January Update

December has been a crazy month! Thanks for checking in, let me fill you in on what happened this past month and what you can expect in January. 

December began with my participation in LeeLa NYC's play in a day challenge where I had to create a theatrical piece 10 minutes in length, in 24 hours. Aside from a fast pased deadline, the prompts were difficult too and included the topic of "war and death," the phrase "where the wind blows" and to exclude any genders or pronouns from the script. Following my writing of the piece, a director and 4 actors had to rehearse and perform the piece in an additional 24 hours! It was very hectic but we managed to pull it off! The work titled POWDER was directed by Kimberly Stewart (2nd R), Starring (L to R)  Melissa Caminneci, Jordan Randolph, Katya Surinskaya, and JC Sullivan. The piece was about a group of merchants along the silk road bringing gunpowder into Europe in the 14th century. A lot of fun, I can't want to participate in LeeLa NYC again!

The short play MAGIC? is being extended into a full 60 minute script in a new collaboration between the piece's director Chris Erlendson and myself. Moving forward, Chris and I aim to write the piece together sharing writer responsibilities -- Chris will retain his Director's cap and I hope to acquire an Assistant Director's hat. The extended piece is a lot sweeter, rhythmic, and magical than the original 10 minute version. Here, Chris and I take the viewer into a world where magic, a once overadbundant commodity, is vanishing. A group of charlatan magicians who use their imaginations to perform tricks get framed as culprits of negating magic when in fact they were doing nothing wrong! How these vegabonds rediscover true magic and prove to the kingdom its use is a magical story we hope to tell in entire rhyme! Timeline of this project is still being determined!

The dark comedy about anxiety, love, the ghost of Carl Jung, and anxiety, JUNG & CRAZY is coming along super well too. Robert Keller and I have produced a third draft of the script which we workshopped at the Atlantic School of Acting last month. Coming up in the second week of January, I will be traveling to Toronto to complete draft 4 of the script with Robert and to present the piece to a Canadian audience for developement. (Know of any buddies in Toronto who are available on Jan  8th? Send em' my way.) 

MAGNIFICENT SCIENTIFIC, a drama about medical research is in its final stages of revision after a closed development workshop. This project may seem stagnant because of how quiet I've been about it but in January I will schedule a development reading (when and where to be determined) and will kick off some serious work on this script. After the first week of January, draft 3 of this script will be complete -- a gargantuan accomplishment given the script is 85 pages long and is being rewritten for its the 3rd time. Yes, that's a lot of writing but even more yesses, that's a lot of revising. Soon you will help me get to draft 4 and 5!

Playwright friend Larry Rinkel's A KREUTZER SONATA, a drama about an Orthodox Jewish college student trying to survive in the modern world, is performing at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre in March. My interest is deeply in the relationship of David the central character of the story and his attractive and alluring duet partner Elana who he must pair up with to perform A Kreutzer Sonata in which he is tempted to cross moral boundaries. Larry honored me with commission of drawing the cover for the performance -- it is the drawing to the left! (full resolution photo to come to art page soon)

A Kreutzer Sonata will perform:
Tuesday, March 7, 2017 at 6:30 PM
Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 3:00 PM

Manhattan Repertory Theatre
17-19 West 45th St., Third Floor
New York, NY 10036
Tickets $20. For Ticket Reservations:
www.manhattanrep.com

Lastly but not leastly, WRITE THE NIGHT, a creative writing workshop/community grown out of Brooklyn College's STUCK IN THE LIBRARY took its first steps as an organization this past month as a group of highly intelligent and strongly motivated creatives had their first board meeting. Growth strategies, workshop locations, and marketing methods were discussed. Expect an official statement Mid-January announcing increased workshops locations, workshop times, and ways to get involved!

Thanks for following up! Hopefully January will prove to be just as rewarding as December. Wishing you a happy New Year. 2017 is here, and so are you! Let's make things happen.

-Yaakov Bressler