NYCPlaywrights October 20, 2018

Greetings NYCPlaywrights

*** NYCPLAYWRIGHTS PODCAST ON ITUNES ***

We’re on iTunes now!

Our next episode #4 will be posted by this Monday, October 22.

The selection for the next episode a 10-minute play by Michael Jalbert called LOVERBOY.

More information about the podcast here: http://www.playwrightspodcast.com.

*** FREE TICKETS TO SEE KENNEDY: BOBBY’S LAST CRUSADE ***

NYCPlaywrights is offering a voucher good for a pair of tickets to see KENNEDY: BOBBY’S LAST CRUSADE. These tickets will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis so if you want them, email us right away at in...@nycplaywrights.org

Kennedy: Bobby’s Last Crusade follows Robert F. Kennedy during the fateful 1968 presidential campaign, from his announcement of his intention to enter the race in March, to his last speech on June 4th at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. This New American Play contains many of his most famous and impactful speeches as well as the private and more personal moments of those four tumultuous months of the campaign.

If you are too late for the voucher you can still get discount tickets - see the NYCPlaywrights web site for more information.

 

*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***

Theater of Light Inc presents the fourth bi-annual production of Lights Up/Fade to Black. Join us for a FREE hour of rejuvenating and light hearted theater made of three short new plays.

Play I: A conversation could be a flirtation, she is charming but there is something alarming, what she is planning for today?

Play II: It is true, love is for forever but this guy is in a deep haze, figuring out just which who is who; two wives what is he going to do?

Play III: She comes to see the doctor about all her crazy quirks, he has quite a diagnosis, will she need hypnosis?

Located in the theater underneath the Blessed Sacrament on 152 W 71st NY, NY. Just a few steps away from the 1/2/3 72nd St Train. It's completely FREE!

Performances will be held on Saturdays October 20/27 & Novemeber 3 @7pm and Sundays October 21/28 & November 4 @3:30pm

*** PLAYWRIGHTS OPPORTUNITIES ***

Moonbox Productions, in Boston, is accepting submissions for one-act plays, to be produced in February as part of our Emerging Artists Program, in Boston’s BCA Plaza Black Box Theatre. Plays should be written by playwrights living with disability and/or explore disability-related themes.

***

M. T. Pockets Theatre One-Act Play Contest 2018

Each entry must:

1. Be unpublished, with 3 or less productions (excluding readings, self-productions

     and/or contest productions).

2. Require two to four (2 to 4) characters.

3. Be no more than 10 minutes in running time.

4. Require minimal props and costumes excluding the title and cast pages.

5. Be no more than ten (10) pages long.

***

Amas Musical Theatre's The Eric H. Weinberger Award for Emerging Librettists is a juried cash and production grant to be given annually to support the early work and career of a deserving musical theatre librettist. It commemorates the life and work of playwright/librettist Eric H. Weinberger (1950-2017), who was a Drama Desk Award nominee for Best Book of a Musical (Wanda’s World,) and the playwright/librettist of Class Mothers ’68, which earned Pricilla Lopez a Drama Desk Award nomination. 

The winner will receive $2,000 to help pay cost-of-living expenses and will receive development assistance in our 2019 New Works Development Program.

*** For more information about these and other opportunities see the web site at http://www.nycplaywrights.org ***

*** THEATER FACTS & STATS & LISTS ***

According to a survey conducted by Nielsen Scarborough in spring 2016, over 47 million Americans had attended a live theatre event within the past month and around 18.1 million people had visited a symphony concert or an opera performance.

The Broadway theatre district in Manhattan, New York City is central to the theatre industry in the U.S. Within this area operate 40 theatres, each with more than 500 seats. During the 2015/16 theatre season, the revenue of Broadway shows in New York reached approximately 1.37 billion U.S. dollars. The majority of this revenue was generated through musical performances (1.17 billion U.S. dollars). Plays and musicals on Broadway were attended by more than 13 million people in 2015/16 and, on average, show tickets cost a total of 103.11 U.S. dollars.

 More…

***

THE COUNT: An Ongoing Study By The Lilly Awards In Partnership With The Dramatists Guild

Written by: Marsha Norman

Analyzing three years of data from productions in regional theaters in America, the study found that only 22% of these productions were written by women. The full Count study analyzes gender, race, nationality, genre and whether the productions were of new work or revivals.

The Count was funded by the Dramatists Guild and The Lilly Awards, and its results were originally announced at the DG Conference in La Jolla in July 2015. The full study and various responses to its data were subsequently published in the November/December 2015 issue of The Dramatist.

Our task from here on is to determine how best to change the way people make the choices that silence the voices of women. Sadly enough, this silencing is not limited to the theatre.

 

What we want is 50% of the airtime, 50% of the walls of the museum, 50% of the stage time in the theaters and on the movie screens. We want life in the arts to represent life as it is lived in the world.

We want to hear the whole human chorus, not just the tenors, basses and baritones.

More…

***

This statistic shows the gross revenue of Broadway shows in New York from 2006 to 2018. During the 2017/18 season, musicals performed on Broadway generated over 1.44 billion U.S. dollars.

(interactive chart available - compare musicals, plays and specials)

***

Theatre and the West End in the United Kingdom (UK) - Statistics & Facts

The theatre industry in the United Kingdom is a fundamental part of the country's arts and culture sector. Over 19 million theatre tickets were sold across the UK in 2016, with London regarded as the biggest market. Gross box office revenues for London theatres reached roughly 645 million British pounds in 2016, earned primarily through West End theatre venues. 

London theatreland or the West End is the area of central London with the highest concentration of commercial theatres. Along with Broadway in New York, it is one of the most popular theatre districts for English speaking performances in the world. Musicals are the most popular form of theatre, recording the highest attendance figures for performances in London. In 2016, box office revenues from London musicals valued 401 million British pounds.

More…

***

As the demographics of the Canadian population change, so are their habits for accessing live performances and other forms of entertainment. In this last article of the "Attendance Trends" series, we will look at preferred locations for live performance attendance.

The breadth of performing arts attendance among the population is worth celebrating. However, other attendance trends are a source of concerns.

According to the Arts and Heritage Access and Availability Survey, attendance of performances and arts events is as strong as ever. In 2016-2017, 87% Canadians attended at least one performance or arts event (including craft shows and visual arts exhibits). Overall attendance is also high (80%+) across all regions and most segments of the Canadian population. These are the highest attendance ratios ever registered by the Access and Availability Survey (previous iterations of this survey were conducted in 2012, 2007 and 2001).

More…

***

“I need to say it loud and clear: Subscriptions are not dead.”

That’s Bernie Griffin, managing director of the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle. Almost every managing leader interviewed for this article said something similar. But the story is far more complicated than Griffin might like: Average subscription income for the Trend Theatres was at its five-year highest point in 2016. But the increase in subscription income fell just 0.3 percent shy of inflation and was accompanied by an increase in the average subscription ticket price.

Further, while subscription income was the second greatest source of earned income in each of the five years, that income, over time, covered a smaller percentage of total expenses. Also, 2016 saw a five-year low in the number of subscribers, which was 8.1 percent below the 2012 level. (Subscription-related stats from Theatre Facts reflect both subscriptions and memberships.)

So, what are theatres doing to attract those coveted subscribers/members, who create dependable cash flow and guarantee audiences? EgoPo Classic Theater in Philadelphia gives each season a theme, said managing director Shayna Freed. As a result, she believes, “We do see a much higher subscriber base as compared to single ticket sales compared to other theatres of our size. Because we try to make it a journey-through-the-season kind of experience, we’re able to sell in a way that I think a lot of theatres are struggling with as they see subscription sales go down. The stability of having a growing subscriber base is really important to us, especially as a small theatre.”

More…

***

Playbill quiz: From Annie’s Sandy to Into the Woods’ Milky White, are you up to speed about Broadway’s furry friends? Take our quiz to find out!

More…

***

Unique and Interesting Facts about Shakespeare’s Globe Theater

◾ The first Globe was built by the company William Shakespeare worked for, called Lord Chamberlain's Men. The theatre was owned by shareholders who included actors working in the company. Richard Burbage was the company's leading actor.

◾ Although several of Shakespeare's plays were indeed performed at the Globe, they also featured in other theatres. Accordingly, other writers besides the Bard also wrote for the company, including Ben Jonson, Thomas Dekker, and John Fletcher.

 

◾ Southwark was chosen to be the site of the theatre after careful consideration. First and foremost, it was outside the limits which came under the control of the city officials, many of whom were not what we'd call pro-theatre.

◾ Southwark had an established reputation as an area where the general public went to be entertained. It already had two theatres, the Rose and the Swan, along with animal baiting arenas, taverns, and brothels.

More…

***

Interesting trivia about the world of the theatre

We thought it was about time we offered some of our favourite curious facts about plays and drama, so what follows are twenty of the funniest or most fascinating nuggets from the theatre. So if you’ve taken your seat, we’ll dim the lights and raise the curtain on these interesting theatre facts.

In 1782, a lady named Mrs Fitzherbert died laughing at a performance of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera at the theatre.

When Shakespeare’s Globe burned down in 1613, the one casualty was a man whose breeches caught fire; they were put out with a bottle of ale.

If you say ‘Macbeth’ in a theatre, you are meant to walk three times in a circle anti-clockwise, then either spit or say a rude word.

A precursor to the film Shakespeare in Love was an 1804 story by Alexandre Duval in which the Bard falls for an actress playing Richard III.

The first recorded instance of a woman playing Hamlet was Charlotte Charke (1713-1760).

What should the theatre be? The theatre should be full. – Giuseppe Verdi

The word ‘exsibilation’ refers to an audience’s practice of hissing a bad performer off the stage; it first appears in a work of 1640.

A ‘deuteragonist’ is the second actor or person in a drama, after the protagonist. It’s first recorded in 1855 in a book by G. H. Lewes.

The word ‘background’ originally denoted the part of the stage farthest from the audience; it first appears in a play by William Wycherley.

‘Scenario’ originally denoted the front of a classical theatre; it first appears in English in the diary of John Evelyn (1620-1706).

I love acting. It is so much more real than life. – Oscar Wilde

More…

***

There’s no denying it: Actors are a superstitious bunch. Maybe it’s the (obvious) flare for the dramatic, the nightly thrill of live performance, or the awareness that careers can turn overnight. Regardless of the cause, here are nine fun (and serious) superstitions that thespians swear by. Did somebody just say “Macbeth?”

“Break a Leg”

Well-wishers should always replace the phrase “good luck” with its theatrical substitute “break a leg.” According to Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the saying has a variety of possible origins. It may come from the ancient Greek practice of stomping feet instead of applauding, the Elizabethan term for bowing (to break the leg), the Vaudevillian practice of keeping actors just barely offstage (to break the leg of the curtain was to enter the playing space, and thus, get paid), or from understudies (jokingly) wishing actors would “break a leg” so that their standbys could perform.

The Ghost Light

Actors are notoriously aware of the spirits among us; the ghost of Thespis (the first known actor in ancient Greece) is said to wreak havoc upon theaters all over the world. The ghost light tradition—leaving a single lit bulb upstage center when the theater is empty—is meant to ward off these mischievous specters. In a more practical sense, it allows the stage managers, crewmembers, and actors to find the light switch when entering a vacant theater so that they don’t break their necks while crossing the totally dark stage.

Don’t Say “Macbeth!”

This has long been part of the actor’s folklore, and there are dozens of theories about when, where, and why performers started avoiding the play’s title—instead referring to the drama as “The Scottish Play.” The History Channel cites several instances of mysterious and sudden deaths during performances of “Macbeth,” suggesting a curse that dates back to the 17th century. Some believe that the play’s fictional incantations—“Double, double toil and trouble…” etc.,—are authentic examples of witchcraft, and therein lies the danger of speaking the title out loud. If an actor slips up and says the deadly phrase, there is an antidote: Exit the theater, spin three times, spit, and utter a Shakespearean insult (or an equally vulgar profanity).

More…