Drama Book Shop Lists December Events
The Drama Book Shop, located at 250 West 40th Street in Manhattan, has announced a series of events for December. The first of these is a new entry in the Playwrights and Performers series featuring Stephen Adly Guirgis (author of Our Lady of 121st Street) on Monday, December 1, at 5pm. The session will be moderated by David Finkle of TheaterMania.com.
The next entry in the Playwrights and Performers Series, Women Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2002, will be on Tuesday, December 2, at 5pm. Susan Bernfield, artistic director of the New Georges theater company, will moderate a discussion with Arlene Hutton (As It Is In Heaven, Donna Spector (Golden Ladder, and Rosary O’Neill (Degas in New Orleans). It will be followed by Take Ten, II: Ten Minute Plays on December 4 at 5pm; this event will feature readings of Nine Ten by Warren Leight, The Levee by Taylor Mac Bowyer, and Daniel on a Thursday by Garth Wingfield. And on Monday, December 8 at 6pm, Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, The Violet Hour), will talk with Finkle about his works and read from his plays.
On Wednesday, December 10 (time not yet announced), Louis Fantasia will present his popular workshop Instant Shakespeare, which allows people of all theatrical backgrounds to perform and experience Shakespeare in clear, fresh, and unpretentious ways.
On December 11 at 6pm, the Drama Book Shop will host a Kurt Weill Cabaret narrated by Foster Hirsch and featuring cast members of New York productions of Weill’s works along with friends of the late composer. Celeste Holm will sing selections from Lady in the Dark and Paula Lawrence will offer two songs that she introduced in One Touch of Venus. Also on hand will be Phoebe Brand (from the 1936 Group Theatre production of Johnny Johnson), KT Sullivan (The Threepenny Opera with Sting), William Duell (who played the Messenger in the landmark Off-Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera), Kyle Barish (winner of the Lotte Lenya Theatre Award), Frank Basile (singing from The Threepenny Opera), and David Lewis (the evening’s musical director.
On December 15, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm, Richard Davison and Jackson Bryer will moderate a discussion with Cherry Jones of the book The Actor’s Art: Conversations With Contemporary American Stage Performers, which chronicles some of the greatest stage stars through previously unpublished interviews. And on December 17 at 6pm, Jim Bonney will host a workshop titled “Emotional Preparations for the Actor,” in which he will explain and demonstrate the exercises he has developed to increase expressiveness in actors. (Note: This workshop is limited to 20 participants.)
Tickets for the Kurt Weill Cabaret and “Emotional Preparations for the Actor” are $15 each; they may be purchased by calling 212-944-0595 and selecting option 3. All other events are free and open to the public but reservations are suggested and may be made by calling 212-944-0595, ext. 417.
