NEWS

June 2009

The Best Place We’ve Ever Lived Presented at Northern Writes Festival.

A full-length play, The Best Place We’ve Ever Lived, was presented in a reading in Bangor, Maine at the Penobscot Theatre Company’s 3rd Annual Northern Writes New Play Festival Friday, June 26, 2009. The Best Place We’ve Ever Lived is an exploration of art, love, and family life in a violent world. In this fantasy play, one family and their clan evolve through the centuries. From ancient Mexico and eighteenth century Europe to present-day Scarsdale and a future time and place, they learn that there’s more to family life than conquests and migrations. But can this more enlightened future last? Excerpt.

The Church Published by Limestone.

A short story, The Church, was just published in the 2009 issue of Limestone, the journal of the University of Kentucky. In this story, a man finds himself looking in on an unusual congregation despite his intention never to set foot inside a church again. Copies may be purchased via the Limestone website: Limestone.

Excerpt.

The Session Nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

A one-act play, The Session has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize by The Distillery, the journal that published January 2008. The Pushcart Prize - Best of the Small Presses series, published every year since 1976, is the most honored literary project in America. Hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short stories, poetry and essays have been represented in the pages of their annual collections. The prizes themselves will be announced in the spring.

February 2009

Admitted into the Turtle Shell Productions Playwrights Platform.

William Fowkes was admitted into the Turtle Shell Productions Playwrights Platform here in New York. Turtle Shell Productions is a theatrical organization of professional playwrights, directors, actors, and designers committed to producing works of superior quality. The Playwrights Platform provides its members with an opportunity to work on the development of their plays.

December 2008

Six Short Stories Published in 2008.

Chrysler was published in Lullwater Review (Vol. XVIII No. II, Fall 2008). In this story, a man is torn between his infatuation with the Chrysler Building and his rocky relationship with his girlfriend--not to mention his indecision about whether to become a writer after all.

Dummy Copy was published in Argestes (Collen Tree Press, Fall-Winter 2008). In this story, a graphic designer and her editor have a much bigger problem than their disagreement over the function of dummy copy. This story was inspired by Claudia Carlson, fellow member of the River Writers Group of Manhattan, who has had to deal with similarly intrusive editors in her work as a graphic designer.

Lincoln Towers was published in The Chariton Review (Volume 31; Issue 1: Spring 2008). Lincoln Towers is about a resident of the city-within-a-city housing complex on the Upper West Side of Manhattan whose life is beginning to feel surreal.

Snap was published in Wisconsin Review (Volume 43; Issue 1: Fall 2008). In this story, a 42-year-old woman skips work to sit on a bench in Central Park and reflect on her checkered romantic history after being dumped by her latest boyfriend.

Metastory was published in Soundings East (Volume 30/Number 1: Spring/Summer 2008). In this story, a writer argues with himself as he tries to compose a short story about writing a short story. (Think of this as what the show [Title of Show] might be if it were a short story.)

The Cross County was published in Buffalo Carp: Quad Cities Arts’ Journal (Volume 5, published March 14, 2008). In this story, a new neighbor causes friction between 5-year-old Bobby Farrand’s parents, but he's too distracted by all the new technological marvels around him in 1955 to understand what's happening.

June 2008

Couple of the Century Presented at the Downtown Urban Theater Festival 2008 at the Cherry Lane Theatre.

The Downtown Urban Theater Festival returned to the Cherry Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village this June. This festival was one of the cultural events established after 911 to help attract people back to Lower Manhattan. The plays presented in the festival reflected the diverse urban populations that make up the mosaic that is New York City. My one-act play, The Dakota, won a Best Short Play Award at DUTF in June 2005.

Couple of the Century, which played to a sold-out house, is an expanded version of my one-act play, The Session (finalist at the Strawberry One-Act Festival Winter 2005). In this expanded, full-length version, the scenes progress backwards to show us the events leading up to the therapy session that opens the play.

Rehearsal photos

September 2009

Two Plays by William Fowkes Added to the Eileen Heckart Archives at Ohio State University.

A full-length play, The Last Nights of the Sunshine SAGE Club, and a one-act play, The Next Move, are now included in the Eileen Heckart Drama for Senior Archives at the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute at Ohio State University. The Heckart Archives contains plays that include major senior characters (defined as people over 55) and/or address issues that pertain to seniors and is dedicated to the memory of stage and film actress, Eileen Heckart. (I had the privilege of seeing Ms. Heckart perform her final role, in the play, Waverly Gallery, at The Promenade Theater in New York.) The archives are non-circulating, but are included in world-wide databases.

August 2009

All in the Faculty Presented at the Turtle Shell Theater September 1, 2009.

Brilliant professors can be rank amateurs in the field of self-knowledge

A reading of the full-length play, All in the Faculty was presented September 1, 2009 at the Turtle Shell Theater (4th floor, 300 W. 43rd Street). The cast of 9 included seven members of the Turtle Shell Theater’s Terrapin Troupe and two guest stars. In this play, Ned Jenkins seems within reach of achieving his life ambition to become a college professor, but this “golden boy” can’t help making romantic and political missteps that complicate his life and divide the whole campus in the process. Set on the bucolic campus of Humbert College in upstate New York, All in the Faculty presents a faculty full of colorful characters that add up to something just short of a happy family. As Martha says in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, “It’s all in the faculty…. We’re a close-knit family here.’

CAST:

Tony Neil

Kendall Zwillman

Bradley Reynolds

Luis De Amechazurra

Carol Lambert

Ashley Hearon

Joel Haberli

Tony Mirrcandani

Stephen Dexter

Excerpt

May 2008 Reading.

I read my short story, Wallpaper, at the Cornelia Street Cafe on Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village on Monday, May 12, 2008. (This is the same story I read at the Mercantile Library in May 2006 and at my class reunion at Yale in May 2007.) The reading was part of a monthly variety event called Serial Underground, which Time Out NY refers to as “the subversive nightclub series” and which features the latest in experimental music.

A Reading of The German Lesson Presented at the Dramatists Guild, April 18, 2008.

A reading of my new play, The German Lesson, was presented at the Dramatists Guild in New York April 18, 2008 as part of their Friday Night Footlights series. The reading was directed by Wendy Peace and included the following cast:

Trevor Hudson (age 48)…………………………………...………..NIC TYLER*

Jerry Hobart (50)/Ira Klopnick (’30s)………….………….…..GREG HORTON*

Chuck Blazer (19)/Louie Allemano (’40s)………………..…AARON HEISLER

Margaret Allen (’50s)/Dr. Vivian Sedler (74)……………...ELOWYN CASTLE*

Sarah Schwalbe (’40s)/German instructor (voiceover)…..ROXANN KRAEMER*

Beth Hudson (’40s)…………………………………….…...DONNA NIEMANN

Stage directions read by ASHTON CROSBY*

*Member of Actors Equity Association

The German Lesson (a Play in Two Acts) tells the story of Trevor Hudson, a PR man with a special talent for putting the best face on things. Now his life is spinning out of control, but his German lesson is part of a plan to free him from his past.

The German Lesson Named Runner-up for the 2008 Robert J. Pickering Award for Playwrighting Excellence.

The finalists and runners-up for the 2008 Robert J. Pickering Award for Playwrighting Excellence have been announced, and my full-length play, The German Lesson (a Play in Two Acts), was among the runners-up. (The winner was Keeping Faith by Mark Scharf.) This award was established in 1984 and is given annually by the Coldwater Community Theatre in Coldwater, Michigan.

Published: One-act Play, The Session.

The January 2007 issue of the literary journal, The Distillery, was published January 2008 (go figure) and includes my one-act play, The Session. The Session--about a bizarre therapy session--was a finalist at the Strawberry One-Act Festival Winter 2005 in Manhattan. This short (18-minute) play was the basis for my full-length play, Couple of the Century, a Romantic Comedy in Two Acts (semifinalist in the Open Book’s 8th National Readers Theatre Playwriting Competition).

March 2010

MUSEUM PIECE Presented

A new one-act play, Museum Piece, was produced at the Downtown Urban Theater Festival at the Theatre for a New City in New York April 2010. A disruptive incident at the Museum of Modern Art brings three strangers together one Saturday afternoon. In this comedic tale, our three visitors are drawn to the museum for very different reasons and have oddly different experiences once they get there, leading to the unavoidable conclusion that the people who go to museums are often more compelling than the works on display.

Excerpt.

March 2010

TABLE MANNERS IN TRIBECA in 8-Minute Madness Playwrights Festival 2010

10-minute play, Table Manners in Tribeca, appeared in Turtle Shell Theater’s 8-Minute Madness Playwrights Festival 2010 (Group A) April 1-18, 2010.

Turtle Shell Theater: 300 W.43rd St. (west of 8th Ave.), 4th floor, New York, NY 10036

DESCRIPTION: One woman’s ex-boyfriend is the last person she wants to see.

A Spring of Short Plays by William Fowkes

Traveling to Mississippi, Montana, California, New York, or Rhode Island? This spring, a few of my short

plays are being presented in five different states:

(1) NEW YORK CITY, April 23:

American Globe Theatre’s 18th Annual 15-Minute Play Festival presents

TABLE MANNERS IN MEXICO CITY written and directed by William Fowkes

Synopsis: Tourist Phil Sampson is annoyed that his wife has invited a third person to join them at dinner

until the attractive young woman shows up.

(2) OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI, May 8:

Theatre Oxford’s 2012 National 10 Minute Play Contest presents staged readings of the 5 finalists,

including

MUSEUM PIECE #2 by William Fowkes

Synopsis: Four tourists visiting the Prado Museum in Madrid confront Velazquez’s masterpiece,

Las Meninas.

More information: www.theatreoxford.com.

(3) LIVINGSTON, MONTANA, May 11-13 and May 18-20:

The Blue Slipper 10-Minute Play Festival presents

TABLE MANNERS IN BUENOS AIRES by William Fowkes.

Synopsis: A woman and her daughter sit out a rainstorm in a restaurant, making awkward conversation

while awaiting a call from the hospital about the fate of the man in their lives.

More information: http://blueslipper.com

(4) BEAUMONT, CALIFORNIA, June 22-24:

CAST Players One-Act Playwriting Competition presents the six best plays, including

TABLE MANNERS IN CHICAGOLAND (including Table Manners in Chicago + Table

Manners in Lake Forest + Table Manners in Evanston) by William Fowkes

Synopsis: A tale about desire and responsibility—involving a man, a disabled wife, a mistress, and

miscellaneous offspring—weaves its way through three settings in the greater Chicago area.

More information: http://www.castplayers.org/

(5) NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, June 14-15:

Salve Regina Theatre Arts Program’s New Play Festival, Newport, RI presents

TABLE MANNERS IN BUENOS AIRES by William Fowkes.

Synopsis: A woman and her daughter sit out a rainstorm in a restaurant, making awkward conversation

while awaiting a call from the hospital about the fate of the man in their lives.