PLAYWRIGHTS TO WATCH FOR . . .

To be a playwright these days is tough--and certainly not at all lucrative. Many theater companies (by necessity) are prone to using tried-and-true authors and stories in order to get audiences to leave their comfortable homes. Thus, the competitive element sometimes rears its head as playwrights struggle to get their work produced. Yet, we also simultaneously root for our writing brothers and sisters to succeed. The fact is that we love the theater (why else write for it?) and we love good writing. (Also, the success of our fellow writers gives us hope for our own work!)

All parenthetical thoughts aside, there are several unsung playwrights I want people to know about and will write about in forthcoming blogs. (I recently mentioned Beau Willimon, whose writing you should get to know.) Today, however, I wanted to mention Daniel Damiano, a gifted writer (and also a talented actor) whose wonderful work I have encountered through the Gallery Players in Brooklyn and whose play, Dreams of Friendly Aliens, will be featured at Abingdon Theatre Company later this season. Two of his shorter pieces, The Dessert Cart and Bon Voyage, Mr. Phelps!, are among the wittiest, quirkiest and most thought-provoking I've seen in a long time, intellectually stimulating while also enormously entertaining.

At any rate, next Saturday, October 28th at 2 pm, one can catch a reading of Danny's new full-length play, Graphic Nature, at the Gallery Players in Brooklyn (199 14th St. Brooklyn, NY 11215 -- R train to 9th St. or F train to 4th Ave). A first-rate cast, under the highly capable direction of Heather Siobhan Curran, has been assembled, and the storyline sounds like great fun: "A mock-biography depicting the mid-life and times of Edmond de Capitiour, a once-anonymous executioner in 1913 France who, while shyly pursuing a young patisserie clerk in Versailles, struggles against his sudden notoriety." It should make for a tasty afternoon!

The suggested donation is $5.00. For reservations call (718)595-0547, ext. 6, or e-mail blackbox@galleryplayers.com (put "October reading" in the subject line).