Rhinebeck Performing Arts, Inc. and Howl Playwrights present
Howl in the Black Box
Friday, October 3 at 8 PM
Saturday, October 4 at 8 PM
Sunday, October 5 at 3 PM
Tickets $15
Howl Playwrights, a local collective dedicated to developing bold, socially engaged new work, is presenting a series of short plays that will be performed in The CENTER’s black box space. These one-acts (and one full-length play) explore timely themes with humor, heart, and a willingness to take risks.
Performance Schedule
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3 AT 8PM
A SHORT(ER) VIEW, by Dwight Watson: Mosley and Olive, long-time custodians at the Kennedy Center, anticipate an inspection of the Center by the President. Meanwhile, on another stage and in another time, Mr. Coll lectures on the harmful effects of the theater.
AMSTERDAM, by Margie Castleman: POLLY is shocked to hear of her son’s plan to pull an ex-pat move with his family to Amsterdam, to escape what he perceives as a fascist machine emerging in the U.S.
MARIANA, by Danielle Frimer: Loosely inspired by The Diary of Anne Frank and directly inspired by the current deportation crisis, Mariana examines what it means to make moral choices under pressure — and how history echoes in today's American living rooms.
BEAR, by Molly Parker Myers: A child army is formed when a preschool class encounters an enemy at their door.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4 AT 8PM
COLLECTO-MANIA CARAVAN, by Paul Allman: An antique appraisal TV show broadcasting from the future reveals some surprises about the history of America being made today.
NO WARNING, by Martina Deignan: A young Canadian woman wonders, who will they come for next, when she visits a US Immigration office and without warning is detained, imprisoned, and stripped of her rights to Due Process.
FIFTH HORSEMANPERSON, by Dean Temple: Take-Your-Kid-to-Work day can be such a distraction, but how else are they going to learn how the world works?
GRETAL AND HANSEL, by David Simpatico: An innocent brother and sister struggle to escape the painful hunger of their dilapidated trailer park in Scrotum, Pennsylvania. A modern-day grand guignol of horror, gore and innocence lost!
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5 AT 3PM
APOCOLLAPSE, by Dean Temple: Jerahmeel’s family is a mess. Her dad’s losing control, she barely knows her mom, and her brother is from Hell. If she can’t get them in line, her world will end. And so will ours.
About the Playwrights
Paul Allman (Collecto-mania Caravan)
Playwright-in-Residence at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and also a Screenwriting Fellow and twice Playwriting Fellow at the Sundance Institute. Allman developed work that went on to productions by the 78th Street Theatre Lab, Theater 80 at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, the Florida Studio Theater, the Sundance Children’s Theater, and Paramount Interactive Studios. His other plays have also been staged by Theater for the New City and The Broome Street Theater. Allman was awarded a Pushcart Prize for his short fiction, and other works have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, Film Comment, Witness Magazine, Public Illumination and Folio. His first novel was published by St. Martin’s Press, and he has published two YA novels. Allman has taught in NYC’s Authors in the Schools Program, and led writing workshops at the YMCA of St. Louis, his home town.
Margie Castleman (Amsterdam)
In her adult life time (a long one) Margie has worked as a professional dancer, actor, choreographer, director, playwright in Europe, New York and regionally. Credits include: Circle in The Square, (NY); Hampstead Theatre, London; Bucharest, Romania; Actor’s Theatr, Louisville; Portland Stage, Maine. Chosen three times (not a charm) for semi-finalist at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference. Local readings at Round The Bend Theatre and HOWL playwrights, where she continues to develop plays, most recently, Homeboy Arts.
Martina Deignan (No Warning)
Martina Deignan has been a proud member of Howl Playwrights for the past five years. Her two full-length plays, PLUCKY DUCK and AMIR IN AMERICA have had readings at Howl. As an actor, Martina's TV credits include the daytime dramas AS THE WORLD TURNS and SANTA BARBARA, the series CODE RED with Lorne Greene, MISS LONELY HEARTS for PBS, MADAME X with Tuesday Weld, many TV pilots, episodic shows, commercials and industrials. Films include GHOST, THE LONGRIDERS and BLACKOUT. Martina is a member of The Dramatists Guild.
Danielle Frimer (Mariana)
Danielle Frimer's plays have been performed and developed at the Brick, the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, CoHo Lab, the Rosendale Theatre, Round the Bend, the Morgan Wixson Theatre, and others. As a conversation designer, she worked on the Emmy-nominated interactive audio game "Esme and Roy," and the Cannes Grand Prix-winning "Westworld: The Maze." Danielle is the winner of the Fresh Fruit Festival's 2023 Short Play Contest, a 2023 Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers Conference, and a member of HOWL playwrights. She lives in New Paltz, NY, with her wife and dog. BA: Yale; MFA: American Conservatory Theatre. daniellefrimer.com
Molly Parker Myers (Bear)
Molly Parker Myers is an actor, artist and writer based in Kingston NY. Recent regional acting projects include The Thanksgiving Play (WAM Theatre), The Moors (Bridge Street Theatre) Papermaker (Shadowland Stages), Emilie,House of Blue Leaves (Wellesley Rep) Mamma Mia!, The Graduate, The Norman Conquests Trilogy and Lost in Yonkers (Winnipesaukee Playhouse). Molly’s original cabaret (COMEBACK!) was part of the 2014 NYC United Solo Festival, her play KITTY will be part of the 2025 O+ Festival, and she is a member of HOWL playwrights. As both an actor and playwright, Molly is interested in exploring themes of intimacy, bravery, connection and particularly, complicated and flawed humans of all ages. www.mollyparkermyers.com
David Simpatico (Gretal and Hansel)
David Simpatico’s career highlights include: the book/stage adaptation of Disney’s High School Musical; The Screams of Kitty Genovese (Jonathan Larson Award; music by Will Todd); Garden of Light, libretto for choral symphony, with composer Aaron Jay Kernis. His musical adaptation of Twelve Angry Men, music and lyrics by Michael Holland, received its world premiere production in June, 2022 at Theater Latte Da in Minneapolis, directed by Peter Rothstein. His grand opera, The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing, with music by Justine F. Chen, received its world premiere at Chicago Opera Theater in March, 2023, also directed by Peter Rothstein. He is currently adapting Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone, with co-bookwriter Darrah Cloud, and composer/lyricist, Michael Holland. He is also working on That Hellbound Train, a new jazz opera with composer Lisa DeSpain, based on the short story by Robert Bloch. His play, Ex-Gay Bar, was named Honorable Mention in the Carlo Annoni International Playwriting Award, as well as receiving the inaugural Voices For Change Action Grant by ArtsWestchester. He wrote Cruel Shoes, the backstage murder mystery musical comedy, with Ross Patterson. Most recently, his oratorio adaptation of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, with score by Will Todd, received its first production with Opera Holland Park at Sinfonia Smith Square in London, Dec, 2024, and is headed back for a command performance in 2025.
Dean Temple (Fifth Horsemanperson, Apocollapse)
Dean is a Ukrainian American writer, actor, and director based in Millbrook, NY, and NYC. His one-act solo show Voice of Authority won Best of Fest at Pittsburgh Fringe before going on to successful runs at 59E59 Theaters in NYC and Edinburgh Fringe where it was named a “Hidden Gem” by Fringe Review. He has also written, animated and directed a series of award-winning short documentaries for the FDR Presidential Library and Museum including Everyone Has the Right: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and We Dare Not Fail: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen. His latest film for FDR can be seen as the centerpiece of their Signature Moments special exhibit at the Museum, and features the voice talents of multiple CENTER regulars.
Dwight Watson (A Short(er) View)
After thirty-six years of teaching at Wabash College in Indiana, I moved to the Hudson Valley. The journey to New York was preceded by childhood in North Carolina, theater tours in the South, marriage in Alabama, life in Los Angeles, and then tenure at Wabash. Today, time is shared with my spouse, my grandchildren, sons and family, with essay and play writing, fly fishing, drumming, and collecting LPs. In 2017, I completed by tenure at Wabash as Emeritus Professor of Theater and Charles D. and Elisabeth S. LaFollette Distinguished Professor of the Humanities.