Script Development Series 2017-18 “Beige”

“BEIGE”

written by Desi Moreno-Penson, directed by Lorca Peress, dramaturg, A.J. Muhammad

“Beige” has received an Honorable Mention on The Kilroys List for 2017: The Kilroy’s List, and was a finalist at the O’Neill’s National Theatre Conference, and the winner of Arizona Theatre Company’s 2016 National Latino Playwrights Award.

We are thrilled that Desi has chosen MultiStages to continue the play’s development. Desi’s play “Comida de Puta” (see images and info) won the MultiStages New Works Contest. You’ll definitely want to catch “Beige.” Details to come.

“Beige” is a surreal tale of self-identity and the sometimes schizophrenic effects of post-colonialism. Set in 2001 after the tragedy of 9/11, the play tells the story of Soledad Iglesias, a Nuyorican journalist who finds herself caught between the reality of her Jewish fiancée and the ideals of the Puerto Rican Nationalist, Lolita Lebron. Existing at the crossroads of history, reality, and cultural imagination, Beige is a cautionary tale of race, Puerto Rican politics, and love. 

Script Development Series 2016-17 “Esai’s Table”

ESAI’S TABLE

Written by Nathan Yungerberg   Directed by Lorca Peress

Featuring:  LaChrisha Brown, Dyllon Burnside, Brandon Gill, Marcel Spears, and Charles E. Wallace as Esai
Nichole Thompson-Adams reading Stage Directions

Two Readings:  Wed., November 16 at 3pm and Thurs., November 17 at 7pm (reception to follow)

Shetler Studios, PH1, 244 W. 54th Street.

Free Admission

RSVP: [email protected]

We are thrilled to announce our next play in development, ESAI’S TABLE by Nathan Yungerberg. Esai’s Table was a 2016 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semifinalist.

Esai’s Table follows the fantastic journey of three young black men on a mythical night sea atop a magical old table. Through cartoon animation and personal revelations, we learn why they’ve been chosen to navigate this trek across the unknown. Destiny meets eternity in this story of black lives, friendship, family, and love.

Nathan Yungerberg is a Brooklyn-based playwright. His plays include Esai’s Table, The Son of Dawn, Pousada Azul, Orchids, and Polka Dots and Brush Strokes. Nathan’s work has been developed or featured  by The Playwrights’ Center, The Brooklyn Museum, The Lorraine Hansberry Theater, Brava Theater, The Lark, The Fire This Time Festival, 48 Hours in Harlem, The National Black Theatre, The Hansberry Project, The National Black Theatre Festival, The Classical Theatre of Harlem, Blackboard Reading Series, The Dramatist Guild,  Flashpoint Theater, the August Wilson Red Door Project, New Venture Theater, The Brooklyn Generator and BBC Radio Afternoon Drama. Nathan is one of seven black playwrights commissioned by The New Black Fest for HANDS UP: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments. Awards and honors: The 2016 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference (Semifinalist), Ken Davenport 10-Minute Play Festival (Winner), 11th Annual InspiraTO Festival (Finalist), Blue Ink Playwrighting Award (Semifinalist), and PICK OF THE VINE 2016 at Little Fish Theatre (Semifinalist).

UPDATE: Esai’s Table will receive its Off-Broadway premiere at The Cherry Lane Theatre in 2020.

2016 Script Development Series “JANUARY”

MultiStages Script Development Series
Presents
a Swan Day Event celebrating Women in the Arts during Women’s History Month

JANUARY
A new play by Paula Cizmar
Directed by Lorca Peress
Video Consultant Christopher Marston
featuring Darlenis Duran, Russell Jordan* Candice Myers* Romy Nordlinger*
Tate Kenney and Keiza Tyson, assistants

*AEA members

One-Night Only Reading
Thursday, March 17, 2016
7PM
Shetler Studio
Penthouse 1
244 W. 54^th St. (between 8^th and Broadway)
Must RSVP: [email protected]
FREE

JANUARY is a multimedia play about the effects of gun violence on our society. Paula Cizmar presents a shocking and emotive story set within the minds of the mothers of the 10 year-old victim and the 10 year-old killer.

When does public concern turn to obsession?
When does media reporting become exploitation?
Who is the victim?  What is our responsibility?
Can we change the gun situation in the US?

JANUARY was nominated for the Kilroy List and is a MultiStages 2013 New Works Finalist. An earlier version of JANUARY was presented in the 2014 New Works Festival.

JANUARY CAST

DARLENIS DURAN (Maya) is currently playing the lead in Carmen Rivera’s La Gringa at Repertorio Espanol. She appeared in the NY Television Festival 2013 and LA Web Series Festival 2014 official selection Henry web series. Stage credits include: Comida De Puta(HOLA Award Winner), Nadira Simone’s Here In Vain, Women Of Manhattan, Spike Heels, Please Have A Seat And Someone Will Be With You Shortly, and Women In Motion. She was runner up on Season 1 of NuvoTV’s Model Latina and has appeared in music videos, and print/commercial work. She has appeared in various independent films and is AP of HBO/NY International Latino Film Festival winner Crush. www.darlenisduran.com

RUSSELL JORDAN* (Henry, Media Presence) is grateful to Lorca Peress and MultiStages for the opportunity to be part of the ongoing development of Paula Cizmar’s JANUARY. Russell was part of the 2014 MultiStages New Works Festival reading of JANUARY, and in 2010 performed in MultiStages’ production of Jamuna Yvette Sirker’s Hell and High Water, or Lessons For When The Sky Falls. Russell is a two-time outstanding actor award recipient from the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity, and is currently writing a one-person full-length play recounting his experience escaping the World Trade Center’s North Tower on September 11, 2001. www.russelljordan.com

CANDICE MYERS* (Lauren) Selected theater credits include MultiStages Knowing Bliss by Arden Kass, Yeah Girl Whatever with The Dramatic Question Theater, and Third’s World written by Arthur W. French III and directed by Broadway veteran Arthur French.  She has appeared in television commercials for Comcast and The Maryland Lottery.  Recent appearances in the web series projects Friends or Just Roomies? (which she co-wrote and co-produced) and Q’s One Night Stands” (which has been accepted to several film festivals), and the TV show I Love You…But I Lied.  www.candice-myers.com.

ROMY NORDLINGER* (Joyce, Media Presence) Selected theatre credits: Shakespeare’s Slave, Clurman Theatre Row, Lancelot at Judson Gym, Caligula at Kirk Theatre Row, Between Here and There with New Perspectives, R Culture at I.R.T, her original solo piece Nazimova at the Snapple & Metropolitan Playhouse with Stage Struck. She has performed her original play Lipshtick at the NY International Fringe Festival and MITF. Selected regional credits: Actors Theatre of Louisville, Wilma, Fleetwood Stage. Film & TV include Co-Star on Law & Order CI, One Life To Live, The Ruthless Spectator and the upcoming Stephen Frears film Florence. Narrator of over 150 audiobooks. Board Member League of Professional Theatre Women, Member NY Madness, Resonance Ensemble, Playwright Gallery. www.romynordlinger.com

VALORIE NICCORE* (Stage Directions) is a MultiStages Board Member, and has had the good fortune to work in engaging productions throughout the US. Regional California: Queen Ninetta in Carlo Gozzi’s, The Green Bird, Nastya The Whore, in Gorky’s, The Lower Depths; The Wife in Enrico Buenaventura’s The Autopsy from Documents From Hell; Picasso’s Desire Caught by the Tail, Countess Geschwitz in Wedekind’s, Lulu, directed by Martin Magner. Off Off Broadway: Lady Marlborough in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oddysey Co.), Blanche in Dostoevsky’s The Gambler, and featured in MultiStages’ The Palace of Loneliness. TV: Fox’s America’s Most Wanted, All My Children, Another Worldand Loving. Web Series: Russian refugee in Medical Assistance.

*Members of AEA

JANUARY ARTISTIC COMPANY

PAULA CIZMAR (Playwright) is a playwright whose work often combines poetry and politics. Her plays have been produced at Portland Stage, San Diego Rep, Playwrights Arena @LATC, the Jungle Theater, among others.  Plays include Candy & Shelley Go To the Desert, The Chisera, Still Life with Parrot & Monkey, Street Stories, and Salvage (work-in-progress) for which she received a TCG/Mellon Foundation On the Road grant. She is the recipient of an NEA grant and is one of the writers of the documentary play Seven, which has been translated into 20+ languages and produced in over 30 countries. She is an assistant professor of playwriting at USC. January and The Chisera were first Kilroy List Nominations. January was a MultiStages 2013 New Works Finalist.www.paulacizmar.com

CHRISTOPHER MARSTON (Video Design Consultant) is a filmmaker based in New York City. He collaborated with Lorca Peress on MultiStages’ 2015 production of Comida de Puta (F%&king Lousy Food) by Desi Moreno-Penson, and designed video for Dacyl Acevedo’s one-woman show Will Work For in 2013. Mr. Marston has extensive professional experience as a video editor (current clients include NBC Universal and Univision).  Also an accomplished cinematographer, previous work includes the entire eight-episode Webby Award winning series Gemini Rising (2010) and pilot for the new series The Weirdness (2015).

LORCA PERESS (Director, MultiStages Artistic Director) Recent MultiStages Directing Credits: Desi Moreno-Penson’s Comida de Puta (F%&king Lousy Food) (HOLA Award); Temple Of The Souls musical by Anita Velez-Mitchell, music Dean Landon/Anika Paris; book A. Velez-Mitchell, A. Paris, Lorca Peress (6 Innovative Theatre Nominations, 4 HOLA Awards). Other Credits: Bernstein’s MASS (Queens College, National Opera Assoc. 3rd Prize); Nichole Thompson Adams’ Black Girl You’ve Been Gentrified (Public Theatre). Faculty: NYU Tisch Strasberg Studio, Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Memberships: SDC, AEA, League of Professional Theatre Women (Co-President 2011-14), Creative Network for Federal Affairs Administration Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico. Bennington College and NTI graduate.

SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT SERIES 2013-14

TEMPLE OF THE SOULS, a musical drama, book by Anita Velez-Mitchell, composed by Dean Landon and Anika Paris. This epic story of forbidden love explores the conflict between the Taínos (the indigenous people) and the Spaniards on the island of Puerto Rico in the 1500s.

Since the December 2011 showcase production in which we received HOLA’s Award for Outstanding Production (plus awards for Lighting, Choreography, and Music), we have continued to expand and hone the work. This summer, we recorded new music by Landon/ Paris featuring the brilliant David Amram on multiple native flutes and Joe Fee on percussion. We presented a small read/sing-thru of a new version of the piece, and are gearing up for the next step which includes fundraising, grant applications, and a production in 2014.

In Memoriam

We would like to announce that the artist Emelí Vando, whose beautiful artwork “Los Amantes de Sol y Luna” (Lovers of the Sun and the Moon) seen here graced all the publicity for Temple of the Souls has just passed away from an inoperable brain tumor. Emelí was in her early 60s, and was passionate about art and politics in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her work touched us all, and she will forever be part of MultiStages.

TEMPLE OF THE SOULS – MultiStages 2011 Script Development Production

In Winter 2011, MultiStages produced “Temple of the Souls,” a Musical Drama by Anita Velez-Mitchell, Music by Dean Landon and Anika Paris, Choreography by Milteri Tucker, Directed and Developed by Artistic Director Lorca Peress at The West End Theatre. This multilingual musical drama tells the story of Amada and Guario, two young lovers in a forbidden union during the cultural wars between the Spaniards and the nearly extinct Tainos of Puerto Rico. Composers Landon and Paris are Platinum Award-winning songwriters; Anita Velez-Mitchell is a multi-award winning Puerto Rican poet and author. The multicultural Cast and Artistic Company hail from South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada, and the US.

Visit the website for more information and updates on future productions:  www.templeofthesouls.com

Take a look at the movie we created, and pass it around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GVl_daW6wA

CAST: Jen Anaya* Kenneth Kyle Martinez, Robmariel Olea, Ricardo Puente* Joshua Torrez* with Theresa Burns, Victor Cervantes, Raquel Faria, Bradley D. Gale* Giselle Gastell, Randall Marquez, Laura Riveros, Laura Lebron-Rojas, Alexis Sweeney, Patrick Valley. COMPANY: Book and Libretto by Anita Velez-Mitchell, Music Composed by Dean Landon and Anika Paris, Orchestrations and Arrangements by Dean Landon. Additional Lyrics by Anika Paris, Music Director Bruce Baumer, Choreographer Milteri Tucker, Costume Design Mark Richard Caswell, Mask/Puppetry Design by Kyla McHale, Scenic Design Lorca Peress, Lighting Design Alex Moore, Production Stage Manager Jessica V. Urtecho* Postcard Artwork by Puerto Rican Artist Emilí Vando, Press Rep, Maya PR, Directed and Developed by Lorca Peress

2011

APPETITE
A New Play by ARDEN KASS
Directed by LORCA PERESS
October 3rd, 2011
Featuring TOVAH FELDSHUH, LYNN COHEN, KATHRYN LAYNG
When a book of recipes written by Hana’s mother in Teresienstadt mysteriously finds its way into Hana’s hands decades later,
it opens a doorway into the past she has struggled to put behind her. A new play about food, family and survival.

Arden Kass, Lorca Peress and Tovah Feldshuh

2009-2010

SHADOWS

By David Sard
featuring Richarda Abrams, Gena Bardwell, Matthew Carr, Oliver Conant, Karen Eilbacher, Brandon Kyle Goodman, Robert Kya-Hill, Kathryn Layng, Paul Notice II, Richard B. Watson
Step into the tormented caste-ridden world of Old Virginia on the eve of the Civil War. Behind the shadows is a world of secret relationships, intrigue, betrayal, and revolt, where brave young lovers dare to break the suffocating bonds of racist law and custom. This is a world where mothers learn to accept their own sisterhood by paying a terrible price in a past that still binds us all.
Presented at Primary Stages. 

2008

BALD LIES, WILD CRIES AND OTHER ACTS OF LOVE
By Adam Kraar
featuring Angelica Torn, John Haggerty, Jenna Kalinowski, Bryant Mason, Kate Michaud
Somewhere between true love and madness is a world where deceit, illusion and obsession blend with reality. This collection of five plays ranges from spiky romantic comedy to wild surreal farce.
Presented at the Geraldine Page Salon. 

2007

INSIDE OUTSIDE
By Gena Bardwell
Producers Club and TNC’S L.E.S. Festival
featuring Richarda Abrams, Gena Bardwell, Adrian Bethea, Rasheila Daniels, Gil Deeble, Phil McGlaston, John Myers
What do you do when the words won’t come? Time stops, bonds shred, silence surrounds. Find your way home, my love, my friend. This is where Maime’s story begins in this love story of loss and family.
Presented in the Theatre for the New City LES Festival. 

2001

NOVEL
By Nick Bellitto
featuring Gena Bardwell, Michael Citrinitti, Peter Reznikoff
Developed from 2000-2001 and presented at The Lark Studio Theatre
Full Production 2001 at HERE (see info under Past Productions)