Village Playwrights to Present LOUD & PROUD Readings Tomorrow

Celebrate Gay Pride with the Village Playwrights tomorrow on Wednesday, June 28 at 8 pm at the LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, room 301.

Join us to celebrate Gay Pride in a thought provoking way with staged readings of seven jury chosen 10 minute plays by some of New York's most interesting playwrights.

Seating is limited and reservations are recommended. $5 donation requested. Please email villageplaywrights@gmail.com or call 614-285-2515 to reserve seats. (Reservations are strongly recommended.)

The plays and playwrights are:

"Doctor Truth" by Sam Affoumado -- Sex therapist Dr. Truth works miracles with a "dysfunctional" Gay couple.

Sam Affoumado has written six full-length plays and ten short plays. "Peanut Butter Patty" was a semi-finalist in the 2011 Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival in NYC. "Home Sweet Home," another short piece, was a finalist in the 2012 Magnolia Arts 10-minute play contest in Greenville, NC. Sam's play, "The Finalist," was produced in Washington, DC as part of the McLean Drama Company's 10th Annual 10-Minute National Play Festival. His latest work The Bully's Eye" was published in 2015 by Applause Theatre and Cinema Books in an anthology entitled More 10-Minute Plays for Teens, edited by Lawrence Harbison.

"The Choice" by Stephen Barnett -- Trapped between loving the sinner and hating the sin, a grandmother turns to her priest for guidance regarding her queer grandchild.

Having grown from a theatrical foundation, Stephen Barnett is proud to debut as Playwright & Director for the stage after having written, produced, and directed seventeen short films of varied length while studying acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio He earned an Interdisciplinary Baccalaureate in Theatre and Cinema Production. For his theatrical thesis, he directed Tennessee Williams' one-act play, "Adam and Eve on a Ferry." He recently graduated with an MA in Gender, Sexuality, and Cinema Theory. He has also been involved in community theatre as a performer with the Sea View Playwright's Theatre productions of O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, Miller's Death of a Salesman, and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. He is presently seeking a Producer for his short film "The Choice" from which this 10-minute play is derived.

"Blame it on the Baby" by Jack Dyville -- A Gay couple discovers that their newborn has potty mouth.

Over the years, Jack Dyville has earned the title, "Jack of All Theatrical Trades" having worked professionally as a Playwright, Producer, Director, Choreographer, Actor, Dancer, Singer and in fact like George M. Cohan, his idol, he's even figured out how to work the Box Office and Usher Folks to their seats! He's a published writer with comedies, dramas & musicals. A favorite is his "The Memory Book" a tribute to a dear friend, one of the first casualties to the AIDS Epedimic.

"Beheld" by Maia Henkin -- Two teenage missionaries go to the subway to propagate the word of the gospel and end up playing a game of "gay chicken."

Maia Henkin graduated with honors in gender studies from Rhodes College with a BA in English Lit/Creative Writing and Theatre with a minor in Film. In New York, her plays have been produced at the Hudson Guild Theatre, the PIT, the Lynn Redgrave Theatre (Off-Broadway, Fresh Ground Pepper), the Gene Frankel Theatre (Nylon Fusion), Littlefiend (UglyRhino), and Manhattan Rep.

"Tahiti" by James Masten -- It's never too late for a second chance on love.

James Masten studied theatre at New York University when the actor Ronald Reagan was President. During the intervening three decades Masten has practiced social work in the fields of AIDS care, aging, and mental health, written several journal articles, and published a book, Aging with HIV: A gay man's guide. His full length play Survivors was the inaugural Michael Warren Powell Memorial Reading at the 29th Street Playwright's Collective.

"Naked" by Mike Poblete -- After having great sex, two men get naked.

Born in Brooklyn, Mike Poblete has had six full length plays and numerous one acts performed in six countries, two of which have been published. He has a Playwriting MFA from Trinity College Dublin and works as Director of Script Development at The Foxboro Company, a Broadway, film and television Production Office. www.mikepoblete.com

"I'm not Gay" by Bernard J. Taylor -- Why does a man who has entered into a same-sex relationship insist he is not gay?
Bernard J. Taylor has had more than 100 productions of his stage works (both musicals and non-musical plays) worldwide. (See www.bernardjtaylor.com). In 2013 I was made an Honorary Fellow by the Victoria College of Music and Drama in London for "services to music and the performing arts". Three recent productions of his show in San Antonio won six awards at last year's ATAC awards (San Antonio's equivalent of the Tony Awards - original script, original music and four performance awards. He has coming up productions in New York (Summerfest at the Hudson in Manhattan in August), San Antonio, Japan, Australia and England. Mr. Taylor started up an LGBT theatre group in San Antonio.