A cavalcade of acclaimed Playwrights offer-up a plethora of playlets looking at the world through less-than rose-colored glasses in Planet Connections New Short Play Festival “DARK PLANET: Not Your Mother’s Valentine’s Day” at the Theater at the 14th Street Y, 344 E 14th St, New York City.

The evening is broken up into two sets of works and each is short enough that you can attend both. Like a box of candy … ten great pieces in one great night. Planet Connections New Short Play Festival “DARK PLANET: Not Your Mother’s Valentine’s Day” at the Theater at the 14th Street Y, 344 E 14th St, New York City. Showtimes:
Thursday, February 6: 7:00 PM & 8:30 PM; Friday, February 7: 7:00 PM & 8:30 PM;  Thursday, February 13: 7:00 PM & 8:30 PM; Friday, February 14: 7:00 PM & 8:30 PM;  Thursday, February 20: 7:00 PM & 8:30 PM; Friday, February 21: 7:00 PM & 8:30 PM

7:00 PM SHOWS:
PLAY WITH ME Written by Lenny Schwartz
THREE MEN WITH GUNS Written by Monica Bauer
RECONCILE, BITCH Written by Desi Moreno-Penson
SHADOW DANCE Written by Jake Brasch

ALL 8:30 PM SHOWS:
SUPERSTARS Written by Glory Kadigan
TEXT ANGEL Written by Drew Larimore
FIEVEL DRIDGE, THE GREAT ORATOR OF FISHINGSTILL Written by Erik Champney
THE SECOND COMING Written by Gabrielle Fox
PLAYTHINGS Written by Jan Rosenberg
A DAY AT THE BEACH Written by Quincy Long

Some very funny, some brutal, all engaging.

Ai spoke to three of the playwrights in the 7:00 p.m. slot and one in the later part of the night about their work and the impending premieres.

Lenny Schwartz, a writer/director of such plays as Subject 62, Kung-Fu Babies, The Inside of His Severed Head, Ben Minus Zoe Minus Ben, The Social Avenger and Co-Creator amongst many others, is also an accomplished screenwriter of such films as Murder University, Normal, Accidental Incest and the upcoming The Haunted and The Hunted, Codename: Dynastud (Scorpio Films Releasing) Long Night in a Dead City (Scorpio Film Releasing) and Higher Methods (IM Filmworks) among others. Schwartz, with a flair for the fantastic, contributed a work called PLAY WITH ME. “My Initial idea for it was to have a romance set in a fetish club,” says the whimsical scribe, “And to be raw and honest with the language. I had originally thought that nobody would ever produce this but – lo and behold – here we are!” His clever retort is indicative of his faith and confidence he has in Planet Connections. Making sure we are “turned on” by the salacious settings, he interjected “It is a short play that Is designed for laughs and acceptance for all no matter who you are and what your proclivities or lifestyles are.”

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The second writer is Desi Moreno-Penson, a New York City-based playwright and actor. Her plays have been developed and produced at a vast array of recognizable venues: Ensemble Studio Theater (EST), The 14th Annual Women’s Playwriting Festival in Providence, RI, Urban Theater Company in Chicago, Teatro Coribantes in San Juan, PR, the SPF-Summer Play Festival, Henry Street Settlement, terraNOVA Collective, and The Downtown Urban Theater Festival (DUTF) @the Cherry Lane in New York City, among others.  RECONCILE, BITCH, her entry in this short-play fest, is about a pair of passionate, overly dramatic hipsters that love each other and struggle to get back together. Although for the sake of the universe, they probably should not be together and should probably be in separate mental institutions! This piece was originally commissioned by Tiny Rhino, based out in Brooklyn. With only love and romance to go by, she went dark – even twisted. “I don’t care for rom-coms at all,” says Moreno-Penson, “so I took my inspiration from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and specifically, the scene between Helena and Demetrius (“And even for that do I love you the more. I am your spaniel. And, Demetrius, the more you beat me, I will fawn on you.”)”

Finally, Monica Bauer boasts a litany of works that were internationally produced. Her most recent full-length play, Vivian’s Music, 1969 (directed by Glory Kadigan) was seen Off Broadway at 59E59 Theaters, and is being published by Original Works. She has won awards like the Emerging Playwright Award from Urban Stages, and a Planet award for Best Script of a Comedy Award for Anne Frank and the Gaza Strip.

Her respect for the mission of Ms. Kadigan and Planet Connections was all the impetus she needed to pen a play just for this festival. “I wrote it specifically for Dark Planet, and for three of my favorite actors, John Fico, Randall Rodriguez, and Russell Jordan,” said the international produced playwright, “Two gay men with guns, and a future professor of African American studies, participate in what may or may not be a legitimate drug deal, potentially foiled by a comic flurry of accusations and explanations. May the person with the best story win!” Yes, this festival is designed to be packed with love stories but as Ms. Bauer put it: “it’s a twisted little play that doesn’t seem at all like a love story … and it isn’t. Except for the turn it takes that I hope takes the audience by surprise!”

Produced widely in both the United States and Australia, Drew Larimore made his Off-Broadway premiere of his new play OUT OF ICELAND in the spring of 2012 starring Lea Delaria at Walker Space.  He has been a semi-finalist at the O’Neill Theatre Conference, The Lark Playwrights’ Week, the Heidman Award, the P73 Playwriting Fellowship, a writing residency at Hawthornden Castle in Scotland and former EVVY award-winnder. His short play, THE ANNIVERSARY, after receiving a world premiere in Australia and a U.S. premiere in New York, is published in Vintage Anthology’s recent SHORTER, FASTER, FUNNIER.  His new play, THE CANNIBALS OF MCGOWER COUNTY was featured in Asolo Repertory’s Unplugged Festival of New Work, an O’Neill Finalist in 2016 and workshopped at Denizen Theatre in 2019.

His entry is awash in irony. TEXT ANGEL is a solo show about Bonnie, an entrepreneur/motivational text angel, who accidentally sends the wrong motivational text to the wrong person, thus resulting in tragedy. Drew offers up a piece that seems to echo the old phrase of the road to hell is paved with good intentions. “TEXT ANGEL is actually a part of a collection of inter connected monologues about a death-by-sexting, where people struggle with their own responsibility in the situation writ large,” says Larimore, who most recently, served as a writer-in-residence at the Studios of Key West, the Key West Literary Seminar, and the Djerassi Artist Residency Program in California.

The meat of this written matter was a question posed about short-form works. The ten-minute play is making a name for itself across the New York theatrical skyline. With so many larger festivals disappearing, there seems to be bigger space for little plays, but how do authors feel about it?

Ms. Moreno-Penson was most vocal: “Some stories can be easily told within the ten-minute parameter. Other stories need a little more time. As a playwright, I feel that I have a lot to say, so I much prefer the formats of the one-act play (15 to 25 minutes), or the full-length (45 to 90 minutes). However, one really great thing about writing within such tightly constrained limitations is that it forces you to be very specific in all your choices. Every word, idea, and nuance have to be very carefully chosen and decided upon. As challenging as that is, it can also be a very positive learning experience. And I’m all for learning new stuff!”

Mr. Larimore seemed the most exuberant: “Short form is great!” he said, “I started writing with short plays, and I still think there is a succinctness to them like nothing else.” One would imagine Ms. Bauer felt the same – being able to form a piece for her favorite actors and for her trusted colleague, Glory Kadigan. “If they’re good, they end before you feel it’s really over,” he concluded.

Mr. Schwartz agreed and summed it up in true ten-minute play style … one sentence: “get to the point and get the Hell out!”

With these being only one-third of what the bill-of-fare is on this valentine of vociferous verses … it looks to be a great night.

RaTs:SubwaySongsandStories

By Maguire Wilder, with music by Maguire, Gavin Knittle, Kiara Negroni, Lucas Saur, Kyle Best, Natalie Thomas, and Lo Williams

Reviewed by Robert Viagas

Most New Yorkers have contended with the sight of rats scurrying among the tracks in the subway system. But how many of us have thought to turn that experience into a stage musical—and from the rats’ point of view?

Well, Maguire Wilder and her composer collaborators have shouldered that challenge in RaTs: SubwaySongsandStories, getting a workshop production at TheatreLab in Hell’s Kitchen. This self-described “part fact-based narrative and part queer fantasy,” follows two lady rats on their quest for love and feasting on the night of the mystical Solstice—only to come to a tragic end.

Fara Faidzan plays the Subway Rat Princess with a frantic but endearing gawkiness, brought on by her unrequited horniness. She is aided in her journey by Tabby Cat the Sewer Rat, played by Maiya Pascouche with a contrasting sensuous confidence. Their subterranean bildungsroman hits its high points with the rocking celebration song “Throw It Back, Little Rat,” and breaks your heart with the plaintive “Let Me Out.”

Other roles are taken by Claire-Frances Sullivan, Markese McLamb and John Knipsel, who also act as the chorus and three-piece orchestra.

Though vermin are not often portrayed sympathetically (Disney’s Ratatouille squirms to mind as an exception), the peculiar thing about this show is how militantly pro-rat it actually is. It makes a villain of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its latest rat eradication campaign. The show is all about how the poor innocent rats just want to gobble fast food and have sex “just like you” and how sad it is when they get trapped and poisoned. And wind up ascending the stairs to Rat Heaven, where one supposes they will meet Cheese-us.

Offered as timely counterprogramming to the ill-fated Cats movie, RaTs scampers along for most of its ninety-minute intermissionless run time, but bogs down once the leads are trapped and singing about how they literally want to throw up. The audience needs to hear a bit of higher rat philosophy and aspiration than their simply wanting to eat and mate. But maybe that’s as high as rat eschatology goes.

RaTs: SubwaySongsandStories is playing a limited run through January 26 at TheaterLab in Manhattan.

Jay Michaels sat down with playwright James Crafford regarding his latest works at the American Theatre of Actors.

James Crafford began his theatre life studying with the legendary Stella Adler 46 years ago. After suffering through five showcases that failed prior to even opening he decided to do it himself. His first showcase of works as a playwright was approved and produced by Ms. Adler sight unseen. He continued contributing works for Ms. Adler for the next two years. One of his works was optioned for Broadway, which took him on a journey that continues today as a distinguished playwright.

It’s no wonder James Jennings – one of the founding fathers of the off-off Broadway movement – offered Crafford a home at the ATA. Crafford has since supplied plays and screenplays to Jennings and his merry troupe making him a household name in that house. One of that merry troupe, Laurie Rae Waugh, has been a major interpreter of Crafford’s works over the years – directing and thus winning awards for the work. This time around she is a member of huis cast.

Now, the American Theatre of Actors will present two dynamic works by this controversial author and influencer: Moves and Countermoves: New Works by James Crafford. Performances are January 22 – February 2, 2020 (Wednesday – Saturday @ 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 3:00 p.m.) in The B.E.T. (Beckmann Experimental Theatre) of the American Theatre of Actors Complex, 314 W 54th St, New York City; (212) 581-3044 for tickets.

The Chaos Effect doesn’t need a butterfly or the span of the universe. It can be two people and the right – or wrong – words said at the right – or wrong – time. Michael Bordwell will serve as director and interpreter of these two new works by a political firebrand and unapologetic author.

“The Game Is Not Over” explores the relationship between a man and the two women in his life – his wife and his former lover. A simple living room becomes a battlefield as the wife confronts the former lover.

“After the Hanging” explores the aftermath of a racist hanging of an African-American man in the deep south. The aforementioned man’s wife confronts one of the witnesses to the lynching.

The plays feature a repertory company of seasoned professionals familiar with Mr. Crafford’s work and the landmark American Theatre of Actors: Alan Hasnas, Thomas J Kane, Tzena Nicole, Valerie O’Hara, and Meredith Rust; with a special appearance by stage and film actor/director Laurie Rae Waugh in “After The Hanging.”

Crafford – having started as an actor – makes sure that his cast are well fed – with dialogue. “My goal in writing plays is to offer juicy parts for ALL the actors involved,” he said.

A question recently asked of Granville Burgess due to his Lincoln/Douglass musical, Common Ground, has been asked of Crawford as well. “What’s an old white guy doing writing a play like After the Hanging?”

“[the play] banged around in my head for years after having read a short story by Erskine Caldwell called SATURDAY AFTERNOON that tells the story of a whimsical lynching that left me devastated,” he explained; “I recall throwing the book across the room in a fit of despair.” The book was surely his gauntlet if you know Mr. Crafford. Never backing down from a fight – which is evident due to his recent battles with Cancer and President trump (not sure which was worse) Crafford began creating this powerful play.

As “Rick” in his play VIOLENCE
(winner, Jean Dalrymple Award, presented at Sardis)

“I am deeply grateful to ATA for featuring my work and giving me the opportunity to grow as a writer, director and actor. I also hope that audiences will recognize current parallels in AFTER THE HANGING even though it takes place in 1927,” Crafford concluded.

As he alluded to a “glut of one acts” he is ready to have produced, we should prick-up-our-ears for more battlecrys with his by-line.

Playwright T. Adamson has entered the ring.

The Straights (https://www.thestraightstheplay.com/)  is an epic play in the literal sense of the word as being a grand spoken endeavor. Grand in the literal sense of the word as being powerful in thought.

It follows millennial friends, Phoebe and Nina, as they navigate hitchhikers, shoplifting, drugs, and a flood of selfies on a cross-country no-boys-allowed adventure through the heart and heartlessness of the USA. This piece uses live action and video to bring about the dismantling of traditional American mythology by focusing its prose and politics on women, queer folx, non-human persons, and people of color as the primary subjects of the American democratic experiment.

And it all started thanks to the little election we had in 2016. Remember that?

Opening Thursday with the New York Times already reserving seats, Ai was lucky to get the playwright, T. Adamson, to jot down a few epic responses to our grand questions.

Tell us about yourself as an artist

As a writer I’m most interested in writing about complex challenging characters, particularly young people living in America right now. I feel people in their 20s and 30s are often depicted as vapid or self-centered in mainstream cultural narratives and I’m trying to counter those narratives by depicting young people in their full humanity, trying to navigate the difficulties of this economic and political climate. I’m also interested in plays that deeply explore the idiosyncrasies of modern speech and illustrate the ways in which everyday speech is rapidly changing in the digital era. I like subverting expectations and using bold formal gestures to inform the inner lives of my characters. 

What made you write this play? Was it something you experienced? Is it a statement you’d like to make about our current State of affairs? Why the road trip motif?

I started this play shortly after Trump’s inauguration in 2017, which is also when the play is set. By whatever happenstance most of my best friends through my adult life have been queer women and it felt important to me at that time, as it does now still, to write a play that centers queer and femme folx and people of color- to firmly declare that these people are the real heart of this country, that the essence of this country is diversity and difference. I became obsessed with the road trip story as a distinctly American genre; there are so many narratives about young men finding themselves on the open road. I wrote this play as my counter-narrative about women living with the kind of abandon that the men in these classic road trip narratives take for granted. And I think there’s a little bit in the play of trying to hold myself accountable as a straight white man as well. Purposely writing people who look like me out of the story. I also just love road trips. I love long drives. I’m from Texas and I miss the wide open the road and the big sky that you rarely get in NYC. So this is both a critique and homage to typical road trip stories.

What do you want the audience to take away from this play?

I think the audience is going to takeaway whatever they takeaway! There’s so much going on in this play but the main thing I hope they take away is a sense of the richness and fullness of these human beings and the vastness and possibility that hopefully still exists in the United States. I hope the audiences feels like they met some interesting people- perhaps ones they wouldn’t normally spend time with- and that they spent some meaningful time with them and that meeting those people shifted their perspectives a bit. 

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