Van Dirk Fisher, Artistic Director & Producer
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
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
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
Tiffany Lee Anne Hutchison
Jane Annie Branson
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.