Tita Anntares

Tita Anntares

Tita Anntares has written three full-length plays (each a winner of at least one contest and good placements in others), several short plays, two screenplays, a book of raw poetry, and interactive puppet shows. (See www.anntares.com) Since 2013, she has studied with playwrights, directors and dramaturgs:
- Dramatists Guild Institute - John Dietrich, Joanie Drago, Gary Garrison, Andrea Lepcio, Michele...
Tita Anntares has written three full-length plays (each a winner of at least one contest and good placements in others), several short plays, two screenplays, a book of raw poetry, and interactive puppet shows. (See www.anntares.com) Since 2013, she has studied with playwrights, directors and dramaturgs:
- Dramatists Guild Institute - John Dietrich, Joanie Drago, Gary Garrison, Andrea Lepcio, Michele Lowe, Gwyn MacDonald, Austin Pendleton, Mathew Paul Olmos, Tari Stratton, David Faux, Christine Toy and others. Close to completing DG certificate.
- Primary Stages ESPA - Rogelio Martinez
- Playwright Center online - Winter Miller
- Maia Directors - Kareem Fahmy (script analysis)

Before 2015: Arthur Giron, E.S.T.; Neal Bell, Anne Bogart, Travis Preston at Playwrights Horizons.

Studies with Dramaturgs: Hal Croasmun, Syd Field, Steve Kaplan, Robert McKee.

Contest Wins and Placements, including:
• WINNER - Veils of Justice: online zoom reading in Riant Theatre’s Jocunda Festival 2020, directed by Van Dirk Fisher (he was planning to produce it after the shutdown, but tragically has passed on); one of three chosen for Theater Resources Unlimited’s TRU Voices Staged Reading Series, directed by David Stallings (early draft in 2016); WildSound; Embers of Tent City (now Brew): Writers Digest-Drama
• FINALIST– Veils of Justice: 2019 ScreenCraft Stage Play; MT Works Newborn
• SEMI-FINALIST - Veils of Justice: Ashland New Plays Festival 2019; Bay Area Playwrights Foundation; Beverly Hills Theatre Club; Embers of Tent City (now Brew): Bridge Initiative;
• QUARTER-FINALIST - Embers of Tent City (now Brew): ScreenCraft Stage Play Category.
• HONORABLE MENTION - Veils of Justice: Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation for plays about actual people/events that position LGBT life positively; New Works of Merit

(Part-tine dayojob: instructional design/job training, business writing)

Plays

  • VEILS OF JUSTICE by Tita Anntares
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 4 more
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    Keyword: justice, prejudice + 6 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama, faith-based, mystery/thriller, political
    Keyword: justice, prejudice, gay, trials, reconciliation, false accusations, forced plea deals, features LGBTQ characters
    Can Deena, a New York Jewish lawyer defend a young Saudi Muslim man, accused of raping and robbing an American man at knifepoint? Deena assumes he is guilty (why would any man make up those charges?!), but she believes the worst of the worst deserve counsel. When Mazen insists on his innocence and faces a prosecutor determined to convict the first Saudi of any crime in NYC since the attacks, Deena tries a Hail...
    Can Deena, a New York Jewish lawyer defend a young Saudi Muslim man, accused of raping and robbing an American man at knifepoint? Deena assumes he is guilty (why would any man make up those charges?!), but she believes the worst of the worst deserve counsel. When Mazen insists on his innocence and faces a prosecutor determined to convict the first Saudi of any crime in NYC since the attacks, Deena tries a Hail Mary: she asks the accuser's wife to look at evidence that might show innocence. In this story, based on an actual trial, some of the people work through fear and prejudice into unexpected connections with our shared humanity - some cannot take that journey.

    (Cast: 6 - 3 women, 3 men; unit set) Unproduced so far. Inspired by actual trial in NYC 2010. The defendant asked me to write his story.
    ***
    Awards and placements (current and earlier drafts, some titled "Closets"):

    Winner, Staged Zoom Reading September 2020 The Riant Theatre's Jocunda Festival, directed by Van Dirk Fisher.

    Finalist, 2019 ScreenCraft Stage Play Contest.

    Semifinalist; 2019 Diverse Voices (We Screenplay);

    Honorable Mention, New Works of Merit 2019 Playwriting Contest;

    Athena Reads (Athena Theatre, Feb 2019);

    Selected by National New Plays Network as one of 10 plays for readings of excerpts at Dramatists Guild 2018 annual conference;

    Earlier drafts:

    2016 TRU Voices Reading Series;

    Finalist, MT Works;

    Semi-Finalist: Ashland New Plays; Beverly Hills Theatre Club; Bay Area Playwrights Foundation;

    Honorable Mention, Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation’s contest for plays about actual events/people that position LGBT life positively.

    Script analysis by writer-director-actor Kareem Fahmy through Maia Directors.
  • SAM'S RABBLE by Tita Anntares
    Cast: 
    8–10
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    Genre: adventure, biography + 6 more
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    Keyword: Shays Rebellion, sam adams + 6 more
    Genre: adventure, biography, docudrama/historic, drama, experimental, period, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Shays Rebellion, sam adams, American Revolution, Constitution, 21St Century armed private militias and white extremist groups, friendship, betrayal, Native Americans and Settlers
    Two friends fight a war together to win a democracy but only five years later they are ready to kill each other - both sure they are saving that democracy from the other. Why does Sam Adams, man of the people, send out the army of the new nation of Massachusetts in 1787 to shoot or arrest and hang his friend Captain Daniel Shays?...The true story of Shays Rebellion that Timothy McVeigh glorified on his T-shirt...
    Two friends fight a war together to win a democracy but only five years later they are ready to kill each other - both sure they are saving that democracy from the other. Why does Sam Adams, man of the people, send out the army of the new nation of Massachusetts in 1787 to shoot or arrest and hang his friend Captain Daniel Shays?...The true story of Shays Rebellion that Timothy McVeigh glorified on his T-shirt the day when he bombed innocents in Oklahoma.

    In SAM's RABBLE, covered wagons have circled for the night near a run-down tavern on their way West. A Native American is tied by the neck to the wheel of one of the wagons. The settlers - veterans and camp-followers in the War of Independence - gather around a campfire with the audience and show why they would rather risk death by arrow than stay in the new democracy they risked their lives to create - starting with Captain Shays and Sam Adams celebrating victory together, through the rebellion that terrifies the 13 new American nation states into uniting under one Constitution.
  • BREW by Tita Anntares
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: voting rights, World War II + 7 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: voting rights, World War II, African American, white fear, people of color, Tea Party, financial collapse, black lives matter, mortgage crisis 2009
    When a national crisis inflames fear and blame between races and income groups, can we find ways to reconnect as Americans? We are in early February 2009, rural Tennessee, just after Obama’s inauguration when families are losing jobs and homes after the ‘08 financial crash. Past angers are brewing between an African American WWII veteran and the Irish-American sheriff who almost killed him during the voting...
    When a national crisis inflames fear and blame between races and income groups, can we find ways to reconnect as Americans? We are in early February 2009, rural Tennessee, just after Obama’s inauguration when families are losing jobs and homes after the ‘08 financial crash. Past angers are brewing between an African American WWII veteran and the Irish-American sheriff who almost killed him during the voting rights struggle in the late 50s/early 60s. Luanne, the sheriff’s granddaughter, interrupts their battle to the death when she arrives hell-bent on getting to the first meeting of the Tea Party on February 16 to “Take our country back!” This mix of ages and races simmers into unexpected reconciliations and boils over into a very American - and loving - rebellion.

    CAST: 7; SET: One. Revised after a table reading with Arthur French as Mac and after AACT.org feedback
    Former title listed with contests: Embers of Tent City
  • EVICT ME?! by Tita Anntares
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: race relations, civil rights + 7 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: race relations, civil rights, Tennessee, Tea Party, reconciliation, evictions, black lives matter, white racism, 2008 Financial Crash
    Economic crisis in rural TN. February 2009. Aging African American WWII veteran, Mac emboldened by Obama's first inauguration, lands in a battle to the death with the retired Irish American sheriff Jeb who almost killed him in the voting rights struggle in the 60s... but the sheriff's granddaughter, Luanne, interrupts them when she arrives hell-bent on getting to the first meeting of the Tea Party to...
    Economic crisis in rural TN. February 2009. Aging African American WWII veteran, Mac emboldened by Obama's first inauguration, lands in a battle to the death with the retired Irish American sheriff Jeb who almost killed him in the voting rights struggle in the 60s... but the sheriff's granddaughter, Luanne, interrupts them when she arrives hell-bent on getting to the first meeting of the Tea Party to "Take our country back" Cast 4, One set (field near porch of a ramshackle farmhouse). One act/30 minute version of my 7 character full length play "Brew."
  • Boogie on the Third Rail by Tita Anntares
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 4 more
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    Keyword: Boogaloo, George Floyd + 7 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama, mystery/thriller, political, zoom
    Keyword: Boogaloo, George Floyd, Police killings, white nationalists/militias, protest demonstrations, violence, black lives matter, apologies, redemption
    A play about actual killing of a federal building guard by Boogaloo Bois to try to make Black Lives Matter protesters at a George Floyd rally look violent, anger the police and achieve their goals of a second civil war, but between races so whites can again dominate. Premiere will be in October 2021 with American Lives Theatre in Indianapolis. Selected for Reading in PCSF Festival of Short Play in July 2021.)...
    A play about actual killing of a federal building guard by Boogaloo Bois to try to make Black Lives Matter protesters at a George Floyd rally look violent, anger the police and achieve their goals of a second civil war, but between races so whites can again dominate. Premiere will be in October 2021 with American Lives Theatre in Indianapolis. Selected for Reading in PCSF Festival of Short Play in July 2021.)

    Two character plus narrator, simple location, 5-10 minute play, depending on how staged: Billy, a member of the Boogaloo Bois returns home after a Black Lives Matter/Police Reform protest demonstration in San Francisco against the killing of George Floyd, tells his girlfriend Sally how he drove another member looking for ways to kill in order to make the protesters look violent and start a civil war between police and black/white activists... and something unexpected happens.

    Based on actual incident. Optional projection of photos of victims and link to FBI reports:
    -- FBI Special Agent Brett Woolard: https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1285696/download
    -- Former FBI Agent Frank Figliuzzi: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/trump-s-silence-boogaloo-bois-shows-he-isn-t-pro-n1244762

    (Names of assassins changed in play to protect the guilty from fame)
  • WWII Veteran Barred From Voting - John McFerren's Story by Tita Anntares
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: African American, World War II + 6 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, political
    Keyword: African American, World War II, military veteran, civil rights, Tennessee, tent city, real life, voting rights
    Short Play video with actor Jr Carter
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwGZScfg_7g&t=29s

    An aging former African-American WWII veteran and leader of a voting rights struggle when in 1959 he mobilized thousands to register to vote despite knowing that they would be evicted from any rental or sharecropper cabins, barred from local doctors, stores and gas stations so they had bot get to...
    Short Play video with actor Jr Carter
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwGZScfg_7g&t=29s

    An aging former African-American WWII veteran and leader of a voting rights struggle when in 1959 he mobilized thousands to register to vote despite knowing that they would be evicted from any rental or sharecropper cabins, barred from local doctors, stores and gas stations so they had bot get to Memphis 50 miles away. McFerren sheltered about 300 families in army tents. He hopes the audience will understand the struggle for first class citizenship has not ended.Stories told by McFerren to the writer.

    Reading at Crossways Theatre, NYC March 2 2020 by actor JR Carter March 2 2020, 7:30 PM,
    http://resumes.actorsaccess.com/jrcarter and https://www.imdb.me/JRCarter

    Connie Winston on stage directions - www.ConnieWinston.com
  • POEMS from "MammalTalk" by Tita Anntares
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: verse
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    Keyword: poetry, Sex + 2 more
    Genre: verse
    Keyword: poetry, Sex, aids, broken marriage
    Three poems from my unpublished book "MammalTalk" that were published in the Pomona Valley Journal on pages 47, 70 and 120-121 at:
    http://www.pomonavalleyreview.com/pdf/PVR%2012/PVR%2012.pdf
  • KITTY CATCHES A.L.E.C. (Short play) by Tita Anntares
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 4 more
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    Keyword: humor, Con + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, mystery/thriller, parody/spoof, political, satire
    Keyword: humor, Con, sexual harassment, Stormy Daniels
    Unpublished 10-15 minute political drama/comedy.

    We are backstage, maybe at a bar in the theater. We see the back of a woman, Kitty, in a long velvet gown, leaning over a podium. Giving an unseen audience in front of her a very raunchy talk. Backstage, closer to us, a businessman, Lee, watches. At the end of a talk, Lee brings Kitty back to meet us and introduces us as members of a group that...
    Unpublished 10-15 minute political drama/comedy.

    We are backstage, maybe at a bar in the theater. We see the back of a woman, Kitty, in a long velvet gown, leaning over a podium. Giving an unseen audience in front of her a very raunchy talk. Backstage, closer to us, a businessman, Lee, watches. At the end of a talk, Lee brings Kitty back to meet us and introduces us as members of a group that finances political campaigns in return for specific types of laws. We realize they are going to sign a contract to set Kitty up as the executive director of a club that will help stop news reports of politicians involved in sexual harassment lawsuits – a sensuous haven where elected government representatives and industry leaders can find safe sex, hidden from news reporters.

    But Kitty has her own plan... and gradually we watch the signing ceremony morph into an unexpected crime scene.

    Short one-act (10 pps), simple set; cast (2(: sensuous young woman and businessman.

  • BELLY UP - Screenplay by Tita Anntares
    Cast: 
    6–8
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, mystery/thriller + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: mystery, African American + 7 more
    Genre: dark comedy, mystery/thriller, romantic comedy
    Keyword: mystery, African American, ebola, entrepreneur, food safety, animal rights, fast food, activism, funny
    A young woman from a low-income neighborhood, has graduated from an entrepreneurship program and turned a failing fast food chain into a success, but now must deal with an ebola outbreak. Surrounded by demonstrators, despite warnings from the program head, a man she refuses to let herself love, she invites the activist leaders into her company, sure she can use her street smarts to buy them out. She's...
    A young woman from a low-income neighborhood, has graduated from an entrepreneurship program and turned a failing fast food chain into a success, but now must deal with an ebola outbreak. Surrounded by demonstrators, despite warnings from the program head, a man she refuses to let herself love, she invites the activist leaders into her company, sure she can use her street smarts to buy them out. She's kidnapped, forced to watch videos of industrial farming, then escapes, shocking her investors with a plan to run a company that is not only profitable, but fair to employees, animals and consumers. Selected as one of 10 (out of 750) Best Scene Screenplays in the Mystery category, https://crimemysteryfestival.com/2019/01/25/top-10-crime-mystery-screenplays-of-2018/

  • Fear and Longing by Tita Anntares
    Cast: 
    8–10
    ·
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: woman defense lawyer, false accusations + 3 more
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy, fantasy, political
    Keyword: woman defense lawyer, false accusations, Middle East, homophobia, Terror
    Screenplay - After getting her Afghan client acquitted of false charges in NYC, but the trial outted him Deena goes with her client home to Afghanistan, sure she can protect him from his father, a tribal chief. A stone door in a bleak Afghan mountain opens and the father greets her graciously, invites her into an elegant, glittering mansion carved into the mountain. He gives her tea, seems to welcome her, but...
    Screenplay - After getting her Afghan client acquitted of false charges in NYC, but the trial outted him Deena goes with her client home to Afghanistan, sure she can protect him from his father, a tribal chief. A stone door in a bleak Afghan mountain opens and the father greets her graciously, invites her into an elegant, glittering mansion carved into the mountain. He gives her tea, seems to welcome her, but as she is escorted to her room, she finds herself locked in a harem with her client's sisters and hears her client being dragged to gay jail for flogging. She is at first contemptuous of what seem to be dependent, enslaved women... but she soon realizes only they can come up with the strategies that may free her and her client.