The Village Playwrights Stage Readings of 8 Short Plays in 'TRIANGLES AND SQUARES' Tonight

The Village Playwrights will celebrate the Valentine's holiday with staged readings of 8 short plays about LGBTQ romance and relationships tonight, February 11, 2015 at 8 PM at the LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC. $5 suggested donation.

Following their successful short play readings celebrating Gay Pride and Halloween, the Village Playwrights are continuing to bring a new dimension to the holidays for LGBTQ people with play readings of new works that view traditional Holidays with a non-traditional perspective.

The 8 Valentine plays are:

"Code Strawberry" by Margot Connolly. It's almost lethal when two girls kiss and one is wearing Strawberry lip-gloss.

Margot Connolly is a playwright originally from Pleasantville, NY. Her plays include Belfast Kind, Keys, 1 John 4:20, and The Twins. Her work has been produced and developed through the Playwrights Center, the Berkshire Fringe Festival, Ugly Rhino Production's Tiny Rhino, the Midtown International Theater Festival, ESPA at Primary Stages, the Bad Theater Festival, and the 2015 Frigid Fringe Festival. She was a 2010-2011 Core Apprentice at the Playwrights Center. She received her BA from Bennington College, where she studied drama and playwriting.

"Mine or Yours" by Ducan Pflaster. A Straight woman and her Gay friend compete over an out-of-town hunk.

Duncan Pflaster has won awards for his plays Messin' With the Kid, 1460 Sketches of Your Left Hand, The Empress of Sex, The Taint of Equality, Prince Trevor Amongst the Elephants, The Thyme of the Season, The Starship Astrov, Sweeter Dreams, The Wastes of Time, Dark Night of the Russet Rascal, Eternity: Time Without End,The Tragedy of Dandelion, and Say Something Shocking (The Spit-Take Play). Others include Suckers, Admit Impediments, Sleeping in Tomorrow, and Ore, or Or. Eight of the above are published online at IndieTheaterNow.com. Pocket Universe is published in Smith & Kraus' The Best New Ten Minute Plays 2013. A monologue from ...Taint... in Smith & Kraus' The Best Male Monologues 2013, and two monologues from 1460 Sketches... in The Best Male Monologues 2014 and in Applause Theatre & Cinema Books' Best Contemporary Monologues for Men 18-35. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild. www.duncanpflaster.com

"Arranged Love" by Jyoti Dugal. A woman rebels against an arranged marriage

Jyoti Dugal studied playwriting at University of California Riverside and continued on to her masters at Hamline University where she focused on writing for young adults. Her Indian heritage and upbringing in Los Angeles strongly influence all of her work. She enjoys spending her non writing hours with her dog, Kalbi, and rabbit, Hunter.

"Ding Ding" by Jon Fraser. A man tries to screen his blind date on the date.

Jon Fraser is a playwright and director who began his theatrical life as an actor. As a writer, his first play, Crimes Against Nature, was a finalist in the New York State Council on the Arts CAPS program and won him an Edward Albee Fellowship in Playwriting. Plays include Kid Napper; Black Forest (The Phoenix Ensemble); Bungee (The Phoenix Ensemble); as well as Heavens to Betsy, Falling From Grace, Voyage, and Vert Gallant, all produced by Circle East Theatre Company, of which he is a member. Jon is a Professor of Theatre & Film at LIU Post, where his plays Red, White and Blue and Heavy Mettle have been produced. Ding Ding is part of a collection of ten-minute plays about Fire Island, where he spends his summers. His has also written biographical essays on Edward Albee, William M. Hoffman, Mart Crowley, and Jean Claude van Italie, in The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy, published by University of Michigan Press. Upcoming: a group of ten-minute plays entitled Happily Ever After which will be produced in April by the Post Theatre Company. MFA in Dramatic Writing, New York University.

"Out and About" by Ed Friedman. A woman wants to out her lover who is running for office.

Ed's short plays have been produced throughout the NY metropolitan area. They include Two Ships, Its Time, The Jury Will Disregard, Let No Man Tear Asunder and Centurions. His play The Prism is published in the journal Audience. His monologues are published in the anthologies of Mother/Daughter Monologues: MidLife Catharsis and Urgent Maturity published by the International Centre for Women Playwrights.

"Mound" by Tom Block. Talk of karma stops a baseball game.

Tom Block is a playwright, author and visual artist. He has had several plays produced in Washington D.C. and New York city over the past two years. Reviewers have said that he offers a "a fascinating and rewarding look at the multiple dimensions of faith, theory, and inspiration" and "If you'd like to explore where theater will be ten years from now it is probably worth a look." He has had numerous other developmental and staged readings at New York playhouses, including Theater for the New City, 14th Street Y Theater, Kraine Theater, Emerging Artists Theater and other New York City venues. He has had four non-fiction books and one novel published and has exhibited his artwork more than 200 times in museums, galleries and universities around the United States and Europe. And he has spoken about his art and ideas throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Turkey and the Middle East. He was a Research Fellow at DePaul University's International Human Rights Law Institute (as an artist in residence) in 2010, as well as the founding producer of the Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival, 2010 (MD). Most recently, he was awarded a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award (2013) and a LABA Creative Development Fellowship, 2013-14 (NY). For more information, www.tomblock.com

"Pink Elephants" by Edmund Miller. A man undergoes an operation to please his lover.

After an extensive career as publishing literary scholar and as poet, Edmund Miller has recently begun theater work, first as Dramaturg and subsequently as playwright. Most of his plays are on historical topics. His signature poetry book is The Go-Go Boy Sonnets. His most important scholarly book is Drudgerie Divine: The Rhetoric of God and Man in George Herbert.

"John + Vanessa '78" by Albert Garcia. Two men are inspired by names carved on a tree.

Albert Andrew Garcia, is the founder of The Red Lines a production company based in Brooklyn, NY which began developing work in 2011 with the production of the original short "The Gates of Paradise" performed at the gallery arts venue SPACE ON WHITE in Tribeca NYC . This led to an invitation to La MaMa ETC, The New School, the New Works Festival at The Manhattan Repertory, and the 2013 Strawberry One Act Festival. In April 2014 a new one act "Beneath My Skin" and "Behind My Eyes" was premiered at the Roy Arias Theater for the Midtown International Theater Festival. In 2014 The Retention Cycle - A Play in 3 Parts was produced in association with Stage Left Studio and Happy Children, Run Away at the Manhattan Repertory. He is currently working on a new work "Bull Fight" which will premiere in 2015.