Introducing the plays and playwrights for Sticky 552.

Sticky 552
Beauty Bar, 249 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, 11215
Thursday, February 5, 7:30 pm
$10 advance, $15 at the door, via www.stickyseries.brownpapertickets.com

Ipsa Domus, by Libby Emmons, directed by Ali Ayala
Shamed to the Heart, by J. Michael Grey, directed by Ali Ayala
Quiet Bar by Brooke Berman, directed by Michele Travis
Dolor by Hal Corley, directed by Michele Travis
Puff Puff, by Libby Emmons, directed by Michael Domitrovich
Sing Your Song Quickly, by David L. Williams, directed by Eliel Lucero

J. Michael Grey, writer “Shamed to the Heart”

On his inspiration: “Ali asked me to write a play, so I did. If I blurbed about the inspiration of the story inserted in the play, it would give it away.​”

Over the past several years J. Michael has written many pieces for Sticky.  He now is producing the first Sticky spin-off in Normal, Illinois where he directs and acts as well.
www.facebook.com/normalsticky

Hal Corley, writer Dolor

On his inspiration: “Years ago, over late-night drinks a friend announced that “the saddest thing in the world” to her was, “a single woman alone at a table in a restaurant…” Without parsing the feminist angle, I immediately challenged the very premise, that mere solitude doesn’t bespeak loneliness.  Within minutes we were arguing heatedly about the essence of sadness, its triggers, its mysterious, subjective nature. I’m not sure if it became a game of one-upmanship, but the debate seemed all about quantifying and ranking our compassion.  I never forgot the exchange, and one day decided it might serve as a barometer for a relationship at a crossroads.  The result, the odd little Dolor. ”

Hal Corley:  Hal has developed his plays with major regional theaters, and two, An Ounce of Prevention and Finding Donis Anne,  have been widely performed (Seattle Rep, Syracuse Stage, Walnut Street, and in NYC, Atlanta, LA, Boston and Charlotte). Three scripts, Mama and Jack Carew, Easter Monday and ODD are published by Samuel French. His Treed is published by Playscripts as one of Great Short Plays Volume 10, and 27 of his one-acts have been produced in 17 states and Canada in the past 5 years. He has three times been a semifinalist in the O’Neill Competition, including in 2013 for his new play, Weak Trembles.

Libby Emmons, writer “Ipsa Domus” and “Puff Puff”

On her inspiration: “I finished reading all the Harry Potter books and didn’t want to let go, and having something to do with finding a home in your head.”

Libby Emmons is a playwright and theater maker, whose plays include Puff Puff (Festival of the Offensive, NYC 2014, winner “Most Offensive”), Radio Mara Mara (The Kraine Theater, FringeNYC 2013), Zeropia (Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission 2009), The Girls from Afar (East/West Players, LA, 2010), “Animal/Animal,” (Best Short Plays, 2013, Smith & Krause), “The Worm Turns at the Fort Peck Hotel,” (New York Theater Review 2009), and many more. She is co-founder of 10-minute play series Sticky, Bowery Poetry Club 2007-12, now Beauty Bar, Brooklyn. Libby is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (BA), Columbia University School of the Arts (MFA), and blogs the story of her life at li88yinc.com. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, son, and a very mean cat.

David L. Williams, writer “Sing Your Song Quickly”

On his inspiration: “I was thinking about people who burn books, and what it would take for an author to burn his/her own books.  Plus, I was thinking about the lines from William Carlos Williams’ poem Paterson which serve as inspiration for the title,  “Poet, poet! sing your song, quickly! or not insects but pulpy weeds will blot out your kind.”  They have an urgency to them, sounding equally like an exhortation and a threat.  And as a writer, maybe I just have this romantic notion that writing is dangerous and I wanted to visit the darker side of that too.”

David L. Williams is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the theatre department of Cornell University, where he was a four time award winner in the Heerman’s-McCalmon Playwriting contest.  Since then, he has written more than twenty-five plays and musicals in a variety of genres.  He is a member of the Dramatist Guild and has won the HotCity Theatre GreenHouse New Play Festival for The Winners, the Riverside Stage Company’s Founder’s Award for Ampersand, and the League of Cincinnati Theatre’s best production in the YES Festival award for Spake.  His work has been produced across the United States and internationally, including the award-winning The Starving and The Wolf Manhood, along with four selections for the New York International Fringe Festival.  He is currently working on his MFA in playwriting from the University of Nebraska Omaha, and he lives in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania with his wonderful wife Kathleen.   www.playwrightdavid.com

Brooke Berman, writer “Quiet Bar”

On her inspiration: “I think I was interested, as I am still, in the gap between what people say and what they think, the banality of contemporary speech paired with enormous hunger, with big expectations, with a voracious inner life.”

Brooke Berman is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and memoirist whose work has been produced and published across the US.  Originally trained as an actor and solo performer in the experimental theater, Brooke began performing her own work on the Lower East Side of Manhattan before receiving formal training in playwriting from the Juilliard School. Her play Hunting and Gathering, which premiered at Primary Stages, directed by Leigh Silverman, was named one of the Ten Best of 2008 by New York Magazine. Brooke’s memoir, No Place Like Home, published by Random House, was called “Highbrow/Brilliant” by New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix. Brooke’s plays include: 1300 LAFAYETTE EAST, HUNTING AND GATHERING (Primary Stages); SMASHING (The Play Company, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center); UNTIL WE FIND EACH OTHER (Steppenwolf, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center); THE TRIPLE HAPPINESS (Second Stage, The Playwrights Center,  ASK, the Hourglass Group, The Royal Court Theatre), among others. Her plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing, Playscripts, Backstage Books and Smith & Kraus. Brooke recently wrote and directed her first short film, UGGS FOR GAZA, based on a short story by Gordon Haber.  UGGS premiered at the Aspen International ShortsFest where it won an Audience Special Recognition award. ALL SAINTS DAY, a short film she wrote directed by Will Frears, won Best Narrative Short at the Savannah Film Festival and played at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008. She adapted her play SMASHING for Natalie Portman and has written features for The Mark Gordon Company, Vox Films, Red Crown, and Fugitive Films. www.brookeberman.net