Thanks so much to everyone involved with our 2015 season. We’re really excited to continue working on our annual First Flight New Play Festival and our Flights of Fancy benefit brunch. But we’re not going to do that this year.
We’re hitting the “pause” button on these projects for the time being, and we’ll continue them again in 2016. In the meantime, if you have a ticket purchased for Flights of Fancy, expect a refund coming your way asap.
Thanks so much! More details to follow on other Boomerang news and projects!
Please join us for our upcoming Flights of Fancy 2015 event on Sunday November 15th
This year’s event will be a lively and fun party serving specialty brunch treats, sweet and savory nibbles and endless Bloody Mary cocktails to warm the senses. And…We’ll be introducing the participant playwrights for the FIRST FLIGHT Festival and showcasing previews of their upcoming readings.
But really, you’re coming for these handsome devils…
A Boomerang Bloody Mary? Why yes, I think I will…
Early Bird tickets are available for just $25 until November 1st. You can get yours here.
Flights of Fancy 2015
Sunday November 15th beginning at 1pm
at Blue Jeans Studio, 149 W 24th Street on the 5th Floor Early Bird Tickets (until November 1st) just $25 Proceeds support Boomerang’s new play development programs
Hello all…Our annual FIRST FLIGHT New Play Festival is right around the corner (beginning November 20th). We received a terrific pool of submissions this year from over the country (and Canada), running the full gamut in style and genre. We’re proud to announce the finalists for this year’s festival below:
–Incomplete Works by Dennis Agle
–Blanquita by Zack Calhoon
–Koalas by J.Joseph Cox
–He’s Back by Mark Daponte
–The Job by Letha Dawson
–We Pray Together by Charles Denk
–Discreet Global Assets by Lauren Ferebee
–In the Night Cafe by Evan Guilford-Blake
–The Marble Muse by Diane Hale
–Specimen Days by Alexander Kafka
–The Boy Inside by Richard Kalinoski
–Truth Dare by Tori Keenan-Zelt
–Blood Will Out by Laura King
–The Politics of Fabulousness by Judy Klass
–Dancing on the Edge by Adam Kraar
–The Prisoner by Jim Lucason
–The Consequence of Impression by Deborah Magid
–Pericles Wet by Ellen Margolis
–Contained Fires by Seth McNeill
–The Snowmaker by Aleks Merilo
–Feeble-Minded White Trash by Susan Middaugh
–The Truth Is… by Earl T. Roske
–Caesar’s Blood by Rich Rubin
–Time to Change by Patricia Saunders
–Sanctuary, North by Robert Schneider
–Anna’s Mother by Tom Smith
–The Blood Lie by Shirley Vernick
–Keeping Secrets by Michael Wolfson
Statistics:Â 39% of the finalists for the 2015 festival are female playwrights and 61% male playwrights. Overall submissions pool (both finalists and those not considered finalists) consisted of 33% female playwrights and 67% male playwrights.
For more details about the festival, check out our website.
As you know, ROCK-N-ROLES brings together Indie Theatre playwrights to write brand new 10 minute plays inspired by great rock songs. Beginning today, everyone who buys an advance ticket between now and Friday September 25th at midnight can vote to add one of these great songs to the evening!
Want to see a play inspired by Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”? How about the soulful Southern rock of Alabama Shakes’ “Always Alright”? Maybe you’re a big fan of The Kinks’ “Come Dancin’ ” or Maroon 5’s “Payphone”. The song with the most votes will have a new play written in their honor.
ROCK-N-ROLES is a one night only exclusive event in which playwrights craft brand new 10 minute plays inspired by great rock songs. Previous “albums” have included plays inspired by Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Hall & Oates, Neil Young, Elton John and more. the plays are performed onstage with a live band.
Sunday September 27th at 7pm
$20 tickets (which includes one drink ticket) can be purchased here.
TheaterLab
357 W 36th Street, NYC
All proceeds support Boomerang Theatre Company’s new play programs, including the 2015 First Flight New Play Festival and mainstage premiere productions.
Hi everyone…Here at Boomerang we put together photo collages for Annual Reporting requirements (basically we send these off to people who are looking for photographic evidence we actually did things). I thought we’d share them with you, as sort of a visual summary of what we’ve been doing these last 12 months. We’re still working on the version of Love’s Labour’s Lost…
Dan Renkin is the kind of person you want as a fight choreographer…A soft spoken, patient, creative, bad-ass. Some folks may remember him onstage for Boomerang last summer in Love’s Labour’s Lost in Bryant Park (a show in which he also did the fights). Dan answered a few random questions while preparing for the final two performances of CYMBELINE this weekend (July 18th and 19th at 2pm) …
Dan Renkin (l) with the cast of Love’s Labour’s Lost in Bryant Park
Full Name:Â Dan Renkin
Home town: Wait…*where* am I?
How many Boomerang shows have you done? Beyond the Horizon, Love’s Labors, Cymbeline* (* we actually counted later, and he also worked on Anna Christie and a few others as well. The exact number has been lost to history…)
Tell us a little about your role as Fight Choreographer: Shakespeare’s story meets (director) CailÃn (Heffernan)’s devised world meets The Cast. It’s teasing out how this story needs to get told, with a physical vocabulary that makes sense for our version of the world of the play. Our Cymbeline is stylized, which works beautifully for a small ensemble, and in our park performance spaces–the actors’ bodies are our architecture, and define space. In the fights, that stylization can help define emotion, too.
What is your favorite thing about working on CYMBELINE? Great words, great people. Boomerang is a family of generous and astonishing people. It’s sort of a gifted-and-talented program for professional adults. Playful and enthusiastic collaboration always makes my work easier–and better–and more fun to do.
What’s your favorite place in New York City? The stage of the Metropolitan Opera House.  Looking out.
In keeping with the spirit economy, can you give us your 6 word memoir: Sci-fi geek runs with pointy stick.
Cymbeline runs July 18th and 19th at 2pm in Central Park (enter at 72nd and Central Park West) Additional details can be found here. Cymbeline is free, no tickets or reservations are required.
Dan Renkin (left) with Vinnie Penna (center) and Annalisa Loeffler (right)
Boomerang has been lucky enough to work with Vinnie Penna since 2004. Audiences have seen memorable performance of his as The Hungry Mother in Eric Overmyer’s NATIVE SPEECH, Bottom in A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM (2014) and Puck in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (2004), and THE TEMPEST in 2010. He’s currently starring as Pisanio in CYMBELINE (running thru July 19th). He answered a few random questions for us while gearing up for the final four performances of CYMBELINE…
Vinnie Penna as Pisanio in CYMBELINE
Full Name:Â Vincent Penna Jr.
Home town: Valley Stream, NY
How many Boomerang shows have you done? Not counting readings, 24-hour festivals, and benefits, this is my fifth Boomerang production (four of which were outdoor Shakespeare productions).
Tell us a little about Pisanio:Â Pisanio is in a unique position in this play. He’s a regular guy. Not royalty, not particularly military, just a working stiff. Honest and loyal to the point of being dishonest and disloyal if it serves the greater good.
What is your favorite thing about working on Cymbeline? The appeal of Cymbeline is that it’s a later work that defies easy categorization–not necessarily a so-called problem play, like Measure for Measure or The Merchant of Venice. Above all, the language is so beautiful, and reflects the growth and maturity Shakespeare achieved at this juncture in his career.
What’s your favorite place in New York City? I’m not an outdoorsy sort, so I’m tempted to say my favorite place in NYC is my apartment, but that’s boring. I’ll admit to digging the High Line and certain points on the west side Greenway.
In keeping with the spirit of economy, can you give us your 6 word memoir:  “Is that a meteor? Run, guys!!!”
CYMBELINE continues performances on Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 2pm thru July 19th.
Vinnie Penna as Bottom in 2014’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
Annalisa Loeffler is one of the stars of Boomerang’s CYMBELINE (running thru July 19th), playing the role of The Queen (so evil, she doesn’t even get a first name!). Previously, Annalisa had been seen in Boomerang productions as two other famous royals: Gertrude in HAMLET (2012) and Titania in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (2014). She answered a few random questions for us while gearing up for the final four performances of CYMBELINE…
Annalisa Loeffler (r) as The Queen with Buzz Roddy as Cymbeline in CYMBELINE
Full Name: Annalisa Loeffler
Home Town: Little Rock, Arkansas
How many Boomerang shows have you done? 3 (Hamlet, Midsummer, Cymbeline)
Tell us a little about The Queen: The Queen is a full-on sociopath: charming, disarming, deceitful, manipulative, win-at-all-costs – right down to the abuse of animals as a precursor to that of humans! – and like most sociopaths, assumes (mistakenly) that she is the smartest person in any room and has got everyone fooled. And this is centuries before psychiatrists/psychologists would even identify this as a personality type! Shakespeare really knew about sociopaths – his best one, of course, being Iago (perhaps the greatest sociopathic character ever written for the stage).
What is your favorite thing about working on Cymbeline? Favorite thing about working on Cymbeline? Arrrgh! That’s hard! First of all: it’s SHAKESPEARE – ’nuff said right there, really… but, okay. Ummmm… I think it is that our director, Cailin Heffernan, has created a production in which we all get to bring all our talents to the table – instrumental music, movement, song, dance, stage combat, dialects – and that we’re all using them all the time. The Queen only has a handful of scenes, but I’m working the entire show in various capacities – we all are – and I love it!
What’s your favorite place in New York City?   Favorite place in NYC? Brooklyn Botanic Gardens – I love it SO much more than the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. I love the lilacs and magnolias in the spring (cherry blossoms are nice, too, but the lilac and magnolia scents remind me of home), the Blue Moon rose in the summer (yummiest smelling rose EVER), foliage colors in the autumn, and the bonsai museum and other pavilions in the winter.
In keeping with the spirit of economy, can you give us your 6 word memoir:  Sci-fi fanatic actress timehops via theater.
Annalisa with Dan Renkin (left) and Vinnie Penna (center)
Thinking outside the Black Box 