Free Readings and Reception

The third edition of the New York Theater Review continues its celebration of downtown New York theater with the official release of the 2008 edition at Manhattan’s Drama Book Shop Friday, April 11 from 6-8pm.

Drawing from among the best and the brightest in contemporary NYC alt-theater, NYTR’s 2008 edition contains three new plays, three original commissioned essays, an extended roundtable chat with six leading NYC theater and performance bloggers, and a sit-down give and take with that singular sonic performance onslaught also known as Reggie Watts.

NYTR’s evening at the Drama Book Shop will feature excerpts from the 2008 collection of new plays and essays.

In plays, Taylor Mac’s funny, deeply personal and visually stunning The Young Ladies Of ... seeks out the macho, Texas farm-boy father he never really knew; 2008 P73 Playwriting Fellow Tommy Smith’s explosively visceral White Hot rips the calm exterior off a bourgeois couple's seemingly placid existence to expose the despairing core festering beneath; six Asian-Americans from widely different backgrounds share their stories of immigration, migration and cultural identity in Ping Chong & Sara Michelle Zatz’ Undesirable Elements.

In essays specifically commissioned for the 2008 edition, Victoria Linchong of NYC’s Direct Arts, Zachary R. Mannheimer of Brooklyn’s Subjective Theatre Co., and Marya Sea Kaminski of Seattle’s Washington Ensemble Theatre contribute fresh takes on the NYC alt-theater of today, and a look back fifty years to where it all began.

A reception will follow.