Susan I. Weinstein

Susan I. Weinstein

Susan I Weinstein's ETHER: The Strange Afterlife of Harry Houdini and Sirhttps://drive. Arthur Conan Doyle was presented Dec 19-22nd 2019 at IRT Theatre in the 3B residency program for experimental work. Marcus Gualber directed. Link to video of Ether at I.R.T. Theater.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YOhXeU9cxFAwcg-zNPki-K2d9MDfYz60/view?usp=sharing
Also short version on youtube....
Susan I Weinstein's ETHER: The Strange Afterlife of Harry Houdini and Sirhttps://drive. Arthur Conan Doyle was presented Dec 19-22nd 2019 at IRT Theatre in the 3B residency program for experimental work. Marcus Gualber directed. Link to video of Ether at I.R.T. Theater.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YOhXeU9cxFAwcg-zNPki-K2d9MDfYz60/view?usp=sharing
Also short version on youtube.

Script sample here, and original completed full-length. Director's edited version with visuals, puppetry on request swpubrel@aol,com
https://www.dramatistsguild.com/members/susanweinstein/

ETHER history-1st Act in staged reading (directed by Sara Minisquero) at Dixon Place lounge 2019. Susan's lingo play, THE WAPSHOT WHATEVER: The Secret Lives of Computer Programs was produced 2018 on Dixon Place Mainstage (directed by Vincent Sandvoort). Her 2014 Adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid" was produced at ToyKraft in Williamsberg,directed by Charlie Kanev w/music by Rima Fand.

Susan's lingo play, "Rabies", was produced by A.C.T. at Squaw Valley, directed by Ed Hastings. "Stakes," a vampire play, led to a playwriting scholarship at University of Iowa.

She developed "White Walled Babes", at The Public Theater, produced at Trinity Rep (directed by Susan Smyth). Her green card play, “Something About that Face,” was selected by Samuel French and produced at The Harold Clurman Theater (directed by Brian Mertes) Other plays, developed at Playwrights Continuum, "Vagus", "The Media Play." "The Selling of ADD/ADHD" in progress.

Susan is also the author of three books published in 2016-18 by Pelekinesis Press. They include The Anarchist's Girlfirend, Paradise Gardens, and Tales of the Mer Family Onyx, She lives and works in NYC.

Her blog which reviews books and plays: www.notanotherbookreview.blogspot.com

Plays

  • Vagus(2) by Susan I. Weinstein
    Cast: 
    5–6
    ·
    Genre: drama, period + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: bonds between sisters, love and money + 2 more
    Genre: drama, period, political
    Keyword: bonds between sisters, love and money, identity and family, 20th century history of women
    VAGUS- Description

    Two sisters, JANETTE and ADDY, meet in Las Vegas. The "wandering nerve," the Vagus Nerve, becomes the pulse of motherless women in the desert of 1980s Americana. Addy, a Vegas talent agent and Janette, a NYC photographer, meet in a crisis of survival and values. What is not a "mirage" in this place where gambling, call girls and men with money rolls control...
    VAGUS- Description

    Two sisters, JANETTE and ADDY, meet in Las Vegas. The "wandering nerve," the Vagus Nerve, becomes the pulse of motherless women in the desert of 1980s Americana. Addy, a Vegas talent agent and Janette, a NYC photographer, meet in a crisis of survival and values. What is not a "mirage" in this place where gambling, call girls and men with money rolls control the strange landscape? At stake is their precarious future, if they can find their missing mother, an itinerant baker for casinos. Female identity is a porous entity in that time and our own. That's the emotional landscape of this play. Other characters, include a transexual casino performer, a call girl, a golf pro, and a "player."

    This play has had readings but no
    production and is now in final form.
    90 minutes
  • ETHER: The Strange Afterlife of Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-FINAL SCRIPT by Susan I. Weinstein
    Cast: 
    6–11
    ·
    Genre: adventure, biography + 9 more
    ·
    Keyword: afterlife, Conan Doyle and Houdini + 1 more
    Genre: adventure, biography, docudrama/historic, drama, experimental, faith-based, movement/physical, mystery/thriller, pageant, period, zoom
    Keyword: afterlife, Conan Doyle and Houdini, Spiritualism in the 1800s
    Same synopsis as written before.
  • (excerpt)ETHER: The Strange Afterlife of Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Susan I. Weinstein
    Cast: 
    4–8
    ·
    Genre: biography, commedia dell'arte + 7 more
    ·
    Keyword: Conan Doyle and Houdini, hereafter + 3 more
    Genre: biography, commedia dell'arte, dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, fantasy, movement/physical, mystery/thriller, period
    Keyword: Conan Doyle and Houdini, hereafter, magic, science, superstition
    This play is based on letters exchanged after Houdini's mother died, when he asked Doyle to find him a genuine medium. It takes place in the afterlife, where both are stuck, as are their wives. At stake is a metaphysical bet about the nature of life and death.
  • ETHER: The Strange Afterlife of Harry Houdini & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Susan I. Weinstein
    Cast: 
    6–8
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: afterlife, Houdini and Conan Doyle + 5 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, experimental, fantasy, movement/physical
    Keyword: afterlife, Houdini and Conan Doyle, spiritualism, metaphysical, debate, magic, History
    ETHER, based on their letters, recreates the seances and their dramatically opposite narratives. As the gap widened, the "frenemies," denounced each other on stages around the world with no end but their fortunes and lives. In the Afterlife of ETHER, the two are stuck in their passionate war about the nature of life and death. Was the Spiritualist, a doctor and author, a deluded fanatic? Was the ecape...
    ETHER, based on their letters, recreates the seances and their dramatically opposite narratives. As the gap widened, the "frenemies," denounced each other on stages around the world with no end but their fortunes and lives. In the Afterlife of ETHER, the two are stuck in their passionate war about the nature of life and death. Was the Spiritualist, a doctor and author, a deluded fanatic? Was the ecape artist and master of physical illusion an unbiased observer of phenomena? As evidence mounts up, subjective and objective truths erupt in a transcendent conclusion.
  • Staged Reading Dixon Place Lounge, 4/12 ETHER: The Strange Afterlife of Harry Houdini & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Susan I. Weinstein
    Cast: 
    4–8
    ·
    Genre: adventure, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: metaphysical, staged reading + 3 more
    Genre: adventure, drama, experimental
    Keyword: metaphysical, staged reading, Dixon Place, afterlife, Conan Doyle and Houdini
    April 12th at 7:30 in Dixon Place Lounge staged reading, no admission. 45 min. of full-length play about frenemies Houdini & Doyle. Stuck in competing versions of reality with their wives, they make a dire metaphysical bet.This is no period piece, the hereafter is our media environment. The Afterlife is their
    warring concepts of the nature of life and death.
  • The Wapshot Whatever: The Secret Lives Of Computer Programs by Susan I. Weinstein
    Cast: 
    4–8
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental + 5 more
    ·
    Keyword: internet, computer technology
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental, fantasy, parody/spoof, political, science fiction, verse
    Keyword: internet, computer technology
    Are there sentient beings whose lives play put inside your device? Here the twilight feel of internet imaginings amid the electronic landscape. The story begins with a Rogue Program and an Off Shore server originally bundled together who merge in ways unplanned by their creators. In this lingo play programs bear traces of human origins yet are inhuman. Humanshadows interact with the beings inside the box, a...
    Are there sentient beings whose lives play put inside your device? Here the twilight feel of internet imaginings amid the electronic landscape. The story begins with a Rogue Program and an Off Shore server originally bundled together who merge in ways unplanned by their creators. In this lingo play programs bear traces of human origins yet are inhuman. Humanshadows interact with the beings inside the box, a shock of worlds within worlds in this dark and funny play.
  • MASKS OFF by Susan I. Weinstein
    Cast: 
    6–7
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, farce + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, farce, melodrama, movement/physical, tragedy
    Amid Lock-down, a couple in late 60s, Jean and Lyle, deal with the unexpected arrival of their late 20's son, Brian. In this family play, the Covid situation acts as a pressure cooker for this troubled family. When Brian's addiction to THC and psychotic reaction, leads to violence, all assumptions of love and duty are gone. The parents flee to a ramshackle country house, where Brian finds them with...
    Amid Lock-down, a couple in late 60s, Jean and Lyle, deal with the unexpected arrival of their late 20's son, Brian. In this family play, the Covid situation acts as a pressure cooker for this troubled family. When Brian's addiction to THC and psychotic reaction, leads to violence, all assumptions of love and duty are gone. The parents flee to a ramshackle country house, where Brian finds them with Lane, his social worker. Recalibration of "family" is a question mark in this fast moving almost farsical dramedy.
  • Reference Points by Susan I. Weinstein
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: Future.
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy, fable/folktale, movement/physical, romantic comedy, science fiction
    Keyword: Future.
    In our pandemic world, a young couple is taking refuge at the beach, yet are they at the beach? Are they young? We move to a club, other environs, which they change with a mysterious box. As the final identities and locale jell to the true picture, it is from the future, and they aren't refugees but tourists based in Mars. In our real world, wealthy already have tickets on Musk's Mars shuttle. If...
    In our pandemic world, a young couple is taking refuge at the beach, yet are they at the beach? Are they young? We move to a club, other environs, which they change with a mysterious box. As the final identities and locale jell to the true picture, it is from the future, and they aren't refugees but tourists based in Mars. In our real world, wealthy already have tickets on Musk's Mars shuttle. If regular people wanted to flee a polluted earth, how would they find passage? Would the trade-offs be similar to those coming from Europe to our new world? This epxressionistic play takes place in a nonworld, or any place. A kitchen?
  • VAGUSopening by Susan I. Weinstein
    Cast: 
    5–6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: 1980s Las Vegas, two sisters + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, melodrama, period, political
    Keyword: 1980s Las Vegas, two sisters, gambling, Sex and money, Vagus Nerve, feminist
    Two sisters, Janette and ADDY, meet in Las Vegas, and the "wandering nerve," the Vagus Nerve is the rhythm of motherless women in the desert of 1980s Americana. Addy, a Vegas talent agent and Janette, a NYC photographer are in a crisis of survival and values. What is not a "mirage" in this place where gambling, call girls and men with money rolls control the strange landscape of the U.S.A....
    Two sisters, Janette and ADDY, meet in Las Vegas, and the "wandering nerve," the Vagus Nerve is the rhythm of motherless women in the desert of 1980s Americana. Addy, a Vegas talent agent and Janette, a NYC photographer are in a crisis of survival and values. What is not a "mirage" in this place where gambling, call girls and men with money rolls control the strange landscape of the U.S.A. At stake is the future, finding the long AWOL mother, an itinerant baker in casinos.
  • VAGUSopening by Susan I. Weinstein
    Cast: 
    5–6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: 1980s Las Vegas, two sisters + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, melodrama, period, political
    Keyword: 1980s Las Vegas, two sisters, gambling, Sex and money, Vagus Nerve, feminist
    Two sisters, Janette and ADDY, meet in Las Vegas, and the "wandering nerve," the Vagus Nerve is the rhythm of motherless women in the desert of 1980s Americana. Addy, a Vegas talent agent and Janette, a NYC photographer are in a crisis of survival and values. What is not a "mirage" in this place where gambling, call girls and men with money rolls control the strange landscape of the U.S.A....
    Two sisters, Janette and ADDY, meet in Las Vegas, and the "wandering nerve," the Vagus Nerve is the rhythm of motherless women in the desert of 1980s Americana. Addy, a Vegas talent agent and Janette, a NYC photographer are in a crisis of survival and values. What is not a "mirage" in this place where gambling, call girls and men with money rolls control the strange landscape of the U.S.A. At stake is the future, finding the long AWOL mother, an itinerant baker in casinos.
  • VAGUSopening by Susan I. Weinstein
    Cast: 
    5–6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: 1980s Las Vegas, two sisters + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, melodrama, period, political
    Keyword: 1980s Las Vegas, two sisters, gambling, Sex and money, Vagus Nerve, feminist
    Two sisters, Janette and ADDY, meet in Las Vegas, and the "wandering nerve," the Vagus Nerve is the rhythm of motherless women in the desert of 1980s Americana. Addy, a Vegas talent agent and Janette, a NYC photographer are in a crisis of survival and values. What is not a "mirage" in this place where gambling, call girls and men with money rolls control the strange landscape of the U.S.A....
    Two sisters, Janette and ADDY, meet in Las Vegas, and the "wandering nerve," the Vagus Nerve is the rhythm of motherless women in the desert of 1980s Americana. Addy, a Vegas talent agent and Janette, a NYC photographer are in a crisis of survival and values. What is not a "mirage" in this place where gambling, call girls and men with money rolls control the strange landscape of the U.S.A. At stake is the future, finding the long AWOL mother, an itinerant baker in casinos.
  • VAGUS by Susan I. Weinstein
    Cast: 
    5–6
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: Sex and money, Vagus Nerve + 3 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: Sex and money, Vagus Nerve, gambling, love and family, bond between sisters
    Set in the 1980s in Las Vegas, where two sisters, a decade apart in age, meet with very different objectives. At a loss how to proceed in VAGUS, the "wandering nerve" in the brain becomes a metaphor for these siblings trying to find the firm earth, the way forward in a fog of American culture, clouded with illusions about purpose, money and sex. All comes to a showdown, as the stakes of what's...
    Set in the 1980s in Las Vegas, where two sisters, a decade apart in age, meet with very different objectives. At a loss how to proceed in VAGUS, the "wandering nerve" in the brain becomes a metaphor for these siblings trying to find the firm earth, the way forward in a fog of American culture, clouded with illusions about purpose, money and sex. All comes to a showdown, as the stakes of what's not a game become dire. Play has had many readings. Attached is first act. Rewriting 2nd.
  • Reference Points (Final Version) by Susan I. Weinstein
    Cast: 
    3–4
    ·
    Genre: drama, fantasy + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: Social Science Fiction
    Genre: drama, fantasy, mystery/thriller, political, romantic comedy
    Keyword: Social Science Fiction
    same as previous