Preview: BEST OF CACTUS FLOWERS at Axial Theatre
Five Short Plays Selected from a Season's Worth of Staged Readings
On the weekend of September 27 through 29, Axial Theatre will present The Best of Cactus Flowers: Part II, five short plays selected by Axial Theatre Artistic Director Cady McClain from its popular Cactus Flowers new play development program. The performances will be followed by a screening of Robust Admixture, a short film based on the work of Westchester Poet Laureate BK Fischer (Sleepy Hollow), featuring Axial Ensemble actors. Performances and the film screening will take place at St John's Episcopal Church, 8 Sunnyside Ave., Pleasantville, N.Y.
The plays are …
Constituent by Karin Diann Williams with Axial Ensemble actors Dan Walworth (South Salem) and Quinn Warren, directed by Cady McClain - Do your elected representatives really live the values they trumpet on the campaign trail? A politician is confronted by a ghost from his past, and truth that won’t stay buried.
Williams was playwright-in-residence at San Diego’s Fritz Theater from 1992-2001 and has been produced at multiple venues including NYC's Looking Glass Theater, Art House Productions, New York New Works Festival, and Boston Theaterworks. She wrote and produced The Captive (Webby People's Choice Award & NYTVF "Best Web Series" Award) and the independent feature Jordan.
Not Like Us by Mark Harvey Levine with Axial Ensemble actors Bruce Apar (Yorktown Heights), Sandy Rooney (Dobbs Ferry) and Nicole Arcieri (Yonkers), directed by Honorary Axial Ensemble member Albi Gorn (Hastings-on-Hudson) - Arthur is giving his wife a present: a bio-engineered young neanderthal girl. She can help around the house…
Levine’s short plays have received over 45 awards, been produced in 10 + languages everywhere from Bangalore to Bucharest and from Seoul to Sao Paulo and published in nearly 25 anthologies. His latest full-length play, Save Hamlet, premiered at the Laboratory Theater of Florida.
Like Miriam by Jacquelyn Reingold with Axial Ensemble actors Catherine Banks (Peekskill) and Marisa Lowe (Beacon), directed by Rachel Jones - How do you tell your best friend the one thing she doesn't want to know?
Reingold, a member of Axial’s Advisory Board, received the 2023 Lilly Award, was honored at Kennedy Center, and was a Susan Smith Blackburn finalist. She has been published in Women Playwrights: Best Plays and Best American Short Plays, by DPS, Smith & Kraus.
Her TV writing includes The Good Fight, Grace and Frankie (where she was also a producer), and the “Mia” episodes for Emmy nominated Hope Davis in In Treatment.
Civil Disobedience by Lori M. Myers (Nanuet) with Axial Ensemble actor Missy Flower (Ossining) and Nate Becker, directed by Nate Flower (Ossining) - A reimagining of the January 6 insurrection.
Myers is a Broadway World Award nominee, whose plays have been produced across the US, Canada, internationally and locally by Westchester Collaborative Theater (WCT), Barn Theatre (NJ), and Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company (Brooklyn). She is the creator/producer of That's (Not) All She Wrote, a celebration of women playwrights staged during the past three years at WCT and the drama/nonfiction editor for Masque & Spectacle, an online literary journal.
The Audition by Dominic Hoffman with Axial Ensemble actor Patrick McGuinness (Brewster) and James Leeper (Tarrytown), directed by Axial member Youlim Nam -- Two older actors and longtime acquaintances prove friendship is relative within the confines of a casting director's office.
Hoffman, a member of Axial’s Advisory Board, is a double Ovation Awards winner (actor/writer) for Uncle Jacques Symphony and an NAACP Best New Play Award winner for Last Fare. The narrator of numerous audiobooks, Audiofile Magazine recognized him with the “Golden Voice” distinction. He recently completed filming the independent feature Henry Johnson, written and directed by David Mamet, starring alongside Shia Le Beouf, Evan Jonigkeit, and Chris Bauer.
Julia LaVerde (Irvington) is the stage manager for Cactus Flowers: Part II.
The plays will be held on Friday, September 27, at 7:30 PM; Saturday, September 28, at 7:30 PM, and Sunday, September 29, at 3 PM.
Tickets are available through the Axial Theatre website: www.axialtheatre.org
ABOUT BK FISCHER
B.K. Fischer is the author of Ceive, a finalist for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award, and four other books of poetry—Radioapocrypha, My Lover’s Discourse, St. Rage’s Vault, and Mutiny Gallery. Also the author of Museum Mediations, a critical study, Fischer has published writing in The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Nation, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. She teaches in the MFA Writing Program at Columbia University and served as the inaugural poet laureate of Westchester County from 2021 to 2023, and was an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. You can find her @bk_on_hudson or bkfischer.com.
ABOUT AXIAL THEATRE
Axial Theatre is a 25-year-old not-for-profit institution founded by playwright/director Howard Meyer. It is dedicated to supporting the professional development of the independent voice through audience involvement and is committed to presenting challenging and relevant theatrical experiences. The company and its productions have been reviewed in The New York Times and are supported by the William T Morris Foundation and ArtsWestchester among others. axialtheatre.org
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