Web site & blog of N. G. McClernan - playwright & cultural materialist. - HOME
PlaywrightMy first play, Alive and Living in NJ was written in 1992 for a one-act play contest at Haddonfield Plays & Players in Haddonfield NJ. My play won a staged reading. Alive and Living was about a young woman who learns that she is the illegitimate daughter of JFK. She finds out through a reporter who happens to be a guy she knew in high school, whom she has always been infatuated with. Romantic complications ensue. Then I got involved with a theatre group in Philadelphia, The Brick Playhouse and they did a couple of my plays: New Rules was part of a 4-play series set in a restaurant, in this case, Old Original Bookbinders; and I See London, which was performed as part of their Independent Theatre series of one-act plays. London was inspired by my friend Laura's brief affair with her brother-in-law which happened as she was divorcing her first husband. By 1998 I had moved to the banks of the Hudson River and found a group in Hoboken, The Waterfront Ensemble. They did my play Monkey's Paw 2000 as part of their entry for the Midtown International Theatre Festival. But due to group politics and a lack of respect from some of the bigwigs at Waterfront (you do NOT disrespect my partner Jonathan) we founded NYCPlaywrights in November 2000. NYCPlaywrights has been extremely useful to me - we have a reading signup form and so I would sign up and then go - "damn, I'm scheduled to do a reading, I'd better write something!" which is an excellent aid for a natural-born procrastinator like me. Since NYCPlaywrights I've begun more plays than I can count. The ones I've completed include TAM LIN, which had its first public performance as a staged reading by the Deptford Players in 2002. Jonathan and I formed Mergatroyd Productions in order to produce TAM LIN and other plays. We've produced TAM LIN in gradually improving conditions in 2003, 2004 and 2005. We hope to make it a Halloween tradition in NYC, in spite of the asshole who is suing us - the Dramatists Guild has called this suit 'outrageous.' Other plays produced in New York include Safe and Confidential, produced by the feminist group estrotribe in 2001; Blessings of the Sun God which was based, impressionistically, on my relationship with my dear departed friend Earl Rich and was produced by Cofounder in 2003; and The Slash produced as a staged reading in 2004 by Mergatroyd. My play HUCK FINN was recently part of the Metropolitan Playhouse's Twainathon. My play JANE EYRE was performed at the 45th Street Theatre February - March 2008 to great audience acclaim. A new production, which will benefit from lessons learned in the first production, will be coming soon. |
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