THINGS opens TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Manhattan Theatre Source Playground Development Series
Proudly presents

THINGS AT THE DOORSTEP
...An evening of horror based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft




Award-winning playwrights Greg Oliver Bodine and Nat Cassidy team up to present a disturbing double-bill of solo performances adapted from and inspired by the man whom Stephen King describes as "the Twentieth Century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale," Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937).

Written by Greg Oliver Bodine & Nat Cassidy
Directed by DeLisa M. White
Featuring: Greg Oliver Bodine* in "The Hound"
& Austin Lacher in "I Am Providence"
Lighting Design by Kia Rogers
Sound Design by Jay Spriggs
Property Design by Jason McKittrick
Stage Manager: Laura Schlachtmeyer.

Running time: 1 hour-50 minutes with one 10-minute intermission.
An Equity approved showcase. (*appears courtesy AEA)

Mon-Tues, March 14-15, 21-22 @ 8pm
Fri-Sat, March 18-19, 25-26 @ 8pm
Sunday, March 20 @ 7pm

Manhattan Theatre Source
177 MacDougal Street
New York, NY 10011
Betw. Waverly Place and W.8th St.
(1 block north of Washington Square Park)
A/C/E, or B/D/F/V to W. 4th St.

Tickets: $18 at www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/797455

Listen to the podcast here: http://www.nytheatre.com/podcast.aspx?p=364

THINGS AT THE DOORSTEP features:

THE HOUND: Midnight. Late December, 1937. Reed, a discredited archeologist and Aesthete, is running for his life. Having stolen an ancient amulet from the fetid grave of a neglected Holland churchyard, he locks himself in the library of his London townhouse in order to evade the pursuit of some ‘malign being.’ In shocking detail, he recounts a gruesome testimony of unnatural occurrences surrounding the totem’s theft… and the appalling consequences for all who come to possess it. Critically acclaimed for his solo adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A "Christmas Carol" (2003 NYSCA Grant award-winner) and Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Black Cat," playwright/performer, Greg Oliver Bodine, brings H.P. Lovecraft’s classic, short horror story, "The Hound," to thrilling life.

I AM PROVIDENCE: In the realm of horror literature, H.P. Lovecraft’s reputation as the supreme cultivator of terrifying worlds and visions is unrivaled. However, there is one world so horrifying, so hopeless and bleak, that even Lovecraft himself couldn’t have imagined it: a life in the theatre. Written by NY Innovative Theatre Award-winning playwright Nat Cassidy ("Any Day Now" and "The Reckoning of Kit & Little Boots"), "I Am Providence" is a series of Lovecraftian adaptations and musings that highlight the master’s insights into our own ephemeral wants and fears, as well as an original portrait of a struggling actor and his reasons for connecting with such morbid material. It is a journey into the heart of an artist that is part biography, part abstraction, and all horror.

Two Shows?????!!!

Manhattan Theatre Source's Estrogenius Festival presents five, thought-provoking plays by some of today's hottest playwrights. For week two of the 2009 festival, the following plays have been selected:

• The Big Bend by Isabella Ides
• Save Yourself for You by Joshua Conkel
• Overnight by Natalie Bates
• Last Meal by Julia Harman Cain
• Dorothy Parker is in the Bath by Laurel Ollstein


LAST MEAL stars Paula Hoza and Alexis Thomason and is directed by DeLisa M. White.

Wednesday October 7 to Friday Oct. 9 at 8pm
Saturday Oct. 10 at 3pm & 8pm
Tickets $18

To buy tickets - go to https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/931/1254438250675



ManhattanTheatreSource
177 MacDougal St, NY NY 10011
email: estrogenius.festival@gmail.com

212.260.4698




THE UPPER BERTH
A solo performance

Adapted from the classic ghost story by F. Marion Crawford

Greg Oliver Bodine performs this spooky, nautically-themed one-man play outside on the Buoy Deck of the Historic Lighthouse Tender, LILAC, docked at Pier 40 on the Hudson.

THE STORY: Pier 40, New York - October 1939. On the eve celebrating the transfer of the LILAC to the United States Coast Guard as the country prepares for war. The evening's Master of Ceremonies, Mr. E.F. Brisbane, recalls securing a haunted berth on another steamship, Kamtschatka, bound for Liverpool. He requests a state-room with a double bunk and is disappointed to learn that he will have a roommate in the upper berth. During the first night of the voyage, his roommate runs screaming out of the small room and throws himself overboard. Brisbane learns that three other men who booked into Room 105 have killed themselves in the same fashion, and he is determined to investigate matters that begin to strike him as altogether ‘supernatural.’

WHERE: on board the Historic Lighthouse Tender, LILAC, docked at Pier 40 / North Side (intersection of West St. & W. Houston St.)

WHEN: Thursday, Oct. 8 & Thursday, Oct. 15 at 7:00pm and 9:00pm. Two nights -- four NY performances only!

TICKETS: $10 (at the door). No reservations accepted, sorry. Box office opens at 6:00pm. Arrive early -- seating is limited!

DIRECTIONS & PARKING: By Subway: Take the #1 train to Houston St., walk West to the Pier 40 Building. Turn right (north) to the walkway on the north side of the building. The LILAC is docked at the end of the walkway. Parking is available at Pier 40. The LILAC shares the walkway with other commercial cruise boats, so there may be lines at the entranceway. Just go straight to the entranceway and let them know that you are visiting the LILAC, and you will be ushered past any lines.

All aboard for this nautical treat of thrills and chills! Suitable for adults and for children (ages 12 and over). Running time: approx. 40 minutes. Written & performed by Greg Oliver Bodine*. Directed by DeLisa M. White.

Cash bar & concessions on board. 50% of ticket proceeds directly benefit the restoration and preservation of the LILAC -- New York's last historic steamship!

Come see CROSSROADS - a new play!

What: CROSSROADS

By Meri Wallace
Directed by DeLisa M. White

Featuring: Leah Vanessa Bachar, Edgar Caraballo*, Nat Cassidy*, Erinn Holmes*, Annalisa Loeffler, Kristopher Monroe,* Julio Neira*, Ron Sanborn*, Jason Xaysittiphone and Sheila York.* The production is an Equity Showcase.

Stage Manager: Laura Schlachtmeyer
Lighting Designer: Lauren Parrish
Fight Choreographer: Gregory Oliver Bodine
Sound Designer: Alan Dolderer
Costume Designer: Catherine Fisher
Produced by Howling Moon Cab Company

SYNOPSIS:
At the Crossroad’s Hair Salon, styling hair is a breeze compared to the employee’s personal lives. From infidelity, abuse, denial and outright lies (to others and to themselves), these employees are having the ultimate (and seemingly infinite) “bad hair day” in Meri Wallace’s comedy-drama CROSSROADS at the Midtown International Theatre Festival. When their boss decides to sell the shop, Angela and Nicole pool their resources in attempt to buy it and really stand on their feet for the first time in their lives. However, it’s not long before a deliberate act of violence may change the course of everybody’s future. Can the employee’s come together to repair the damage done, or will the scissors be silenced forever??




WHERE:
WorkShop Theatre, MainStage Space

312 West 36th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues)
4th Floor
Part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival

(Please note: the theatre is wheelchair accessible)

WHEN:
July 16th – August 2nd
Thursday, July 16th at 8:30pm
Sunday, July 19th at 12pm
Wednesday, July 22nd at 9pm
Friday, July 24th at 7pm
Monday, July 27th at 6:30pm
Sunday, August 2nd at 6pm

TICKETS: $18.00.

RESERVATIONS: 866-811-4111 or www.midtownfestival.org.

SUBWAY INFO: Take the A, C, E, 1, 2, 3 Trains to 34th Street

Augusto Boal (1931 - 2009)

This is an extraordinary post from an amazing teacher about a truly important artist and one of my great lifetime influences as well. It could never have been said better. Thank you, Shakespeare Teacher...

The Yellow Wallpaper

Come see...

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
a new one-woman play
adapted from the classic short story
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Adapted by Greg Oliver Bodine
Directed by DeLisa M. White
Starring: Annalisa Loeffler

What if the one person who has vowed to love you… for better or for worse… in sickness and in health… took you away… from everyone that you cherish? From everything that sustains you? In essence, the sum of yourself. Where would you go? What would you do?


THE YELLOW WALLPAPER tells the shocking story of one woman’s isolation, obsession, and descent into madness.

The Story: New England, 1891. Jane, a sensitive and imaginative woman, finds herself sequestered on a remote estate that her husband, a physician, has rented for the summer. She is forbidden to write, and must hide her journal entries as she recuperates from what he has diagnosed as a "temporary nervous depression” following the birth of their baby. Without anything or anyone to stimulate her, Jane becomes obsessed by the wallpaper in her bedroom as the effect of her domestic oppression and stifled creativity begins to take a toll on her sanity.

Costume Design by Jeanette Aultz Look
Lighting Design by Lauren Parrish
Asst. Director / ASM: Jenny Rosenbluth
Stage Manager: Laura Schlachtmeyer

Limited engagement: 2 performances only!

Monday & Tuesday
March 23-24 at 8:00pm
Tickets: $15
Reservations: (212) 501.4751
www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/640655

Note: Due to stage configuration late comers will not be seated.

We've got tonight....

So it looks at this point that the show itself will have more surprises than the winners, but I'm hoping I'm kind of wrong. Not in all categories. Just in some? Here's my "will" and "should" picks for tonight:

Best Pic:

Will Win: Slumdog Millionaire
Should Win: Milk

I truly think our children will be astonished if MILK doesn't win Best Pic as they'll all be required to see it in history classes when studying civil rights. It's also - incidentally - by FAR the best film on the list. The Slumdog love affair will, I think, look very naive and silly...it's the CRASH of this year.

Best Actor:
Will Win: Mickey Rourke
Should Win: This is an exceptionally impressive category, there'd be no one I'd be unhappy with winning. Rourke will give the best speech and by a slim margin Penn is the "should" winner.

Sean Penn is one of my least favorite all-time (over)actors. But his work in MILK is subtle and seamless. It's the best performance of his career. He's unrecognizable in it. I would have to vote for him in good conscience (which I did for the Indie Spirit Awards), but I'm perfectly happy for a Rourke win.

Best Actress:

Will Win: Winslet
Should Win: Winslet

There's a weird scenario where Streep and Winslet split and Leo or Hathaway surprises. But it's likely Winslet's LONG OVERDUE night finnnaaalllyyyy and I'm very much looking forward to it!!! :)

Best Supporting Actor:

Will Win: Heath Ledger
Should Win: Heath Ledger

Nuff said.

Best Supporting Actress:

Will Win: Penelope Cruz
Should Win: It's tight but I'm going to go with Viola Davis.

Tomei is astonishingly good in a role that no where near written as well as she plays it. Everyone else is terrific, including Cruz (who in some ways gave this same solid performance in BLOW) but I'm pulling for Davis who manages to convey - not a string of subtext - but a full TAPESTRY of subtext in a few short minutes. It's the best short story you've ever read and it's all in her face.

Best Director:
Will Win: Boyle
Should WIn: Fincher

Boyle's work is impressive. It is. But Fincher actually achieves the most impressive technological feat presently imaginable in cinema and he does it all to serve the story, the humanity and the sometimes brutal truth of life and death and everything in between, without EVER pointing out his own prowess (unlike Boyle) and saving the films most powerful moments from the surges of sentimentality in the script.

Adapted Screenplay:
Will win: Slumdog
Should win: Doubt

This is a pretty middling category actually. The screenplay is the thing I have the most problem with in Slumdog, but it's pretty much a shoo-in here. If this is BUTTON's "consolation prize" I may be inconsolable as the screenplay is singlehandedly the worst thing about it.

Original Screenplay:

Will Win: Milk
Should Win: Milk

In fact, if it doesn't win - then wherever you are - you will hear a vague screaming and smashing coming from somewhere in Brooklyn....

Best Documentary:

Will Win: Man on Wire
Should Win: Encounters at the End of the World

Otherwise expect lots of well deserved technical awards for Button and annoying amounts of self-congratulations for the love affair with Slumdog (as if that somehow makes the Academy "humanitarians by proxy")... Last note: If Dark Knight wins Sound Editing I might break something. It's got TERRIBLE gaps and sticky mixes all over it.

Enjoy!!!! :-)

The Wrestler - A Review

THE WRESTLER may not seem like a new story. In fact it covers a lot of what we might think is familiar ground. The has-been looking for redemption, the stripper with a heart of gold and the disgruntled daughter are hardly new fodder for film. But the lack of showcase shots and the earnest, committed and infinitely understated performances - particularly by Rourke whose performance is a master class in completely inhabiting a character for the characters sake, rather than the actor's acclaim and consequently is sooooo rightly acclaimed - succeed in making us understand the complexity and ubiquity of the formulas on which they are based. While the has been athlete has a legendary treatment in Raging Bull - the wrestler succeeds not in evoking that precendent, but in unexpectedly mining the flaws and crippling failure that follows any and every man who has invested all of his self-worth in his work, no matter how spectacular or mundane the profession may be. At first, I wanted to take issue with the screenwriter for falling into formula, but as the movie settled in, it became ever so clear that the banality and brutality of the context of minor league professional wrestling gives us opportunity to refresh the formula and recapture it's emotional power. Note, that much like Darren Arronofsky's previous work, particularly REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, there are moments in the film that are not at all for the faint of heart. The brutal toll these men take for entertainments sake, no matter how "fake" the outcomes of matches are - is shocking. Arronofsky's direction is stunning, mainly because it's it's simple. PI and REQUIEM (two films close to my heart) make clear the showy cinematic wonders of which his camera is capable, but rightly and generously he foregos all of them to achieve the timeless mandate of a film director, which is to show you want you need to see, in precisely the way you need to see it. It's masterful - much like Rourke's performance - because it doesn't appear to be or announce that it is. It's dramatic and profound because he revels in precisely the moments that filmmakers have been cutting out of movies since their birth. A swig of beer, a silly thank you card, a a scoop of potato salad, a brief and somewhat awkward kiss...these are the tentpoles of life. Arronofsky honors our lives and his audience by lingering on them and leaving so many questions unanswered. Just like life.