24 Hour Plays

On October 23rd, seven former Urban Arts Partnership playwriting students came together in the spirit of friendly competition to participate in the 2011 Montblanc Young Writers Contest, the winner of which becomes the sixth writer for The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway on November 14th. The students met at the new Urban Arts office early Sunday morning and had a quick discussion and pep talk with acclaimed playwright Lucy Thurber, where she explained her career and inspirations, as well as what the writers will be faced with in the upcoming day.

Once the seven alumni settled in with the task of writing a 5-7 minute play in the next 6 hours, Academy playwriting teacher and working New York City playwright Zac Kline was on hand for mentoring and overseeing the new drafts coming through. After a long day of writing, deleting, revising and finalizing, seven new short plays were printed to paper:

-The Warning by Diogenes Martinez featured a sister attempting to sabotage her sibling’s date when she realizes that she will be going out with her ex.

-Anuradha Golder wrote Domino, a play about two activists attempting to sway a friend for one of their causes.

-Dial ‘M’ for Crazy had two mental patients; one a grown woman who acts out like a 10 year old and another who fears the letter ‘M’, being counseled by a new therapist. Written by Maynor Alas.

-Audasia Glenn’s play about three sorority sisters attempting to escape from a cabin in the woods was titled Sadistic Sophistication.

-Three ‘criminals’ doing community service discuss their crimes and what they can do to improve their lives in Emmanuel Minaya’s Everybody’s Dirty Laundry.

-Stuck in the Middle With You placed two strangers with a mutual friends at odds with one another until they discover they have crossed paths before. By Clevins Browne.

-A Devil's Contract brought a lovesick man to hell in order to retrieve his soul from the devil and her hype man. Written by Anthony Naranjo.

Monday afternoon brought the writers, actors and directors together at The National Arts Club for a brief 2-hour rehearsal before the final reading. Lake Bell, Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rusuk of How To Make It In America lent their time and talent to read for two of the plays, and Michael Kenneth Williams of The Wire and Boardwalk Empire gave his talent to two others.

After all the impressive, hilarious and touching plays were read, the 12-person panel (which included Montblanc North America CEO Jan-Patrick Schmitz and last years Young Writers Project winner Elizabeth Cruz Cortes) retreated for a difficult decision. After a tough vote, Anthony Naranjo and his play A Devil's Contract were selected, and this November Anthony will be making his Broadway debut at the 10th Annual The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway.  Congratulations!

 

This marks the 4th summer of implementing The 24 Hour Plays Off-Broadway at the end of the Life Stories academic year and beginning of the summer intensive, so that the year-long students are able to showcase their creativity, professionalism, and the skills they have learned during their residency and to welcome and assimilate new students into the ensemble.

The creative process for The 24 Hours Plays Off-Broadway began at 10am on Saturday, July 9 when a group of 4 writers (former UAP playwriting students), 17 actors (new & longstanding members), assistant directors & education professionals gathered at Theater Row.

The program kicked off with an orientation -each participant brought a prop, a costume element and shared their special skills sets, their stage dreams and inspired ideas to help inform the writing process.  After a collaborative character generating workshop, each writer was tasked with composing a 10-minute play by the end of the day with the guidance of professional playwrights. The acting students finished the day by engaging in acting games, ensemble building exercises and a 24 Hour Play Improvisation workshop.

Sunday morning, the guest directors joined the cast and crew at 10 AM. Over the next nine hours, the plays were blocked, staged and rehearsed. Our poet, UAP graduate Clevins Browne, arrived at 5pm to watch the rehearsals and pen 4 original poems to introduce each of the plays. At 7pm families and friends packed The Studio theater in Theater Row to see the culmination of all of the students hard work!

CAST & CREW

STARVED FOR FAME
Written by Audasia Glenn
Directed by Sarah Bisman & April Hernandez-Castillo

Maxine Batchler…………………………………………………Anna
Anthony Naranjo………………………………………………….Jeremy
Hannah Turner…………………………………………………..Jayne
Sydney White………………………………………………………Lauren

THE GREAT NINJA STEFFY
Written and Assistant Directed by Emmanuel Minaya
Directed by Paul Calderon

Vincent Castillo…………………………………………….……Tak
Lorenzo Jackson……………………………………………….…. Ryan
Petra Wimer …………………………………..……………….….Lu Lu
Genesis Urena……………………………………………………. Steffy

RETIRED SUPERHEROES
Written and Assistant Directed by Elizabeth Cruz-Cortes
Directed by Marie Masters

Mercedes Alvarez………………………………….……………….Isabel
Stephanie Diaz………………………………………………..……Jewels
Jorge Garzon…………………………………………..…………Hugo
Kayla Robinson……………………………………………………….Red Head
Haskiri Valazquez……………………………..………………..Bay

THE BALLAD DEL JINGO
Written by Maynor Alas
Directed by Chris Eigeman
Assistant Director Frank Turiano

Stanley Mercedes.…………………………………………………Santos
Devin Mojica………………………………………………………Francis
Dio Martinez…………………………………………………..Alejandro(AFR)
Isaiah Alicea………………………………………………………Dan Longhorns

****Poetry by Clevins Browne****

PRODUCTION CREW
Playwriting Teacher/Dramaturge…………………………………………….Zac Kline
Technical Director………………………………………………………….....Matthew Klein
New Group Associate Artistic Director………….………………………...…Ian Morgan
New Group Development ……………………………………………………James Gittins
Life Stories Teaching Artist/Director………………………………………...Julia Grob
Life Stories Associate Director………………………………………………..Frank Turiano
Urban Arts Partnership Artistic Board Chair…………………………………Rosie Perez
Urban Arts Partnership Special Projects Director…….……………………..Anna Strout

Special Thanks: Sarah Bisman, Philip Courtney, Tina Fallon, Jan-Patrick Schmitz, Atissa Tadjadod
 

The Life Stories 24 Hour Plays!

30 Jul 2010, 5:09 PM by UrbanArtsAdmin, Life Stories

Life Stories kicked off its summer program with The 24 Hour Plays at the
Studio Theater. 20 students, six directors, four writers and educational professionals met up on July
10th at the Studio Theater at Theater Row and prepared for the madness that
would be the following two days of creation and rehearsal. First order of
business was Orientation: a prop and costume piece was presented by all the
participants, as well as their secret talents and onstage desires. After the
eclectic props, (including a gas mask, boxing gloves, chinchilla fur coat
and Uno cards) were set aside and talents revealed, the actors were split
into their casts.  The playwrights (all Life Stories alum) worked with their
casts to develop characters and story lines, informed by what was shared
during Orientation.



The writers work with the mountain of props as their inspiration

The writers worked separately in the New Group office for the rest of the
day on their scripts while the actors received a Technical Theater Workshop
taught by 24 Hour Plays Technical Director, Philip Naude. After the class
was over, the actors left to rest up for the day ahead while the writers
honed their scripts to 24 Hour Plays perfection (the last one out by 9pm).

Philip Naude Teaches a technical theater class

On the morning of the 11th, the actors received their scripts:

Pop Some Pills, by Audasia Glenn, featured a cast of mental patients waiting
for a therapy session while revealing the reasons they are in the psych
ward, ranging from alien abduction paranoia to random fainting spells.


"We Don't Have to Talk About That." by Elizabeth Cruz-Cortez had the brother
and friends of demanding, leg-broken girl attempt to figure out whether she
was actually injured or not. Her demands ranged from, "Thomas, soda. NOW",
"Feed me popcorn!" and "Fan me now!"



The Five of Us by Manny Minaya chronicles the money troubles of five
roommates attempting to decide who was short on rent. Accusations fly as the
money spent is tallied up from gas masks, dresses and feline funerals.


The Alexandrite Diamond by Maynor Alas situated an oil tycoon with stakes in
Russia courting a mysterious Russian woman, only to be thwarted by upcoming
rap star "Ty-K47" and former child star "Lindsay Spears" and their wild
celebrity behavior.



Guest Directors: Hilarie Burton, Sarah Bisman, Tina Fallon (24 Hour Company
founder), Diane Neal, Helene Taylor and Lucas Steele all donated their time
and talents to work with students to rehearse and stage their plays


The mad rush from studio to theater, from rehearsal to tech and from
memorization to performance kept everyone on their toes until the 7pm
curtain, where all four plays were flawlessly performed and applauded.


Shout out to Clevins Browne who delivered poetry interludes commenting on
each of the plays that he conceived hours before curtain.

Special Thanks to our sponsor Montblanc for making this program possible!

We're pleased to introduce you to the 2010 Life Stories Youth Ensemble Playwrights In Residence!  Meet our very cool emerging playwrights.  Remember their names, you will soon see them in lights!

Meet Jon Kern

Jon Kern has worked with 2g, bluebox productions, Despina & Co., The Magnet Theater, and the Nature Theater of Oklahoma, and his writing has been presented or workshopped at Ensemble Studio Theater, New Georges, The Flea Theater, The Brick Theater, and Het Rozentheater in Amsterdam. He is a member of EST/Youngblood, The Old Vic New Voices Network, and the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and Columbia University’s School of the Arts. He was awarded a 2010-2011 Van Lier Fellowship in Playwriting from New Dramatists.

 

Meet Josh Koenigsberg

 

Josh Koenigsberg’s work has been produced/developed at The Public Theater, The Atlantic Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, 2econd Stage, Ars Nova, Naked Angels, The Old Vic, Center Stage, Collective:Unconscious and the 2009 Broadway Pink Campaign at the American Airlines Theater where he wrote the material for host Rachel Dratch. He is a founding ensemble member of At Play, the resident company for the 24-Hour Plays Off-Broadway, as well as a member of the Old Vic New Voices Network and The Dramatist's Guild. His most recent play, Al's Business Cards had an extended run at Theatre Row, was a New York Times “Critic’s Pick”, and named one of the 10 Best Off-Off Broadway Plays of 2009 by Nytheatre.com. It’s published in Plays and Playwrights 2010 edited by Martin Denton. He is currently one of the writers-in-residence in The Living Newspaper – an updated version of the classic project that dramatizes real-life news stories – as well as one of the staff writers for “Naked Radio” a new radio show produced by Naked Angels Theater Company. M.F.A. in Playwriting from Columbia University and a B.A. in Philosophy and the Arts from Bard College.
 
Meet Dominique Morisseau
 
Dominique Morisseau is a playwright, actress, and arts advocate for social justice. Her list of plays includes Black at Michigan (Cherry Lane Studio), Retrospect For Life (Hip Hop Theatre Festival), and Follow Me To Nellie’s (the Standard). She is the recipient of two NAACP Image Awards, a Jane Chambers Award Honor, a Wendy Wasserstein nomination, and a scholarship to the Centrum Writer’s Conference (Port Washington), and the Black Women Playwrights Conference (Chicago).
 

Meet Natalia Naman

 

 

Natalia Naman was born in New York, raised largely in Georgia, and currently resides in Alphabet City.  Her plays include THE OLD SHIP OF ZION (The Lark, Princeton University), DROUGHT (NYU Tisch), and CROSSING OVER (EST, Manhattan Theatre Source). Her writing has been presented at NYU’s Festival of New Works and the Lark Play Development Center’s Playwrights’ Week. She is a River Crossing Rivers EST Playwright this year. Natalia is a second year MFA candidate in Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

 

Meet Harrison Rivers


Harrison is no stranger to Life Stories and Urban Arts Partnership.  He received is Broadway premier as an emerging writer for the 2009 24 Hour Plays on Broadway.  He was the writing coach for New Design's 24 Hour Plays in the school program coaching current Life Stories members Maxine Batchler and Sydney White, and Life Stories Alum, Maynor Alas ('09).
Additionally, Harrison is a 2010-11 Van Lier Fellow with New Dramatists and a 2009-10 New York Theatre Workshop Emerging Artist of Color Fellow. His play WHEN LAST WE FLEW was recently selected for development as part of the 2010 Sundance Theater Lab at Governors Island. He currently serves as the Artistic Director of at play, an Exchange affiliated ensemble and the official off-Broadway company of the 24 Hour Plays-www.atplayproductions.com. He is also a member of the Old Vic New Voices Network, the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab and The Movement Theater Company.  Harrison holds degrees in American Studies and Dance & Drama from Kenyon College and an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University.

Day 3 :: Feb 4th, 2PM...SHOWTIME!

After a couple glitches during our final tech run, its Showtime at Black Box 416.  Thanks to the support of HBO, New Design High School, and Urban Arts Partnership, the students are ready to rock the house.  24 Hour Plays Intersession 2010 rocks my world! 

Check out the program for this phenomenal show: 

The theater is packed to the brim. Sit back and relax and get ready for the magic...

New Design Principal, Scott Conti welcomes the audience and guests.

The singing and songwriting intersession group warms up the house.  Amazing all the talent in this school!

It's SHOWTIME!  Watch our actors in action.

 

The full cast and writers of the 2010 24 Hour Plays Intersession takes questions from the audience. 

Post show joy as teachers and director, Michael Kenneth Williams, congratulate writer, Maynor Alas, on his work and brilliance. 

Congrats to all who made this 3 day intersession a success!!! So proud to have been a part of it.

Stay tuned for the Life Stories 24 Hour Plays in July 2010!

 

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