Blue Coyote Theater Group and Access Theater present the latest chapter in their downtown cult series Standards of Decency. Taking its title from the profundity of indie rock god John Mayer, STANDARDS OF DECENCY 3: 300 VAGINAS BEFORE BREAKFAST begins performances on Friday, May 27 for a limited engagement through Saturday, June 18. The performance schedule is Wednesday - Saturday at 8 PM, with an added performance on Tuesday, May 31 at 8 PM. Press Opening is Thursday, June 2 at 8 PM. Performances are at the Access Theater (380 Broadway, two blocks below Canal, just north of White Street). Tickets are $25 and are available by calling SmartTix at 212-868-4444 or online at www.smarttix.com.
Blue Coyote Theater group commissioned eight of their favorite playwrights to create new short plays meditating on new media and pornography. Presented in a stripped-down style, the plays are raunchy, funny, and surprisingly tender.
Blue Coyote's indecent playwrights are:
· David Johnston (Busted Jesus Comix, Candy & Dorothy, The Oresteia)
· Matthew Freeman (The Most Wonderful Love, Interview with the Author)
· David Foley (Paradise)
· Mac Rogers (Viral)
· Jordan Seavey (The Truth Will Out, Children at Play)
· Jacqueline Christy (Lunch)
· Cheri Magid (The Virtue of Raw Oysters, The Sexy Vintner)
· Adam Szymkowicz (Nerve, Pretty Theft)
Directed by the Blue Coyote members: Kyle Ancowitz, Robert Buckwalter, Gary Shrader and Stephen Speights.
"You wake up in the morning, open a thumbnail page, and it leads to a Pandora's box of visuals. There have probably been days when I saw 300 vaginas before I got out of bed." Thus spake John Mayer, blues guitarist, committed onanist, neuroscientist: "Pornography? It's a new synaptic pathway."
The Internet is now constantly with us, burrowing into our heads, hearts, and pants, changing the way we think, love, lust, and relate. Twelve percent of all websites are pornographic, as are 25 percent of all search engine requests. Forty million Americans are regular online viewers; one third of them are women. $2.84 billion a year is spent on porn subscriptions in the US alone.
Is our pornutopia breaking down our capacities for empathy and reflective thought, for intimacy and sustained attention? STANDARDS OF DECENCY 3: 300 VAGINAS BEFORE BREAKFAST uses a very old medium to explore what the new media are doing to us, publicly and privately, for better and for worse, at the place where technology, sex, and relationships collide.
PLAYWRIGHT BIOS
JACQUELINE CHRISTY founded Access Theater in 1992. There she has produced the premieres of Tom McCarthy's THE KILLING ACT, Aasif Mandvi's SAKINA'S RESTAURANT and Stephen Belber's TAPE, among others. Her short plays include: EASY ON THE EYES, CALIFORNIA CASUAL, SEX IN COLOR and LUNCH (all Winterfest EST/LA). LUNCH was also produced by Elephant Theater, LA and LIA, NYC. Screenplays include: CAKE, BRENTWOOD and OPERATIVES ATTRACT, which she wrote for Cherry Road Films and Persistent Pictures.
This is DAVID FOLEY'S third Standard of Decency evening. Blue Coyote also produced his full-length plays NANCE O'NEIL and PARADISE. Other productions at various theaters here and abroad: SAD HOTEL, CRESSIDA AMONG THE GREEKS, THE LAST DAYS OF MADALYN MURRAY O'HAIR IN EXILE, THE MURDERS AT ARGOS, A HOLE IN THE FENCE, SUFFERING THE WITCH, and the Edgar-nominated DEADLY MURDER (IF/THEN). DEADLY MURDER is published by Samuel French, his other plays by Oberon Books.
MATTHEW FREEMAN is a Brooklyn-based playwright. His previous productions with BCTG include THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE AMERICANS, THE WHITE SWALLOW, THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE, WHEN IS A CLOCK, and GLEE CLUB. His plays have been published by Playscripts, Inc., New York Theatre Experience, and Samuel French. Read about him at matthewfreeman.blogspot.com.
DAVID JOHNSTON (Playwright) Previous productions with Blue Coyote Theater Group include CONVERSATIONS ON RUSSIAN LITERATURE PLUS THREE MORE PLAYS, a new adaptation of THE ORESTEIA, (Time Out Best of 2007) BUSTED JESUS COMIX (GLAAD nominee), A BUSH CAROL, OR GEORGE DUBYA AND THE XMAS OF EVIL and EFFIE JEAN IN TAHITI, both with songs by Stephen Speights. With director Kevin Newbury, CANDY & DOROTHY (GLAAD winner) and THE EUMENIDES. Member: Actors Equity, Dramatists Guild, Charles Maryan's Playwrights/Directors Workshop.
MAC ROGERS is a playwright and actor based in Brooklyn. His recent plays include VIRAL (winner of a New York Independent Theater Bloggers award), UNIVERSAL ROBOTS (nominated for four NYIT awards), and HAIL SATAN (Outstanding Playwriting Award winner from FringeNYC 2007).He is delighted to be working with Blue Coyote, a company's he's admired for years.
