Blue Coyote Theater Group Launches STANDARDS OF DECENCY 3

Blue Coyote Theater Group and Access Theater present the latest chapter in their downtown cult series Standards of Decency. Taking its title from the profundity of indie rock god John Mayer, STANDARDS OF DECENCY 3: 300 VAGINAS BEFORE BREAKFAST begins performances on Friday, May 27 for a limited engagement through Saturday, June 18. The performance schedule is Wednesday - Saturday at 8 PM, with an added performance on Tuesday, May 31 at 8 PM. Press Opening is Thursday, June 2 at 8 PM. Performances are at the Access Theater (380 Broadway, two blocks below Canal, just north of White Street). Tickets are $25 and are available by calling SmartTix at 212-868-4444 or online at www.smarttix.com.

Blue Coyote Theater group commissioned eight of their favorite playwrights to create new short plays meditating on new media and pornography. Presented in a stripped-down style, the plays are raunchy, funny, and surprisingly tender.

Blue Coyote's indecent playwrights are:

· David Johnston (Busted Jesus Comix, Candy & Dorothy, The Oresteia)

· Matthew Freeman (The Most Wonderful Love, Interview with the Author)

· David Foley (Paradise)

· Mac Rogers (Viral)

· Jordan Seavey (The Truth Will Out, Children at Play)

· Jacqueline Christy (Lunch)

· Cheri Magid (The Virtue of Raw Oysters, The Sexy Vintner)

· Adam Szymkowicz (Nerve, Pretty Theft)

Directed by the Blue Coyote members: Kyle Ancowitz, Robert Buckwalter, Gary Shrader and Stephen Speights.

"You wake up in the morning, open a thumbnail page, and it leads to a Pandora's box of visuals. There have probably been days when I saw 300 vaginas before I got out of bed." Thus spake John Mayer, blues guitarist, committed onanist, neuroscientist: "Pornography? It's a new synaptic pathway."

The Internet is now constantly with us, burrowing into our heads, hearts, and pants, changing the way we think, love, lust, and relate. Twelve percent of all websites are pornographic, as are 25 percent of all search engine requests. Forty million Americans are regular online viewers; one third of them are women. $2.84 billion a year is spent on porn subscriptions in the US alone.

Is our pornutopia breaking down our capacities for empathy and reflective thought, for intimacy and sustained attention? STANDARDS OF DECENCY 3: 300 VAGINAS BEFORE BREAKFAST uses a very old medium to explore what the new media are doing to us, publicly and privately, for better and for worse, at the place where technology, sex, and relationships collide.

PLAYWRIGHT BIOS
JACQUELINE CHRISTY founded Access Theater in 1992. There she has produced the premieres of Tom McCarthy's THE KILLING ACT, Aasif Mandvi's SAKINA'S RESTAURANT and Stephen Belber's TAPE, among others. Her short plays include: EASY ON THE EYES, CALIFORNIA CASUAL, SEX IN COLOR and LUNCH (all Winterfest EST/LA). LUNCH was also produced by Elephant Theater, LA and LIA, NYC. Screenplays include: CAKE, BRENTWOOD and OPERATIVES ATTRACT, which she wrote for Cherry Road Films and Persistent Pictures.

This is DAVID FOLEY'S third Standard of Decency evening. Blue Coyote also produced his full-length plays NANCE O'NEIL and PARADISE. Other productions at various theaters here and abroad: SAD HOTEL, CRESSIDA AMONG THE GREEKS, THE LAST DAYS OF MADALYN MURRAY O'HAIR IN EXILE, THE MURDERS AT ARGOS, A HOLE IN THE FENCE, SUFFERING THE WITCH, and the Edgar-nominated DEADLY MURDER (IF/THEN). DEADLY MURDER is published by Samuel French, his other plays by Oberon Books.

MATTHEW FREEMAN is a Brooklyn-based playwright. His previous productions with BCTG include THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE AMERICANS, THE WHITE SWALLOW, THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE, WHEN IS A CLOCK, and GLEE CLUB. His plays have been published by Playscripts, Inc., New York Theatre Experience, and Samuel French. Read about him at matthewfreeman.blogspot.com.

DAVID JOHNSTON (Playwright) Previous productions with Blue Coyote Theater Group include CONVERSATIONS ON RUSSIAN LITERATURE PLUS THREE MORE PLAYS, a new adaptation of THE ORESTEIA, (Time Out Best of 2007) BUSTED JESUS COMIX (GLAAD nominee), A BUSH CAROL, OR GEORGE DUBYA AND THE XMAS OF EVIL and EFFIE JEAN IN TAHITI, both with songs by Stephen Speights. With director Kevin Newbury, CANDY & DOROTHY (GLAAD winner) and THE EUMENIDES. Member: Actors Equity, Dramatists Guild, Charles Maryan's Playwrights/Directors Workshop.

MAC ROGERS is a playwright and actor based in Brooklyn. His recent plays include VIRAL (winner of a New York Independent Theater Bloggers award), UNIVERSAL ROBOTS (nominated for four NYIT awards), and HAIL SATAN (Outstanding Playwriting Award winner from FringeNYC 2007).He is delighted to be working with Blue Coyote, a company's he's admired for years.

CHERI MAGID writes smut in various and sundry mediums. Plays include THE VIRTUE OF RAW OYSTERS, about the early (and dirty) days of the phonograph and THE TAVERN WENCH, an erotic Scheherazade story. Films include STORY OF D, written for Nicole Kidman, about the real story behind the writing of Story of O. Cheri penned a sex and wine column, The Sexy Vintner. The short story version of YEAH WE GOT THAT aired on Playboy radio.

JORDAN SEAVEY is a member of The Public Theater's 2009 Emerging Writer's Group and is co-artistic director of theatre company CollaborationTown. Plays include THE MOMENTUM (with CTown; New York Times Critics' Pick), THE FUNNY PAIN (reading at The Public, dir. May Adrales), THE TRUTH WILL OUT (developed at New York Theatre Workshop, Old Vic, and Rattlestick), CHILDREN AT PLAY (The Advocate's Top 10 LGBTQ Plays 2009), 6969 (three 2007 NYIT Awards), and THIS IS A NEWSPAPER.

ADAM SZYMKOWICZ's plays have been produced throughout the U.S., and in Canada, England, The Netherlands, Germany and Lithuania. His plays are published by Dramatists Play Service and Samuel French. He studied playwriting at Columbia and Juilliard and is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Writer's Guild of America, Primary Stages' Dorothy Strelsin New American Writer's Group, the MCC Playwright's Coalition and was a founding member of the Ars Nova Play Group. For more, www.adamszymkowicz.com.

BLUE COYOTE THEATER GROUP is a New York City not-for-profit theater company, incorporated in August 2000. It has been in residence at the ACCESS THEATER, since July of 2005, where it also serves as caretaker. Blue Coyote is dedicated to producing new American plays and actively collaborating with new American playwrights. Blue Coyote was a GLAAD Media Awards nominee for Outstanding Off-Off Broadway Theatre for its 2005 production of BUSTED JESUS COMIX, and was selected as one of NYTHEATRE.COM's PEOPLE OF THE YEAR for 2006. Blue Coyote's production of David Johnston's THE ORESTEIA in 2007 was cited in two year-end "best" lists, in TIME OUT NEW YORK and by Michael Criscuolo of NYTHEATRE.COM.

ACCESS THEATER is a not-for-profit theater company founded in 1992 by artistic director Jacqueline Christy, and is currently under the direction of producing director Stephen Speights. Access Theater is a vital member of the Tribeca arts scene and has produced hundred of new plays, performance pieces, and exhibitions. Access Theater was recently recognized by The New York Times as "one of the theaters to pay attention to in downtown New York."

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.