A BLACK AND WHITE COOKIE
A Play By Gary Morgenstein
Directed by Joan Kane
In the funny new post-pandemic drama, Harold Wilson, a gruff, conservative African American senior, has finally reopened his East Village newsstand following the coronavirus lockdown. Then an exorbitant rent increase forces him to close after 30 years and reluctantly retire to Florida with his niece. Enter Albie Sands, an eccentric 1960s Jewish radical, who persuades Harold to fight the landlord. Overcoming their many differences, Harold and Albie form a powerful and unlikely friendship to confront corporate greed – and prejudice.
*These actors are members of Actors Equity
Morry Schorr is Albie Sands
Roslyn Seale* is Carol Wilson
Julie Pham* is J.N. Pham
Mansoor Najee-ullah* is Harold Wilson
Chris Collins-Pisano* as Mitchell Reed
A BLACK AND WHITE COOKIE is a production of Ego Actus (Bruce A! Kraemer, producer)
Everything Dark in this World
EVERYTHING DARK IN THIS WORLD is a comedic play about coming to terms with the choices we’ve made in life and trying to find out if there’s still time for a second chance. DELIA and ROY – neighbors for many years on the same Manhattan block – have a complicated relationship, it’s friendly, but also fraught with years of personal history. DELIA is the sum of all her anxieties which leads to several questionable decisions and ROY is an old soul struggling with painful inner demons. Told in three distinct sections, with tons of humor and heart, we follow their intertwined lives as ROY tries to save DELIA from making the same mistakes he did.
Julie Hays, playwright
Brian J. Carter, director
Cast:
Stacie Morgain Lewis, DELIA
Tom Ashton, ROY
Ricardo Vazquez, CONNOR
Brian J. Carter, THE DOCTOR
Eve Plumb, ANNETTE
Stage Directions read by Justin Dusenbury
The Dying Room
by John Wesley Braswell
Thursday, December 17 @ 7PM EST
The dying room is a room in a nursing home where for some reason the elderly often die. Elijah a patient in the room sits and waits as his own is being cleaned. Here he wrestles with death, his past, his ghosts, and his demons as they become flesh and blood reminders of his triumphs and failures. The dying room reminds that one life does not matter, except if it happens to be your life.
Elijah is Jason Laws
Ben is James Ealy
Stanley is Allen Porterie
Delores is Monique Pappas
Susan is Antonia Badon
Rhonda is Elizabeth Perez
Jamal is Benny Flames
Isabel is Daria Jones
Narrator/Directed by Greg Freelon
Assistant to the Playwright, Felicia Clark
Holiday TLC from TNC: theater, music, and poetry
Lissa Moira, Curator/Host
J. Alan Hanna, Technical Director
Holiday TLC from TNC: theater, music, and poetry. The show will be a sparkling variety pack of holiday-themed performances, by an extraordinarily talented group of players. The theater pieces will range from powerful to cynical to sweet. The music from classical to ragas, to carols to pop. And some highly original poetry. If you are a fan of TNC and Lissa’s you will be familiar with many of the names she is thrilled to present. The happiest of UnTrump holidays to us all!
Full List of Acts Alphabetically:
Louisa Bradshaw
William Broderick
Paige Cutrona
Inma Heredia
Melange
Susan Mitchell
Lissa Moira
Bennett Pologe
Jonathan Fox Powers
Jiggers Turner
Peter Welch
Richard West
Amanda Yachechak
1953: Race For The Summit
Written and performed by Om Raj Raut
A solo play, 1953: Race For The Summit is the story of the mountaineer Tenzing Norge, who was able to climb Mount Everest on his seventh attempt. The story focuses on the night before reaching the summit.
A brief bio of the playwright:
Om Raj Raut is a playwright/performer. He wants to bring his diversity in the international platform from a diverse cultural background where he has learned English as his fourth language. His work has been seen Off-Broadway at AlfaNYC theatre, Kolkata Theatre festival India, and his home country Theatre. While studying BA in Theatre at the City University of New York, He has performed in many productions at Marian Anderson Theater and BMCC Tribeca Performing Center, New York.
My Dinner with Mary
Broadway veterans, Mary Ellen Ashley and Mary Tierney both have had quite successful and satisfying careers. Now in their golden years, Mary invites Mary Ellen to dinner to question why they didn’t stay close. What caused them to become estranged? Was it guilt from an illicit affair? Or envy that caused betrayal? Yet after sorting through some cloudy memories, the truth comes out. Or does it? When they start sharing moment-to-moment intimacies, Mary proposes that they collaborate on a play about their lives. Mary Ellen agrees but thinks it should be a musical. In the process of creating their legacy project, their bond begins to grow stronger. Fact, fiction, fantasy, and frustration all blend together in a bittersweet tale of two actors trying to find meaning at this stage of their lives. What results are touching and totally unpredictable.
Coni Koepfinger, playwright
Byron C. Saunders, director
Jak Prince, stage manager
Joe Izen, composer
featuring, Mary Tierney & Mary Ellen Ashley
*Approx. 90 minutes
My Country ’tis of Thee by Walter Corwin
My Country ’tis of Thee by Walter Corwin contains 5 short comedies that try to fulfill the great playwright Clifford Odets’ dictum: “The drama should shoot like bullets.” Corwin’s plays, presented in this “emergency production” before the 2020 presidential election, comment on the chaotic situation in order to “get out the vote.” WALTER CORWIN, playwright; WILL CORWIN, producer; FORREST GILLESPIE, director; featuring: BRIDGET FIDLER & AKIVA SAUNDERS; Hosted by John David West
LOCKDOWN: EPILOGUE by Frank J. Avella
(An Absurdist Virtual Ending to LOCKDOWN 2020)
For those of you who tuned into Frank J. Avella’s LOCKDOWN 2020, we are presenting a Special Virtual Epilogue to the play. Frank is grateful to TNC and Crystal Field for the opportunity to continue his work-in-progress. (Please note the 11-min. piece can also be viewed as a stand-alone)
Featuring: Marc Lombardo, Nicholas Turturro & Cali Gilman.
With stage & tech directions by John David West.
LOCKDOWN 2020 (Love and Corona)
a work-in-progress by Frank J. Avella
Galia and Tom haven’t connected with one another in a while. While on COVID lockdown, Galia decides to confronts Tom about their lack of intimacy and discovers disturbing info he’s been hiding about his relationship with his queer best friend, Danny.
Starring: Carlotta Brentan & Marc Lombardo
Why Can’t You Sat It and Ay Corona
by Barry Primus
Why Can’t You Say It:
A night in a motel on their way to a tense family get together forces a long-married couple to, once again, navigate their differing emotional needs, leading them to find new insights and refreshed love.
Man- Barry Primus
Woman- Lisa Richards
Written by Barry Primus
Directed by Todd Felderstein
Ay Corona:
Two people who started a relationship in the time of Coronavirus over the Internet are forced now, because of a renewed lockdown, to do something they’ve never really done before: talk. In doing so, they find out about who they’ve actually become involved with.
Jonathan- Kevin Kelly
Molly- Delissa Reynolds
Written by Barry Primus
Directed by Barry Primus
Larry and Lucy
by Peter Welch
Larry and Lucy Larry is a worn-out, 63-year-old street muralist who now barely supports his meager, one-room Hollywood existence by driving for Uber. Lucy is a fragile Kansas City teen runaway looking to beat a heroin addiction. After a few chance meetings the two embark on a series of misadventures that help them gain insight into their troubled lives, yet also reminds them of the difficulties they’ll face when trying to overcome their deep-rooted afflictions.
Celebration of 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage
Directed by Lissa Moira, assistant director Alan Hanna
1920-2020 In a time when all Americans’ suffrage is threatened, it is important that you join us for a celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the passage of Women’s Suffrage and the struggle to win it.
Included will be speeches and scenes and articles, letters and songs that highlight moments from the life and times of such prominent suffragists as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells, Susan B. Anthony, Mary Church Terrell and more.
Featuring: Vinie Burrows, Crystal Field, Phoebe Legere, Lissa Moira, Paulina Brahm, and Alan Hanna.
Assistant & Technical Director: Alan Hanna
Director & Dramaturge: Lissa Moira
Knock ‘Em Dead!
Written by Jim DeMarse, directed by Mary Tierney
Snappy is a made-up name for this comedian. It could be a clown name but he likes it and he needs it to make his mark. For so many pathetic years he has played in two-bit clubs in Brooklyn, Jersey, Bronx, Queens, and Tuxedo Park.
Then one night through every fault of his own, he becomes entangled with a mob gang similar to “the gang that couldn’t shoot straight” or spell straight, not sure. They believe that Snappy has info about a corrupt politician that could make them rich – not Donald Trump by the way. The play basically revolves around a farcical chase to kidnap Snappy and hold him for ransom for some reason that makes absolutely no sense. He meets a girl that really makes no real sense either, so at that point of the story he thinks he’s in love as if you can “think” whether you are in love of not. So, he dives head first into an empty pool. This provides a smattering of laughs along with some head wounds. In the end we hope that love contains the great cosmic laugh or at least a method on how to get it. If this is not puzzling, then something is wrong.
Cast: Marty Shakar, Bob Adrian, David Elyha, Alex Elmaleh, Mary Tierney, Sarah Maria Lafferty, Aedin Moloney, Pat Macnamara
Café Resistance
written by Roberto Monticello, directed by Lissa Moira
The year is 1939, the city is Paris, the Nazis are on the march, and the Occupation is about to begin. All of Paris holds its breath. Nothing and no one will be left untouched. Least of all the denizens of the “Blue Parrot” Yes the setting and the center of the action in “Cafe Resistance “ is the “Blue Parrot” a seedy cafe/cabaret/brothel, boasting an international array of ladies of the evening and oddball habitues. When the”Blue Parrot” is commandeered by the Nazis strictly for the pleasure of their officers, intrigue and politics abound, and life and death situations arise. At the heart of it all is Louise, a dancer turned cashier who is hiding her Jewish identity and is desperate to protect her child, whom she has hidden outside of the city. Mr. Monticello wishes to dedicate his play to the women of the Resistance whom he feels have been given short shrift by history.
Our Cast in Alphabetical Order
Louisa Bradshaw, Paulina Brahm, William Broderick, Izzy Church, Paige Cutrona, George Flowers (the former voice of NY1) Alan Hanna, Inma Heredia, Zander Kirby, Marlena Mack, David “Zen” Mansley, Susan Mitchell, Lissa Moira, James Parks, Jonathan Fox Powers, Amanda Yachechak
The Statement
written by Claude Solnik, directed by JD Glickman
The Statement follows the Board meetings via Zoom of a small, local theater group amid the coronavirus virus and the murder of George Floyd, other crimes and ensuing protests. The group decides whether and what to say in a statement that supports Black Lives Matter. A black Board member, a successful black actor who returns and some others in the group want more than words. But when a statement itself, written by a member of the group, gets posted, they find themselves facing their own revolution. What is the role of theater in the country and community? “The Statement” looks at theater, community theater, fairness from the streets to the stage, racism, protests from the Edmund Pettus Bridge (still named for a Confederate general) to the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges and diversity in a play written specifically for Zoom.
Cast: Ed Altman, Atticus Cain, Michele Cannon, Albert Insinnia, Chaz McCormack, Dan Purcell, Deborah, Kruel Rupy
The White Blacks
written by Melanie Goodreaux
Melanie Maria Goodreaux’s latest play takes place in the 1970s and addresses the complicated racial distinctions that plague one New Orleans family with a line of lighter skinned African-Americans that “pass for white.” They “pretend” to be white to reap the benefits that come with ‘whiteness’ but at what cost? The gamut of blackness is brought up by this honest look at colorism in New Orleans. Love lives long, and here romance, family secrets, and generational curses get all mixed up in Alva’s gumbo!
Cast: Renee McNeil, Kristina King, Marsha-Ann Hay, Hollie Harper, Shyla Idris, Marcos Palma, India Stachyra, Linda Greene, Anthony Harper, Jonathan Eddy Duran, Hector Lincoln, Christine Sloan-Stoddard, Neena Phillips, Stacey Griffin, Albert Iturregui-Elias, Dan Kelley, Frances Suro, Alexander Yuille
I Will Never Clean My Room and The Cry
written by William Electric Black
Raising a Revolutionary
written by Eva Dorrepaal
With a criminal record and a vengeful ex-husband, Rachael Faucett attempts to keep food on the table and prepare her son – Alexander Hamilton – for the harsh realities of the 18th century Danish West Indies.
CREDITS:
Written and performed by: Eva Dorrepaal
Costume: Wasima Hussain
Historical Advisor: Jimmy Napoli
Technical Director: John David West
Special Thanks: Francisco Cardozo, Kika Child, Crystal Field, Asja Jung, Vincent Kyne, Robin Menikoff, Chloe Perrier and the new discoveries of Rachael Faucett’s life analyzed in the book “Discovering Hamilton” by Michael E. Newton.
Ella the Ungovernable
written by David McDonald, directed by Melania Levitsky
ELLA THE UNGOVERNABLE a play about 15 year-old Ella Fitzgerald’s incarceration and escape from Hudson, NY’s, Training School For Girls in 1933, will make its worldwide debut in a ZOOM and YouTube live streaming performance presented by Theater For The New City on Thursday night, May 28, 2020, at 7:00pm.
Very little is known about her incarceration except that she is presumed to have escaped after less than a year at the institution and she won the first-ever Amateur Night At The Apollo Theater shortly thereafter, commencing a swift rise to fame.
Hamlet in Harlem
written by Alberto Ferreras, hosted by John David West
Hamlet in Harlem the story of a young writer who holds a table reading to fund his urban adaptation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece. In the process, fiction and reality intertwine creating a politically incorrect comedy that questions media stereotypes, gender roles, cultural appropriation, and the relevance of classic theater.
A comedy of errors
About a tragedy of errors
The cast in order of appearance: Armando Riesco, Lou Liberatore, Shirley Rumierk, Olga Merediz, Avner Kam, Kadine Anckle, John Herrera, Francisco Solorzano
Tuesdays Not Saturdays
written by Barry Primus
In an old Russian bathhouse on the Lower East side of New York, patrons come to cleanse themselves of the dirt and struggle of a week’s work in the city. The heat is their medicine and the masseuse is their high priest. They struggle both with themselves and each other consciously, or unconsciously, seeking healing from some deep wounds as the heat rises and their dilemmas surface.
The cast in order of appearance: Raul S. Julia, Bob Lesser, Jayson Glastone, Mike Vlastas, Sofia Vassilieva, David Proval, Eddie Kehler, Adam Cushman, Barry Primus
Susan B. and the Tennessee Waltz
written by Toby Armour, directed by George Ferencz
2020 is Susan B. Anthony’s 200th birthday and the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. The play celebrates her life and the lives of those who struggled with her in the long battle for women’s suffrage. Susan B., Nellie Bly, and the fight for women.
The cast includes: Lissa Moira, Richarda Abrams, Gregory Marlow, and Jenne Vath
Poetry in the Age of COVID-19, Spotlight: Briana Bartenieff
New Ideas, New Vision, New Work.
Crystal Field is going to have a conversation with her grand-daughter, Briana Bartenieff, a published poet who is a first-time freshman at Purchase College. They are going to talk about what it’s like to be Briana at a time like this and Briana is going to read her poems. They’re all about now – all newly written.
Orville Station
written by Frank J. Avella (Vatican Falls, Lured & Consent)
Orville Station delves into that dark, festering world that lies beneath the picture-perfect suburban towns in America where boredom and the false promises of a better life have left some folks feeling “cheated and betrayed,” to quote Nathanael West from THE DAY OF THE LOCUST.
Lenny is a 25-year-old screenwriter wannabe whose one script was met with universal rejection. He and his friends travel to NYC each weekend to alleviate some of the dullness of life in the fictional town of Orville, NJ. Into their complacent lives burrows the mysterious Chizzy who convinces Lenny that he must do, “something drastic” if he wants to succeed. Orville has the dubious distinction of most train deaths per year in the Garden State (stats based on a real Jersey town). Orville Station is set post-COVID-19 and examines the fear and anxiety that comes with potential change. Dreaming is safe but actively pursuing that dream can often provide the ultimate terror.
The cast includes: Alice Barrett Mitchell, John DiMino, Michael Ford, Cali Gilman and Marc Lombardo as Chizzy with Technical Direction and Narration by John David West.