Den of Iniquity in New York and Chicago (NY here I come)

My short comedy, Den of Iniquity, will be part of a two-day festival in Chicago, A Table and Chairs, October 21 and 22. The festival will feature nine short plays by writers from across the country, with the plays directed by some Chicago's up-and-coming new directors. In Den of Iniquity, Gerald sneaks off from his wife and kids to a shady part of town, to an illicit studio, where people come to try an addictive pleasure. Gerald scrambles to hide his desires when his wife Maggie comes pounding on the door. The festival runs at the Bailiwick Repertory Theater, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, 8pm. Call 773-282-0344. Tickets are only $10.

Den of Iniquity will also appear in New York (it actually opened last night) as part of the Emerging Artists Theatre's Fall EATFest, from October 16-November 4. My play is in Series B, which runs Wednesdays at 7pm, Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 5pm. Ian Streicher will direct the play.

I will be in New York to see the show on Saturday, October 20th. (Gotta love $30 round trip bus tickets from Boston to NYC.) The festival plays at the Producer's Club, 358 West 44th Street, 3rd Floor. Tickets are $18 ($10 w/ student i.d.) You can buy tickets by calling 866-811-4111 or at eattheatre.org or theatremania.com.

I wish I could see both productions, back-to-back. I've done that once before, with my play Insomnia, and it was a really instructive experience to see how the timing and interpretations shift the audience's experience of the play.

Good News: Chicago

A bit of good news. A friend is staging a bunch of short plays in Chicago (the plays had to utilize one chair and one table) later this month (at the Bailiwick Theatre) and my play Den of Iniquity is supposed to be part of the line-up. I should know more details by the end of next week. It always feels good to land another production. This is the same play that opens in NYC on October 16th, as part of the Fall EATFest. (I'll put up more details about that in the next day or two).

Too bad I can't make it to Chicago--it's so interesting to see two different versions of the same play running at the same time (I've seen this before with Insomnia). I'll have to rely on friends for reports.

Good News: Den of Iniquity coming to NYC

I just heard that my short play Den of Iniquity will be included in Emerging Artists Theatre's Fall EATFest. It's a fun little play, and I'm glad it'll have a chance to visit New York (I'm not sure on the dates/details yet).

I made my first submission to EAT back in 2001, then gave up for a few years (thus ensuring my plays couldn't be chosen), started submitting again in 2005, and now I've gotten in. I saw a production of the fall festival last year and thought they did a good job.

This show comes at a good time, because my fall production schedule was looking, well, completely empty. That's never a good feeling. The hardest part about spending more of my time writing books these days is the slow pace of production--it takes me a while to write a novel, and then years to get an agent and publisher and have it reach readers. I'm grateful to theatre for providing me with a sense of immediate feedback and, as long as I keep getting productions of these short plays, a sense of staying in touch with an audience (even though theatres are super slow to respond, the theatre business sucks, blah, blah, blah).

And, it was good news for a numbers guy like me, because it put my 2006 acceptance rate just over 10%. This keeps my streak of double digit acceptance percentage steady since 1999 (take out 1998, and it goes back to 1995). Nobody cares about this, of course, but somehow it makes me feel better.

(The photo is from the 2004 Boston Theatre Marathon Production of Den of Iniquity, where it was an audience favorite. Joseph Zamparelli Jr. and Karen Woodward Massey pictured.)