Sam Forman News

On October 16, Dance Numbers from Musicals You've Not (Yet) Heard Of will bring together over sixty musical theatre writers and performers at the Laurie Beechman Theatre in New York.

Youngblood, Ensemble Studio Theatre's collective of emerging playwrights under 30 (RJ Tolan/Graeme Gillis, Artistic Directors), will celebrate its fifteenth season this year with Asking For Trouble, the biggest play festival in their history. Youngblood has invited their alumni - 41 playwrights, 35 directors and 120 actors - to participate in the mammoth 5-day event, including many EST members alongside emerging talents like Johnny Pruitt ('Chappelle's Show'), Jessica Andres ('Gossip Girl'), Matt Lauria and Marguerite Stimpson (both of 'Lipstick Jungle').

On October 16, Dance Numbers from Musicals You've Not (Yet) Heard Of will bring together over sixty musical theatre writers and performers at the Laurie Beechman Theatre in New York.

Presented by Shstrng Producions, the 2nd Annual One-Minute Play Festival features 90 plays, 40 actors and nine directors. Each play will be one minute in length. Curated by Dominic D'Andrea, the festival displays the talents of over forty emerging American playwrights and will be mounted at Barrow Group Arts Center in New York on Saturday October 25th at 8PM and Sunday, October 26th at 2PM and 8PM. The 2008 One-Minute Play Directors include Carlos Armesto, Dylan McCullough, Kim Weild, Claire Lundberg, Dominic D'Andrea, Lou Moreno, Shelley Butler, Jacob Krueger, & Michael Gardner.

The West Bank Café announces upcoming performances to be presented in The Laurie Beechman Theatre. The West Bank Café is located at 407 West 42nd. St., at Ninth Avenue. For reservations, please call 212.695.6909.

Ars Nova's Play Group, a vibrant and eclectic group of emerging writers who gather twice a month at Ars Nova to share new work and get peer feedback, is now accepting applications for Play Group 2009.

On Monday, April 14, New York Theatre Barn celebrates its one-year anniversary with a brand new show, Untitled 2: an evening of songs from new musicals, at the Triad Theater. Untitled 2 is directed and choreographed by New York Theater Barn's Producing Artistic Director, Joe Barros, with musical direction by Rob Baumgartner.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), now in its fourth year, is a three-week event in NYC that has premiered over 90 musicals in its first three years, becoming the largest musical theatre event in America. Tickets for NYMF productions are available at www.nymf.org or by calling 212-352-3101. This year's Festival will run from September 17 through October 7 with the following schedule of events...

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) announced today the 2007 NYMF Developmental Series, Special Events and Ars Nova Concert Series.

Ars Nova will present The Wikipedia Plays, a mini-marathon of short plays that surf the Wikipedia wave through seventeen related entries. Written by Ars Nova's 2006-2007 Play Group writers, the production run August 3 to August 6 at 7 PM at Ars Nova

Ars Nova (voted 'Best of New York' by New York Magazine), as part of the FREE Out Loud reading series, presents THE RED BEARD OF ESAU, written by Rachel Shukert and directed by Alex Timbers. THE RED BEARD OF ESAU will be read by Jeff Binder, Elliotte Crowell, Billy Eichner, Sam Forman, Van Hansis, David Josefsberg, Julie Lake, Maggie Lauren, Austin Lysy, Reginald Veneziano and Taylor Wilcox on Monday, January 29 at 7 PM at Ars Nova (511 West 54th Street). A Neanderthal woman and Cro-Magnon man embark on a passionate love affair at the very dawn of time. But fate, not to mention an assortment of mystics, priestesses, dwarfs, and beautful blonde Californian twins have other things in store for them. Things that could threaten their very existence! Can love survive? Find out in THE RED BEARD OF ESAU, the world's first genocidal romantic comedy. RACHEL SHUKERT (Writer) is a playwright and author based in New York City. Her plays include Bloody Mary (NYIT Award nominee), Sequins for Satan, The Blackstone Hotel, and Soiled Linens. Her work has been developed and produced at Ars Nova, the Williamstown Theater Festival, the Culture Project, the Ontological/Hysteric, and the EVOLVE series at Galapagos. In 2003, she was the Playwright-in-Residence at e74 productions in Amsterdam, and her work was performed extensively throughout the Netherlands. As a performer, she has appeared with Richard Foreman's Ontological/Hysteric Theater, in New York and internationally; Les Freres Courbusier, the T.E.A.M., Salt Theater, e74, and with her own company, the Bushwick Hotel, which she founded in 2002 with the director Stephen Brackett. She is a regular contributor to Nerve.com (2005 ASME finalist, 2006 'Best Writing' Webby Award) and her work will be featured in their latest print anthology. She has also contributed to Heeb Magazine, McSweeney's, Babble, Culturebot, and Critical Moment. Her upcoming collection of essays, Have You No Shame? will be published by Random House/Villard. ALEX TIMBERS (Director) Recent credits include Gutenberg! The Musical! (The Actor's Playhouse and 59E59), A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant (New York Theatre Workshop; OBIE Award- NYC and Garland Award, Best Director- LA), Hell House (St. Ann's Warehouse), underground with David Dorfman Dance (BAM Next Wave and US tour), Boozy (Culture Project- 10 Best of 2005, Daily News and Time Out), Marge (Summer Play Festival), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Williamstown Theater Festival), and Heddatron (HERE). Alex is a Williamstown Directing Fellow, a Drama League Directing Fellow, and the Artistic Director of award-winning theater company Les Freres Corbusier. OUT LOUD has attracted a variety of the industry's top artists, including writers Stephen Belber, Jorge Cortinas, Daniel Goldfarb, Stephen Guirgis, Rinne Groff, Rogelio Martinez, Adam Rapp, Sarah Ruhl, Julian Sheppard, Jonathan Marc Sherman; directors Peter Askin, Jo Bonney, David Esbjornson, Moises Kaufman, Brian Kulick, James Lapine, Lisa Peterson, David Warren; and actors Jason Biggs, Kathleen Chalfant, Robert Sean Leonard, Marsha Mason, Denis O'Hare, Rosie Perez, Paul Rudd, Mercedes Reuhl, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Swoosie Kurtz, David Strathairn, Fred Weller. Ticket & Schedule Information THE RED BEARD OF ESAU will be read on Monday, January 29 at 7 PM. The Out Loud Series is FREE and open to the public. Reservations are required. Please call 212-977-1700. Ars Nova is located at 511 West 54th Street. For more information, check out www.arsnovanyc.com.

Youngblood and Ensemble Studio Theatre will present Neglect by Sharyn Rothstein and Thicker than Water 2007, the eighth collection of new plays by members of Youngblood, E.S.T.'s company of emerging professional playwrights under the age of 30.

Visible Theatre will remount Sam Forman's play Krankenhaus Blues at the Dorothy Strelsin Theatre beginning October 5th

Les Freres Corbusier, creators of last Spring's sold-out off-Broadway hit Boozy: The Life, Death, and Subsequent Vilification of Le Corbusier and, More Importantly, Robert Moses and the Obie Award-winning A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, will present Heddatron, written by Elizabeth Meriwether, directed by Alex Timbers, and produced by Aaron Lemon-Strauss.

Broadway and film star Craig Bierko will guest star on Creation Nation at Ars Nova on June 23rd

Ars Nova in association with Sam Forman, presents CREATION NATION, a live talk show hosted by Billy Willing and Robin Lord, accompanied by Eli Bolin on electric piano and featuring a special guest Rachel Dratch (Saturday Night Live).

MUSIC AND LYRICS BY, an evening of new and emerging composers and lyricists took place on January 30th.

THE ARTISTS SHOWCASE SERIES is pleased to present MUSIC AND LYRICS BY, an evening of new and emerging composers and lyricists, at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 30, at Makor, 35 West 67th Street, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. Tickets are $15 and can be ordered online under 'Theatre' at www.makor.org or by calling (212) 601-1000. The Artists Showcase Series' portion of proceeds from the event will be donated to DIRECT RELIEF INTERNATIONAL'S TSUNAMI RELIEF EFFORT (www.directrelief.org).

Wednesday, November 17th, 9pm at The Apocalypse Lounge Chad Kimball to discuss past projects and upcoming Broadway show Good Vibrations

Wednesday, October 27th, 9pm at The Apocalypse Lounge, Jessica Snow Wilson will discuss past Broadway projects and her upcoming show Good Vibrations.