Catskill Mountain Foundation Presents BAD DATES: Two Singular Studies In Dating

On Friday and Saturday, May 20 and 21 at 8 pm, the Catskill Mountain Foundation presents Bad Dates: Two Singular Studies in Dating-a night of short plays directed by Mark Singer - featuring Check Please by Jonathan Rand, and Books that Did Not Help Me Pick Up Women, by John McCaffrey and Mark Singer. These plays will stream on ShowShare, Broadway-on-Demand's live streaming platform.

Books That Did Not Help Me Pick Up Women

Based on author and playwright John McCaffrey's experiences as a young man dating on the Upper West Side of New York, Books tells the tale of a barfly who uses his love of literature to help get dates ... with unpredictable (and very amusing) results.

Viewers may remember last season's hilarious Wanda's Visit, featuring Mark Singer, Darcy Dunn, Dayna Kurtz and John McCaffrey in a tale of a bored married couple whose lives are upended by the visit of a somewhat unhinged ex-girlfriend. In this new production, Darcy Dunn and Dayna Kurtz return in the cast. Mark, who both directed and acted in Wanda, only directed this time around. "One thing I learned from our production of Wanda, is that it's very difficult to act in and direct a video of a play at the same time. So even though the idea of acting in this production was very tempting-I'd created the lead role of Graham in the first production of Books-I really wanted to direct this and needed to make sure it worked visually. Fortunately my very talented friend Otoja Abit agreed to play Graham, so we were all set."

Books was originally a short story by John that he and Mark then adapted into a short play: we've always wanted to do another production of the original short play. We love the pacing-it's only about ten minutes long-but there are six scenes. It's fast and funny."

Check Please

Dating can be hard. Especially when your date happens to be a raging kleptomaniac, or your grandmother's bridge partner, or a mime. Check Please follows a series of blind dinner dates that couldn't get any worse-until they do. Could there possibly be a light at the end of the tunnel? Otoja Abit and Dayna Kurtz lead the cast as two singles who go on a series of disastrous-and hilarious-dates in their search for love. The rest of the cast play multiple characters and take turns bringing new and hysterical dimension to the term "Bad Dates."

Playwright Jonathan Rand is among the most popular contemporary playwrights writing today, his stage plays having been performed over 26,000 times in theaters across 67 countries.

According to an independent survey of American schools, Jonathan's one-act comedy Check Please was the #1 most-produced short play every season for the last 17 years.

Viewers may watch for free, but must sign in to a Broadway-on-Demand account prior to watching. It is highly recommended that you set up an account prior to the live stream: you may do so at broadwayondemand.com/signup. Bad Dates: Two Singular Studies in Dating can be seen on Friday, May, 20 or on Saturday, May 21. Learn more at catskillmtn.org.

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