An Exciting Summer and Spring for Between Us!

Hi, all! Between Us had a wonderful time at our third annual Take Ten festival. Here are pictures from all sixteen of the wonderful plays.

The Devil's Advocate written and directed by Shari Umansky
Pictured: Ed Heuether, Micheal Newman

Table for Two by Edward Precht
Directed by Dunya J. Karam
Pictured: Lauren Fischetti, Rebecca Sanborn, Alexander Lukham, Timothy McHale

The Oracle by Steven Young (finalist for Best Play)
Directed by Montgomery Sutton (finalist for Best Director)
Pictured: Raphael Corkill (finalist for Best Actor), Nathaniel Kent (Winner for Best Actor)

Toward the Heart of the Forest by Eric Marlin (Semi-Finalist for Best Play)
Directed by Clara Rotter-Laitman
Pictured: Mari Vial-Golden, Noah Berman, Keaton Morris-Stan, Colin Hinckley, Josephine Wheelwright (Winner for Best Actress)

Confession written and directed by Kara K. Shelton
Pictured: Kara K. Shelton and Cedrick Massey

Don't Call Us (We'll Call You) by Abigail Taylor Sansom
Pictured:Caroline Snape and Noam Shapiro

The Lives We Lead written and directed by Jessica Lehman (Semi-Finalist for Best Play)
Pictured: Dakota Dutcher and Victoria M. Fragnito (Finalist for Best Actress)

Thursday, Five Years From Now by Matt Kleckner (Finalist for Best Play)
Directed by Ryan Yandersits
Pictured: Matt Kleckner and Jo Twist (appearing courtesy of Actor's Equity)

A Talk Amongst Criminals by Zach Stein
Directed by Patrick Morley
Pictured: Roz Rosario

Rita Shalimar by Arlene Jaffe (Winner for Best Play)
Directed by Mark Richardson (Finalist for Best Director)
Pictured: Greg Carter, Margot Steinberg and Sage Buchalter (Finalist for Best Actress)

The First Vacation in Five Years written and directed by Christina Klessig
Pictured: Valerie Saturno, Jon McCormick

Yankee Stadium, June 1960 written and directed by Irwin Hahn (Finalist for Best Play and Best Director)
 Pictured: Irwin Hahn (Finalist for Best Actor)

Restoration by Mark Rosati
Directed by Jake King
Pictured: Guy Wellman and Chelsea Clark

Think, What Have You Done by Carrie Boehm (Semi-Finalist for Best Play)
Directed by Jacob Henkoff
Pictured: Amanda Jungquist (Finalist for Best Actress)

www.surveyhoney.com by Seth Freeman (Semi-Finalist for Best Play)
Directed by Virginia Hastings (Winner for Best Director)
Pictured: Marie Lenzi and Ray Bergen (Finalist for Best Play)

Feline High-Rise Syndrome by Rex McGregor
Directed by Emily Naylor
Pictured: Christopher Herr, Clare Rea, Stephen Humes, Hannah Richter

Please check out our facebook for more pictures from all the shows. And here are some from our awards ceremony.

Best Play Awards
Pictured: Co-Artistic Directors Jasmine Brown (myself) and Samantha Lee Manas
with Irwin Hahn, Liz Blake (Stage Manager for the Oracle) Nathaniel Kent, Matt Kleckner and Arlene Jaffe

Best Actor Awards
Pictured: Nathaniel Kent, Montgomery Sutton, Irwin Hahn, Ray Bergen, Jasmine Brown and Samantha Lee Manas

Best Actress Awards
Pictured: Victoria M. Fragnito, Sage  Buchalter, Samantha Lee Manas and Jasmine Brown

Best Director Awards
Pictured: Mark Richardson, Irwin Hahn, Virginia Hastings, Montgomery Sutton, Jasmine Brown and Samantha Lee Manas

Additionally, we had some new staff for the festival. Although Tierney Nolen helped us coming up to the festival, she recently got an opportunity to work overseas and had to leave the company. We did hire a stage manager for the festival, Paulina Ruiz, however, who was truly spectacular and we hope to work with her in the future.

Coming up, we are going to be producing a workshop of an new original play by our Take Ten 2015 winner, Arlene Jaffe. More information on that soon, but let us just say, we are very excited about her voice. We are also going to be doing a full production from our Take Ten 2014 winner, Sander Gusinow, just because we liked working with him so much. You remember Sander's work, don't you?

Yeah. That's him. The play is called The Fairer Sex and it's about the feminist revolution. Look for it this summer!

That's all for now! More soon!

Finally, an update!

Hi, all!

Wow, it's been awhile! So sorry about that!

First of all, Uprising in September went wonderfully. Here are some selected pictures. At some point (like in a few years),we may do another performance with expanded scenes since it was so well received, so look out for that.

Looks really cool, huh? We were very proud!

But on to more current things. One of our associated artists, Tierney Nolen, who can be seen in some of the above pictures, is now our Social Media Director. Here's her headshot...and a picture of her goofin' around backstage during Uprising for good measure.

Aint she a qt?

But MOST EXCITING!

We have our lineup for Take Ten this year!

The Devil's Advocate
Table for Two
The Oracle
Towards the Heart of the Forest
Confession
Don't Call Us (We'll Call You)
The Lives We Lead
Thursday, Five Years from Now
A Talk Amongst Criminals
Rita Shalimar
The First Vacation in Five Years
Yankee Stadium,1960
Feline High Rise Syndrome
Restoration
Think, What Have You Done
www.surveyhoney.com

April 7th - 12th watch sixteen ten minute plays battle for Best Play, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress!

April 7-11, 7&9pm
April 12, 3pm

Audience vote determines who will move on!

The shows at 7 and 9 will be $20 and the show at 3 on Sunday will be $25 as it will be an award show with refreshments.

Here's this years graphic: 

That's all for now, but more soon!

Updates and reminders (only one day left on our indiegogo!)

Just another update. Last Saturday we had our workshop production of Hell-Bent, written by Sander Gunisow and directed by Lourdes Uno. We were really proud of the work they did and can't wait to see another production of this some time in the future. Unfortunately we were able to get any pictures to put up of it. Well...they were on a mobile device that had to be reset. Yeah. Things that only happen with up and coming theatre company, huh? But anyway, we're really proud of the show, the artists who we got to showcase and the audience members we got to share it with!

My other reason for the update is to remind you about our fundraising campaign which ends in just a little over twenty-four hours. We really need your support to make this show everything it deserves to be. It is our most experimental and ambitious show to date and we're so excited about it. Check out our campaign and be a part of it while there's still time. Right here, guys!

That's all for now

A new friend, a demonic workshop and a heartfelt plea...

A lot's going on right now with Between Us and I wanted to update you all about it. First of all, Tierney Nolen, an actor we have worked with on three straight full productions and truly love do to her attitude and talent, has become an official member of the company as our Social Media Director! Please welcome Tierney and please remember that this was our first introduction to her!:

Long live the Sheep!

In addition, we are having a workshop this Saturday, July 26th, at our old spot, the Director's Studio (311 West 43rd St, 4th floor) of Hell-Bent, a new horror-comedy one act by Sander Gusinow, the winning playwright from this year's Take Ten festival. Here's a reminder of his incredible work:

The play will be directed by Lourdes Uno, another artist we've been pleased to work with during the last few years, who wrote and directed another play in this year's festival. They were the only two horror authors to qualify for the festival and we really feel like their voices are a natural match. Here's a look at her work from the festival:

So join us while we celebrate these two unique voices. The whole thing will only be ten dollars, there will be refreshments for sale and you will be supporting a company doing new, diverse work! Plus, it will be scary!
Here's the facebook event.

And speaking of new work...I've been hinting for some time about the labor play we are producing in September. Well, in case I haven't put all this up here, or you forgot, Samantha and I collaborated on a historical fiction/multimedia event called Uprising and it will be playing September 2-8 at Shetler Studios. You will be hearing a lot more from me about this as it gets closer, but for right now, we are doing an indiegogo campaign and we really need the support in order to provide our cast with the sets and costumes they deserve to make their work look professional. Please donate and share! We only have twelve days left!

Take Ten pictures, workshop and Uprising

It's been a long time coming, but I finally do have pictures for our Take Ten festival in April. I was a wonderful success and we are so proud of all the artists we got the opportunity to meet, as well as those we got to work with again.

Dinner, Drinks and DNA written by Seth Freeman and directed by Noelle P. Wilson.
Finalist for Best Play, Finalist for Best Director,Winner for Best Actor, Brian Vaughan (pictured). 

Echo, written by Jessica Krause, directed by Craig Baldwin.
Finalist for Best Play, Winner for Best Director.

The Girls Night written and directed by Joette Spinelli, and
co-directed by Vicky Vasiloupolis.

Green Wedding by Sarah Chichester, directed by Rebecca Cunningham.

Hansen and Greta, written by Sander Gunisow, directed by Matthew Kreiner.
Winner for Best Play, Finalist for Best Director, Finalist for Best Actor (Christopher Payseur) and Winner for Best Actress (Sarah Penchoff, pictured, seated).

Hypotheticals, Written and directed by Mirielle Smith

Manere Fortis, written by Luke Wise,  directed by Sarah Jane Schostack
Semi-finalist for Best Play.

The Pheasant Plucker's Son,  written by David Munetti, directed by Gary Shackleford.

Phenomenals Anonymous, written by Rex McGregor, directed by Alex Keegan.

Push Up by Sam Graber, directed by Marcia Berry.

How Rapunzel Left Her Tower, written and directed by Brandon Monokian.
Finalist for Best Actress Caitlin Gutches (Pictured).

Soft and Shiny, written and directed by Lourdes Uno.

Sober Shower, written by Maria Decotis, directed by Antonia Lassar,
Semi-finalist for Best Play. 

Splits in the Alley by Graham Shelton, directed by Jennifer White,
Finalist for Best Play, Finalist for Best Director, Finalist for Best Actor (Ian Hunt, pictured).

Vultures, written by Greg Abbot, directed by Marcia Berry.
Finalist for Best Actor (pictured, also above in Push Up).

Waking Dream, written by Matt Russak, directed by Shannon Knapp,
Semi-Finalist for Best Play, Finalists for Best Actress, Joanna Getting and Moira Quigley (both pictured). 

There are many more pictures, and they may be shared on facebook or in other ways in the future so look out for that.

Right now we have several other projects coming up. We are having a workshop of another play for our Take Ten winner, Sander Gunisow, in late July. And in the first week of September at Shetler Studios, we are premiering Uprising, the original play/multimedia event by Samantha Manas and myself, about the labor movement. We have almost finished casting, so stay tuned for more on that!

Till next time (hope it's sooner)!

Parables Pics and Take Ten

Wow, it's been awhile. Sorry I haven't been keeping up with this. Well, first of all, here are some pictures from Parables for the One Percent, taken by Allie Trimboli.

Ari Vigoda and Casey Bartolucci

Tierney Nolan and Stephanie Alvarez

Cameran Hebb and David Weinheimer

We also got two some lovely reviews for the show here and here. All in all it was a lovely experience. The cast, crew and theatre were all people we would work with again, we were incredibly proud of the result and turn out and we know we will continue to move even higher.

Some sad news, however. Allie Trimboli and Brittany Remington are no longer official members of the company. We were very happy working with them however, and look forward to any opportunities to do so in the future.

Ok, now that we've covered the past on to what's currently going on. We have Take Ten coming up...next week! Yikes! The festival is running April 8th-13th at Roy Arias Stage II. Here is our official image.

Round 1: April 8th & 9th 7pm & 9pm
Round 2: April 10th & 11th 7pm & 9pm
Semi-Finals: April 12th 2pm and 8pm
Finals: April 13th 3pm

Roy Arias Studios, Stage II
300 W 43rd St, 4th Floor
Between 8th & 9th Avenues
New York, NY

The Competitors:

Phenomenals Anonymous by Rex McGregor
Soft and Shiny by Lourdes Natalie Uno
The Girls Night by Joette Spinelli
Push-Up by Sam Graber
Echo by Jessica Krause
Sober Shower by Maria DeCotis
Hansen and Greta by Sander Gusinow
Manere Fortis by Luke Wise
Green Wedding by Sarah Chichester
Splits in the Alley by Graham Shelton
How Persephone Learned to Listen by Brandon Monokian
Waking Dream by Matt Russak
Hypotheitcals by Miriam Smith
The Pheasant Plucker's Son by David Munetti
Vultures by Greg Abbott
Drinks, Dinner, and DNA by Seth Freeman

Tickets are available here, the website is here and the facebook event is here. 

And why don't I give you the schedule so far? 

April 8th 7pm
Series A

Green Wedding
Sober Shower
The Pheasant Plucker's Son
Waking Dream

April 8th 9pm
Series B

Echo
Push Up
Soft and Shiny
Phenomenal Anonymous

April 9th 7pm
Series C

Manere Fortis
The Girls Night
Splits in the Alley
Hansen and Greta

April 9th 9pm
Series D

Hypotheticals
Drinks, Dinner and DNA
Vultures
How Persephone Learned to Listen

April 10th 7pm
Series A

Green Wedding
Sober Shower
The Pheasant Plucker's Son
Waking Dream

April 10th 9pm
Series B

Echo
Push Up
Soft and Shiny
Phenomenal Anonymous

April 11th 7pm
Series D

Hypotheticals
Drinks, Dinner and DNA
Vultures
How Persephone Learned to Listen

April 11th 9pm
Series C

Manere Fortis
The Girls Night
Splits in the Alley
Hansen and Greta

Ok, I think that's enough stuffed into one entry. As always, don't hesitate to contact and ask questions!

Starting 2014 right with Parables for the One Percent!

Happy New Year, Between Us Friends and Fans!

           This is our year, guys! We mean it! WOO! *cue inspirational music*

No, but seriously, folks. This is a year with a lot going on for the Between Us crew and I am all for letting you guys know about it.

First of all, as some of you may know, we had a holiday bash at Traffic Bar and Grill. It was a really nice time to spend with some of actors, crew, friends and family. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of the event to share at the moment.

Okay, so it's not that bad. Not quite as epic as I had hoped, but what can you do? At least you can see what a fun bunch we are and hopefully make it out next time to party with us!

But on to more important and pressing matters. Parables!

Yes, Parables for the One Percent got funded and we are all set for January 8-11. (Well, we were booked before, but the money is the part the makes it actually happen). We are so grateful to everyone who joined on to back us in this project, which is in some ways our most ambitious. Rest assured that you will see your rewards if you haven't soon!

So, okay, what's the deal with Parables? (You may be asking). Here is the whole deal! Every bit of the deal!

Parables for the One Percent is a satirical comedy that explores what we have never heard; the interior monologues of the richest people alive today. It's safe to laugh, but the facts are nothing but dire. For the first time, the richest in our world have bought a commodity we can't take back: our futures.

January 8-11: 8pm
January 11: 2pm
January 12: 3pm

Theatre Row - The Studio Theater
410/412 W 42nd St
New York, NY 10036

Tickets $18
Buy in advance:
Here

Parables for the One Percent
Written by Karl Custer
Directed by Samantha Lee Manas
Produced by Jasmine Brown, Graydon Gund, and Brittany Remington

Starring:
Stephanie Alvarez as Jackie
Casey Bartolucci as Pharaoh
Cameran Hebb as Ann
Tierney Nolen as Jaquelyn
Ari Vigoda as Slave
and
David Weinheimer as Robert

Costume Design by Carolann Voltarel
Lighting Design by Lauren Bremen

Between Us Productions Staff:
Co Artistic Directors: Samantha Lee Manas and Jasmine Brown
Associate Artistic Director: Graydon Gund
Associate Producer: Brittany Remington
Artistic/Literary Assistant: Karl Custer
Artistic/Marketing Assistant: Abby Rose Leigh
Graphic Designer: Allie Trimboli

Oh, yes and speaking of Allie...here is the final image for the show

I'm kind of crazy about it, I don't know about you guys. Like the last image, that is a quote from the show. This one gives a bit more of a peak into the characters and themes, though.

So, in short, come one, come all. It's going to be an incredible show, showcasing amazing talent and will make you laugh in some uncomfortably real ways (which are the best ways, in my opinion).

And stay tuned for more, because not only is Take Ten fast approaching with an insane batch of plays this year, but Sam and I are cooking up something extra special for later on...a full length historical drama!

But more of that later...

Thanks for reading, lots of love...


...and come see Parables! ;)