Staged Reading of BARKLEE Comes to AMT Theater

AMT Theater in partnership with Paris Avenue Productions will be developing a new play, BARKLEE, written by award winning playwright Tom Cavanaugh. The development will include a Twenty-Nine Hour A.E.A. staged reading directed by Steven Ditmyer at AMT Theater, 354 W. 45th Street, NY, NY on Tuesday, February 11th, 2025, 11:00am & 3:00pm. The cast will feature the talents of Vincent Piazza (Tulsa Kings on Paramount) as 'Barklee' and Gabriel Amoroso (Caroline, or Change at Roundabout) as 'Aidin'.

BARKLEE is inspired by a real court case in New Jersey where a high school refused to allow a student to bring his protection service dog to class. Piazza portrays the boisterous, wisecracking service dog Barklee, who slowly gains affection and loyalty to his new master Aidin.

The full-length play has been developed over the last two years in workshops at the 2023 National Playwrights Symposium, Naked Angels NY, New Ambassadors, We Make Movies Writers Lab and extensively in weekly meetings of The Actors Gym under the under the guidance of Bobby Moresco (Crash, Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend).

AMT Theater has assigned a full staff and director, Steven Ditmyer to guide and encourage Cavanaugh through the process of development with hope of a full production. Ditmyer is a Director and Acting Teacher who studied with Sanford Meisner, Uta Hagen and Zoe Caldwell. He was the director of the OFF THE PAGE reading series for Tony Randall's National Actors Theatre and has directed Off-Broadway and internationally. Steven is the founder and director of MEISNER INTERNATIONAL.

Tom Cavanaugh received his M.F.A. Playwriting from The Actors Studio Drama School. 2021, Tom's Zoom show, NOW, NOW, NOW... , won Best National Show at Pittsburgh Fringe, Best Live-Stream Show at Big Sky Fringe, and won an Ovation Award at Hollywood Fringe. Tom was one of twelve selected playwrights at the 2023 PLAY LAB at The William Inge Theatre Festival. 2022, Tom's short film, Service Me won Best Comedy at the LA Independent Film Channel Festival in Los Angeles, Best Relationship Short Film at the Silicon Beach Film Festival, Best Short Short at the New York Long Island Film Festival and Best North American Short Film at the NY Independent Cinema Awards. Cavanaugh's short play, Mom & Mom was a finalist at Pittsburgh New Works Play Festival in Pennsylvania. 2024, Inland Empress was published by Next Stage Press. Bedbuggers, Toms' full length screenplay won the Grand Prize for Drama at the 2024 Fade In Awards in Hollywood, California and was a Semi-Finalist at the screenplay competition at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival in Germany and the Vail Film Festival in Colorado.

To Reserve A Seat Email: reservations@barkleetheplay.com

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