Playbill
NYC’s Dream Up Festival, Starting Aug. 8, Premieres Bitch, It Ain’t No Sin, Keep Your Baggage With You
By Kenneth Jones
August 8, 2010
Off-Broadway‘s Theater for the New City (TNC) gives wing to 25 premieres – musicals, plays, one-acts and experimental pieces – in its first Dream Up Festival Aug. 8-Sept. 5.
The downtown festival – featuring artists and writers from around the country and around the world, performing in one of several venues – is curated by TNC’s literary manager, Michael Scott-Price. TNC is under the direction of Crystal Field, TNC’s artistic director.
Dream Up is billed as “an all-premiere festival with 23 world premieres and two American premieres, offering a month long anthology of wide-ranging and original theatrical visions.”
The pieces are by emerging writers and mid-career writers. Audiences have the opportunity to view most of the productions at least five times.
The Dream Up titles include Around The Night Park by Maria Micheles; Auto Graphic Novel by Johnny Klein; Bitch by Sean Pomposello, Bright Images by Ken Gaertner; Chutes & ‘Latters’ and Other Dangerous Games by Christopher Massimine; Dollface (Aug. 20th) by B.J. Sebring, lyrics by David Forman, music by David Forman & Rob Hyman with additional material by Bette Midler, Rick Chertoff, Eric Bazilian, Lou Bellofatto; The Dudleys! by Leegrid Stevens; The Dybbuk by Julia Pascal; Gloves for Guns by David Lawson; It Ain’t No Sin by Michael Patrick F. Smith; Keep Your Baggage With You (At All Times) by Jonathan Ballard Blitstein; My Artichoke Heart by Naïma Kristel Phillips and What The Sparrow Said by Danny Mitarotondo (a double bill); The New York Monologues by Mike Poblete; One Arm and A Leg conceived/written by Calla Videt and Jesse Barron; One Drop by Andrea Fulton; Princes of Darkness by Bill Connington; RealPolitik by Elyse Cogan and Ivy Livingston; Second Empire written by the ensemble of TL;DR Collective; Seymour or The Last Fallen Angel written by Ashley Christopher Leach; Shakespeare the Dead by Alex Mills; The Sky is Melting by Elizabeth Woodbury; Summer Rain by Robert Coe; Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors: A Subway Musical and Romance by Richard S. Rose; A Taste of Altruistic; Wardrobe of the living dead and Choose your Grown Adventure by Maximilian Avery Clark and Jennifer Fedor; and WABI SABI Not Wasabi! by Ming Peiffer.
The festival’s lighting designer is Alexander Bartenieff. Technical director is Richard Reta. Production director is Mark Marcante.
Tickets prices range from $12 to $15. For more information, including venues, visit dreamupfestival.org.
Description: “Dollface,” conceived and written by B.J. Sebring, lyrics by David Forman, music by David Forman & Rob Hyman with additional material by Bette Midler, Rick Chertoff, Eric Bazilian, Lou Bellofatto. Sunday, August 15 at 2:00 PM; Wednesday, August 18 at 7:00 PM; Friday, August 20 at 7:00 PM; Saturday, August 21 at 5:00 PM; Sunday, August 22 at 2:00 PM. Running time: 1:45. $15. (world premiere). In 1956, a naïve, unfunny aspiring television comedienne finds her ingenuity when she outsmarts a double-crossing gang of thieves. A musical comedy that includes authentic Rock and Roll, Samba, Mambo, Pop Ballads, Rhythm & Blues, Patter — the music of the 1950’s. This play is part of the “Dream Up Festival”; a theater festival that takes place at the Theater for the New City (TNC) from August 8 to September 5, 2010.
