2020 season
Dramatist Guild Footlight Series
Tryptic - Voices From Woodstock Fringe
Three Readings of New Plays
Three veterans of Woodstock Fringe, Bette Carlson Siler, Ric Siler and Wallace Norman will be performing three one-act solo plays on Friday, January 31 at 7pm at the Hudson Valley Performing Arts Laboratory in Poughkeepsie. This event is hosted by The Dramatist Guild Footlights™ Series in The Hudson Valley.
Brother's Keeper by Wallace Norman is a story about the ravages of abuse, guilt, and ultimately the heroism of survival.
Magenta by Bette Carlson Siler is the story of a mysterious flower that portends a message about the end of the world. Laura Lee Levi is a modern-day Cassandra who believes she needs the help of a psychologist to navigate the Day of Reckoning.
How Do You Say Prostate In Italian? by Ric Siler In 'How Do You Say Prostate In Italian?' a long planned trip to Italy won't be derailed by a prostate cancer diagnosis! And vice versa.
The reading is free and open to the public and will begin at 7pm sharp
Friday, January 31 at 7pm
Hudson Valley Performing Arts Laboratory
489 Main Street
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
Brother's Keeper by Wallace Norman is a story about the ravages of abuse, guilt, and ultimately the heroism of survival.
Magenta by Bette Carlson Siler is the story of a mysterious flower that portends a message about the end of the world. Laura Lee Levi is a modern-day Cassandra who believes she needs the help of a psychologist to navigate the Day of Reckoning.
How Do You Say Prostate In Italian? by Ric Siler In 'How Do You Say Prostate In Italian?' a long planned trip to Italy won't be derailed by a prostate cancer diagnosis! And vice versa.
The reading is free and open to the public and will begin at 7pm sharp
Friday, January 31 at 7pm
Hudson Valley Performing Arts Laboratory
489 Main Street
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
DG Footlights is a program, created and moderated by the Dramatists Guild, that connects dramatists with free space in which to hold a public reading of a new work that is currently in development. This initiative operates on a space-grant model: a representative from the Guild will arrange for a venue to donate space during allocated dates and times, and will ensure that the space is available for dramatists to use to present a self-produced reading to the public, with an optional feedback session following the reading. Attendance is always free and open to all.
Bette Carlson Siler is an actor, playwright and director. Bette’s plays have been produced by New Jersey Rep, Vermont Playwrights Circle and The Estrogenius Festival in New York City. She is a member of the Woodstock Fringe Playwrights Unit and has developed, directed and performed plays with the Fringe since 2011. As an actor, she’s been fortunate enough to study monologue work with Stella Adler in New York, Chekhov with Earle Gister (Yale School of Drama) and Shakespeare with Toby Robertson (RSC, Old Vic). She has performed at Arena Stage/Living Stage in Washington, D.C., California Actors Theatre in Los Gatos, and at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, California. Some of her favorite roles include Winnie in Beckett’s Happy Days, Vivian Bearing in Wit and Jenny Diver in The Threepenny Opera. Member Actors Equity, SAG/AFTRA, and The Dramatists Guild. Collaboration with Ric and Wallace has proved to be the most significant in her career on both a professional and personal level. They have endured a mountain of rewrites and never failed to give her the permission and courage to grow. As Samuel Beckett writes: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Love to you guys and to Laurette for your enduring inspiration.
Ric Siler. What a beautiful thing it is to be walking the high wire tonight the two people who have altered the course of my life more than any others: Bette for sharing/inspiring everything for the last thirty odd years, and Wallace for being an amazing friend and collaborator past, present and future and for providing an artistic home at the Woodstock Fringe Playwrights Unit since 2008. Since Wallace directed the 2010 world premiere of my solo piece, ‘Old Hickory’ at the Woodstock Fringe Festival, the three of us have worked together on Wallace’s ‘It Can’t Happen Here’, Samuel Beckett’s ‘Happy Days’ and most recently a production of ‘Breaking the Code’, which Wallace and Bette co-directed and in which I played the role of Knox.
Bette has directed my four other solo pieces for E.A.T.’s One Man Talking series and the Midtown International Theatre Festival in NYC and in several venues in and around the mid-Hudson Valley.
My non-solo plays have been presented by the Abingdon Theatre, the Gallery Theatre, TRU Voices and the Pulse Ensemble, all in NYC; the Burning Coal Theatre in Raleigh, North Carolina; the Herbert Mark Newman Theatre in Pleasantville and the Depot in Garrison, among others.
Other acting credits include ‘The Trip to Bountiful’, with Ellen Burstyn, ‘Counting the Ways’, written and directed by Edward Albee and John Sayles’ film, ‘Matewan’ Ric has acted in his plays, 'What of the Bird?’and ‘Thirty Odd Years’ (both also with Bette) and the WBAI broadcast of ‘Where the Rain Never Falls’. Ric is a member of Actors Equity, SAG/AFTRA, and the Dramatists Guild. Our daughter Laurette inspires me in everything I do, and isn’t afraid to hold my feet to the fire when it matters, much love to her. In bocca al lupo!
Bette has directed my four other solo pieces for E.A.T.’s One Man Talking series and the Midtown International Theatre Festival in NYC and in several venues in and around the mid-Hudson Valley.
My non-solo plays have been presented by the Abingdon Theatre, the Gallery Theatre, TRU Voices and the Pulse Ensemble, all in NYC; the Burning Coal Theatre in Raleigh, North Carolina; the Herbert Mark Newman Theatre in Pleasantville and the Depot in Garrison, among others.
Other acting credits include ‘The Trip to Bountiful’, with Ellen Burstyn, ‘Counting the Ways’, written and directed by Edward Albee and John Sayles’ film, ‘Matewan’ Ric has acted in his plays, 'What of the Bird?’and ‘Thirty Odd Years’ (both also with Bette) and the WBAI broadcast of ‘Where the Rain Never Falls’. Ric is a member of Actors Equity, SAG/AFTRA, and the Dramatists Guild. Our daughter Laurette inspires me in everything I do, and isn’t afraid to hold my feet to the fire when it matters, much love to her. In bocca al lupo!
Wallace Norman is a director, playwright, actor and singer. Last season he directed The Realistic Joneses, produced by Performing Arts of Woodstock. Two seasons ago, he co-directed and appeared in PAW’s production of Breaking The Code, by Hugh Whittemore – a play about the genius who invented computing. The season before that he produced and directed Happy Days, by Samuel Becket with the amazing Bette and Ric Siler at the Byrcliffe Theatre, a high-water mark of his theatrical career. He is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of Woodstock Fringe – and produced a decade of Festivals of Theatre & Song at the Byrdcliffe Theater. He has appeared in more than 60 plays in Regional, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway venues. Norman has a trunk full of one act plays and has written 5 full-lenght plays, one of which, It Can't Happen Here, was produced in 2013 at The Byrdcliffe Theatre.