WESTPLAY – Westbeth’s Short Play Celebration: Saturday Oct 20th 7:30pm SOLD OUT

WHEN: Saturday October 20, 2012
WHERE: Westbeth Community Room
155 Bank Street (between Washington Street and the West Side Highway)
TIME: 7:30 PM
SUGGESTED DONATION: $10.00

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.

Please contact WestplayNYC@aol.com to get on Waiting List.

Reserve tickets by email: westplaynyc@aol.com
Provide name, phone and number of seats

FEATURED WORKS

No More Writers

Playwright/Director – RICHARD VETERE wrote The Third Miracle published by Simon & Schuster and co-wrote the movie screenplay produced by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Ed Harris, directed by Agnieszka Holland and released by Sony Picture Classics. As a playwright his stage plays included One Shot, One Kill (Primary Stages); Machiavelli (Off-Broadway at the Archlight Theater NYC); Caravaggio (Silk Road Theater, Chicago); Gangster Apparel (Old Red Lion, London); Last Day had its world premiere last summer at Gloucester Stage and he taught playwrighting in the master’s program at NYU. The Frank Melville Library at Stony Brook University created the Richard Vetere Collection and Archive in 2005. Vetrich88@aol.com.

The Last Dream

STEVEN FECHTER is a playwright and screenwriter. He co-wrote the screenplay for 2004 film The Woodsman, based on his play. His theatrical works have been produced throughout North America and Europe. In 2011 Resonance Ensemble produced his commissioned play Shakespeare’s Slave at the Clurman Theatre in New York. He is a member of Resonance Ensemble and the EST Playwrights Unit.

STEPHANIE KLAPPER (Director THE LAST DREAM) is delighted to be working with WESTPLAY and collaborating again with Steven Fechter. She most recently directed The Last Dream for Resonance Theatre Ensemble’s 10th Anniversary Benefit. She has directed numerous plays in New York City Off and Off-Off Broadway. Additionally she is an award – winning casting director whose work can be seen on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Regionally, Internationally, for the web, film and television. She is also a well respected teacher and guest lecturer who speaks at many colleges and universities. She is a member of The Casting Society of America and The League of Professional Theatre Woman.

The Girl and the Soldier

JEAN-CLAUDE van ITALLIE, one of the original playwrights at Ellen Stewart’s LaMama Experimental Theater Club, wrote the 60’s much acclaimed anti Viet Nam war trilogy of plays, AMERICA HURRAH. Playwright-of-the Ensemble of Joe Chaikin’s Open Theater, van Itallie wrote THE SERPENT, arguably the most successful piece of ensemble theater by any theater group.

Josh Adler is currently producing television for the National Geographic Channel. He previously directed Jean-Claude van Itallie’s work at La MaMa ETC with his company Theatre Research Ensemble. Josh has performed with such groups as The Anthropologists, The Drilling Company, Artistic New Directions, the Flea Theater, Puppet Lab at St. Anne’s Warehouse, and the Czech-American Marionette Theatre.

Wash A Shores

Wash A Shores HELEN DUBERSTEIN participated in the early formation of the Living Theatre, was a founding playwright with the Circle Repertory Theatre Company, and worked with the Theatre for the New City. Her plays have been performed by major experimental companies throughout the United States, Europe, and South America.

NANCY GABOR – International Director: Among her directing credits are performances at the Public Theater, La MaMa, Open Space Theatre, Gene Frankel Theatre. Ms. Gabor directed Joseph Chaikin in “Struck Dumb,” Jean-Claude van Itallie and The War In Heaven, Sam Shepard. Nancy currently teaches at The Amsterdam Theater School in Holland. She has directed and taught at Princeton and NYU.

High, Thin Cirrus.

MICHAEL DOWNEND‘s work has been produced on PBS and NPR. His stage play AN AMERICAN WIFE, directed by Nora Hussey had a successful run at the Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre in Boston after selling out in its Equity premiere at The Electric Theatre Company. He’s a recipient of a Rockefeller Grant for his play, THE MOLA MOLA FISH and two Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Playwriting Fellowships. Michael’s writing screenplay versions of HIGH THIN CIRRUS and AN AMERICAN WIFE. Contact him at:hattiefilms@gmail.com

DAVID ZARKO was founding artistic director of The Metropolitan Playhouse of New York, 1991 through 2000. He has over 90 professional directing credits and more than 35 in academic theatre. He is also a produced playwright. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild and Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. www.davidzarko.us

Saturday

KATE McCAMY – Playwright – grew up in NYC, worked with Circle Repertory Co., Tribeca Theatre Lab, Drilling Co. Manhattan Class Co., and the 52 Street Project.. Her plays have been published and produced in NYC, Seattle and in Canada. She just recently debuted her web series Munchies on the WWW. Happy to be back in Westbeth!

ANTHONY SANTELMO Jr (Director – Saturday / Plato’s Cave / Halina) is an actor, director, singer and dramaturge. He is no stranger to the creative force that is Melissa Zollo and has directed her play Own It! Work It! Live It! for the 2012 Network Festival and for Just Ask Productions, as well as the plays: Halina, and Quack Quack for Voices From The Fringe in NYC. WESTPLAY is a new, exciting and vibrant endeavor. Other achievements in the Arts can be found on www.Youtube.com. Contact:

Plato’s Cave

MARK HARVEY LEVINE has had over 800 productions of his short works all over the world from New York to Seoul to Prague to Cairo. Evenings of his short plays have been produced in Amsterdam, Sao Paulo, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Indianapolis, Columbus and other cities. He lives online at www.MarkHarveyLevine.com, and offline in Pasadena, California with his lovely wife and son.

Fireworks

DIANE UNIMAN won over 40 awards for her screenplays and the musical “TINK!” (Composer Kevin M. Cotter) including “Best Stage Play and Libretto” Moon Dance Film Festival, “Best Musical Feature” Indie Gathering, “Best Comedy Script” Beverly Hills Film Festival, “Best Comedy Script” LA Film Festival (with M. Cukor). “Fireworks” won an original reading at Legacy Playwrights’ Festival and “Best Dramatic Stage Play” at Moon Dance. She won New Jersey Dramatist’s Society competition and an ASCAP award. She is represented by Abrams Artists Agency. She writes a humor blog www.princessdianevonbrainisfried.com.

Passengers

RALPH GRECO, Jr. is a professional freelance writer of web copy, fiction, articles, reviews and interview; east coast correspondent for www.Vintagerock.com and the editor in chief of Von Gutenberg magazine (and its blog) as well as the weekly SEX FILES at the NYC/L.A. based dailies www.shortandsweetnyc.com and www.shortandsweetla.com . Ralph’s one act plays have been produced in NYC and NY state, in Oregon at the Winter 2011 Pulp Diction II and in two different years at Chatham Players ‘Jersey Voices’ summer festival. Ralph can be reached at ralphgirl@earthlink.net

PETER RATRAY ( Fireworks/Passengers) Most recently Peter directed the widely heralded solo production TO THE DEATH OF MY OWN FAMILY, by David Meth, which toured all across India and played in NYC at the Abrons Art Center. He has directed new plays at the Harold Clurman Theater, The Mint Theater Company, Manhattan Class Company, The New Group, Westbeth and The Actors Workshop. In Los Angeles, he directed the acclaimed revival of John Patrick Shanley’s ITALIAN AMERICAN RECONCILLIATION, as well as several one-acts for festivals at Theater East, the Ruby and the NoHo Playhouse. As an actor on Broadway, Peter co-starred in the Tony Award winning TORCH SONG TRILOGY, and most recently as Morgan Freeman’s standby in Mike Nichols’ star-studded revival of Odets’ THE COUNTRY GIRL Peter sits on the Board of Directors for the Dramatist Guild Fund.

KEVIN M. COTTER is a composer and part of the musical writing team Cotter/Uniman. He’s a two-time Olympian and gold medalist World Champion in rowing. He is a concert pianist focusing on classical improvisation and has produced CD’s under Play-It Productions. He won numerous awards for the musical TINK! (Book and lyrics by Diane Uniman) including “Best Music in a Feature” Garden State Film Festival, “Best Musical” Indie Gathering Film Festival, finalist for “Best Score and screenplay” Buffalo/Niagara Film Festival and Action On Film Festival. Kevin’s score for the screenplay “Pyramid Scheme” (script by Diane Uniman) was a finalist at Moon Dance.

Halina

MELISSA ZOLLO (Producing Artistic Director/”Halina”) began her career as an actor and has worked at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Cubiculo, IRT, New Dramatists, Open Space, St. Marks, Courtyard, Italian American Playwrights, Merce Cunningham, Westbeth Feminist Collective, The Kitchen, and Soho Arts Theatre. Boston credits include Boston Repertory and The Charles Playhouse; as well as Chicago’s St. Nicholas Repertory Company. Ms. Zollo was the Artistic Director for the Prison Performing Arts in association with the Eugene O’Neill Theatre in CT for three seasons. She is also a produced playwright, a well respected Meisner Acting teacher/coach, the author of “Discover the Power of Imagination” CD program and a noted speaker on how to Dream Your World Into Being. Ms. Zollo is very grateful to have dreamed WESTPLAY: The Dream Tree Playwright’s Project into existence and to have attracted so many talented playwrights, directors and actors to this dream celebration of theatre. WESTPLAYNYC@aol.com

CAMERON GREGG (Tech Supervisor / Stage Assistant) was last seen in the Rutgers Theatre Company production of As You Like It, which was previously developed at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. He will be receiving his BFA in Acting from Rutgers University this coming spring.

RACHEL K. WOOD (Reader) hails from Texas where she acquired her MFA and founded a comedy group, Eat More Theater. Arriving in NYC, she was involved with a variety of teachers and small theater companies while writing became her creative life. Rachel recently begun to stretch her acting muscles again and is thrilled to be part of this evening supporting so much creativity.

ROBERT PIAZZA ( Photographer) started his career in NYC working with soap opera actors from The Guiding Light, As The World Turns, Another World and General Hospital. His fashion and portrait photography includes: Ricky Martin, Judge Judy, Susan Lucci, Regis Philbin, Kelly Ripa, President Bill Clinton, The Sopranos Frankie Borrelli, Pastry Chef Jacques Torres, Sally Jessie Rafael, Miss Teen America -Katarina Kneer, NBC & Annie Sez Stores. He currently works with actors, models & beauty pageant contestants. For more info visit www.robertpiazza.com;

Please be advised that anyone attending this event may be photographed and gives full permission to use their images for the purpose of promotion!