October 20, 2019

The Alternative Theater Company presents ALTERED MINDS, Off-Broadway AEA Showcase, a collection of short plays, from quirky to inspiring, on relevant mental health issues and the stories of those whose lives they touch. The limited run will take place SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29TH through SUNDAY DECEMBER 8TH, 2019, in the Sargent theater space at the American Theatre for Actors, 314 West 54th Street, New York, New York. A diverse professional cast, directed by a team of veteran directors, present the various styles of original plays selected from 900 worldwide submissions. Plays include:
 

Phone Friend by Jonathan Josephson

Two lonely strangers connect when a widower keeps dialing his wife's old number and one day someone else picks up.

"If you ever wanted to dial that number, or call me, talk to me, for whatever cosmic reason you might want to - I'm here. It's Traci. Not a roto-dial fuckhead."
 

Directed by Judy Dodd Phone Friend stars Jillie Simon*(multi-award winning Hungry with Eric Roberts,A Chance)as "Traci" and Paul Thomas Ryan* (Studio 54, Carnegie Hall,various concerts)as "Henry."

September 30, 2019

The Warner Theatre will present its 8th Annual International Playwrights Festival held in the Warner's Nancy Marine Studio Theatre October 11 and 12, 2019. The mission of the International Playwrights Festival is to recognize the work of emerging and established playwrights and to build a link between the playwrights, the theatre community and our audiences. The festival is a two-night celebration of new works by playwrights from across the country and around the globe. For the eighth year, 150 plays were accepted for consideration from across the United States and as far away as China and New Zealand. Eleven winners have been selected and one play will be invited to participate in the 2019 festival.

August 29, 2019

A “Rush” is an evening of theatre, written and rehearsed in a two to three-week-window and performed over a short weekend or series of weekends. It’s an event that Force of Nature Productions has put up several times now, the most recent being a Harry Potter themed evening called Harry Potter and the Forbidden Rush, and is not only a great showcase but a great way for people to try out new creative positions.
 

The idea originated when Sebastian Munoz, Executive Producer of Force of Nature Productions (affectionately called FONProds), had finished a run of a show and the theatre offered them a few more weekends. Unable to extend the current production because of cast issues, Munoz contacted a bunch of writers, directors, and actors, and had a new evening of one-acts up in six days. Quite the rush.

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May 30, 2019

Sometimes the appetite calls for small bites, like the collection of one-act plays on offer during Playzapalooza! 2019 at the Santa Paula Theater Center through June 9. The eight plays, each running about 15 minutes apiece, range from the poignant to the absurd. Some works give us more to chew on than others, but together they offer a refreshing evening of theater, set in the intimate space of SPTC’s Backstage. 
 

There isn’t an obvious theme to the plays other than that most are written by California playwrights. The overriding sense, however, is that humans are complicated. We’re funny “haha” and funny “weird.” Our emotions and relationships are fraught, tender, hilarious and fragile, often at the same time. (One play does feature characters of other species but thanks to the wonder of anthropomorphism, they’re just as bonkers as we are.) It’s juicy territory to mine, especially within the confines of short one-act plays. 

Capping off the evening is Runed, written by Jonathan Josephson and directed by Elixeo Flores. Doug Friedlander, Sergio Arias, Scott Blanchard and Angela DeCicco have great fun in this absurdist farce.

October 16, 2019

...Established in Sydney in 2002, Short+Sweet is currently active in over 30 cities, with over 2,500 artists involved globally each year. Before my first year in my new home was out, I’d directed my first play, performed in another, nabbed myself an agent, and most importantly found my tribe. As a drama teacher, directing wasn’t completely new to me, but it was the first time I’d worked with a playwright. The play I directed was by Spiro Athanasiadis, a writer based in Melbourne who was very supportive of the production and open to collaboration

...The past eight months have been more challenging than I expected, but Short+Sweet has once again given me new friends, a creative outlet and a stronger sense of belonging. We all need a place to belong, something which is certainly reflected in the programme of Short+Sweet Dublin. A longing to be part of something, for connection is a recurring theme... There are plenty of laughs in the programme too. Jonathan Josephson’s This Hungry Churchyard is a quirky take on the hours after the death of Romeo and Juliet. Rex McGregor’s Threatened Panda Fights Back looks at the lengths someone will go to when an unexpected arrival rocks the boat.

September 16, 2019

PlayGround-LA, Los Angeles’s leading incubator for a new generation of playwrights, is pleased to announce the thirty-six playwrights selected for the 2019-20 PlayGround-LA Writers Pool. Over the course of the upcoming season (PlayGround-LA’s eighth), these writers will generate over 150 original short plays, of which 36 will be developed as part of Monday Night PlayGround, a monthly script-in-hand staged reading series...

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The 2019-20 PlayGround-LA Writers Pool are: Michael Adams, Amanda Andrei, Rachel Borders, Diana Burbano*, Kathleen Cecchin*, Allie Costa*, Daysha Edewi, Eric Esquivel, Victoria Goring, John Guerra, Elayne Heilveil, Dan Hirsch*, Susan C. Hunter, Uma Incrocci, Julianne Jigour*, Starina Johnson*, Mark V. Jones, Jonathan Josephson*, Ian Kaye, Arthur Keng*, Mildred Inez Lewis, Rhea MacCallum*, Eliza McGowan-Stinski, Misao McGregor, David Meyers, Scott Mullen, Nicholas Pappas*, Emily Rogers, Jessica June Rowe*, Richard Ruyle, Joe Samaniego, Mercedes Segesvary*, Mark Sherstinsky*, Nicki Spencer*, Elizabeth Szekeresh, and Desirée York.   

* Best of PlayGround Award recipient

August 13, 2019

FORCE OF NATURE (VERY UNOFFICIALLY) INVITES YOU TO HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY FOR A WEEKEND OF MAGIC!

This is an evening of entertainment that MUST-Be-Named… Force of Nature presents “Harry Potter & the Forbidden RUSH!”

The potion ingredients are quite simple: One book, one spell, one magical prop, add a sprinkling of fearless talented creative types, wave your wand, and presto! Seven new one-act plays, written in one week, and inspired by The Boy Who Lived (& Friends). And if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, we added one final wrinkle to the mix – Harry Potter cannot be a character in any of these plays. HOW will they do it? You’ll have to hitch a ride on a hippogriff to find out! Great for the entire family!
 

Written by Mike Barroga, Tyler Bianchi, Jonathan Josephson, Tom Jones, Teresa Jusino, Tosca Minotto, and Benjamin Scuglia

Directed by Corey Chappell, Jerry Chappell, Jennifer Novak Chun, Jonathan Fahn, Heather Lehigh, Sebastian Muñoz, and Ashleigh Nichols

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Tickets: $20.00 fonprods.tix.com

Official Site: https://www.fonproductions.com/harry-potter–the-forbidden-rush.html

Force of Nature Productions is a prolific theatrical company, focusing on supporting local artists by producing original works. With over 30 productions under its belt since its inception in February 2016, Force of Nature has produced material that has wowed, moved and entertained audiences and critics alike. www.fonproductions.com

April 11, 2019

In just three years, the wildly successful new play competition "Stage It! 10-Minute Play Festival" has truly become an international theater event. Playwrights and judges from around the world participated by writing, submitting and adjudicating 280 separate 10-minute plays, and over the final weekend in April, this process comes to its spectacular culmination with a live production for 10 of these plays at the Festival.

Short plays are a huge hit with audiences in Southwest Florida, and in three years the festival has more than doubled in size. Last year's festival was performed to capacity audiences and spawned an equally successful spin-off series entitled "Funny Shorts Live." A majority of this year's winning plays are comedies, but we have verse, existential, a teen play, and one based on live interviews. Subjects include agoraphobia, class reunions, driving tests, sisters, mothers and daughters, bank robbery, and homelessness. From heart-wrenching drama to uproarious comedy, there is plenty for audiences to enjoy.

October 16, 2019

“Wicked Lit” will be haunting audiences at Mountain View Mausoleum and Cemetery once again, and it’s for a good cause. “Audiences in the past have have come to Mountain View Mausoleum to see short plays fully produced,” Jonathan Josephson, executive director Unbound Productions and one of the producers of “Wicked Lit.”
 

“What we’re doing this year is simpler and smaller. It’s a fundraiser and it’s the same concept, where audiences follow actors throughout the mausoleum but instead of being fully produced plays they’re snippets of the most popular plays we’ve done over the last nine years.”
 

Josephson said the play is going to give the veteran audience members as well as the newbies a new view of the classic show.

“Most of the people coming to the fundraiser have been to ‘Wicked Lit’ before,” he said. “For newcomers it will be a taste of what we typically do. The plays are adaptations of the classic dark stories. Some of them are literature pieces by Edgar Allen Poe, some are drawn from folklore but they all have a gothic, macabre feel. What makes “Wicked Lit” a production unlike others is that play physically moves from location to location.
 

“‘Wicked Lit’ has sold out when it plays and it’s very popular and of course getting to see the play in the mausoleum is really exciting and fun. A lot of the plays we produce are set in mausoleums. It’s a set-responsive experience... We’ve had about 30,000 people see our shows over the years,” Josephson said. “Because we have a bit of a following we’re able to pay our actors and our artists better than industry standards which we’re proud of. People are drawn to our productions.

September 9, 2019

Freud's mother, asteroids, dinosaurs, curses and a sprite with an identity crisis will all be on display in the eclectic short play collection Funny Shorts LIVE! at Center for Performing Arts Bonita Springs' Moe Auditorium and Film Center, September 13 & 14.

...New York's Judd Lear Silverman's play In the Wondrous Woods will also be featured along with Kitty Dubin's Cutting It Close and David Beardsely's Every Creeping Thing, about a group of dinosaurs-and one smarmy cockroach-having a climate change meeting as a giant asteroid approaches. Other plays include Teri Folz's Magpie, in which a disgruntled wife finds her own voice and Jonathan Josephson's Runed, a fast-paced caper where someone's going to end up cursed. Josephson, like Silverman, has become a stalwart of the short play genre.

July 26, 2019

...The potion ingredients are quite simple: One book, one spell, one magical prop, add a sprinkling of fearless talented creative types, wave your wand, and presto! Seven new one-act plays, written in one week, and inspired by The Boy Who Lived (& Friends).

And if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, we added one final wrinkle to the mix – Harry Potter cannot be a character in any of these plays. HOW will they do it? You’ll have to hitch a ride on a hippogriff to find out! Furthermore, HARRY POTTER & THE FORBIDDEN RUSH is great for the entire family!
 

HARRY POTTER & THE FORBIDDEN RUSH will take place Friday, August 23rd at 8pm, Saturday, August 24 at 8pm, and Sunday, August 25 at 3pm & 8pm. The show will take place at The Actors Workout Studio located at 4735 Lankershim Blvd, N. Hollywood, CA 91602. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased here. For more information visit www.fonproductions.com/harry-potter–the-forbidden-rush.html.

HARRY POTTER & THE FORBIDDEN RUSH is written by Mike Barroga, Tyler Bianchi, Jonathan Josephson, Tom Jones, Teresa Jusino, Tosca Minotto, and Benjamin Scuglia and directed by Corey Chappell, Jerry Chappell, Jennifer Novak Chun, Jonathan Fahn, Heather Lehigh, Sebastian Muñoz, and Ashleigh Nichols. The show will feature the talents of Jonathan Agurcia, Jahel Corban Caldera, Alisha Cardella, Carlos Chavez, Scathach Cotter, Redetha Deason, Jeff DeWitt, Ron Gabldon, Gloria Galvan, Georgan George, Samantha Girod, Scott Kuza, Richard Large, Anne Leyden, Susan D. Marlowe, Brian Pope, Jake Scozzaro, Holly Sidell, Makenna Rae Tynan, EmLee Vassilos, Cara Megan Vilencia, Jude S. Walko, and Robert J. Watson.

February 18, 2019

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 20; 8 p.m.
These Violent Delights
Theatre West — 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. W., Hollywood Hills
Playwright Jonathan Josephson, executive director of Unbound Productions, wrote the short play, "This Hungry Churchyard," which he dubbed Act VI, Scene I of Romeo and Juliet (what happens after the lovers died). Josephson has now turned that short into an "action-adventure-horror-comedic evening-length play" and holds a staged reading with Wicked Lit veterans and actors. The play is suited for patrons ages 13+. COST: Pay what you can; MORE INFO