"The Craft" in New York and Oz

Image courtesy of Apple's Eyes Studio / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I'm very pleased to have my short play "The Craft" receive an upcoming staged reading in New York by the Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company as part of their Spring New Play Reading series. The reading will take place on Monday, April 22nd at the West Chelsea Arts Building, 508 W. 26th St, 12th floor.

This play is rapidly turning into one of my most popular one-acts, and I have a pretty good understanding of why that might be. Aside from the fact that it includes some fairly wicked humor/humour (and I say that in all modesty), I wrote it specifically as something that I thought actors would enjoy performing. As a former actor myself, I had plenty of insight into backstage/off stage/on stage drama, and of the many trials and tribulations that actors must often endure. Yes, there's plenty of sweat equity among those lines.

Above all, though, it's a strange sort of paean to theatre itself, so anyone who's been involved in this most treasured of art forms - whether on stage, back stage, or as an audience member - will undoubtedly recognize and smile knowingly at much of what transpires in this brief little play.

For the record, the play involves two actors performing a play in front of an audience. However, instead of the words of the play, what you hear coming from the actors are their innermost thoughts as they navigate the stage - thoughts about the play, thoughts about the audience, and most especially, thoughts about each other.

I'm also happy to say that "The Craft" has an upcoming production in Australia in May. Interestingly, this will be, I believe, the 3rd or 4th production of the play in Australia. For such a vast country, it appears that word of mouth travels fast there, since none of these productions are ones I've actively sought out. I even had a production of it in Tasmania, which is pretty amazing to me.

This upcoming Aussie production will be at the Woy Woy Little Theatre, on the Central Coast, NSW. This little theatre has been in existence since 1962, which is a pretty impressive feat in itself. I sincerely hope they great time performing the play.