 a play reading series and networking event for
Australians and friends in the NYC entertainment industry PAST READINGS  Thursday, August 28, 2014 MASTERS OF F*** ALL by Micharne Cloughley Directed by Gina Rattan Featuring Christy Altomare, Shirine Babb, Jason Babinsky, Greg Hildreth, Andrew Hutcheson, Eric William Morris Five Masters graduates have taken work at a fashion empire in Times Square. Welcome to underemployment in all its debt-to-income ratio glory. Specializing in misplaced uses of intelligence, our Masters of F*** All devise a secret rotational break system they call 'Guerrilla Sanity'. During these breaks, five very different academic worlds collide under the pressure of mortgaging your future. But when one of them finds a desperate loop hole escape, the consequences ricochet through and far beyond this group of unlikely friends. Micharne Cloughley (Playwright) is an Australian writer and development producer. Micharne was Literary Associate for The Civilians, the centre for investigative theatre, in 2013 and dramaturg for their new play Be the Death of Me (Irondale Center). She will return to The Civilians as a writer in residence later this year and will develop the new work The Way They Live for performance in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in May 2015. Micharne's play One Flesh premiered at the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2012 (Holden Street Theatres) and her plays have been developed through Australian Made Entertainment, New York Stage and Film, Animus Theatre, Rock Surfers Theatre Company and the Australia Council's JUMP Mentorship program. Micharne also works in television development and production for non-fiction programming and has worked for Eyeworks Australia, Endemol Australia, Fremantle Media and Silk Studios. Gina Rattan (Director) Currently: Resident Director on Matilda The Musical (Broadway) and Associate Director of Peter Pan (Live on NBC). As director: O Beautiful (The University of Illinois), The Tin (Samuel French Play Festival), Sweet Tooth (Fringe NYC 2012), How Deep is the Ocean? (NYMF 2012), Twelfth Night (Old Globe San Diego), Virtually Me (National Tour), The Burning House (NY Workshop). Selected credits as associate: The Sound of Music (Live on NBC), Soul Doctor (Broadway), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Broadway), Billy Elliot (Broadway-Resident Director), Little House on the Prairie (Guthrie & First National Tour), Lorca in a Green Dress (Apostrof Festival, Prague), Show Boat (Royal Albert Hall, London), First Wives’ Club, King Lear, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Old Globe). Gina works extensively as a teaching artist both at NYU and independently.  Thursday, July 24, 2014 TRUE LOVE TRAVELS ON A GRAVEL ROAD by Jane Miller Directed by Matthew Foster Featuring Peter Dettmann, Laura Iris Hill, Phoebe Leonard, Kelly McCready, Adam Rennie, David Sedgwick "We are never more ruthless than in the pursuit of happiness." Set in rural Australia, True Love Travels on a Gravel Road is about ordinary people who go to extraordinary lengths in pursuit of a dream without regard to the consequences. Jake has been patronised and pegged as the town “tard” all of his life, but when he falls in love with Maggie, anything seems possible. Maggie dreams of escaping to Graceland. Jake’s quest is to make this dream a reality and prove himself in a town that has labelled him a loser. Jake's and Maggie’s desire to escape implicates the town’s locals, including Maggie’s straight-talking mother, hard man and philosopher Richard, as well as Jake’s boss and his wife. Thursday, June 26, 2014 CAKE: A Wedding Comedy by Peter Buck Dettmann Directed by Simonne Hurse Featuring Olivia Etzine, Matthew Foster, Peter James, Ella Morton, James C. Stewart, Alex Taylor Billy and Carolina are getting married. Carolina and Don have a secret. Harold is accidentally on drugs, and amidst all the chaos, the chances of survival for Kate’s beautiful wedding cake look increasingly slim. A frantic, foul-mouthed farce, Cake: A Wedding Comedy fuses the energy and precision of blank verse with the earthy bluntness of the modern Australian vernacular. Peter Buck Dettmann is an actor and writer from Sydney, who has lived in New York for the last three years. He holds a BA from Yale College with a major in Theatre Studies, and has also trained with NIDA in Sydney and the Stella Adler Studio in New York. He and his partner Phoebe Leonard are founding members of Randomly Specific Theatre, which will have its first production in October, when they produce Secondary Pitch, a new play by Larry Phillips.  Thursday, May 22, 2014 GINGERBREAD by Anthony Noack Directed by Matthew Foster Featuring Samuel Douglas Clark, Matthew Foster, Simonne Hurse, Georgina Richardson, Leanne Watson In a modern city, a modern couple prepare a modern dinner for their modern guests. But when one guest insists on his right to bring his particular bedroom fetish to the dinner table, secrets are exposed and the evening ends up where none expected. Exploring themes of freedom, coercion and liberty, Gingerbread is a funny and exciting new play that tests the limits of what we are willing to accept. Anthony Noack is a playwright from Melbourne, Victoria. His plays include Brighter Whiter, The Gift, which premiered at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2011, and Banana Republic, which premiered at the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2012. Anthony’s first novella Eaglemont was published through Ginninderra Press in 2009, while his short film script Twenty Five Cents received production funding through the Australian Film Commission and premiered at the St Kilda Film Festival in 2007. As a freelance writer, Anthony has also contributed to a range of publications, including The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers. Anthony currently lives in New York City where he works in the murky world of cabaret theater. Thursday, April 24, 2014 IF THE TRUTH BE TOLD by Margaret Hickey Directed by Matthew Foster Featuring Ro Dempsey, Alexis Fishman, Laura Iris Hill, Simonne Hurse, Tina Mitchell A series of five monologues, all told by women of various ages and occupations; a scrapbooker from Surfers Paradise, a glamorous CEO's wife, an elderly woman stricken with jealousy, a crude and opinionated mum, and a die-hard Bulldogs supporter. These are stories of women who teeter and fall over that verbal precipice, 'If The Truth Be Told'. Often hilarious and always heartwarming, their voices are uniquely Australian, but their stories are recognizable to every woman who has ever taken a risk, suffered loss, or loved too much. Margaret Hickey is a playwright and author from regional Victoria, whose plays include If The Truth Be Told and The Pool. Her first novel, A Grand Prospect, was published in 2008, earning rave reviews from, among others, Geoffrey Robertson QC, Cate Kennedy and ABC Radio. Margaret's short stories have also enjoyed great success; Fill Her Up received a Special Commendation at the Scarlet Stiletto Awards, and Kate and Mouse was named Best Australian Short Story 2010. Several of Margaret's monologues, including some from If The Truth Be Told, have been performed at Melbourne's La Mama Theatre as part of Baggage Productions' Madwomen Monologues series. In addition, Margaret has seen her work published in many newspapers and literary journals across Australia. She has also garnered the attention of renowned Australian playwright David Williamson, who described her as “a very talented writer with a knack of bringing to life her characters by a combination of astute observation of human truths and foibles, and a wonderful ear for the idiosyncrasies of the Australian language.” PERFECT STILLNESS by Jane Miller Directed by Matthew Foster Featuring Lisa Davey, Peter Dettmann, Nathan Spiteri THAT OLD CHESTNUT by Michael Booth Directed by Matthew Foster Featuring Caitlin O'Connor, Peter Dettmann, Laura Iris Hill, Phoebe Leonard THE LUNCHTIME MEETING by Bridgette Burton Directed by Pat Shay Featuring Rachel Barrer, Laura Iris Hill, Marc LeVasseur THE CYCLE by Kathleen Foster Directed by Matthew Foster Featuring Rachel Barrer, Michael Poignand ONE FLESH by Micharne Cloughley Directed by Kristen Kress Featuring Hamish Briggs, Leah Filley, Natalie Trent, Sofie Somoroff MOTIVATIONAL DATING by Christina Costigan Directed by Pat Shay Featuring Zach Bubolo, Ro Dempsey, Leah Gabriel BONDING LEAVE by Nicolle Bradford Directed by Pat Shay Featuring Nicolle Bradford, Kathy Ferman, Joe Menino, David Sedgwick TWO BY TWO by Dan Giovannoni Directed by Matthew Foster Featuring Alexis Fishman, Stuart Williams, Adam Zivkovic |
PRODUCTIONS >
