Van Dirk Fisher, Artistic Director & Producer

Presents

The Strawberry One-Act Festival Winter 2006
Series B

The Amnesiac
Written by Mark Damon & Directed by Vanya Pawson

Time:  The present.  Place:  A doctor’s office.

Characters in order of appearance

The Son                                                     Jonathan Valdez

The Father                                                  Paul Hansen

The Mother                                                 Melissa Stoudenheimer

The Doctor                                                 Peter Whalen

Who’s Who

Jonathan Valdez (The Son) was born in Corpus Christi, TX. He has a BA in theater from Texas A&M. He came to New York in 2003, where he studied with Terry Schrieber. He has appeared in numerous productions in NYC. As always, he dedicates this performance to the memory of his mother and father and to the rest of his family.

Paul Hansen (The Father) has recently appeared in several productions at the American Theatre of Actors, including the Ghost in an uncut production of Hamlet, Agaememnon in Troilus and Cressida, and a lead in a new play, All in the Cards. He is also the executive director of a theatre company, Shakespeare in the Wild, and has produced a number of classical plays in Manhattan. In addition to being an attorney, Paul is also a graduate of the Mannes College of Music and has composed the music for various theatrical productions in New York.

Melissa Stoudenheimer (The Mother) is new to drama but is a veteran of the operatic stage. A lyric soprano, she has performed both regionally and in New York. Her many operatic roles include:  Mimi in La Boheme, Nedda in I Pagliacci and Norina in Don Pasquale. The Canton, Ohio native’s repertoire also includes oratorio and symphonic works. She lives in New York City, where she teaches voice.

Peter Whalen (The Doctor) has played in and co-produced many Off-Off Broadway Plays in recent years. Acting experience includes: The Inquisitor in The Lark, Gramps in Love, Dogs and Other Obsessions, both also directed by Vanya Pawson, Dan in Lee Blessing's Down the Road, David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago, The Old Gaffer from Bois by Eugenia Macer-Story, Wild Dog Casino, at Theater for the New City, Golden Bo, Time of Your Life, Thurber Carnival, Mulligan Guard Ball, The Balcony by Jean Genet, Camino Real, and Chekhov's The Three Sisters.

Vanya  Pawson (Director) Credits include: The Lark and Antigone (Jean Anouilh), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, No Exit, Rhinoceros, Fortune and Men’s Eyes, Last of the Red Hot Lovers,  The Rose Tattoo, Beckett’s Act Without Words, The Indian Wants the Bronx., Until the Monkey Comes (Venable Herndon), Credit/No Credit (David Lohrey), Hunters (Joe McDonald), Anonymously Written (Kassie Bracken), Walking the Dream and Love, Dogs and Other Obsessions (Bronson Dudley).  Vanya thanks Herbert Berghof. It should be so simple, a child could understand it.    

Brooklyn Beginnings
Written by Kerri M. Hoffman & Directed by Marcalan Glassberg

Time:  The present.
Scene 1: Julia’s apt. Scene 2: Restaurant.  Scene 3: Vivian’s house.

Characters in order of appearance

Julia                                                           Amanda Zawadzki

Vivian                                                        Hinde Liepmannsohn

Mario                                                         Joe Lesko

Who’s Who

Amanda Zawadzki (Julia) is a music teacher in the Plainedge school district on Long Island.  She earned her MA in Vocal Performance at NYU and her BM in Music Education from Ithaca College. Past performance credits include, The Wizard of Oz (Dorothy), South Pacific (Nellie Forbush), Singin in the Rain (Kathy Seldon), Guys and Dolls (Sarah Brown), Anything Goes (Hope Harcourt), Annie (Grace Farrell), No, No, Nanette (Nanette), Songs for a New World (Woman 1), and Iolanthe (Phyllis). I am thrilled to be part of the Strawberry One-Act Festival.

Hinde Liepmannsohn (Vivian) recently won Best Actress in a Drama in the 2005 Fall New Writers’ Festival for her portrayal as Vivian in Brooklyn Beginnings.  She recently performed in a murder mystery at Dave and Buster’s on Long Island and has performed in several plays at Stony Brook University. I would like to thank Laurentino and is family, Lilo and Gerry, and Marcalan Glassberg for giving her an opportunity. I am excited to be part of the Strawberry One-Act Festival.

Joe Lesko (Mario) has appeared in several plays at the Author’s Playhouse in Bay Shore, Long Island.  He has appeared in The Takeover of WBAB, Smoke and Mirrors and Brooklyn Beginnings. I would like to thank Marcalan Glassberg for all his encouragement and for continuing to cast me. I am happy to be part of the Strawberry One-Act Festival.

Marcalan Glassberg (Director) has been active in the entertainment industry in many capacities for over fifteen years.  His main focus is on his writing where he has received favorable notices Off-Off Broadway and on Long Island.  Playwriting credits include: Playing One Handed Poker, Love In Four Songs, The Takeover of WBAB Babylon, and Mother’s Day, and Who’s Buried in Grant’s Tomb. He has also appeared in numerous roles on stage, television and film and has directed numerous stage productions. He has also taught theatre arts to children and adults.

Kerri M. Hoffman (Playwright) is a writer from Long Island.  She has written several plays and is currently working on a novel and a screenplay. Her one-act play, Brooklyn Beginnings, won the award for Best Drama at the Authors’ Playhouse, 2005 Fall New Writers’ Festival in Bay Shore, New York. I would like to thank Marcalan for his guidance and for giving me my first break. I would like to thank Jay, Taylor and Corey for their love and support. I am excited to be part of the Strawberry One-Act Festival.

Marcalan Glassberg (Tech/Light & Sound Person) Executive Director of the Authors’ Playhouse in Bay Shore, New York.

Unnamed Holocaust Project
Written & Directed by Scott Klavan

Time:  The present.
Place:  A fashionable Los Angeles conference room.  Movie posters are on the wall.

Characters in order of appearance

Alan                                                         Stephen Ott

Tiffany                                                      Lee Anne Hutchison

Jane                                                         Annie Branson

Who’s Who

Annie Branson (Jane) New to New York, Ms. Branson's credits tie her to both the West coast and to London.  These credits include many roles, ranging from Durang's Amanda, in For Whom the Southern Bell Tolls, to Mastrsimone's Lorraine, in The Undoing, to Shakespeare's Viola, in Twelfth Night. Having trained at the University of Oregon and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Ms. Branson has a lifelong background in the arts.  In New York she continues to perform, to study, and to write.

Lee Anne Hutchison (Tiffany) Favorite credits include:  Euridice in the alt-rock musical Orpheus at HERE, Ruby Mae Green in T.Cat Ford's new play Pow'r in the Blood (Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, NYC), Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream  (Hampton Shakespeare Festival), Bertha Dorset in Innocents (Ohio Theater), Stephen Wadsworth's Don Juan (McCarter Theater), Mary Brenham in Our Country's Good (45 Bleecker Theater), Celia in As You Like It  (Restless Productions, NYC), and Jane Derous in a new thriller-screenplay by Mark Bazzone (New Dramatists, NYC).  Thanks to Grant and Scott!

Stephen Ott  (Alan) is a graduate of SUNY Fredonia. His credits include the independent feature Homecoming and Backyard Theater's Ivanov.  He'll see you all at the New Orleans Jazz Festival this year!

Scott Klavan (Playwright & Director) For many years, Scott has been script and story analyst for Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward and other companies including HBO, Warner Bros., CAA, and Universal Pictures.  He wrote the stage adaptation of Raymond Carver’s classic short story Cathedral for Theater by the Blind. As an actor, he has appeared Off-Broadway in, among others, Endpapers, (Variety Arts), the NY premiere of The Joy Luck Club, and The Legacy Codes, and played Fisby in the revival of The Teahouse of the August Moon, all at Pan Asian Rep; Combustion  at BAM; Treplev in The Seagull, directed by the head of the National Theatre of Norway. He has performed regionally at, Studio Arena Theatre, Buffalo, NY; Studio Theatre, Washington, D.C.; The Egg, Albany, NY, others. On TV, he has been seen in Picket Fences, and As the World Turns, CBS; films on A & E, NBC and the Sci-Fi Channel, others.

Margot Newkirk (Assistant Director) is a young playwright with an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN. A recent arrival in New York, she currently holds internship positions in new play development at the Atlantic Theater and New Dramatists, and she is working for Voice & Vision, a theater that develops the theatrical projects of women and girls.

Kitty
Written by Manuel Igrejas & Directed by Lory Henning-Dyson

Time: Right now.  Place: Right here.

Characters in order of appearance

Kitty                                                               Jennifer Boutell

Who’s Who

Jennifer Boutell (Kitty) Recent credits include: Crescendo Falls (The Kraine); Burning Bush (HERE); First Look (Encore); Sweet Citrus (The Churnuchin Theater); Electra Speaks (MTS); Faith, Hope & Charity (The Greenwich Street Theater); The Feeling of a Beard and The Maid's Tragedy (HERE); Four Quarters (The Red Room) and Wally and Jesus and Mr. Original Bugg (BRIC). Jennifer has appeared regionally in A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and Midsummer Night's Dream (National American Shakespeare Co.); Godspell and Play It Again Sam (The Knightsbridge Theatre); Choices (Bilingual Foundation of the Arts); and Wild Dust: The Musical (Centenary Stage). Her film credits include: Shopping For Fangs, Devolution, Urchin, Death to Automatons and The Pod as well as featured roles in the small screen dramas Arrest & Trial and Dangerous Minds. Jennifer is excited, grateful and honored to debut Manny's Kitty.

Manuel Igrejas (Playwright) has been a publicist in New York’s theater community for over 15 years, representing such artists as Blue Man Group, Elizabeth Streb, Richard Foreman, Michael Counts and Christopher Eaves. Fiction has been anthologized in Men on Men 4 and poetry in the anthology, A New Geography of Poets. Shrinkage, an evening of three of his one-act plays about the pursuit of mental health, directed by Lory Henning-Dyson, was produced off-off Broadway in spring 2004 with sterling results. 

Lory Henning-Dyson (Director) currently works as the Associate Production Manager for Blue Man Productions.  She has enjoyed doing a wide range of artistic and production jobs in the theatre with such companies as Bridge Club Productions, American Repertory Theatre, The Berkshire Opera Company, and The Huntington Theatre Company.  She is grateful for this opportunity to continue her directorial work.

 

THE CORE PROJECT is an ongoing intensive workshop for writers, directors and actors (or any combination thereof) to develop new plays.  Artists will collaborate on the creation and development of vibrant new works for the stage. Projects developed within the workshop will be presented as readings and considered for production in the Strawberry One-Act Festival and future Riant Theatre productions. The Core Project will be led by associate director, Richard Mover and artistic director and producer Van Dirk Fisher.  Writers should submit a one-act play, a scene from a full length or a sample of narrative work that they are interested in developing for the stage, no synopsis please. Directors should submit a resume and letter of interest or intent. Actors may contact us by email (therianttheatre@aol.com) or by mailing us their picture and resume to set up an audition.  Materials should be mailed to:  The Riant Theatre, P.O. Box 1902, NY, NY 10013.  Please include a S.A.S.E. for the return of materials. 

Upcoming Events . . .

The Finals at The Producers Club II
Friday, February 17th & Saturday, February 18th at 7pm and Sunday, February 19th at 3pm
Tickets:  $25 (includes reception after the show.)

The Toe Jam Festival Saturday, February 18th at 1pm, 3pm & 5pm;
Sunday, February 19th at 1pm. Tickets:  $15
A fun filled show featuring some of the hottest talent in NYC.
Join us and cast your vote for A Rising Star! 

At The Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space
2537 Broadway at 95th Street

The Riant Awards Ceremony & Performance
Four of the Best Plays will be presented.
Monday, February 27th at 7pm; Tickets:  $35

Reservations:  (646) 623-3488 or Online at www.therianttheatre.com

On Sale At The Online Store

Riant T-Shirts:  $15.00     Mugs:  $10.00  (Colors:  Red, Blue or Black)
The Strawberry One-Act Festival T-Shirts:  $15.00

The Best Plays From The Strawberry One Act Festival:  Volume One:  $14.95

The Best Plays From The Strawberry One Act Festival:  Volume Two:  $16.95

Photos of the play:  Photo:  $5.  With Silver Frame: $10.  Wooden Frame:  $7.

Please sign our mailing list form so we can inform you of other Riant events.

The Strawberry One-Act Festival is celebrating its 11th season this summer. The Strawberry Festival, the brainchild of Artistic Director, Van Dirk Fisher, is a play competition in which the audience and the theatre's judges cast their votes to select the best play of the season.  Twice a year, hundreds of plays from across the country are submitted for the competition, of which 40 are chosen to compete.  Plays move from the 1st round to the semi-finals and then the finals. The playwright of the winning play receives a grant and the opportunity to have a full-length play developed by the Riant.  This summer for the first time, awards will also be presented for Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress.  The Award Ceremony and Performance will be held at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space on February 27th at 7:00pm.

This February the Strawberry One-Act Festival will go worldwide as we broadcast the festival via the internet on the second day of each series in the competition.  Go to www.therianttheatre.com.

The Strawberry Festival is a wonderful opportunity for the audience and the industry alike to see some of the best talent in the nation.  Every performance features four dynamic one-act plays.  Audiences always comment that this is one of the best theatrical events around.  There's always a lot of buzz surrounding each performance as artists converge and network on future projects.  Several of the playwrights whose plays are featured in the festival have written for the literary world as well as television and film.  "We are very fortunate to be able to fulfill our mission, which is to discover talent and showcase new plays," says Mr. Fisher.  "We are very proud of this accomplishment, but the work doesn't stop there.  Competition aside, everyone's a winner in the festival, because several actors, directors and playwrights are chosen to work on future projects at the Riant."

Van Dirk Fisher (Festival Producer/Artistic Director) has produced The Strawberry One-Act Festival, My Soul Sings Too, Sister; A Play Festival Celebrating The Spirit of Women, The International Lesbian & Gay Theatre Festival, directed and written several musicals including Somebody’s Calling My Name; Sweet Blessings; Tracks; Loving That Man Of Mine and Revelations.  Plays include:  A Sin Between Friends; The Banjo Lesson; Mixed Blessings; Hotel Paradise and The Atlanta Affair.  As an actor he has done several voice overs and commercials and has appeared on the soap opera Loving as Assistant D.A. Lyndon Haines.  He thanks God, his family and friends for their love and support.