Holiday celebrations!

Hi, everyone! First of all, Happy Hanukkah!

In the spirit of that, and all the other holidays we celebrate during the winter season, Between Us is having a holiday party! That's at Traffic Bar on December 22nd (you know, the day after the world is supposed to end...you'll need a drink) at 8pm. For just 5 dollars, you'll get a raffle ticket to win a $100 gift certificate to Traffic, get drink specials and a holiday candy. Plus you'll be supporting great art and chilling with us!

In other news, our Assistant Artistic Director, Karl Custer aka Uncle Yo, recently did a podcast interview all about us...check it out!

Finally, there is less than one day left to support our indiegogo campaign! We're still very far from our goal and we need help giving these artists the support they deserve!

Check back soon to hear the full lineup for the festival as well as news about what we're doing for Mardis Gras this year (because you know that's our thing now!)

Pics and a plea

How was everyone's thanksgiving? One thing we know that we're thankful for is the incredible community of artists and audience members and for those of you who read this blog! Let us know if there's more we can do to make it more interesting.

One thing we can share are some pictures from our last two events!

First of all, on October 20th, we had a Halloween themed improv night:

Elise Baker, Jeremy Rafal, Karl Custer, Samantha Lee Manas and Chris Barber

Chris Barber, Elise Baker and Veronica Dang

Elise Baker, Chris Barber, Veronica Dang and Jasmine Brown

Samantha Lee Manas and Jeremy Rafal

Elise Baker and Jeremy Rafal

Karl Custer, Jasmine Brown, Samantha Lee Manas, Veronica Dang, Jeremy Rafal, Elise Baker and Chris Barber

Elise Baker, Karl Custer (aka Uncle Yo) and Chris Barber

We also have pictures from our November Notes Between Us:

Alaska in the Summertime by Anna Fox.
Pictured: Anna Stefanic. 

Lily by Caity Shea Violette.
Pictured: Anna Stefanic, Scott Klavan, Lisette Espaillat and Amelia Huckle-Bauer

High Hard Ones by Charles O' Connor
Pictured: Ivan Perez, Elliot Crown and Emile Lafond.

High Hard Ones by Charles O' Connor
Pictured: John E. Simes.

The Sub by Vincent Gomez
Pictured: Ivan Perez, Emile Lafond and Jasmine Brown. 

Now, of course, this is all leading up to our festival and performances in the spring, but we need your support to make those things happen. We're getting there, but we need a lot more and the campaign is ending in 15 days!( link to the indiegogo campaign).  Please donate and/or promote! We really need you!

Stay tuned because we will have the official list of the 16 plays for our festival up shortly (we have 14 confirmed, but I wanted to give you the full list), plus what events we have going on this winter. We can tell you that the festival will be from March 18-24 at Roy Arias Stage II. It's all booked, baby!

Moving on since Sandy

Hi there, Between Us fans! It's been awhile!

First things first, I want to let you know that the Between Us Family rode out Superstorm Sandy safely.  As I'm writing this, however, many people in New York and New Jersey still have no power, have lost their homes and have had a host of other problems from the storm. This is our home and we're proud of the efforts made to help one and other and committed to staying strong for one and other. Please let us know what's going on in your community and if there is anything we can do to help.

Before the storm, as I mentioned before, we had a Halloween themed Improv battle. It was a great success, with audience members as well as Sam (Samantha Manas), Karl Custer (Uncle Yo) and me (Jasmine Brown) getting in on the action. Pictures to come!

Missed that? Well, luckily, we have an event coming up! This Saturday, November 17th, we are having a reading! It will be featuring for original plays, three of which were originally submitted as part of our upcoming ten minute play festival, so that will be a fun sneak peek as to the caliber of plays you should be expecting. The plays will be directed by myself, Samantha Manas and Graydon Gund. This will be Grady's directorial debut with Between Us Productions. He's our newest member of the company, but this will be a great time to really get to know his work. We're pretty excited about that!

As for the plays themselves, you'll meet such interesting characters as a submissive substitute, a Jewish gangster, grieving parents and the north wind, all played by some of the best actors in New York. It should be a memorable night! That's at 8pm at the Director's Studio.

 Check it out on facebook.

We are also still running are indiegogo campaign for our festival and stage productions in the spring. We really need the support, so if you can give anything please do. And do it soon, because the campaign is ending soon! And if you can't...at least share the campaign somewhere! Let's get the word out!

indiegogo campaign link

Tricks, Treats and Indiegogo

Hey, Between Us Fans!

     First of all, we wanted to update you on our Halloween themed improv battle going on Saturday, October 20th. It will be at 8pm at the Directors Studio and will include costumes, makeup, music, candy, drinks, chances of audience involvement and of course, comedy!

So far the teams are:

The Vampires:
Elise Baker
Jeremy Rafal

and

The Zombies
Chris Barber
Veronica Dang

Improv-Or-Treat!

And of course, our indiegogo campaign is still going. Please donate as soon as possible to keep the momentum on indiegogo up! We're working really hard to get ready for the festival in March as well as the One-Acts in June and we want to be able to give this work the financial support it deserves.

Now things are getting serious!

All of our meetings, all of our readings, all of our hits and our (few) misses, everything we've been doing has been leading up to this:

Between Us Productions is going to have staged performances within the year! First, we're going to have a Ten-Minute Play festival on March 18-24th. We are just finalizing the 16 plays we're going to be using right now and I have to tell you, they're pretty terrific. Between Us Productions has a commitment to support compelling original work and we intend to live up to our own standards. 

We're also going to be having an Evening of One-Acts in June. This will include some of our most well received work, finally staged and given the attention they deserved.

St. Patrick Battles the Bearded Serpent, by Karl Custer, Inalienable Rights by Samantha Manas, Three Bites From the Underworld by Jasmine Brown (me) and a forth play written by the winner of our Ten-Minute Play Festival!

To fund all of these things, we have launched an awesome Indiegogo campaign. Please check it out! Donate, share and show some love! 

Awesome Indiegogo Campaign

We're also going to be having a really fun Halloween Themed Improv Battle on October 20th. There will be candy, drinks, costumes and more. But more info on that later. ;)

Picnic Pics and Drinky Drinks

It's been awhile, Between Us fans! How has summer been treating you? We've been having a somewhat relaxed summer, but we're really focusing reaching our goals for our festival and productions next year. We're just looking for ways that fundraising can be *gasp* actually fun!

Speaking of which, did any of you get to stop by our fundraising picnic in Central Park this July? We had a blast and got to enjoy the creative talents from many members of the Between Us family, including dancers, yogis, writers, actors and comedians. I've included a few pictures for you to get a taste of the day we had but feel free to check out the whole album on our facebook page.

 Calixta Star

Shakespeare's Players (with Jeremy Rafal)

The Bellyjazz Dolls

What's next? Well, this Thursday, August 23rd, we'll be hosting a fundraising party at Keats Bar in Manhattan. There will be karaoke, drink specials and a 50/50 raffle, all supporting our effort to support fresh voices in the theatrical community! Check it out!

Finally, I'd officially like to welcome Grady Grund, our new Associate Producer! You'll be hearing more from him, and all the rest of us, very soon!

Get ready, Between Us is taking New York by storm!

Hi, all! It's been awhile, but our summer is in full swing. Sadly, we had to postpone our writing class, but there's still a lot of excitement going around.

First off, there was our reading in June. Here's a few pictures from the event.

Almost Christmas by Arthur M. Jolly, directed by Samantha Lee Manas. 
Pictured: Eric Chase, Anna Stefanic and Chris Barber. 

Protocol by Ralph Greco Jr., directed by Samantha Lee Manas. 
Pictured: Charissa Bertels and Cheri Paige Fogelman. 

Melting by Eddie Zipperer, directed by Samantha Lee Manas.
Pictured: Casey Bartolucci, Charissa Bertels, Chris Barber and Cheri Paige Fogelman.

Inalienable Rights by Samantha Lee Manas, directed by Jasmine Brown.
Pictured: Anna Stefanic, Chris Barber, Casey Bartolucci, Eric Chase and Cheri Paige Fogelman.

There are, of course, more pictures on our facebook page.

But the big news is yet to come. Tomorrow, July 14th, we're going to be having a fundraising picnic in central park and we want to invite everyone down. It's all for suggested donations and will include yoga, belly dancing, Shakespeare, a reading of Samantha's zombie play (pictured above with different actors) Inalienable Rights, a reading of my tragic incest play Orion, improv and standup comedy. Oh, and did I mention there will be free food and drink? Yeah. Check out the event info here.

If you can't make that, just keep an eye out. We'll be having another fundraising party at a Manhattan bar in August, a Halloween themed improv night in October, lots of readings and an online fundraising campaign all leading up to...a play festival and full staged one acts coming next spring!

Look out for Between Us. We're moving up just like all our amazing artistic collaborators. Let us know what you think and what kind of events you'd like to see!

Kicking off the summer of Between Us!

Hello, Between Us fans! It's been awhile, hasn't it? With all the changes going on in our company, we decided to take a break from events in March, but don't worry...we're coming back with a vengeance!

First of all, we're having a reading on June 23rd back in our old stomping ground (the Director's Studio), which will be featuring new work from many talented writers and actors, but especially our Co-Artistic Director, Samantha Manas, who wrote a piece about zombie rights ( yes, you read that right). You wont want to miss this one!

Secondly, we'd like to formally announce our fundraising picnic on July 14th at the Turtle Pond in central park. We'll have food, dancing, improv and a whole lot more for just a suggested donation. So mark your calenders, folks. Come out and support the work we're doing and enjoy a summer day in New York City while doing so!

Finally, we want to take another chance to remind you about our Playwriting Workshop starting on July 12th. This is the time to start creating your own work! Come out of this summer with a ten minute play all your own, telling your stories, starring you! You may be able to get it featured in our first ever festival...but more on that later. ;)

Announcing our first ever workshop

Storytelling is easy. Everyone I've ever met who found out that I'm a playwright has been more than happy to pour me a drink and tell me what I should write about next.  But, writing is hard. There's a process, it takes time. There are rules, those you follow and those you can break once in a while. 

So many actors I know struggle to find the part that would showcase their talent, so many directors struggle to find work that fits their vision. But with the tools and the practice, they could easily be writing it themselves. 

That's why Between Us Productions is hold our first ever workshop. 

Writing for Actors, Directors and Other Creative Folk

The class will be held on Thursday evenings this summer from July 12th-August 16th, 7-9pm in a midtown location TBD. It will end with a reading of the original work developed, with actors and directors being encouraged to cast within the class but with Between Us Productions providing additional casting support. Though there will be a few surprise guests, the class will be primarily taught by me, Jasmine Brown. 

Besides being Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Between Us Productions, I have a BFA in Dramatic Writing with a focus in Playwrighting and have had my work produced all over Manhattan, including the Director's Studio, Nicu's Spoon, Manhattan Repertory Theatre, the Signature Theatre, Where Eagles Dare and with the Strawberry Festival. I am also a certified substitute teacher for the Board of Education of New York. 

Classes will be $150 for six weeks.  We will only be accepting ten students for this class so contact us now if you want to reserve a spot and please forward this to anyone else you think might be interested. 

Pictures and updates

Hi, all! It's been a while. First of all, I wanted to put up some pictures from our improv show, The Ring,  at Nuyorican Poet's Cafe (which is quite a fun space). There are more on our facebook page. 

 Samantha Jones, our host.

Unfortunately, we have decided to suspend our improv program for the time being due to refocusing our business, but Samantha Jones is planning on continuing with The Ring and we will be letting you know about that.

Finally, we are committed to advertising the work of members of the Between Us family in the future. The first spotlight is a reading featuring Elliot Crown, one of our favorite actors, going through May 11th.

http://www.facebook.com/events/425231784171185/

We also have a lot of new events of our own coming up, so stayed tuned!

Shiny pictures and shinier links! Check us out!

We finally have pictures from our amazing Saint Patrick's Day themed reading at Space on White. As you can see, we had a heck of a time!

Charissa Bertels and P.J. Tiberio in Something About Smoke and the Way it Rises by DJ Sylvis
Pictured with Zachary Tomlinson, Michael Schlapp and Co-Artistic Director Samantha Lee Manas

Charissa Bertels and P.J. Tiberio in Something About Smoke and the Way it Rises by DJ Sylvis

Charissa Bertels and P.J. Tiberio in Something About Smoke and the Way it Rises by DJ Sylvis

Charissa Bertels and P.J. Tiberio in Something About Smoke and the Way it Rises by DJ Sylvis

Jeremy Rafal, Stephanie Gail Ross, Samantha Jane Williams and  Casey Bartolucci in Excerpt from a Romantic Comedy by Co-Artistic Director Jasmine Brown

Jeremy Rafal, Stephanie Gail Ross, Samantha Jane Williams and  Casey Bartolucci in Excerpt from a Romantic Comedy by Co-Artistic Director Jasmine Brown

 Samantha Jane Williams, Casey Bartolucci, Elliot Crown and Zachary Tomlinson in Excerpt from a Romantic Comedy by Co-Artistic Director Jasmine Brown

Elliot Crown, Zachary Tomlinson and Michael Schlapp in Excerpt from a Romantic Comedy by Co-Artistic Director Jasmine Brown
Pictured with Charissa Bertels and P.J. Tiberio

Elliot Crown and Zachary Tomlinson in Stalemates by DJ Sylvis
Pictured with Stephanie Gail Ross

Elliot Crown and Zachary Tomlinson in Stalemates by DJ Sylvis
Pictured with Stephanie Gail Ross

Elliot Crown and Zachary Tomlinson in Stalemates by DJ Sylvis
Pictured with Stephanie Gail Ross

Elliot Crown and Zachary Tomlinson in Stalemates by DJ Sylvis
Pictured with Stephanie Gail Ross and Samantha Jane Williams

Samantha Jane Williams, Casey Barolucci, Thoa Dang and Michael Schlapp in St Patrick  Battles the Bearded Serpent by Assistant Artistic Director Karl Custer Jr aka Uncle Yo

Samantha Jane Williams, Casey Barolucci, Thoa Dang and Michael Schlapp in St Patrick  Battles the Bearded Serpent by Assistant Artistic Director Karl Custer Jr aka Uncle Yo

Samantha Jane Williams, Casey Barolucci, Thoa Dang and Michael Schlapp in St Patrick  Battles the Bearded Serpent by Assistant Artistic Director Karl Custer Jr aka Uncle Yo,
Pictured with Zachary Tomlinson

Samantha Jane Williams, Casey Barolucci, Thoa Dang in St Patrick  Battles the Bearded Serpent by Assistant Artistic Director Karl Custer Jr aka Uncle Yo

Co-Artistic Directors Samantha Lee Manas and Jasmine Brown get into the spirit of the event
Pictured with Casey Bartolucci

Want to see even more pictures from the amazing event? Check out our photo album at our facebook page.
Weren't able to catch this event? Good news! We have something even wilder going on Saturday, April 14th. It's an all out Improv Battle called The Ring at Nuyorican Poets Cafe, hosted by Samantha Jones. Here's the site all about it!

Trying new things out

So, we had an extremely successful reading on March 31st at Space on White (pictures to come!). This was a different venue, we usually do our readings at the Director's Studio. The space was beautiful, but we hadn't really realized how much smaller it would be than what we were used to. As flattering as it is to turn people away, it's not good for business so for now, it's probably back to the Director's Studio for those types of events.

Meanwhile, we're getting ready for our next event. It's our retooled improv battle, now called The Ring. The date is April 14th, the time is 8pm and the new space will be Nuyorican Poets Cafe!

So here's hoping that works out. We have a lot planned to make this a very big event. There's even page all about it on our Improv Director (Samantha Jones)'s website.

The Ring

Get amped for March 31st

So the lineup for our March reading is finally set. We've chosen two plays by writers we've worked with before, Something About Smoke by DJ Sylvis and Stalemates by Philip Kaplan. We've also chosen to read an excerpt from a screenplay I'm working on (which I'm a bit nervous about, btw) and have a second reading of Saint Patrick Battles the Bearded Serpent, by our Assistant Artistic Director, Karl Custer (known in some circles as Uncle Yo).

Even though it's a going to be two weeks past St Patrick's day, with the fun nature of that play and the fact that audiences seem to love themes, we are including some St Patrick's day themed refreshments and decorations. We're even calling it the Notes Between Us St Patricks Day Bash. So, hey, if you missed out on partying on the 17th, come have fun with us on the 31st!

We're also out trying venue and time. I'm hopeful about it, but only time will tell. The show will be at 7pm at Space on White. That's right, Between Us Productions is officially downtown and cool.

At least for this month.

Meanwhile, we're in the process of amping up our improv battles, which will  be at another new venue on April 14th (we're trying to find what works best for our monetary and artistic needs at this point), but more on that later.

Too many irons in the fire?

Last night, over tea, salad and a raspberry macaron at Argo Tea by Columbus Circle, I met with Alexis Hadsall, former artistic director of TheatreRats. As a start up theatre producer, we often have to figure out how to do everything ourselves so it was great to get advice from someone who has been there. Whether or not we take Alexis' advice right now is in question. With our improv, one acts and possible educational inititives, do we have the time and more importantly, the money, to take on other projects? Well, hopefully, we're picking projects that will bring in money, but still. These are the questions we have to ponder.

Meanwhile, we are still trying to nail down the plays we're having read on March 31st. We have three already (one of which is a Family Guy style comedy about Saint Patrick by our Assistant Artistic Director, Karl Custer aka Uncle Yo), but we're still deciding on the forth. We have two options, one of which is an excerpt from a screenplay by me. I'm waiting for Business Partner!Sam to let me know what she thinks about it. I'm not sure it's appropriate for a night of one acts. See, a producer's work doesn't get automatic preference. At least, this one's doesn't. 

We also have a meeting with Improv Director!Sam about the direction our improv battles are going to be taking in the near future. We'll see how that goes once we hammer out a time. 

That's about all for now. I'll keep you all posted as soon as there is anything else going on. And if you like, don't be afraid to comment!

Producers Meeting

Friday afternoon, Sam (the business partner one) and I had a meeting. As is the way with us, it was very casual but also very productive. We held it at one of favorite spots for a meeting...the Cosi by Union Square! Hey, I told you, Sam and I are very casual and a girl's gotta eat.

Over raspberry tea and salads, Sam and I brainstormed, hammered out details and made action plans for several of our up coming projects. On the horizon, we have a reading of one acts coming up at the end of march and another improv battle night in April. What we still need to do is to finalize the plays we're using, cast them and get a visiting team for the improv night. Daunting tasks, but Sam and I have a pretty good system and excellent resources to get quality work and actors. The bigger deal is that we're trying out two new spaces for these events. Sam and I are pretty great at working on a low budget but we want to see if we can accommodate different types of spaces. And by accommodate I mean, pack the house and turn a profit, of course. That's what you have to worry about as a producer. Money, money, money.

Next, we talked about what projects we have planned for the more distant future. Right now we're looking at doing a weekend next winter with full productions of four of the one acts we've had in our reading series. We're really proud of the work we've had shown and want to do more with it. We're also looking at a much larger improv battle festival next summer. It's going to be wild! Finally, Sam and I are looking at possible future educational programs for theatre artists and children.

Sure, it sounds like a lot but with taking things one step at a time and having the occasional three hour meeting, we believe we can do all this and more.

Our Mardis Gras Improv Battle was a huge success!

One of things we've been doing has been hosting improv nights. This month we decided to go all out with a theme and really work the party atmosphere. We had refreshments (Samantha Manas made a King Cake!), beads, prizes and of course, incredible improv.

Samantha Jones, our Improv Director, really helped us organize, strategize and did the hosting so much of the credit goes to her. We seen that the battle format is really fun for the audience, as is our other efforts to increase audience participation. I must say that the theme seemed to really attract more of an audience than usual and added and added an air of excitement to the night. We'll definitely be doing more things like this in the near future, that's clear!

Here are a few pictures showing off some of the members of the Between Us House Team, the visiting team, Improv Addiction and the wonderful Samantha Jones (I know, we have too many Samanthas! Whatcha gonna do?). Check out the fun we were having!