Hooray for the LA FPI's SWAN Day of Action Fest

This past weekend I was lucky enough to be a part of the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiatives' SWAN Day of Action Fest. My one act play Over Ripe was presented by Barbara Tarbuck and William Dennis Hunt with direction by Gloria Iseli at the Samuel French Bookshop in Hollywood.

It was a fun day with five new short plays presented by brilliant actors (most of whom work with the Vagrancy Theatre in LA), microreads of one page scenes and excerpts, and loads of goodwill (not to mention snacks).

I had a wonderful time, expanded my theatrical network by meeting some incredible artists, and felt myself falling even more in love with LA and southern California.

LifeinLA.com had the following to say about my play:

"Becca Anderson’s play Over Ripe was an extraordinary piece about an old New York couple, a married man and woman in their 70s, who were also notorious bodega robbers, spending an afternoon bickering about their annoyances with each other. Though young herself, Becca Anderson had acutely captured the language, idioms, and jargons of that generation.  And the elder actors, Barbara Tarbuck and William Dennis Hunt, added the mannerism of that age with much ease. By the end of the play the audience broke into cheers, and some even gave a standing ovation."

Click here to read the full article.

March 22 & 24: You're a Good Man, Charlie Sheen

My 20 minute musical sketch comedy You're a Good Man, Charlie Sheen will be presented as part of the Broadway Melodies series. The show is produced by Eric Kallin and Lori Mannette and music directed by Dan Macalinao. It will play March 22nd at 9:30pm and March 24th at 7:00pm at the West End Theater (formerly The Underground) located at 955 West End Avenue. Tickets are $10 at the door.

You can read more about it on Broadwayworld.com and join the Facebook event.

Academia Nuts selected as 2014 NYMF Next Link show!

I'm a little late announcing this, but pulling together a show for the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) can prove time consuming. :)

Academia Nuts, the raunchy nerd-rock musical I've written with Julian Blackmore and Dan Marshall, has been selected as an official NYMF 2014 Next Link show and will receive a full production this July in New York City!!

Be sure to follow the show on Twitter and like it on Facebook to keep up with all of the most up-to-date news as we dive head first into this amazing project! You can also help make the show happen by donating to NYMF and earmarking your donation for Academia Nuts! Just be sure to select us on the scrolldown menu labeled "earmark your donation."

For more info on NYMF and Next Link, check out the links below.

Broadwayworld.com article

Playbill.com article

NYMF website

Staged Reading of Academia Nuts

Academia Nuts is a Finalist for the New Jersey Playwrights' Contest Musical Series and will receive a staged reading at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ on Thursday, February 13th. You can read more about it here.

One Year Over, A New One Just Beginning

I love the feeling of being ready to take on the world that always seems to come with this time of year. It's a time to look back on your accomplishments (did you know I just wrote my second novel?) and look forward to your goals (I've started running again, and this time it is going to stick!).

I wish all of you a very safe and cheerful holiday season, and I hope you are inspired by your own achievements and ready to leap into a new year!

New Projects

Very excited to be starting a sting of new projects including a new full-length musical with my frequent collaborators Dan Marshall and Julian Blackmore; a webseries; a TYA play; and a pilot for an hour-long seriocomedic series.

As always, New York Comic Con has truly inspired me! Good old nerds!

Portfolio

The website now includes a portfolio of sorts including script samples, demo recordings from my musicals, video of live performances from my shows, and short sketch videos. 

Check it out here! 

60 Second Travel com eu

In an effort to start getting some of my sketch material online, I've completed the first episode of "60 Second Travel with Becca." Check it out on the Comedy page or on YouTube!

Occupying the Empty Space

My short play "Park Bench" has been selected for Occupy the Empty Space's third festival benefiting the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space in New York City.

The piece will be one of several performances taking place on August 16th at 7pm at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, 155 Avenue C.

Trying the dead and my patience

I am disgusted by the verdict of the Zimmerman trial, as are many Americans. The man hunted down and killed an unarmed teenager at 7 o'clock in the evening simply because the boy was walking slowly. And the justice system has said that is fine and acceptable.

Hug your loved ones. And write.

The Great Play Exchange

Since I want to be a full-time-all-I-do-for-my-living-is-write playwright and lyricist, I figured I should really read plays more often.

So I've hit up the Drama Book Shop, bought and read a few new plays, and made sure I didn't have any plays lying around the house that I hadn't read already. I also made a small donation to the Theatre Communications Group to nab that "free" subscription to American Theatre magazine so I can 1. read the five full play scripts included in their ten issues every year and 2. grow incredibly envious of absolutely everyone who wins crazy awesome awards, grants, and fellowships mentioned throughout the publication.

Wonderful. 

However, I have now read all the plays in my home and had to adjust my monthly budge to cover the cost of buying new plays. Unless I get some influx of good old cash monies, this play purchasing must cease. 

So! I used that glorious social media and said, "Oh hi, friends! Who wants to trade plays?" Huzzah! Positive responses! And thus the great play exchange has commenced! Hopefully I have some plays somebody wants to read, and in return for letting them read my plays, I will be allowed to read theirs. The great work begins!

Five Fingers Open, Two Fingers Crossed

"Hippy Dippy Days" from Academia Nuts  (which you can listen to here) will be featured in "Five Fingers Open, Two Fingers Crossed", a cabaret event produced by Mercury Summer Stock and Dana Aber, this Sunday, July 14th at 5:30pm at the Regina Auditorium on the Notre Dame College Campus in Cleveland, Ohio.

The event will feature songs from new, bound-for-Broadway musicals written by up-and-coming composers and lyricists from all over the globe. Several Cleveland area talents will be singing, so if you're in the area, be sure to check out the cabaret! It's free but has a suggested donation of $10. 

NYMF/Welcome to my site/Sorry?

You might be visiting my website because I shoved my business card into your hand at the New York Musical Theatre Festival Opening Night Party last night. 

If so, thanks for checking out my site! Be sure to listen to the demo recordings in the Portfolio section. 

Also, sorry? I may have been a bit of a mess last night. I should really avoid events sponsored by vodka companies. Especially Balls Vodka. Seriously. 

Over Ripe a Finalist for the Pittsburgh New Works Festival

Sadly, not a selection, but woohoo! A finalist! 

I'd also like to give a shout out to this festival for being awesome in general (from a writer's perspective, at least).

90% of my submissions to theatres and festivals and awards receive bland, disheartening email responses of "Sorry, but we didn't pick you." The Pittsburgh New Works Festival was wonderful enough to send back my actual grade sheets from their readers, which let me have a fuller understanding of why my play wasn't selected. It was super empowering instead of heartbreaky sad face time. More places need to do this, yo!

Grandma's Last Hurrah!

Yesterday I wrapped up the first full draft of Grandma's Last Hurrah, a new short musical being written with my frequent collaborator Julian Blackmore. I'm very excited to share songs from it soon! 

Bedtime a Finalist for the Trustus Playwrights Festival

Bedtime  was recently been named a finalist for the 2013 Trustus Playwrights Festival in South Carolina.

Congratulations to my former professor Deborah Brevoort for winning with her play The Velvet Weapon .

Finally!

While I did not win, I can now announce that my play Bedtime  was a finalist for the 2013 Leah Ryan FEWW Prize.

Congrats to the winner (whoever you are)! Learn more about the prize here.

The Dramatist

I have a brief article in the May/June 2013 issue of The Dramatist, the journal of the Darmatists Guild of America, Inc. 

The issue is the Musical Theatre Issue and features wonderful content from several terrific writers and members of the Dramatists Guild including Stephen Sondheim, Marc Shaiman, Julianne Wick Davis & Dan Collins, Gretchen Cryer and more! If you do not receive The Dramatist, you can pick up a copy at The Drama Book Shop on W. 40th Street in New York, NY.

Miscellaneous songs

I've added new tracks to the "Music" section of the website. Please enjoy these stand-alone pieces written with various collaborators. 

You can find them here!

Hatter a finalist for the 2013 Ronald M. Ruble New Play Festival

 Hatter , music by Brandon James Gwinn, lyrics by Becca Anderson, and book by Brandon James Gwinn and Becca Anderson, is a finalist the Caryl Crane Youth Theatre's 2013 Ronald M. Ruble New Play Festival.

The five finalist plays/musicals will be presented as staged readings on April 27th and 28th in Huron, Ohio.

Read the full press release here.