ALTERED MINDS

The Playwrights JULY 29th Staged Reading

RUSS CUSICK (Into the Arms) is an actor, singer and playwright holding a BFA from Theatre SMU.  Russ wrote Everyone Does a Little Time, which received a staged reading at the Creede Repertory Theatre in Creede, Colorado, and also at the Mint Theater here in NYC.  He also wrote the one-act play, Helen, which was part of the Sexual Wastelands Festival on Theater Row, and wrote and performed his own one-man show, Cheating, at the Present Company.

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DOUGLAS E. DAVIS (My Three O'clock) Originally from Newport Beach California, Douglas moved to New York City in 1999 with his eyes set on becoming a writer. He wrote and performed stand up comedy, then fell into acting. He has performed as an actor in various TV shows and films and also in The #metoo Play festival with The  Alternative Theater Company. He only recently began writing again. He is currently working on a one man show, and a novel that he’s had in his top drawer for the past six years. This is the first time his work has been performed live by somebody other than himself.

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JUDY DODD (Lunatic) Judy's last play, He Said, He Said, was performed as part of The #metoo Play Festival. An Actor, Director and Playwright, Judy teaches theatre at the Ramaz School. Judy is proud to be part of the Alternative Theatre Company’s current season. 

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ALAN KILPATRICK (Come Back, Miss Calliope) is a Native American playwright who lives in Belgium. He is the author of some thirty plays including: Little Big Horn Production (Two Act Comedy) 2009: (World Premiere) the VSA North Fourth Art Center/Theater in Albuquerque; Helmut (Two Act Comedy) Reading: the Horse Trade Theater Company (New York); Bad Milk, (Two Act Comedy) Staged Reading: June 2008: Sarah Lawrence College, Summer Playwrights Intensive; The Apology (10 Minute Play), Staged Reading: 2006: Diversionary Theater, San Diego; Suppression (10 Minute Play): 2008: New Perspectives Festival, San Diego; Twisting the Cat (10 MINUTE PLAY), 2009, New Perspectives Festival, San Diego and 2011 25th International Playwriting Festival, The Donmar Warehouse Theatre, London. Paradisium (10 Minute Play) Staged Reading: 2011, Blue Door Theater, Spokane, Washington. Article 13: Or How Manhattan Was Sold.  2016, Staged Reading, the La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego.

 

HEIDI KRAAY (The Way Up) is a playwright, writer and theater maker Heidi Kraay examines the connection between brain and body, seeking empathy with fractured characters. Plays include: How To Hide Your Monster, New Eden, DIRT (co-devised), Me and My Shadow and Kilgore, as well as several one-acts, short plays and plays for young audiences. Her work has been presented where she lives in Boise, Idaho, as well as regionally and in NYC. Heidi is a founding associate artist for Migration Theory, a physical art company for which she co-devised SuperSecretSiteSpecificSomething (2015) and Small Matters (2018). MFA: California Institute of Integral Studies. Member: Dramatists Guild. www.heidikraay.com

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SCOTT MULLEN (Medication) is a longtime Hollywood screenplay analyst and screenwriter, a two-time winner of Amazon Studios' screenwriting contest, whose thrillers The Summoning and In Broad Daylight aired on TV One.  His short plays have been produced hundreds of times around the world.  An evening of his comic plays, A Night of S.M., recently had a two-week run in Hollywood.

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FRANCES RORKE (I am The Turtle) returns to The Alternative Theater after the staged reading of That's All There is Folks last year. There are three kinds of people in life: the checker players, the chess players and the non players. The checkers see everything in black and red, forward and backward. Everything is measured in losses and acquisitions. The chess player, has quite a repertoire , a quick wit and an adaptability, the skilled ones inventing a finite set of rules and maneuvers seemingly unpredictable and limitless. The third, you don't meet too often and even if you do, these are off the board,, play by nobody's' rules and it's anyone's guess from moment to moment just what game they're playing. Rorke is a recluse.

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LEZLEY STEELE (Criminally Insane)  Lezley's first play Hide and Seek opened on Broadway in 1980. It has had eighty subsequent productions. Lezley has written a number of plays since. They have been produced in the US. Canada and in Europe. She has written two musicals with composer E.A. Alexander: Another Kind of Hero,  about Raol Wallenberg, and a musical for children based on the diary of Ann Frank. The musical, Ann Frank has toured the US and has been seen by over 200, 000 children. She has received 13 awards, prizes and fellowships for playwriting.

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The Directors

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JOEL BERNSTEIN (Lunatic), most recently co-directed Andrei Platonov’s Fourteen Little Red Huts (International Platonov Festival; Voronezh, Russia). Other directing include: Pericles and The School for Wives (both at the Pearl); Anthony McKay’s A Million Dollar Glass of Water (EST Marathon); Pinter’s The Lover (Brunswick Theatre Project); and readings at EST, Pearl, Medicine Show. Performance: Broadway: Born Yesterday. National Tour: Fiddler on the Roof. Off Broadway: The Fantasticks (Sullivan Street; Snapple); Jewtopia (Westside). Film: The Meyerowitz Stories (Cannes/New York Film Festival/Netflix). TV: all four seasons of Amazon’s Golden Globe–winning Mozart in the Jungle; Chappelle’s Show; Law & Order.

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DANIEL CAPALBO JR. (My Three O’Clock/Medication) has been working in many areas of the theatre world for the past three decades. He last directed Jump for the first Staged Reading in the Altered Mind series. He is pleased to be working on these plays and on this project because he is also a retired therapist. This particular subject matter is something he is very familiar with. Dan feels that addressing mental health issues openly is vital to the growth of our society as a whole. Sharing some experiences through the arts is a great way to begin the dialogue. 

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JUDY DODD (The Way Up) is an actor, writer and director. Recent projects include The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and The #Metoo Plays. Most recently, she directed Fiddler on the Roof, Jr. at the Ramaz School. She directed Jonathan Josephson's Phone Friend in the Second Staged Reading and Linsdsay Partain's Penny for Your Troubles in the First Altered Minds Staged Reading.

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CELINE HAVARD (Criminally Insane) has directed, acted and produced Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway and Regionally for over three decades. Havard was a founding member of Abingdon Theatre Company, Stagedotorg and The Alternative Theatre Company. She's worked with many NYC theater organizations including Pulse Ensemble Theatre Co., The Greenhouse Ensemble,  Intar, the Women’s Project and The Drama League. Havard edits books, plays for stage and screenplays as a Script Doctor and ghost writer. She directed Riding Lessons and Dragged in the Second Staged Reading and Hang Ups in the First Altered Minds Staged Reading.

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DAVID MALINSKY (I am the Turtle) is an NYC-based director and writer.  He has written and directed Wendy & Peter: A Mythic, Lyric, Comic Drama at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre.  He has also researched, written and acted in a one-man play about early American theatre history, Playing at War. He is very excited to be working with the Alternative Theatre Company.  What excited his about this production is its focus on everyday lives from an under-explored and under-appreciated angle..

 

DRUCIE MCDANIEL (Into the Arms) has directed for industrial and documentary film, PBS, and stage- regional, Off-Broadway, and University; favorite productions include Rumors and Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike at Steel River Playhouse, Shooting Simone at Walnut Street Theatre, and How I learned to Drive at Nu-Ance Theatre. She has written and directed for Rosenbach Museum, The National Constitution Center, and The Smithsonian Institution. For 10 years, she was Artistic Director of The Theatre Caravan, writing and directing over 30 plays for National tour. Drucie has taught acting at three universities, including 27 years at University of the Arts. She is a founding and current faculty member at Walnut Street Theatre, and has her own studio where she offers classes as well as private coaching-clients include Aubrey Plaza, Charlie Saxton and on-set coach for Creed and Creed II.

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JEAN TAIT (Come Back, Miss Calliope) has directed Hello Dolly (starring Pamela Myers and Harvey Evans), Saving Grace, the award-winning Over the River and Through the Woods, Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know, the critically acclaimed Over the Tavern, Pack of Lies, Tsunami Tales, and Steel Magnolias (starring Donna McKechnie, Pamela Myers, Sally Mayes and Emily Swallow) in addition to numerous musical reviews with Donna McKechnie, Amanda McBroom, and Linda Purl.  For the Alternative Theater Company, Jean has directed The Audition, The Proceedings, and Can You Hear Me Now in The #Metoo Plays. She directed It Gets Better in the Second Reading and 13 Minutes in the First Altered Minds Staged Reading.

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