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THEATER: The Sisyphean life of an “emerging” playwright is often confined to a seemingly endless series of play readings, half-baked workshop productions, and audience-feedback bull sessions that often culminate not in a real production but more of the same. Tonight a group of theater people get together to bitch have an exchange about this now-entrenched play development process. The symposium is moderated by Time Out NY theater critic David Cote and features Richard Nelson, Playwright and Chair of the Department of Playwriting at the Yale University School of Drama, playwright/13P co-founder Madeleine George, and dramaturg/theatrical agent Morgan Jenness. - John Del Signore more ›

SIGNING: Just a few days ago LL Cool J was out signing his book (which, is actually a workout book). Tonight 50 Cent will be at Borders Bookstore with two of his writers for the launch of, wait for it...G Unit books! Some titles: Death Before Dishonor, Baby Brother and The Ski Mask Way. Get there early! more ›

Grand Army Plaza Memorial Arch // Prospect Park, Brooklyn // through June 25, Sat. 2 & 7pm, Sun. 2 & 5pm // free, but you can pay for reserved seats at Smarttix more ›

Along with producing shows by up and coming playwrights, one of the things off-off-Broadway does best is to resurrect plays first presented ages ago that have hardly been seen or thought of since. One such is V.R. Lang’s Fire Exit: A Vaudeville For Eurydice, which is nominally a modernization of the Orpheus-Eurydice myth but in actuality, at least in this incarnation, is more an opportunity for some majorly bizarre antics by a brave, eager cast. It’s the 1950s, and Orpheus, a hotshot young composer, marries Eurydice, who comes from a family of carnival folk, only to break her heart by caring more about his career than their life together. Fortunately, Eury grew up with the good examples of some wacky “aunts” – one of them played by director Barbara Vann – and she finally learns to embrace the performer in herself and not look back. more ›

While we wait impatiently for some real improvement in the temperature, theater companies are heating up the late winter with scores of new productions. A warning, though: maybe it’s just the mood we’ve been in, but everything that most appealed to us this week is pretty dark/serious. For that reason, we’ll start off with Ensemble Studio Theatre’s company of emerging playwrights, youngblood, which is having its annual “Asking For Trouble” series this week. Each playwright (10 of them) drew a cast and director randomly and had a short time to create a nine-minute play with them; the results are at the Kraine this week, and even if some of the plays are dark, as some undoubtedly will be, it will at least be uplifting to see new playwrights having their work produced. more ›

The highlight of the first play, John Guare’s Madagascar, is unquestionably Amy Love as Carrie, a woman who marries into the Madagascar “medical mafia” of Madagascar, Illinois. The play starts with her addressing the audience as though they are browsing at her yard sale; she appears very perky and happy as she describes what’s for sale (the set is mostly bare), but gradually her inability to be quiet means that she tells some dark stories associated with those objects. That’s the trajectory of the play as a whole, too – it just keeps getting more disturbing. It’s quite long, and would maybe be better expanded even further out of the constraints of the one-act formula, but Love’s performance, at least, is great. more ›

If you’re like Gothamist and you enjoy new theatre in small venues (with small ticket prices), theater festivals are unbeatable. If you don’t go to shows much but want to get a taste for what’s out there, again, these gatherings of innovative voices and acting talents are the way to go. In the summer months, festivals arrive thick and fast; the first wave begins this week. more ›