Looking back and getting ready for an awesome week!

Since Behaving Badly is coming up this week (wed-sun!) I wanted to give you a chance to see how far we've come in the past few years leading up to this. We've really striven to be a resource for the upcoming community of artists and as such, you will see a lot of familiar names and faces throughout the years. 

Here's a shot from Sweet Prince, written by me, Jasmine Brown and directed by Samantha  Lee Manas. The night after this show ended, Sam and I decided that we we would start producing on our own and thus, Between Us Productions was born. Besides being Co-Artistic Directors of the company, Sam has written a play (Inalienable Rights) as well as directed one (St. Patrick Battles the Bearded Serpent) for Behaving Badly. I'm the writer and director for Three Bites from the Underworld.

Back in 2010, during one of our first readings, we read Three Bites from the Underworld. Note Karl Custer, writer for St. Patrick Battles the Bearded Serpent and Assistant Artistic Director, reading stage directions. Also note that it was the holiday season and we were trying to be festive. 

Here's a reading we did for Inalienable Rights. We can see Anna Stefanic , who stars in it now, but plays Kelly instead of the human, as well as Casey Bartolucci, who now stars in St. Patrick Battles the Bearded Serpent (as St. Patrick, of course). I think the mess of furniture behind them really adds to the zombie apocalypse ambiance. 

Here's a reading we did of St. Patrick Battles the Bearded Serpent, featuring Casey Bartolucci, the current star and Veronica Dang, the director of Inalienable Rights. Aren't the props and decorations fun?

Here we have a beautiful picture from Disappearing, Cathy Earnest's play in our Take Ten festival, which won Best Play and earned her a spot in Behaving Badly, with Millions & Millions & Millions.

Here is Cathy, receiving the award for best play, from Samantha and I. 

Speaking of the Take Ten Festival, here we see Molly Garbe, Stephanie in Three Bites from the Underworld, in Maturity, directed by Associate Producer, Graydon Gund, now director of Millions & Millions & Millions.

Here we see another peak from the Take Ten Festival,  Ari Vigoda, who now stars in St. Patrick Battles the Bearded Serpent as the Narrator, performing in Psycho Therapy, a semi-finalist for Best Play.

Another moment from our Take Ten festival, here's Scars, finalist for Best Play, directed by Veronica Dang.

Here we see Emile Lafond, currently starring as Harold in Three Bites from the Underworld, in a reading of The Sub, a play we received as a submission for Take Ten but that was unable to participate. Note me at the edge of frame there, reading stage directions and generally being amused.

Here we have Sharon Zaslaw, aka Sharqui and her Bellyjazz Dolls, at our fundraiser in Central Park last summer. Sharon is now starring as Celeste in Three Bites from the Underworld. 

Here we are with some friends and fans at our Improv-or Treat event this year. You can spot Alia Berezov, assistant/wardrobe for Three Bites from the Underworld, as well as me, Karl, Sam, Veronica and even Grady (first pic of him up here!) in the crowd. Note that our love of zombies was not a passing thing. 

So, come on! See what all the fuss is about and Behave Badly with us this week!

Wednesday, June 26 - 8pm
Thursday, June 27 - 8pm
Friday, June 28 - 8pm
Saturday June 29 - 2pm & 8pm
Sunday June 30 - 3pm

at Roy Arias Studios, Stage II
300 W 43rd St, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10036

Plays:
Inalienable Rights by Samantha Lee Manas
Millions & Millions & Millions by Cathy Earnest
Saint Patrick Battles the Bearded Serpent by Karl Custer
and
Three Bites from the Underworld by Jasmine Brown

Directed by: Jasmine Brown, Veronica Dang, Graydon Gund, and Samantha Lee Manas

Starring:
Casey Bartolucci
Emile Lafond
Tierney Nolan
Ari Vigoda
Sharon Zaslaw
Molly Garbe
Catherine LeClair
Alyssa Simon*
Cain Duminski
Evan Cory Zimmerman
Anna Stefanic
Jonathan Zipper
Alex Witherow
RG Lacandola
Wes Hager
David Weinheimer

Tickets $18 CASH ONLY AT THE DOOR

*Appearing Courtesy of Actors Equity


So, hey, Check out our facebook event or just buy tickets in advance!

Getting ready to Behave Badly!

Hi, all!

Things are getting exciting for us!

First of all, our Cinco de Mayo themed variety show at Joria was excellent! We're so proud of the talented artists we work with and are glad they got to entertain as well as show off their skills. Pictures to come!

Second of all, we're heading into the home stretch for our evenings of one-acts, now titled Behaving Badly. We even got some awesome postcards designed by Bobby Bleustone (look him up)!

 

 

If you can't see all the info listed, here it is (plus a little more).

 

Behaving Badly

 

"Four original one-act plays about how absurdly real the risks are when we all misbehave."

 

Wednesday, June 26 - 8pm

Thursday, June 27 - 8pm
Friday, June 28 - 8pm
Saturday June 29 - 2pm & 8pm
Sunday June 30 - 3pm

at Roy Arias Studios, Stage II
300 W 43rd St, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10036

Plays:
Inalienable Rights by Samantha Lee Manas
Millions & Millions & Millions by Cathy Earnest
Saint Patrick Battles the Bearded Serpent by Karl Custer
and
Three Bites from the Underworld by Jasmine Brown

Directed by: Jasmine Brown, Veronica Dang, Graydon Gund, and Samantha Lee Manas

Starring:
Casey Bartolucci
Emile Lafond
Tierney Nolan
Michael Schlapp
Ari Vigoda
Sharon Zaslaw
Molly Grabe
More TBA

Tickets $18 CASH at the door or buy them early online!

In addition, we're having a fundraiser at Traffic Bar and Grill in Hell's Kitchen (we love it there!) for the one-acts on June 1st at 9pm. Come out to support theatre, get drink specials and have the chance to win a $50 gift certificate for a night out at Traffic on your own. Check out our facebook event!

 



Behaving Badly and Cinco (or really Once) De Mayo

Hi, all! Happy May!

Just a quick update. A lot is going on for us. May 11th (that's tomorrow, folks!) we're having our Cinco De Mayo themed variety show/fundraiser! Please come by, show your support and have a good time! More info is on the Facebook event, but basically you'll get two drinks, comedy, music and dance performances all for just $20. 8pm at Joria productions, folks!

Our other news is regarding the One-Acts. Things are really coming together! They will be performed at Roy Arias, Stage II June 26-30.  The evening will be called Behaving Badly and the line up will be:

Saint Patrick Battles the Bearded Serpent, written by Karl Custer Jr. and directed by Samantha Lee Manas

Inalienable Rights, written by Samantha Lee Manas and directed by Veronica Dang

Millions and Millions and Millions, written by Cathy Earnest and directed by Graydon Gund

Three Bites from the Underworld, written and directed by Jasmine Brown

Casting is almost done and rehearsals are underway, so it should be an exciting time!

In the meantime, enjoy the lovely weather and Mother's day and remember to join us tomorrow night for an excuse to party and support the arts!

Take Ten Pictures

Well, it's been about a month since out Take Ten festival, but I finally got the time to put up just one picture from each of ours plays, plus one extra from our awards ceremony. We were so thrilled to get to work with such talented writers, directors, actors and stage crew. There are even more pictures in our

facebook album, so please check them out. All are by the talented Vladimir Weinstein. 

At Least He Didn't Die With Antlers On His Head by Thomas Levirer
Directed by Giovanna Aguilar
Pictured: Andrew Matthews, Matt Davis, Basilica Bliachas, David Donahoe

Killing Cupid, OK by Lindsay Bryde (Semi-finalist)
Directed by Lindsay Bryde
Pictured: Brendan Brierley and Larissa Diaz

Disappearing by Cathy Earnest (Winner for Best Play)
Directed by Jaclyn Gramigna (Winner for Best Director)
Pictured: Benjamin Foronda (Nominated for Best Actor), Jennifer Hunter (Winner for Best Actress)

Driving Herd by Sam Graber
Directed by Vincent Scott
Pictured: Juan Carlos Diaz, James Wilcox

Fade by Zachary Rufa (Nominated for Best Play)
Directed by Alexandra Keegan (Nominated for Best Director)
Pictured: Brady Wailbel and Olivia Harding (Nominated for Best Actress)

Getting it off in Ought Eight by David Wilcox
Directed by Cindy Kawasaki
Pictured: Kathleen Fletcher, Alexander Petrov

Give Me Something Good to Eat by John Glass
Directed by Johnny Culver
Pictured Charles Baran, Erik Neilssen and Marianne Hardat

Jumping In by Seth Freeman (Semi-finalist)
Directed by Noelle P. Wilson
Pictured: Kati Rae Cowardin, Jessica Cadden Osborne (Nominated for Best Actress)

Last Call for Love by Shasone Lambert
Directed by Shashone Lambert
Pictured: Shashone Lambert, Steven Strickland

Maturity by Aaron Leventman
Directed by Graydon Gund
Pictured: Molly Garbe, James Addison

The New Models by Rory Leahy
Directed by Art Brown
Pictured: R.A. Guirand, Heidi Jaye

Paul & Eddie by Ken Brisbois (Nominated for Best Play)
Directed by Natalia Lopez (Nominated for Best Director)
Pictured: Miguel Belmonte (Nominated for Best Actor), Nick Lopez (Winner for Best Actor)

Psycho Therapy by Tom Cherwin (Semi-finalist)
Directed by Ian Ogden (Nominated for Best Director)
Pictured: Costa Nicholas (Nominated for Best Actor), Ari Vigoda

Scars by Greg Abbot (Nominated for Best Play)
Directed by Veronica Dang
Pictured: Marissa Wolf (Nominated for Best Actress), Collin Blackard

The Oak Tree by Jay Koepke (Semi-Finalist)
Directed by Mark Cirnigliaro
Pictured: Chelsea Spack, Christopher Bennighoff, Sam Warren

Waiting by Jeremy Rafal

Directed by Michel Chahade

Pictured: Karen McFarlane, Gaston Franco

Winner for Best Play, Cathy Earnest with Co-Artistic Directors, Jasmine Brown and Samantha Manas

Don't they look swell? We also got a write up in a blog and the Windy City Media Group, so check those out!

As for our next project, you will hear about that very soon! We're still negotiating with spaces, but the plan is for our evenings of one-acts to take place at the end of June and they will feature plays by Samantha, Karl, Jasmine (me) and Cathy, as well as direction by Jasmine (still me), Samantha and Grady. Stay tuned!

It's coming soon!

Hi, friends and fans!

How's it going? Things are really getting crazy for us. Our very first festival is coming up, the week of March 19th-24th. Can you believe it? All the directors, writers, actors and crew have been working really hard and we're excited to see what they came out with. Meanwhile, we've been promoting the heck out if, with postcards, facebook ads and press releases. The only thing we need now? An audience to come out and vote on these plays! And actually, we're pretty confident we're gonna have that. The work speaks for itself.

Speaking of which, wanna see the lovely graphic we have for the Take Ten festival, designed by Dan Streeting?

Gorgeous, right?

Check out our festival website, facebook event or search for Take Ten on Smarttix.com to order tickets.

Hey, all!

     Just a quick little update. First of all, yes, we had to cancel the mardi gras party due to weather concerns. Sad, I know. I wanted to be able to post some scandalous pictures!

But the good news is that we are moving forward with the Take Ten festival! We have a website (under construction), a facebook event and oh, yeah, you can order tickets!

More on all of this very, very soon!

What's Happened and What's Coming Up

First of all:

We're proud to officially announce the 16 plays for our Take Ten Festival on March 19-24 at Roy Arias Stage II.

The Oak Tree by Jay Koepke
Maturity by Aaron Leventman
Killing Cupid, Ok by Lindsay Bryde
Give Me Something Good To Eat by John Glass
Psycho Therapy by Tom Cherwin
Disappearing by Cathy Earnest
Driving Herd by Sam Graber
At Least He Didn't Die With Antlers On His Head by Thomas Levrier
Jumping In by Seth Freeman
Paul & Eddie by Ken Brisbois
Fade by Zachary Rufa
Last Call for Love by Shashone Lambert
Scars by Greg Abbott
Getting It Off in '08 by J D Wilcox
Waiting by Jeremy Rafal
The New Models by Rory Leahy

We've been having a lot of meeting in the past few months to get all the details down, so expect to hear even more from us about this very soon! Check out the website for the festival here. We are currently designing the logo and getting all of the directors matched up with the writers. 

Secondly, I'm happy to say that our holiday party/fundraiser was a great success! We've tried several venues for these types of events and although we enjoyed them all, we found a really good fit with Traffic! We'll likely be hosting future events there, so look out...and thanks to those who came out with us for this event a few weeks ago! You can check out the photo album we have on facebook for just a little slice of the fun we had!

Finally, we're going to be having a Mardis Gras themed event this february 16th. We don't have the venue or time info yet, but it will include dance, music, movement and comedy!

Check back with us soon!