I am a lifelong and gigantic nerd.  I was happiest as a child in the library and adulthood hasn’t particularly changed that.  (Nowadays I have a bookshelf large enough that I can visit the library wit...

It takes time to write.  Even at my fastest – and I suspect I’m far from alone in this regard – a full length play takes a few months to draft, and a few more months to polish.  Even if I’m able to ar...

ALT: a little girl is asking why not both while standing in a kitchen .

As I mentioned in my last post, I was fortunate enough to be invited up to the Sherman Playhouse last weekend, to present a staged reading of my new full length play Bank Street.  (Couldn’t make it?  ...

Every once in a while, you need to get out of town.  That’s especially true when you’re a playwright working on a comic opus satirizing some of your fellow theatre artists and the places where they’ve...

I’m typing up this post on Sunday night as the second major snowstorm of 2026 wallops New York City.  The first blizzard, mind you – of the two storms, being a good old-fashioned nor’easter, the one c...

Every New York City story is ultimately a story about real estate.  That’s true about the fictional stories we tell about the place, and it’s true about our real life experiences.  And it’s especially...

It’s 2026 everybody!  And outside of work and a few bits of basic artistic housekeeping – programming the Tuesday night reading series, sending out a submission or two, supporting some friends’ shows ...

The holidays are upon us, Constant Reader, and with them a frenzy of activity as we try and take after our friends and loved ones.  We hunt for just the right Christmas present.  We fret over an end o...

Sometime in the early spring of 2023, I walked into a dilapidated old theater where I was working.  (I won’t mention the theater or the circumstances here; it’s one of those “if you know you know” sor...

A few weeks ago now, I was fortunate enough to have my work featured at the Midwest Dramatist Conference, and make my first trip to Kansas City.  (If you weren’t able to travel out to Kansas City your...

Halloween fell upon a Friday this year, Constant Reader, and so, as I write this Sunday night, New York City is staggering towards the end of a three-day weekend of phantasms and debauchery.  I’ve bee...

I was wracking my brain about how to address this week’s latest atrocities, the weaponization of the FCC to shut down Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night program on ABC for criticizing the current administratio...

I’ve been a bookworm since childhood, and I’m an academic by training.  So research is always a critical part of the process for whatever creative project I’m working on – and indeed, my love of that ...

It has been two years, since it was shuttered last year for renovations, but the Delacorte Theater in Central Park is open once again, and a new production of Twelfth Night has opened as part of the P...

For the past month and a half or so, I’ve been wrestling with a particularly recalcitrant rough draft.  It’s a two hour (I hope), four-act chonker roughly modeled after Chekhov (as transplanted to Gre...

It’s been another two weeks of chaos and heartbreak the world over – but a period of time in which, perhaps paradoxically, the power of the arts has been reaffirmed.  The Late Show With Stephen Colber...

Back in November, I blatantly avoided writing a blog post during a period when I was frantically trying to finish drafting a project by signal boosting a film project done by some friends of mine.  Th...

There’s a number of hard lessons you’ll need to learn if you’re serious about being a playwright, or actor, or any other creative artist, primarily dealing with the inevitability of rejection.  One of...

It seems like we only just started (and indeed, I only posted a news item about it last week), but the run of Naya James’ 60/40 is now concluded.  It was a terrific experience, working on a scarily re...

* by Naya James Sonnad * * * * MONDAY June 9, 2025 @ 6:30 PM WEDNESDAY June 11, 2025 @ 9:00 PM SATURDAY June 14, 2025 @ 6:45 PM * * * Blurb 60/40 is a 7-day race to save humanity, told in 7 scenes abo...

It’s been a busy few weeks, Constant Reader.  I’m in rehearsals for a new show, and shortly about to start teching.  I’ve been fortunate enough to collect a few lovely NPX recommendations.  All of the...

I had it settled, more or less.  Barring the complete destruction of everything (which is entirely possible these days – thanks a LOT, resurgent fascism), my creative projects for the foreseeable futu...

I took a trip on Saturday out to New Jersey, to the private residence of a friend of my classics reading series, to have a private soiree complete with readings.  (My oh so glamorous life, Constant Re...

Well, we still seem hell-bent on rushing headlong into fascism and dystopia, economic and environmental calamities appear to be right around the corner, and (most galling of all, perhaps) the various ...

At some point during the pandemic, Reproductions Studios in New York closed its doors.  It was the go-to location for actors needing mass duplication of their headshots, a spacious office off of Bryan...

It’s been a month since I had a developmental reading of my play Mycorrhizae, through the auspices of Naked Angels’ First Mondays program, and I’ve had a lot to think about since then.  That’s what th...

Well, it’s Presidents’ Day, 2025 – the first such holiday on which the duties of the President of the United States now include Chairperson of the Kennedy Center Board. Yes, as you’re probably aware (...

Last week, I was fortunate enough to have a debut public reading of a brand new full-length play of mine, Mycorrhizae.  It was part of Naked Angels’ First Mondays series, which presents scripts which ...

I took a break from all the extreme cold and fascism last week by going to see a friend’s one-act play on Saturday night.  The venue was one which has seen untold hundreds of such showcases – nay, tho...

A friend of mine had a discussion on Facebook last week, concerning the programming of his theatre company’s upcoming season.  (Yes, there are some of us who still find value in using social media for...

I remember it like it was yesterday, and in the grand scheme of thing it’s not much longer ago than that.  It was, to be more precise, four years and ten months ago (give or take).  My then-co-creativ...

YouTube video by Charlie Rose

Welcome to 2025, Constant Reader!  Yes, it’s here – the second half of the decade, the quarter mark of the century, the second year of Wicked movie hype and the possible end of human civilization (aga...

I’ll be visiting my mother and sister over the holidays this week, and as they’ve both seen the movie they would give me all manner of grief if they were unable to discuss it with me, so I finally wen...

Here’s hoping you had a good holiday, Constant Reader!  I spent a restful Christmas down in Wilmington, North Carolina, where my family currently lives.  (As a native-born New Yorker – one of the few,...

They say that New Yorkers are jaded, and I’ve always found that hard to believe – we’re the city of bright lights and big dreams, dammit, and you have to feel some sense of wonder at the simple fact o...

My name is Dennis Renard, Executive Producer of t… DENNIS WOULLARD needs your support for IT'S TIME FOR ART ~ The Menacer, An Absurd Horror Dramedy

Come join us for a night of storytelling, stand-up comedy, improv, and live music! Your ticket includes entertainment, unlimited pizza, beer, and wine and a donation to our film YOYOs which will be sh...