jeff Knapp
Drama Should Stay on the Stage - Lavinia Roberts
Directed by Karen Crighton,
with Kaitlyn Farley, Sonseray Reed
Sailboat 12 - Greg Driscoll
Don - Kyle Smith (Best Play)
With Michael Bradley, Chris Trindale
The Will - Glenda Frank
Directed by Susanna Miller, with Rhonda Addams,
Daniel Blankenship, Esq.
Chew
on This - Ellen O’Neill
Epitaph by Moonlight - Michael Verderber
Reina
– Joseph Bulvid
With
Aram Hovsepian, Alissa Simmons, Antonio Silva
*****************************************************************************************
December 1st
@12pm
NYPL 53rd
Street Branch 18 West 53rd Street
Equity
Library Theater presents: The Lost Virginity Tour, a reading of a play by
Cricket Daniel
“Cricket Daniel’s ‘Lost Virginity Tour’ is one of
those finely-written evenings of theater that both moves you to tears and has
you laughing until your face hurts! Funny-as-all-heck dialogue, great female
characters that any theatre performer would chomp at the bit to play, all
wrapped up in a wonderful atmosphere of melancholy - Daniel’s ‘Lost Virginity
Tour’ is a theatrical treat that should be performed in theatre’s everywhere!”
- Dennis T. Giacino.
With: Terri Bonica-Matassov, Penny Gaston, Debbie Smith, and Linda Vega. Daniyel Hunt narrates, Johnny Culver directs.
Runs 90 minutes. More info 631 898 4205. Seating is limited. Free Admission.
Past
event!
The
Woodside Players presents:
Rare
Short Plays from Early 20th Century Broadway
November 3 @ 12pm, NYPL Alvin Ailey Auditorium
@1pm
203 West 115th Street (B C 2 3 to 116th Street)
(212) 666-9393
Private
Boarding – 1878 – William Courtwright
Director.
Andy Scott
Jason
Ballew, Kevin Buiocchi, Johanna Lee, Caitlin McQuade,
Emma Miller.
The Motor Bellows
– 1877 – William Courtwright
Director.
Graydon Gund
With: William Burns, Nathaniel Edward, Luda Millias, Greg Prosser.
The Great
Look – 1912- William Faydon
Director.
Jacob Dunham
With: Charles Baran, Nathaniel Dolquest,
Melanie Gettler, Elizabeth McBryde.
The Second Hand Man - 1903 - Harry Lee Newton
With: Ron Crawford, Kevin David Thomas.
Is It Raining? - 1903 - Harry Lee Newton
With: Ron Crawford, Sutton Thomas.
When Johnny Comes Marching Home 1903 - Harry Lee Newton Director. Johnny Culver
With: Daniyel Hunt,
Laurie Sammeth.
More info: 631 898 4205.
*******************************************************
Past
event!
“Lincoln’s
Birthday”
With: Andrew Dinan, Penny Gaston, Mike Miller, Tom
Morwick, Alissa Simmons
Goofy inmates, Larry and Carl, scheme to get their
favorite show tunes record into their hands, with no help from a Hollywood
legend!
July 26, @ 6:15pm, July 27, @ 6:15pm, July 29,
@6:15pm
Hudson Guild Theater 441 W 26th St, New York, NY
10001.
Tickets here: http://newyorktheaterfestival.com/lincolns-birthday/
___________________________
Past
event!
The Equity
Library Theater
Playwriting
Summer Festival 2018
Part One
August 4th @12pm
New York
Public Library – George Bruce Branch Auditorium
518 West 125th Street (at Amsterdam Ave.)
New York, NY 10027-3407
Presenting:
John
Cannatalla – Restless in Limbo
Marlin
Thomas – Speak Gods English
Samantha Fox – Cardiomyapathy
Vivian Lermond – Call It Karma
Joshua
Charmatz – Cactus
Maia Henken – Beheld
Paul
K. Smith – A Day of Promise
Arthur Lundquist – Explorers of the Sky
Glenda Frank – Head of House
Matt Haldeman - Sir Edmund Walter…
Spangler's
Spring - Jason Boies
Part Two
August 11th @12pm
NYPL Harry
Belafonte Auditorium
115th Street Branch
203 W 115th St, New York, New York 10026
Presenting:
Lizzie Guest – My Berenstein Life
Josiah Mullins – My Mother Is What?
Wayne Paul Mattingly - Worlds Apart
Kyle Smith – Don
Ian Cohen - Old Wounds
Nathan Smith – Monologue
Gary Beck - Clown Show
Paige Esterly - Eve and Adam (winner best play!)
Gordon
Rizzo – How to Get Ahead in Business
Margo Krasne
– Monologue from “Til Death…”
Past Event!
Space Race presents for the first time to American
audiences the spine-tingling truth behind mankind's greatest adventure.
Experience daring thrills as you hurtle through the terrifying void of endless
space. Enjoy lavish accommodations on the ONLY exospheric vessel with five-star
concierge service! Discover strange new romance on the lunar countryside. Space
Race is science-fiction and comedy in one easy-to-swallow tablet. Space Race
reveals how man actually got to the Moon. Space Race
is available only in limited qualities at select locations.
NYPL Harry Belafonte Library Alvin Ailey Auditorium
Free Admission.
Runs about an hour. More info 631 898 4205.
Past
Event!
Woodside
Players of Queens
Summer
Play Festival 2018
Voted best plays!
Brysen Boyd - Elephant
Nancy Kelton - Finding Mr. Rightstein
June 2nd, 2018 2pm
Queens Library Astoria Branch Auditorium
14-01 Astoria Blvd.
Astoria NY 11105
Free admission
This performance repeats June 16th at the Steinway
Reformed Church
41st and Ditmars, Astoria, at noon. Bring lunch!
Nelson Diaz-Marcano - El Yunque In English
Lane Northcutt - Secretary
Ludovic Coutaud - Look At Me
Just like the Movies – Peter Scarpinato
Brysen Boyd - Elephant
Nancy Kelton - Finding Mr. Rightstein
Gordon Rizza – How to get ahead in Business
_____________________________________________
Past Event!
The Woodside Players of queens presents:
“Aunt
Maggie’s Will”
A
1910 comedy by Elizabeth Gale
The
Woodside Players of Queens and Equity Library Theater of New York present a
staged reading of: Aunt Maggies Will, a comedy by
Elizabeth Gale.
"Madeline is getting married, and is due to inherit a
large sum of money, only if she can prove herself an excellent housewife!"
The cast of ten recreates this comedy from 1910, fully staged
and costumed.
May
12, 2018@12pm
NYPL
Harry Belafonte Library
Alvin
Ailey Auditorium
203
West 115th Street
Between
Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. and Frederick Douglas Blvd
With:
Tiffany Darden, Hailey DePoto,
Kate
Hoffman, Saturday Lawson,
Malinda
Logan, Kinga Nowak, Lil Rhee, Phylis Rossi, Dakota Wollmer
Johnny
Culver directs
Free
Admission
More info:
woodsideplayersofqueens@gmail.com
Past Events!
The Retreat: A Comedy by Enzo Gattuccio.
March 3rd @2pm
NYU Playwright Enzo Gattuccio's
The Retreat tells the scary story of a girl who has been ill for sixteen days.
The play features stress, insanity, Swedish
literature, Swedish meatballs, disgust, social media influencers, and a small,
totally non-threatening corporate retreat center tucked in the woods of the Bay
Area.
Starring Kelsey Ann Wacker.
This event takes place at:
NYPL George Bruce Theater
_________________________________________________________________________
Past
Event!
January 20th
@ 12pm
NYPL Alvin
Ailey Auditorium
Harry Belafonte-115th Street Library
203 W
115th St, New York, New York 10026
A staged
reading of “Hyacinth Goes Camping” based upon “Keeping up Appearances” by Roy
Clarke.
In this
re-imagined version (by Carole Jackson) of the BBC comedy, “Keeping up
Appearances”, Hyacinth is as conniving as ever, as one can be at 30 plus years
old. The gang is back, Richard, Emmett, Liz, Rose, Daisy and Onslow as they
suffer through another one of Hyacinths attempts to shove herself into society.
"The
telephone rings at the Bucket Residence. Rose's latest gentleman friend, the
Earl of Crawford (!) has invited the whole family to go camping on his estate. Glowing
with the possibilities for social advancement this brings, Hyacinth commandeers
Richard to buy the necessary camping accoutrements and off they go, dressed for
the occasion. Now, if only everything goes according to plan..."
With Kinga Nowak, Scott Haskell, Sonya Rice, Mike
Miller, Debbie Smith, Andrew Dinan, Terri Matassov, Bart DeFinna.
Directed by Johnny Culver.
Also being presented, three new short comedies: "Oh
Mother!" by Sarah Galvin, "Goodnight Irene" by Jean Tessier and
"Love of Life" by Johnny Culver.
Free admission. For the entire family!
Past event!
Equity Library Theater of New York presents a
reading of:
“The Night
before the Night before Christmas”,
A comedy play by Cricket Daniel.
December
2nd at NYPL George Bruce Branch
518 West
125th Street (at Amsterdam Ave.)
New York,
NY 10027-3407
@2pm
&
December
9th at NYPL West 53rd Street Branch
18 W
53rd St, New York, NY 10019
@12pm.
Lou
has wrestled with a big ball of tangled Christmas lights for the last time! He
is grabbing the sunblock, his Elvis in Paradise album
and his wife Carol, and hopping on the Pineapple Express to Hawaii! However, a
freak snowstorm leaves the couple stranded in the airport and their dream of
sipping Pina Coladas on the beach is in peril!
With:
Johnny Culver
Deborah Smith
Kinga Nowak
Alexa Doggett
Chris Robertson
Directed by Jean Tessier
Free admission,
runs about 90 minutes. For the entire family!
_____________________________________________
EQUITY LIBRARY
THEATER
OF NEW YORK
PRESENTS:
A reading of
“Be Calm,
Camilla”
a 1918 Broadway comedy
by Claire Kummer.
November
18th @12pm
NYPL Harry
Belafonte Library
Alvin
Ailey Auditorium
203 West
115th Street
Between
Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. and Frederick Douglas Blvd.
With:
Camilla Hathaway - Alone in the City - Lydia Kalmen
Bill Slattery - A piano mover – Clinton Schreck
Alma Robbins - Haley Klausmeyer
Baxter Pell - Of Fifth Avenue - Tom Meade
Celia Brooke - A Lady of Leisure - Rachel Deutsch
Jo Gibbons - Another mover – Julian Cano
McNeil Brownlow, "Mac" - A Waiter - Tim Mills
Gus Beals - of Broadway - Mark Brystowski
Junius Patterson - Owner of the car - Rasik Ohal
Directed by Johnny Culver
A review
from 1918...
“BE CALM, CAMILLA” AT THE ALCAZAR THEATRE
“Be Calm Camilla," airy, witty, romantic
fairy tale of Broadway, at the
Booth Theatre this witty, whimsical comedy, by Claire Kummer, ran for months. It is smart,
snappy, up-to-date,
This adroit, epigrammatic writer knows Broadway life to its core. Her
humorous fancy finds wide swing in the droll story of the artless Wisconsin
girl who went to the big cynical city to challenge fame and fortune as a
pianist. "Be Calm” is Camilla's motto, whether in a dismal
little side street hotel, or in a lovely white hospital room after the
automobile has bowled her over, or at the bungalow in the woods where she
convalesces. Everybody is good to Camilla, because she is artless and
unsophisticated, from the burly piano movers, who come to seize her old rattle
trap instrument, and the bibulous old waiter who smuggles food to her, up to
the repentant, but careless, millionaire motorist.
A gay and carefree play this, with blend of
crackling humor and tender pathos. It has delightful character types, including
Belle Bennett, as the heroine; Walter P. Richardson, as the Tin pan alley song
writer; Thomas Chatterton, as “the sixth richest man in New York"; Clifford
Alexander, as a Fifth avenue lizard; Henry Shumer and Rafael Brunetto, as the
piano movers; Al Cunningham, as the philanthropic waiter; Emily Pinter, as a
“lady of leisure," and the first appearance of Jean Oliver, as the
sophisticated, amusing little hospital nurse. The scenic environment is most
picturesque!
Free Admission. Runs about 90 minutes
Who
We Are…
Mark Brystowski - Off-Broadway: Every 28 Hours
Plays (LAByrinth Theater Co.), God
of Vengeance (Theater at St. Clements). Other NY credits: Private
Disclosures (Shetler Bridge), Le Cygne(Manhattan Repertory
Theater), Fear Festival (AlphaNYC/Roebuck Theater).
Film/TV: Rotten! (Netflix), Zenith (dir. Ellie Foumbi), Lulu Loves Brooklyn (dir. Gretchen Zufall). Mark recently line-produced the off-Broadway
and touring premiere of Bamboo in Bushwick and The
Nose. Thank you Jackie and Roman for your love
and support.
Rachel Deutsch - a recent graduate of NYU (2016) earning a BFA
in Drama. Rachel’s previous acting credits include Tulon
in ‘Red Noses’ and ‘Titania’ in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at The New Studio
on Broadway. Her directing credits include, ‘Science Fair’ at Theater Row and
‘Aliens Coming’ at The Pit. She is also a film actor and a yoga teacher.
Tom Meade -
born and bred and still resides in NYC. Produced and hosted Rant n Rave TV on
MNN for over 10 years. Tom appeared the role of The Bartender in Jack Condon’s
“Orphans of the Digital Era”, and in George Morgan’s “The Wiggle Room”. As well
as a number of short films and plays. Recently Tom
played the role of Sam in the feature “Thru” which opened The NYC Independent
Film Festival. He is currently working on getting his original screenplay
"The Slip" made.
Timothy Mills – after graduating from George Westinghouse High
School, Tim took a Business of Acting class with Mark Stolzenberg
in 2015. He worked on a project called The Hard Candy Kid, where Mills was
featured as a Berlin Wall crusader, which solidified his passion for the craft.
Since then he’s been working on his craft through various films & theatre,
Mills is actively working on new projects!
Rasik Ohal - For the
last few years, Rasik has been working mainly in film
and television. Highlights include, The Comedian, Mr. Robot, and Master of None.
He is making an effort to get back into theatre.
Highlights include, Comedy of Errors, Drunkle Vanya,
and The Springfield Boys.
Lydia Kalmen - an actor, dancer, model, and member of
SAG-AFTRA. Recent credits include Lady Caroline in Enchanted April, Juror 10
(the bigot) in 12 Angry Women, The Diary of Anne Frank and I Remember Mama.
Claire Kummer – (1873 – 1958) Composer, songwriter
("Dearie"), playwright and author, educated at the Packer Institute
and in private music study. She wrote the Broadway stage scores for "90 in
the Shade", "One Kiss", "Annie Dear", "Madame
Pompadour", and "The Three Waltzes". Joining ASCAP in 1934, her chief
musical collaborators included Sigmund Romberg and Jerome Kern, and her other popular-song compositions include
"Egypt", "Other Eyes", "Blushing June Roses",
"Somebody's Eyes” and "Lover of Mine". Today is for you, Claire!
Coming Up!
December
2nd at NYPL George Bruce Branch (West 125 Street) @2pm &
December
9th at NYPL West 53rd Street branch@12pm.
“The Night
before the Night before Christmas”, a comedy by Cricket Daniel.
With: Johnny
Culver, Deborah Smith, Kinga Nowak, Alexa Doggett, Chris Robertson, Directed by
Jean Tessier
______
January
20, 2018, at NYPL Alvin Ailey Auditorium@12pm
A reading
of “Hyacinth Goes Camping!”, by Carole Jackson
based upon
the BBC series “Keeping up Appearances”
by Roy
Clarke. (“Oh Mother!” and “Love of Life” will also be presented)
“The telephone rings at the Bucket Residence.
Rose's latest gentleman friend, the Earl of Crawford (!) has invited the whole
family to go camping on his estate. Glowing with the possibilities for social
advancement this brings, Hyacinth commandeers Richard to buy the necessary
camping accoutrements and off they go, dressed for the occasion. Now, if only
everything goes according to plan...”
______
March 3rd,
2018, at NYPL George Bruce Branch (West 125 Street) @2pm
“The
Retreat”, a comedy by NYU playwright Enzo Gattuccio.
June 9th,
2018, at NYPL Alvin Ailey Auditorium@12pm
A reading of
the 1918 Broadway Comedy, “The Wrong Mr. Wright” by George Bradford.
(Read it on Google Books, if interested in
performing with us)
______
Equity Library Theater and The Woodside Players of
Queens are seeking actors for their spring production of “Aunt Maggie’s Will”,
a 1910 play by Mary Elizabeth Gale, to take place in May,
2018. The script calls for 10 females, but we are open to gender blind casting
in this comedy. Please send resumes and headshots to woodsideplayersofqueens@gmail.com. You can read the play on Google Books.
______
To learn more about Equity Library Theater, please
visit: www.equitylibrarytheater.info. Leave us a message at 631 898 4205, or
email: equitylibrarytheater@gmail.com. We’re also on Facebook!
______
Use of library space by Equity Library Theater for
this program does not indicate endorsement by the NYPL. *Some actors appear
courtesy of Equity/AEA. The recording/photographing of any of the performance
is permitted, only with prior approval.
Thanks Ms., Davis!
Past
event!
The
Woodside Players of Queens Fall Play Festival.
Short
plays by local writers.
November 4th
at Queens Library Astoria@1pm
14-01
Astoria Blvd.
N/W Q19/Q69 to Astoria Blvd
Amy Oestreicher – I’m A
Woman…
Allan Yashin – The Name Game
William Coyle - Living Room
Clinton Shreck – It Had To Be You
Alan Stolzer - Mrs. Killebrew
Confesses
Kevin Chu – Avengers
Sarah Galvin - Oh Mother! (selected best play)
Ellen O'Neill - Chew On This
Sinead Ward – Rub Some Dirt in It
Camille
Schmoeker - Don’t Go under the Apple Tree
Bring
a bag lunch!
Past Event!
Equity Library Theater of New York presents
a reading of
“Miss Belle”
A Southern comedy by Texas playwright
Bill Logan.
Saturday,
October 28th 12:00 p.m.
NYPL Harry
Belafonte/115th Street Library
Alvin
Ailey Auditorium
203 West
115th Street
Between
Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. and Frederick Douglas Blvd.
In the
vein of novelist Fannie Flagg (Fried
Green Tomatoes), Bill Logan takes us to a small Texas town in the 1950’s,
where secrets wait to be uncovered!
Free admission, runs about 90 minutes. More
info, call 631 898 4205.
The
Equity Library Theater Playwriting Summer Festival 2017
====
August 5th
– 12pm
New York
Public Library – George Bruce Branch Auditorium
518 West 125th Street (at Amsterdam Ave.)
New York, NY 10027-3407
George
Morgan – The Wiggle Room
Directed by Johnny Culver, with Tom Meade, Mike
Miller, Tom Morwick, Max Wingert, John Zion
Lora
Danley – A Midnight Rose
Directed by Lora Danley, with Wendy Lazarus, Devon
Marra, Frances Vignali
Linda
Kampley – The Lamp
With Carla Brandberg,
Richard Craven
Susan
Masters – Going Home
With Nikole Rizzo
Rosemary
Frisino Toohey – Grace Goes To
Sea
With Steve Lichtenstein
Steve
Fogelman – The Glove
Directed by Steve Fogelman, with Joseph Rose,
Vicki Winters
====
August
12th – 12pm
NYPL Harry
Belafonte Branch
203 W
115th St, New York, New York 10026
Pamela
Robbins – Great Strides
Directed by Pamela Robbins, with Jennifer James
Davies, Pia Finnigan, Johnny Culver, Heather Jeanne Violanti
Amy
Oestreicher – I’m A Woman…
Serena
Cates – Five Silver Five Gold
Lynn
Marie Macy – Sister Resisters
Matt
Sanders – Happy Halloween, Harry Houdini
Emilio
Iasiello – Under The Big Top
Seth
McNeill – That Bee Gees Song
Vivian
Lermond - Beach Wedding
With Craig Myers, Kelly Taylor
Jack
Gilhooey – Kennedy’s Acolytes
Peter
Linari – Guys
Directed by Peter Linari,
with Jon Scott Freda, Lou Martini, Jr.
====
August
19th – 12pm
NYPL Harry
Belafonte Branch
203 W
115th St, New York, New York 10026
Erin
Moughon-Smith – For Mr. Cuddles
Directed by Erin Moughon,
with Kendra Auguatin, Emily Long, Sarah Teed
Dana
Jaffe – No Good Deed
Directed by Dana Jaffe, with Andrew Benjamin, Dawn
Bianco, Dan Bubbeo, Eric Leeb Michele Rattray
Katherine
Orozco – Treason
Directed by Ashley Vega, with Rose Gutierrez
Amy
Bernstein – The Sacrifice
With Amy Bernstein
Matthew
Ballistreri – Baby Book
Steve
Burton – Close Enough
Directed by Ruth Alesovsky,
John Patrick Hart, with Gerry Kelly, Debra McNulty, Daniel P. Stravino
Shirley
King – Authenticity
With Christy Donahue
Sam
Plotkin – Microcosm
Jack
Rushton – Theater People
Michael
Verderber - Unending Repetition
Directed by Michael Verderber, with Katherine Orozco-Verderber
Jim
Gordon – A Stranger Calls
With Sonya Rice
Anghus Houvouras – Penmanship
Directed by Rachel Deutsch, with Will Carry, Ram Kanneganti
Free admission to all.
The final votes, via text responses, over three
weeks, are in, for the ELT 2017 summer festival!
Best
comedy. Anghus Houvouras -
Penmanship.
Best
Drama. Katherine Orozco – Treason/Michael Verderber - Unending Repetition (We
considered both short pieces as one unit).
Past “Best plays”
2016 - Michael Maiello – Looking
Through the Glass
2015 - Hello Mom – Lauren Snyder
2014 - John Ladd – Ashes to Ashes (Drama)/ Scott
Haskell – Womanhood (Comedy)
2013 - Liza Bulos - Attention Shoppers
The Woodside Players and Equity Library Theater of
New York is seeking actors for their fall production, a staged reading of Be
Calm, Camilla, by Claire Kummer.
This
comedy opened at the Booth Theater (New York) Oct 31, 1918 and ran until
January 1919.
The
Woodside Players and Equity Library Theater will present the reading in November
at the NYPL Alvin Ailey Theater on West 115th Street and the George Bruce
Theater on West 125th Street. You can read the script here:
https://archive.org/details/becalmcamillacom00kummrich
Characters are:
Camilla
Hathaway
Bill Slattery
Alma Robbins
Baxter Pell
Celia Brooke
Jo Gibbons
McNeil Brownlow, "Mac"
Gus Beals
Send resumes and headshots to
submission@pineyforkpress.com
Thus fall, we are presenting a free Actor/Writer
workshop at the Queens Library Astoria branch (14-01 Astoria Blvd).
Biweekly
at noon – September, 2017 thru May, 2018. All genres
welcome. Call 718
278 2220 for more info.
December 2nd at 2pm, at the NYPL George Bruce
Theater, we present a reading of a terrific holiday comedy, “The Night before
the Night before Christmas”, by Oregon playwright, Cricket Daniel. The
performance will be repeated December 9th at the NYPL 53rd
Street branch at noon. Free admission.
The
Woodside Players of Queens
Present
a selection of rare short plays from 19th century New York and beyond.
These
staged readings, directed by Johnny Culver and Pamela Robbins, include
vaudeville, comedy and farce. Suitable for the entire
family!
Saturday
June 10th 12pm
Queens
Library - Langston
100-01
Northern Blvd.
Saturday
June 17th 12pm
Queens
Library - Astoria
14-01
Astoria Blvd.
Presenting
short plays by these (seldom heard) writers:
Human
Nature – Floyd Dell, 1913, New York
I’m
Going – Tristan Bernard, 1915, Paris
Private
Boarding – William Courtright, 1874, New York
A Lady
to Call – Carl Webster Pierce, 1918, New York
The
Motor Bellows – William Courtright, 1873, Indianapolis
With:
Mark
Brystowski, Lauren Butler, Johnny Culver, Scott
Haskell, Lydia Komen, Gary Krigsman, Kinga Novak, Pamela Robbins, Sonya Rice,
Laurie Sammeth, Pamela Tabb
Thanks
to Doris Jones!
ABOUT THE
AUTHORS
William Courtright was an vaudeville writer
and American film actor. He worked with D. W. Griffith and in his later career at the Hal Roach Studios, where he appeared in several early Laurel and Hardy comedies. His best-known role was Oliver Hardy's wealthy Uncle Bernal in That's My
Wife (1929).
His last film, the Our Gang comedy Teacher's
Pet, was also
his first sound film. He was born in New
Milford, Illinois. His wife
was actress Jennie Lee, with whom he appeared in Intolerance.
Floyd James Dell was an American newspaper and magazine editor, literary critic, novelist, playwright, and poet. Dell has been called "one of the most
flamboyant, versatile and influential American Men of Letters of the first
third of the 20th Century." As editor and critic, Dell's
influence is alive in the work of many major American writers from the
first half of the 20th century. A lifelong poet, he was also a best-selling
author, as well as a playwright whose hit Broadway comedy, Little
Accident (1928),
was made into a Hollywood movie.
Tristan Bernard was a French playwright, novelist, journalist and lawyer. After his first publication in La Revue Blanche
in 1891, he became increasingly a writer and adopted the pseudonym Tristan. His
first play, Les Pieds Nickelés (Nickel-plated Feet), was a great success and
was representative of the style of his later work (generally humorous). He
became known especially for his writing for vaudeville-type performances, which were very popular in
France during that time.
Carl Webster Pierce was an American playwright. Many of his comedies
appeared on Broadway in the early 20th century, including the original version
of “Oh, Kay!” In 1927.
ABOUT US
Scott Haskell has appeared in film, television
and theatre, and has studied acting at NYU.
He has appeared as Andrey in The Gingerbread Players production of Three
Sisters, and in Pamela Robbins original production of Deep in the Woods of Old
with the St. Jean’s Players.
Gary Krigsman is honored to have this unique opportunity to
perform with The Woodside Players. Thank you Johnny!
Gary has appeared in several community theater productions over the past 17
years in Queens, Nassau and the Bronx. Favorite roles
include Frank (Over the River and Through the Woods), Sam Nash (Plaza
Suite) X3, Mr. Dussel (The Diary of Anne Frank) and most recently
The Old Man (Prelude to a Kiss).
Laurie Sammeth (Cook/Steakpounder,
Lady) is delighted to be making her Woodside Players’ debut. Recent NYC
productions: Is That All They Wrote (St. Jean’s Players), When Rodney Met the
Vikings and Halls of Importance (Thespis Festival), 28 Marchant Avenue, Shades
of Blue,Lilliom (Beautiful
Soup Theater).
Lydia Kalmen is an actor, dancer and
model. A proud member of SAG-AFTRA, recent credits include the complicated Lady
Caroline Bramble in "Enchanted April" and a restless ghost in "A
Haunting".
Sonya Rice is delighted to join Woodside Players after
recently working with Johnny Culver and Pamela L. Robbins at St. Jean's
Players' Winter One Acts Festival. Opera credits include La Boheme,
Don Giovanni, Hansel and Gretel, Aida, and The Barber of Seville.
Mark Brystowski is delighted to be playing with such a lovely
ensemble. Off-Broadway: God of Vengeance (Theater at St.
Clements), Every 28 Hours Plays (LAByrinth
Theater Co.). Other NY credits: Private Disclosures (Shetler
Bridge), Le Cygne (Manhattan Repertory
Theater), Fear Festival (AlphaNYC/Roebuck Theater). Mark recently line-produced
the off-Broadway and touring premiere of Bamboo in Bushwick for
Working Theater and a short film, Zenith. Thank you
Jackie and Roman for your love and support.
Coming in July…
July
22 @12pm
NYPL
115th Street Branch
203 W 115th St, New York, New York 10026
(212)
666-9393
Equity
Library Theater presents a staged reading of:
“Lil’
Miss Spitfire-the Musical”
Book
by Samantha Talmage, DGA
Music
and Lyrics by Robert Winthrop Talmage ASCAP
This
is the inspiring untold story of Annie Sullivan, the Irish-American
immigrant and eventual teacher of blind-deaf Helen Keller.
A
cast of 18 brings to life young Annie’s journey of courage and perseverance.
Sadly, early in her life, she endures the loss of her mother, Alice and
younger brother, Jimmie to tuberculosis. Her father, Thomas becomes
overwhelmed and gives the children away first to family members, then to the
Massachusetts State Asylum. Annie suffers from trachoma and is
functionally blind and unable to read even the simplest of texts.
Along
the way, eight eye surgeries are performed on this young girl and finally, she
can see well enough to make sense of the printed page. Annie now fully
devotes herself to the rigors of learning and becomes class valedictorian at
the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston. It is there, Dr. Anagnos, the headmaster offers her a truly unique position
to teach a rebellious blind-deaf girl from Alabama.
Runs
about 90 minutes, free admission.
________________
Past Presentations…
February 11th 2017, 12pm
2017
NYPL Alvin Ailey Auditorium
115th
Street Branch
203
W 115th St, New York, New York 10026
(212)
666-9393
A
reading of a screen-play by Tom Meade
“THE
SLIP
With
Emily Meade, Phillip Ettinger and others.
Manhattan,
the 1990s.
Celebrity dog walker Jack Meehan is celebrating one year clean and sober. After
a day that includes rejections, potential job loss, and a very strange
encounter in a diner, Jack ends up taking a trip down the rabbit hole that got
him there to begin with. Chance meetings with friends old and new, and a past
love, Jack finds himself in a series of uncomfortable, bizarre
and life-threatening situations. He spends the next 24 hours just trying to get
back home.
Free
Admission.
Equity
Library Theater of New York presents:
“The
Bermuda Curse”
A staged
reading of a comedy by Johnny Culver.
March 4, 2017 @2:00PM
New
York Public Library – George Bruce Branch Auditorium
518 West 125th Street (at Amsterdam Ave.)
New York, NY 10027-3407
(A
B C D 1 to 125th Street)
(212) 662-9727
With:
Brady Blevin
Julie Kling
Susan Neuffer
Carole Serrano
Peyton Place, horses wearing blankets, the
Flushing train, Chicklets gum, John Wayne and more in this one
hour 1970’s comedy for the entire family! Free admission.
___________________________________________________
The Equity Library Theater Playwriting Festival – Winter 2017
Saturday
January 28th
NYPL 53rd
street Branch Auditorium at 1pm
18 W 53rd
St, New York, NY 10019
Presenting:
Martha’s
King – Linda Ziering
Directed
by Cynthia White w/Eleanor Boddie, Susanna Miller
Rosemary – Charles Lupia
Directed
by Charles Lupia w/ Susan Palmer Everly, Charles Lupia
Swimming Out – Minette Greenberg
Directed
by Minette Greenberg w/ Cam Kornman, Eve Sorel, Julie Torres
Tea with the Tin Man – Charles Leipart
Directed
by Hall Hunsinger w/ Penny Lynn White
Free Association - Julie Weinberg
Directed
by Norma Medina w/ Colin Chapin, Carole Monferdini, Anthony Scavone
Expecting Hamilton – Chip Bolcik
Directed by Betsy True w/Nick Webster, Kirsty Sadler
Hookup –
Burton Crane
Directed
by Burton Crane w/Burton Schwartz
Shock – Meny Beriro
Directed
by Meny Beriro w/Kitty Hendrix, Jo Anna Perrin
Teresa’s Journey – Nancy Palmento Schuler
Directed
and performed by Nancy Palmento Schuler
The Reflective Lie – Christina Gluck
Directed
by Christina Gluck w/ Laura Hesse
Zero to Hero – Mary Teitelbaum
Directed
by Yvonne (Bonnie) Cole w/ Nancy Ann Finn, Kyle McIlhone
How to be Dead – Benjamin Weiner
Directed
by Keith Paul Medelis w/ Kurt Hellerich, Eric Weiner
We the People – John Cappelletti
Directed
by John Cappelletti w/ Doug Rossi, Barry Sacker
Mountain Dew – J. Lois Diamond
Directed
by J. Lois Diamond w/ Minette Greenberg, Carol London, Julia Torres
OMG – Pete Mergel
Best
play today (chosen by the audience texting their choice to 631 898 4205),
will receive
a fancy restaurant gift card!
Use
of library space by Equity Library Theater for this program today does not
indicate endorsement by The New York Public Library. Some actors appear
courtesy of Equity. The recording/photographing of any of these pieces is
permitted, only with prior approval. The order of the plays presented may vary
from the above listing.
Equity Library
Theater past productions have included: A concert by the Village Light Opera
Guild, Short Plays by John Ladd, KK Gordon and Craig Schwab, ATANST (new plays
by New York writers), Ferry Tales (plays set on the
Staten Island Ferry), a new play by Pamela Robbins, Katherine and Petruchio;
(rare David Garrick version from 1750), assorted plays by members of the
Provincetown Playhouse, and our annual winter and summer play festival!
Look on
Facebook for more info!
Do
you have a full length play you’d like presented by Equity Library Theater, let
us know!
We
are always looking for new material to produce.
We are presenting a free creative writing class at
the Queens Library Astoria branch.
Biweekly
at noon - September 24th – May 27th, 2017. All genres welcome. Call 718 278 2220 for more info.
Look for
us on Facebook!
Deadline: April 15, 2017 (OVER)
Submissions
are now being accepted for the New York's Equity Library Theater Summer 2017
Play Festival, to take place over two weekends in August at the NYPL Alvin
Ailey Theater and the George Bruce Theater in New York City.
Seeking short plays (no more than 10 pp), from playwrights from all over the
USA. Also seeking monologues (no more than 4pp). Musicals welcome!
Basic set
requirements.
One submission per playwright. No unpleasant profanity, as this is a family
friendly festival! No submission fee. Please include
name, address, telephone number and email address on your submission. We do not
produce your work, we provide a venue for you to
present actors performing your play. There are no costs involved for anyone.
Seeking actors and directors, too!
Deadline: April 15, 2017 (OVER)
Email: submissions@pineyforkpress.com
Equity Library Theater presented Three Hots and a Cot
Equity Library Theater presented Plays by my
Father
Equity Library Theater presented Short plays by
Johnny Culver (here)
Equity Library Theater presented an afternoon of
short plays by John Ladd
Equity Library Theater presented Catherine
and Petruchio in 2014
Equity Library Theater presented The Bermuda Curse
in 2013!
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Equity Library Theater Gives Itself a Party
by ANDREW L. YARROW
Published: February 7, 1988
''AT
Equity Library Theater, the actor is our focus,'' declared George Wojtasik, the
theater's producing director.
Similar
sentiments might be voiced by the director of almost any theater company, but
none could say so with more conviction than Mr. Wojtasik. His
Upper West Side Theater - the country's oldest actors' showcase -will celebrate
its 45th season tomorrow at Town Hall with a benefit called ''My Funny Valentine,''
a program of Richard Rodgers love songs.
The
theater, which is on the ground floor of an apartment building at Riverside
Drive and 103d Street, has been something of an anomaly among New York
performing-arts institutions since it was established in November 1943. The
founders were Sam Jaffe of Actors' Equity Association and George Freedley, the
theater curator for the New York Public Library.
''It was
founded to showcase artists to people in casting positions and provide free
theater'' to people who couldn't afford Broadway prices, said Mr. Wojtasik. ''At
that time, if actors weren't working on Broadway, they had no other place to
work. The showcase was born with E.L.T., and it even predated the Off Broadway movement by a few years.'' Over the years, more
than 11,500 actors, directors and stage technicians have displayed their
talents to producers, casting directors and agents in at least 600 productions
at the theater, and Mr. Wojtasik said
about 60 percent had gotten paid acting jobs as a result of those appearances.
With only
about 5 percent of the city's 20,000 Equity members acting for a living at any
one time, the theater has not only served as a remarkably successful theatrical
employment agency, but it has also been a launching pad for hundreds of
performers. Jason Robards was a little-known actor when he appeared
in ''The Petrified Forest'' in 1955. James Earl Jones got his start in a 1959
production of ''Dark of the Moon.''
Also on the theater's roster of illustrious alumni are
Martin Balsam, Ossie Davis, Danny DeVito, Jack Klugman, Harvey Korman, Anne
Meara, Sidney Poitier, Jerry Stiller, Rod Steiger and Treat Williams. And the
theater's couples include Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach, who met in a 1945
production of ''This Property Is Condemned.''
Jean
Stapleton remembers being ''an aspiring, very young actress'' when she
interviewed for a role in a 1947 production of ''The Corn Is Green,'' which
also featured a young actor named Richard Kiley. ''I was assigned a very small
part,'' Miss Stapleton said, but she was asked to step in with only 10 days'
notice when the leading actress slipped on the ice. ''An agent who saw the show
called me and said I'd be right for the road company of 'Harvey,' '' Miss
Stapleton said. ''I got the job and that was my first big break in theater.''
Tony
Randall's appearances in ''The Second Mrs. Tanqueray'' and ''The Millionairess'' - with Charlton Heston -
during the 1948-49 season did not leadd to immediate
stardom, but he said the theater had been ''absolutely crucial for many actors'
careers.''
''Today,
there are all sorts of showcases, but this is the only one with a real budget
and full productions,'' said Mr. Randall, who is a member of the theater's
board.
Equity
Library Theater began its life as a sort of New York City road show, with
performances rotating among 11 theaters built during the Depression in branches
of the New York Public Library. After
the library withdrew its support in 1948, the theater spent a season roaming
the city before settling in the Lenox Hill Playhouse on East 70th Street. It
stayed there until 1961, when it moved to the Master Theater on Riverside Drive.
''It was a
residential hotel for artists, with a theater, studios and a museum, known as
the Master Institute of United Arts,'' Mr. Wojtasik explained.
This little artists' colony eventually withered, and the family that owned 310
Riverside Drive sold the building in the 1970's, but the theater remained.
In its
early years, the theater presented as many as 56 productions annually, but
during Mr. Wojtasik's 21-year tenure, its season has been reduced
to a more manageable chaotic schedule of four musicals, each of which is
performed for four weeks, and four plays, each with three-week runs. ''When
E.L.T. was formed, the League of New York Theaters said we couldn't do original
works,'' Mr. Wojtasik explained, ''so we only present revivals or
public-domain works.''
The
theater also agreed with Actors' Equity that - since actors would not be paid -
it would try to use Equity members and not charge admission. Tickets now cost
$10 ($5 for the elderly) to help support a $750,000 budget, and the theater
continues to provide opportunities for about 200 actors during each 40-week
season.
''We try
to do the full range of theater over four or five seasons,'' Mr. Wojtasik said. ''Our library concept is to try to do
one classic and one or two American comedies or dramas a season. And of the
musicals, we try to do one contemporary work, one golden oldie and one piece of
fluff.'' A successful revival of ''Side by Side by Sondheim'' just closed;
Thursday, Bernard Pomerance's ''Elephant Man'' opens.
Actors
receive only a subway-and-sandwich stipend of $5 a day, yet 400 to 700 people
audition for each production, and about 100 directors vie for eight chances to
direct each season. Stars may be made at the theater, but name performers
almost never appear. ''I don't want lead roles taken from young actors,'' said
Mr. Wojtasik.
''And I don't cotton to the theory of having a star so that actors can have the
experience of working with a star.''
In 1986,
the theater signed a 15-year lease that will keep it ensconced on Riverside
Drive into the 21st century. Its financial health was also helped by the
addition last year of a balcony with 116 revenue-producing seats, expanding the
theater's capacity to 384 seats.
Given the
many constituencies the theater serves, Mr. Wojtasik is
sanguine about the theater's future. ''E.L.T. will be alive,'' he said, ''as
long as actors want to be seen, casting directors need actors and audiences
want to see good, inexpensive theater.''
Survival
in the theater is an ancient script that tells the story not only of individual
plays but of entire well-endowed companies. The Equity Library Theater is a survivor
that, touch wood, has no ending in sight, even as it rounds out 40 years as a
dramatic fixture in New York.
It is now in the final half of its season, with a
mixed bag of plays and musicals to come. Today sees the final performance of
the Equity Library revival of Kurt Vonnegut's madcap ''Happy Birthday, Wanda
June.'' Then the company plunges into rehearsal for the March 10 opening of
''Where's Charley?,'' the Frank Loesser-George Abbott
musical that starred Ray Bolger in 1948. When that closes on April 3, the
Equity Library's stage takes a turn for the tragic on April 14 with that
17th-century epic of revenge, ''The Changeling,'' by Thomas Middleton and
William Rowley. No sooner does that move off the boards on May 1, than the
season's finale, ''Promises, Promises,'' book by Neil Simon, music by Burt
Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David, takes over from May 12 to June 5.
E.L.T., as its friends call it, is not sponsored
by either Actors' Equity or the New York Public Library, although each had a
midwife role in its birth four decades and more than 650 shows ago. E.L.T. has
become a watchword in the acting community, although it is a name only dimly
known to those theater-goers who have never ventured
to the Upper West Side to catch its act. It is zealous in its avoidance of any
suggestion that it is competing with any other theater in New York, although it
shares with them its desire for audiences, its earnestness in aim, its
professionalism in execution and its poverty in funding.
At this point, simple description is required to
explain what E.L.T. is, what it does, why it does it and how it does it. E.L.T.
is a theater company, a showcase in which talent, the stockpile of acting
talent that is stored in New York, can exhibit what it can do. It works only with
revivals of shows, some familiar, some not.
In the early 1940's, Sam Jaffe, the actor, got
together with Vincent Freedley, curator of the New
York Public Library. They felt there ought to be some place for actors to show
off their wares, a place where producers and agents could candle the talent and
where live audiences would be a sounding board for performers. The pair found
that they could do plays in 11 libraries - seven in Manhattan, four in other
boroughs - that had little theaters built into them.
The League of New York Theaters said it had no
objection to them doing revivals or plays in the public domain. Actors' Equity
said they could do shows without a contract - that is, no need to pay actors -
but that they should try to use Equity members and that they should not charge
admission. Hence, the name of the company.
E.L.T. was born in November 1943 and took its first
step on Feb. 20, 1944, with a presentation of ''Shadow of the Glen'' and
''Fumed Oak'' in the cramped little theater of the Hudson Park branch library
on Seventh Avenue South. Mr. Jaffe later recalled that it cost $20 to do the
shows, money that came from a $1,000 donation from John Golden.
There are few organizations that can drop as many
names as this modest theater. Indeed, there is probably no other group that can
match E.L.T. when it comes to saying, ''I knew them when.'' Armies of
performers have swept through the casting sessions at E.L.T. and many have
later gone on to fame. A perfunctory glance through the record book finds,
among those thousands of then unknowns, the following: Alvin Ailey, Jack
Albertson, Roscoe Lee Brown, Ossie Davis, Andrew Duggan, Hector Elizando, Alice Ghostley, Lee
Grant, Jose Greco, Earl Hyman, Richard Kiley, Sally Kirkland, Werner Klemperer,
Jack Klugman, Harvey Korman, Darren McGavin, Anne Meara, Kay Medford, Ralph Meeker, Rosemary
Murphy, Lois Nettleton, Sidney Poitier, Tom Poston, Tony Randall, Jason
Robards, Alexander Scourby, Kim Stanley, Jean
Stapleton, Rod Steiger, Jerry Stiller, Elaine Stritch, Eli Wallach and Fritz
Weaver. And that's merely a sampler.
Now, E.L.T. may not have been the springboard to
fame for these and others, but it was indisputably a rung on the ladder up.
Some still remember their E.L.T. experience with affection and gratitude.
Fritz Weaver had a role in Sean O'Casey's ''Within
the Gates,'' an E.L.T. revival during the 1952-53 season. ''I was just back
from touring,'' he recalled recently. ''This was my first New York engagment and it led to everything. I was a cockney soldier
and Tom Bosley was a second chair attendant. It was
and is a tremendous organization for beginning actors.''
Tony Randall, who did two E.L.T. shows in one
season, ''The Second Mrs. Tanqueray'' and ''The Millionairess'' during 1948-49,
is so enamored of E.L.T. that he is a board member today. ''I was an unknown
and it was a chance to be seen,'' he says. ''Someone, a director
or producer, called and asked me if I wanted a role in the show. Agents and
other directors would see me. Charlton Heston was also in that 'Millionairess,'
while Edith Atwater was in 'Tanqueray.' E.L.T. does what Off Off Broadway can't do, because those showcases don't have
the same production values.''
Ossie Davis clearly recalls playing in
''Stevedore'' in 1948-49. ''It was the first important piece I got to do,' he
says. ''It was a professional operation directed by Dan Levin, a quiet kind of
person, but a doer. In that cast were Rod Steiger, Jack Klugman and George Roy
Hill. It was important to me in terms of experience. I had begun to learn about
the craft of acting. I've always felt that we in Equity and in general
underestimate the function of such a theater. As an institution, E.L.T. has
been good to me.''
So much for looking back. One of the key men in
looking to the precarious present (every theatrical present is precarious) and
to the fearsome future (ditto for theatrical futures) is George Wojtasik, E.L.T.'s managing director, and a cheerful, busy
sort who has one leg firmly planted on current realities and the other jiggling
tentatively on more dreamy turf. He has had his job for 15 years and observes
with some satisfaction that nobody else has held it for more than two years
since it was created in 1961, about the time that the company moved from the
now-demolished Lenox Hill Playhouse to its present digs at 103d Street and
Riverside Drive. Before a managing director came along, E.L.T. was run by a
committee of actors and stumbled into all the pitfalls that committees are so
adept at digging.
''Our theater has 273 seats in a building that is
50 years old,'' Mr. Wojtasik says. ''This was the
Master Institute of United Arts once and had ballet, opera workshops and a
theater. The other groups eventually were disbanded, but they kept us on.''
E.L.T. is still being kept on at the building,
although a year or so ago it seemed that they might be forced to move. This
possibility started an ambitious drive to raise $2.5 million to build a new
home, on West 75th Street and Broadway. The money could not be raised, the
lease on 103d Street was extended and now E.L.T. is looking for $180,000 to
restore the theater. Money is tight. A Federal grant, a small one, about $2,000
was not renewed, but Mr. Wojtasik feels that it was
as though a Good Housekeeping seal of approval had been taken away, because
such grants attract others.
Last year, E.L.T. had a slight deficit, $3,000,
the result of using up reserves earmarked for the new building. The 1981-82
budget is $362,000. This was designed to be funded by donations - corporate and
private -as well as by subscriptions and the audience, which is asked to pay $6
per ticket, in recognition of the fact discovered by other institutions that
the cost of free has gone up also in inflationary times. The New York State
Council on the Arts has been contributing $10,000 annually for the past several
years.
Whatever the expenses, they are certainly not
attributable to labor. Directors, backstage artistic staff
and actors work free. From the first day of rehearsals, actors, carpenters, electricians and lighting people get $3 a day to defray
carfare. What with the generous-sized showcase casts, this amounts to about
$45,000 a year.
''We have a reputation for quality work,'' Mr. Wojtasik says. ''We get calls from all over for
technicians. Lynn Montgomery, our producer and
director for 11 years, functions as a placement service. We call E.L.T. an
actors' showcase, but it is a showcase for these others, too.
''I select the season,'' he adds. ''I scout the
directors' work. They must be members of the Society of Stage Directors and
Choreographers. I judge their work and, also, check their temperament with
actors, because we work under special conditions, not for money. I try to match
the play with the director. Once the director is chosen, we have real open
auditions. Sometimes 700 show up, all Equity members, experienced people, not
waitresses who want to become actors.''
Mr. Wojtasik says that
other showcases believe that E.L.T. has an unfair advantage beause
it is allowed to do eight performances - a schedule that makes the company
qualify as an Off Broadway house, even though nobody is paid - while other
showcases are restricted to a total of 12 performances over several weekends.
''We've earned our concessions because of the
demands for what we do,'' he says. ''We're allowed to do what we do because our
shows are not headed anywhere, they are done solely to give exposure to the
cast. That's one reason, incidentally, why we have so many problems with
musicals. How do you cast someone in a part that was identified with a Bert
Lahr or a Zero Mostel?''
Some E.L.T. productions have, indeed, moved on,
but with results that generally indicate a loss of some quality that made them
sing on 103d Street and whimper in other houses.
E.L.T. has a 40-week winter stock season so there
is always something either onstage or in rehearsal or in audition. Outside of
its full-time salaried staff, working out of its offices on West 46th Street,
personnel is constantly turning over. If someone has
had a lead in a musical, they can't do an E.L.T. musical for the next year.
Some actors do come back; Lloyd Hubbard, a character actorcomedian,
probably holds the record, seven shows, all in supporting parts.
''The future is tricky,'' says Mr. Wojtasik, looking ahead. ''We would like to convert into a
small regional theater, one without any permanent cast. In New York, we can
select the best talent for doing our specialty: big musicals on a small scale.
We do that very well. Anyone who can do 'Street Scene' with a cast cut from 60
to 20 and do it well must be doing something right. We must be kept alive for
future generations of actors.''
A few
reviews:
“An
Afternoon with the Piney Fork Press Theater” - January 7, 2012
David Garrick’s “Katherine and Petrucio” at
Equity Library Theater
The information transmitted from
this site is for review only and is intended for the person or entity to which
it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material, and/or
written works owned by a third party. Please do not forward anything from this
site without the permission of the sender or the owner of above written works.
The name and web site of Equity Library Theater
and the Woodside Players and Fifth Avenue Theater is managed by Johnny Culver.
Johnny Culver
917 691 6884/631 898 4205, johnnyculver@pineyforkpress.com , www.equitylibrarytheater.info
Managing Director:
Equity Library Theater of New York, The Woodside Players, Fifth Avenue Theater
Selected Acting
(New York)
“The Dead Game” Director/Actor Patient 2020
Secret Theater One Act Festival, New York (Lisa Stratton, playwright)
“Sisters” Father 2020
ELT Virtual Summer Play Festival (Megan McGibney, Playwright)
“Miss Molly” (1918) Reginald 2019
Woodside Players (Jacob Dunham, Director)
“The Maid” Workshop Reading Craig (Father) 2019
Producer’s Club, (Aria Publicover, playwright)
“Gig” George
Reeves 2018
Manhattan Repertory Theater, (K. Wolfe,
Director)
”The Fitting” Tailor 2018
Thespis Theater Festival (D. Stishan, playwright,
Nominated Best Play)
“The Night Before The
Night Before Christmas” Lou
(Lead) 2017
Second Street Theater (C. Daniel, playwright)
“L&O: Spec. Victims Unit” Dick
Wolf 2017
St Pauls Theater, Brooklyn
“Fractured Fairy Tales” Narrator 2017
St. Jeans Players One Act Festival, Ritz Players
“And Then There Were None” Rogers 2016
Gingerbread Players
“Oliver!” Brownlow 2016
Boys and Girls Harbor, Heckscher Theatre
“All in the Timing” Typewriter/Trotsky 2016
First String Players
“Timothy and Mary” Timothy 2015
Manhattan Repertory Theater, 2017 Columbia University
“Keeping Up Appearances” Emmett 2015
FAPC Theater Fellowship/Equity Showcase (US Premiere)
“Our Town” Howie
Newsome 2014
St. Barts Players
”The Shabbos List” Mike
Green 2014
Thespis Theater Festival
“Nude with Violin (Noel Coward)” Clinton
Preminger 2014
FAPC Theater Fellowship
“Bye Bye Birdie” Harry
MacAfee 2013
Gingerbread Players
“Anything Goes” Rev.
Dobson 2012
Maggie’s Theater
“Eben on the Dark Side” Eben Scrooge 2011/2013/2018
Manhattan Repertory Theater, Ritz Players
“To Kill A Mockingbird” Heck Tate 2011
St Jeans Players
“Amateurs” Wayne
Seabury 2011
Parkside Players
Selected Directing (New York)
“Catherine
and Petruchio (Garrick 1754) Director Instant
Shakespeare/Equity Library Theater, 2020
“Unmasked/Putting Up the
Shed/Crummy/Virgins” Director Equity Library Theater Virtual Summer/Winter
Festival, 2020-21 (Various playwrights 24 plays)
“The Dead Game” Director/Actor Secret
Theater One Act Festival, New York (Lisa Stratton, playwright), 2020
“Going Green” (Annual Children’s
Show) Director/Host Thespian
Productions, Langston Hughes Theater, Corona 2017, Lincoln Hospital, Bronx 2019
“St Peter’s Player’s Talent Show” Director/Moderator Lenox
Hill House, 2019
“The Dover Road” Director Gingerbread
Players, 2019/NYPL 2020 (A.A. Milne, playwright)
“Virtual University” Director Manhattan
Repertory Theater, 2019 (M. Sanders, playwright)
“First Date for Two Soulmates” Director Strawberry
One Act Festival, 2019 (P. Cross, Jr., playwright)
“Even with a Turkey” Director Between
Us Productions, 2019 (J. Bulvid, playwright)
“Stockholm Syndrome/MTA” Director George
Frankel Theater, 2019 (var. playwrights)
“The Lost Virginity Tour” Director Second
Street Theater, 2018 (C. Daniel, playwright)
“Auntie Mame” Director FAPC
Theater Fellowship/Equity Showcase, 2018
“Reina” Director Manhattan
Repertory Theater, 2018 (J. Bulvid, playwright)
“Lincoln’s Birthday” Playwright/Director Thespis
Theater Festival New York, 2018
“Lunchtime/Waitress” Playwright/Director Deloitte’s
Got Talent, Secret Theater, Fifth Avenue Theater, 2018-19
“Aunt Maggie’s Will (1918)” Director Woodside
Players, 2018
“Just like the Movies” Director Strawberry
One Act Festival, 2018 (P. Scarpinato, playwright)
“The Vigil” Director FAPC
Theater Fellowship/Equity Showcase, 2018
“Hyacinth Goes Camping” Director Equity
Library Theater, 2018 (C. Jackson, playwright)
“Keeping Up Appearances” (US Premiere) Director FAPC
Theater Fellowship/Equity Showcase, 2015, Gingerbread Players, 2017
“Be Calm, Camilla (1918)” Director Woodside
Players, 2017
“I Remember Mama” Director FAPC
Theater Fellowship/Equity Showcase, 2017
“Rub Some Dirt in It” Director American
Academy of Dramatic Arts/River City Stages, 2017 (S. Ward, playwright)
“The Lady
of the Hall*” Director Gingerbread
Players, 2017 (*Based on the BBC Comedy “Keeping Up Appearances”)
“The Wiggle Room” Director Strawberry
One Act Festival, 2017 (G. Morgan, playwright)
“My Name is Asher Lev” Director FAPC
Theater Fellowship/Equity Showcase, 2017
“All in the Timing (Death of Trotsky)” Director Working Actors Studio, New York, 2016