
TOSOS Robert Chesley / Jane Chambers
Playwrights Project
A forum for playwrights to have their work read to an invited audience. No staging. No Q and A. Just a opportunity for playwrights to be heard.
It also offers a chance to look at plays from the past in an attempt to keep our heritage alive. It is named to honor Jane Chambers (1937-83)
and Robert Chesley (1943-90) arguably two of the most original and impassioned voices to contribute to our theatrical heritage.
director: Kathleen Warnock - kwnyc@yahoo.com
To acquire scripts of these plays, contact TOSOS tosos@nyc.rr.com
2009 Season
5:30 pm Sunday, March 22 2009
Daniel Talbott's
Slipping
directed by Kirsten Kelly
with
MacLeod Andrews - Adam Driver - Meg Gibson - Seth Numrich
ART/NY
The Mitchell Room, 3rd floor
520 Eighth Avenue (between West 37th & 36th)
And in June for Gay Pride, we will do a special reading of Robert Patrick’s Haunted Host.
Other scripts we are considering:
Virginia Beata’s Damaged Goods (and two other plays) Marc Castle’s Friends
Meryl Cohn’s Reasons to Live Jim Dalglish’s Cavalier
Tom Dillehay’s Temple of the Dog Martin Hyatt & Brian Trzreciak’s Harbor House
Donnetta Lavinia Grays’ The "B" Factor Louis Johnson’s The Return of Cicero Walker
Robin Rice Lichtig’s Women Without Walls Karen Mullen’s Gone
Nicholas Patricca’s The Defiant Muse Duncan Pflaster’s In Spirit
David Pumo’s The Seed Fredric Sinclair’s Aiken in Cyberspace
Jon Spano’s The Joey Variations Maz Troppe’s Mrs. Crabtree's Daughter
Ed Valentine’s 1,001 Tricks Kathleen Warnock’s Outlook
Thanks to Kathleen Warnock, the 2008 season of the TOSOS Robert Chesley / Jane Chambers Playwright Project was a huge success. The audiences
were large and very supportive and the readings highly entertaining. The standard of acting and direction could not have been bettered.
With the support of a grant from The Dramatists Guild Fund and donations from Chuck Blasius, John Glines, Jane Lowry, Jonathan C. Reuning, and an
anonymous gift in the memory of John Wallowitch, we were able to present 10 readings.Chris Weikel's Pig Tale, went on to a very successful run (2008
Top Ten List-New York Blade) and has been invited to be part of the 2009 Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, and Mark Finley's The Chiselers opened in
February, 2009 as part of the EAT Festival. If we had the funds, I suspect we would produce all of the plays. - Doric Wilson, January, 2007
2008 Season
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back: Michael O'Connor, Adam Rayner, Igor Goldin, Tim Cusack, Rick Hinkson, Roseanne Medina front: Mark Finley, Nicholas A. Patricca (playwright), Marc Castle |
Saturday, February 2
Nicholas A. Patricca’s Oh, Holy Allen Ginsberg: Oh, Holy-Shit-Sweet-Jesus-Tantric-Beddha-Dharma-Road
Directed by Mark Finley with Marc Castle (Monsignor Bononi), Tim Cusack (Michael), Igor Goldin (Dr. Keith), Rick Hinkson (Josh), Roseanne Medina (Leonor), Michael O'Connor (Gerry), and Adam Rayner (Scott) On the eve and day of St. Valentine in the Northside of Chicago, a conflicted gay Irish Catholic priest confronts an AIDS-related TB diagnosis and an archdiocesan plan to close his Puerto Rican parish, all the while attempting to patch things up with his lover on what should be their seventh anniversary. First year of the Millenium. Two decades into the AIDS Epidemic. A few months before the raging storm erupts concerning clergy sexual abuse. (for Nicholas A. Patricca’s bio look under company)
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Saturday, March 8
Emma Donoghue's I Know My Own Heart
Directed by Mark Finley with Virginia Baeta (Anne Lister), Jamie Heinlein (Isabella "Tib" Norcliffe), Mary Louise Mooney (Nancy Brown), and Kate Reynolds (Marianne Brown).
As the self-educated heiress to her uncle's estate near Halifax in Yorkshire, England, Anne Lister (1791-1840) broke all the rules of Regency ladyhood. She cropped her hair short, traveled unchaperoned, studied Greek and geometry, and refused to even consider marriage. Anne Lister was also known for a flamboyant devotion to women that exceeded the 'romantic friendship' considered normal at the time, but only her coded diaries told the whole truth. Lister remained secretly proud of her 'oddity', the fact that from childhood on she had known herself to be (as she put it) 'too fond of women'. (I Know My Own Heart, loosely based on the decoded early diaries of Anne Lister, was first produced at Dublin's Andrew's Lane Theatre. It is published in Seen and Heard: Six New Plays by Irish Women, ed. by Cathy Leeney (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2001). |
Mary Louise Mooney, Kate Reynolds, Virginia Baeta & Jamie Heinlein |
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Back: Catherine Porter, Chad Austin, Chris Weikel, Jane Lowry, Eric C. Bailey Middle: Jeremy Lawrence, Robert Locke, Jolie Meshbesher Front: Bob Ost (playwright)
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Saturday, April 12
Bob Ost’s
Directed by Mark Finley with Chad Austin (Chris Maser), Eric C. Bailey (Rick Bernard), Jeremy Lawrence (Carl Lindstrom), Robert Locke (Lee Fredericks), Jane Lowry (Rita Jameson), Jolie Meshbesher (Joanne Barry), Catherine Porter (Pat Stark), and Chris Weikel (John Mauree)
The summer of 1980, The Heller Foundation, an artists' colony near the sea. "The unusual characters in their unusual situations slowly reveal universal concerns, and their narrow little world quietly grows colossal. It struck me as having a strong, direct quality to it which reminds me of the paintings of Balthus, if Balthus had painted intellectuals quarreling. I was often reminded of Chekhov, and often of Ibsen. The enormousness of its themes – honor, instinct, the very continuance of life – is breathtaking." - Robert Patrick, playwright, on Breeders
(For Bob Ost’s bio look under company)
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Saturday, May 31
Kathy Anderson’s Incoming
Directed by Steven McElroy with Michi Barall (Liz), Meghan Cary (Sally), Marc Castle (hospital worker), Jamie Heinlein (Lou), Wayne Henry (hospital worker), Jim Nugent (Dad)
Liz has come home to find her partner Sally nine months pregnant, her Dad in the hospital (and her ex-girlfriend stuck under his bed). She's not ready to be a mom, or to lose her dad, or whatever else is incoming. |
directed by Steven McElroy back: Steven McElroy, Jim Nugent, Wayne Henry, Brett Douglas, Marc Castle, Jamie Heinlein front: Michi Barall, Kathy Anderson (playwright), Meghan Cary
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back: Moe Bertran, Kevin Held, Chris Weikel (playwright), Steven Fales, Jesse May front: Mark Finley, Jamie Heinlein |
Saturday, June 21 in honor of Gay Pride 2008 (and Mark's birthday)
Chris Weikel’s Pig Tale: An Urban Faerie Story
Directed by Mark Finley with Moe Bertran (Mama Truth, etc.), Steven Fales (Johnny), Kevin Held (Kyle), Jesse May (Dave)
Johnny and Dave have been casually dating until one night Dave turns into a pig—literally. Does this mean it’s all over?
Wings Theatre Company presented the TOSOS production of Pig Tale as part of their Gay Play Series, opening Dec 5, 2008, for a critically acclaimed run of 20 performances. It has been invited to be part of the 2009 Dublin Gay Theatre Festival.
(For Chris Weikel’s bio look under company)
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Saturday, July 12
Alisha Silver's
directed by Mark Finley with Gail Dennison (Mrs. Hanford), Mara Kassin (Mara), Irene Longshore (Lizzie), and Adam Raynen (Eli)
In New York City in 1862, a poor girl doesn't have many honest ways to make a living...so May puts on her brother's trousers, calls herself "Jimmy" and gets a job in a bakery, where the owner's daughter becomes quite fond of the new boy...and has a secret or two of her own. |
back: Adam Raynen, Mara Kassin, Irene Longshore, Gail Dennison front: Alisha Silver (playwright)
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Nick Mathews, Amy Bizjak, Karen Stanion, Gail Dennison, Jason Alan |
Saturday, August 9 as part of Double Dip
Mark Finley’s The Chiselers
Directed by Mark Finley with Amy Bizjak (Connie Carstairs), Gail Dennison (Beverly Carstairs), Jason Alan Griffin (Chuck Hutchinson), Nick Mathews (Julian Kerr), and Karen Stanion (Margo Carstairs)
Why was Sacramento Star Editor-in-Chief Chuck Hutchenson stabbed to death in a meat locker that night in 1986? Famous ice sculptress Margo Carstairs knows the truth and wants the world to know too. But at what cost? Loosely based on a film that was loosely based on a novel that was loosely based on actual events, this scorching tell-all comedy asks the question: Where Has Truth Gone? (Loosely.)
Mark Finley's The Chiselers was presented in February, 2009 as part of the EAT Festival.
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Saturday, August 9 also as part of Double Dip
Mark Finley’s Forever Under
Directed by Mark Finley with Chad Austin (Leo), Roberto Cambiero (Vargas). Paul Caoila (Cameron), Jeremy Lawrence (Gus), and Robert Locke (Jeffrey)
They have been a part of Nature's grand scheme since the beginning of life on this planet. Yet they are almost universally despised. They are cockroaches. These cockroaches have had enough of being stepped on and are holding a meeting under your sink tonight. It has been proven that cockroaches are capable of making collective decisions. Are these guys?
(For Mark Finley’s bio look under company)
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back: Chad Austin, Jeremy Lawrence, Roberto Cambiero front: Robert Locke, Paul Caoila
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back: Virginia Beata, Carolyn Gage (playwright) front: Amy Driesler, Jamie Heinlein, Ellen Reilly
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Saturday, September 20
Carolyn Gage’s The Countess and the Lesbians
Directed by Virginia Beata with Amy Driesler (Nan), Jamie Heinlein (Grace), and Ellen Reilly (Kathleen)
Three lesbian actors are rehearsing an historical play about Countess Markiewicz and the aftermath of her participation in the Easter Week Rising in Dublin. The play is about her political differences with her sister, who was a pacifist. As the women take up the issues of the play, the power dynamics of their own lesbian relationships are called into question.
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Saturday, October 25
Robert Patrick’s
Directed by Mark Finley Paul Batchelor (Franz), Ron Bopst (Jack), Donna Coney Island (Mae), Jamie Heinlein (Dorothy), Rick Hinkson (Bill), Leo Hochhauser (Narrator), Deric McNish (Valentino) Janice Mann (Mary), Mary Louise Mooney (Pola), Adam Raynen (Ramon), Scott Sowers (Erich), Karen Stanion (Gloria), and Chris Weikel (Noel)
Kids say the darnedest things...about silent movies, American mythology and love! Gloria Swanson throws a party and half of Hollywood arrive in the imagination of a young boy.
(For Robert Patrick’s bio look under company) |
back: Chris Weikel, Adam Raynen, Deric McNish, Paul Batchelor, Rick Hinkson, Ron Bopst middle: Jamie Heinlein, Mary Louise Mooney, Karen Stanion, Donna Coney Island, Janice Mann front: Leo Hochhauser |
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Saturday, November 8
Steven Fales’ previews his new one person show Missionary Position
(For Steven Fales’ bio look under company) |
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Saturday, November 15
Meryl Cohn’s
Directed by Mark Finley with Wynne Anders (Sophie), Brigit Darby (Rose), Liz Davito (Ray), Shay Gines (Martha), Tari Stratton (Lucy), Kathleen Warnock (Patricia) and Elizabeth Whitney (Barbara)
The three Abramowitz sisters struggle to fulfill their individual dreams, while managing their outrageous mother’s medical miracle––awakening from a coma—which inconveniently unfolds in the oldest sister’s apartment. Barbara doesn't want her wacky family's calamity to interfere with her sex life or the pending adoption of her daughter; Perfect Rose isn't as perfect as everyone thinks; and Sandra wants a penis. And Sophie Comes Too is a play about becoming one's self, even as others struggle to impose their own desires.
(For Meryl Cohn’s bio look under company) |
back: Shay Gines, Brigit Darby, Meryl Cohn (playwright), Kathleen Warnock middle: Elizabeth Whitney, Wynne Anders, Tari Stratton front: Mark Finley, Liz Davito |
Readings were presented in New York City at the Ripley Grier Studios, 520 Eighth Avenue (between West 37th & 36th).
The one exception, Double Dip, was presented at the Roy Arias Studios, 300 West 43rd Street (at Eighth Avenue).
Click here for Robert Chesley/Jane Chambers Playwrights Project productions: 2003-2007