ISO ...

by Brook Stowe

Just got a look at the calendar and realized how rapidly my time here wandering the Hallowed Halls of Eisler is coming to a close.

I wanted to put out a word about the anthology I edit, the New York Theater Review -- specifically that I am still very much in search of a play. One more play. The right play. The play. And this seems like a splendid venue -- peopled as I'm sure it is with robust and wholesome apple-cheeked lads and lasses of the theater -- to put out the call.

The Review, should it somehow have escaped your attention thus far, is an annual collection of essays and plays and sometimes interviews that aims to capture the way we really live now south of 14th Street and over ever-widening swaths of Brooklyn and Queens.

Past editions have included new plays by Sheila Callaghan, Ping Chong & Sara Michelle Zatz, Quiara Alegria Hudes, Taylor Mac, August Schulenburg, Tommy Smith, Adam Szymkowicz, Ken Urban & Anne Washburn. We generally publish three new plays per edition, and I think I'm pretty much decided on two. But the third play is proving elusive, hence this call.

What am I looking for? Ah, that's when I go all Cheshire Cat on y'all. Not intentionally; there are no real firm parameters, no set guidelines, no theme-of-the-year to write to with this. All I can say is -- I know it when I see it. Or read it. So ... if any of you wonderful people out there in the dark are fans of any of the playwrights above -- or at least familiar with their work -- you'll know the street we walk down. And should you have seen a play on a downtown NYC stage this year you're just bursting to recommend (and yeah, it can be your own play), please get a hold of me. Probably better this way. (I haven't gotten very good at remembering to come back here and check for comments). Probably best to send a query first and let me get back to you. And if I don't get back to you right away, don't take it personally, my little beauties -- I am, among other things, in the process of moving from Manhattan to Brooklyn, and will be a bit of the gypsy, especially this coming week. Remember to tell me The Playgoer sent you.

More info on our past and current editions here, here and here, fyi.

Back at the end of the week with some kind of final something about all of this.

Til next ...