Dialogue wit Three Chords to Stage ONE CHORD SHORT OF A POP SONG, 5/23

Dialogue with Three Chords (D3C) presents "One Chord Short of a Pop Song," a collection of the short plays "A Unit of Grim Assessment" and "Blood on the Toes of Your Boots" which celebrate the art of personal expression through rock music, from playwright Stephen Gracia and directed by Michael LoPorto. The show also features a reading from "Breathing for a Living," a play for one actor written, directed and performed by Kendra Leigh Landon. The performance starts at 8pm downstairs at Mr. Denney's on 63 Carmine Street in Manhattan. Admission is free ($3 suggested donation).

"A Unit of Grim Assessment" was inspired by a genre known as "outsider" music. In the play, an "outsider" musician is interviewed by a college DJ with, initially, disastrous results. "The ending, however," explains Gracia, "finds the discussion turns to what is most important about the artists who make up this genre: their boldness, their unfettered creativity, and the therapeutic affects art can have on both the artist and listener." The music of theatre legend Sam Shepard also proved inspirational to Gracia in the second of his new plays, "Blood on the Toes of Your Boots," which takes a "Shepard-like Rock song as its mythological spine," says Gracia, "finding Sparrow, a life-long musician and Bethany, a reluctant singer, writing songs for each other as Sparrow plans to abandon his current gig for something more dangerous."

The plays that comprise "One Chord Short of a Pop Song" are followed by a preview of "Breathing for a Living," a play for one actor from featured D3C actor Kendra Leigh Landon. Described by Landon as a work-in-progress, the performance centers on how we define interconnectedness in the new digital frontier of our modern world.

More information on Dialogue with Three Chords can be found at: www.dthreec.org.

"A Unit of Grim Assessment" features Jessica Bathurst as Gail and Anton Koval as Meeks.

"Blood on the Toes of Your Boots" John Weisenburger as Sparrow and Jennie West as Bethany.

"Breathing for a Living" is written, directed and performed by Kendra Leigh Landon

Dialogue with Three Chords is a theatrical collective founded in 2011 by Stephen Gracia and Michael LoPorto. It applies the do-it-yourself philosophy of punk to the stage and features short plays and live music. Their work has also been produced at Sargent Theatre, Makor Theater, DUMBO Theatre Exchange, Dixon Place, Levenson Hall at Brooklyn College, the Theaters at 45 Bleecker and the Soho Gallery for Digital Art.