Sun, Aug 29 from 1:00 to 6:00 P.M: Simon Studio Film & Theatre Lab FREE OPEN HOUSE

To introduce their 33rd season THE SIMON STUDIO & Artistic Director/actor/teacher Roger Hendricks Simon (Olivier Stone's WALL STREET 2, Yale Rep, N.Y. Shakespeare Festival, London's Royal Court Theatre) will host a three part Open House presentation of film screenings and theatre projects in progress.

Mr. Simon will share the studio's Lab technique of on camera training for actors and directors, as well as the development of new plays and screenplays.

Open House Sessions are scheduled at the Drama Book Shop Theatre, 250 W. 40 St.

Sunday, August 29, 2010, from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept 1, 2010, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept 8, 2010, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Audit the session for free
Donations accepted for John Palmore Scholarship Fund
Actors/directors/writers p: $20 per session
Reservations: 212-841-0204

Seen & Heard at the Drama Book Shop: May 11, 2010

Michael Emerson, best known for his role as Benjamin Linus on Lost.

Michael Emerson was born in 1954 and is now a famous actor who is mostly associated with his amazing stage work, but has appeared in several television series including popular hits like The Practice and Lost. Some of his more recent movie credits include his co-star role opposite Antonio Banderas in The Legend of Zorro and Cary Elwes in Saw.

Every Monday night at 9:00 p.m.! LATE NIGHT OPEN MIC at The Drama Book Shop

Staff member, Matt Alspaugh runs a LATE NIGHT OPEN MIC at The Drama Book Shop every Monday night at 9:00 p.m.! Read below for more info on this great weekly night of comedy!

Why Cry when you could laugh? Come watch some of New York's top up and coming stand up comics, performing at the world famous Drama Book Shop.

Stand Up Comics = 6 mins for $5
Audience = FREE

Every Monday night, 9-11 pm. Sign up is on a first come, first serve basis, starting at 8:30 pm. Contact Matt Alspaugh for further details. Matthew.Alspaugh@gmail.com

POW! (Play Of The Week)

Two Rooms
by Lee Blessing

An American teacher is held hostage in a dark room after being captured in Beirut. His wife holds a vigil for him in an empty room in their house outside DC. Michael dictates unsent letters to his wife from his cell. Lainie vies between Walker, a journalist intent to tell her story to the public and Ellen, a State Department official who wants to keep her quiet. When Lainie finds out that Walker has written a story about her without her permission, she has to come to terms with her grief in a more public setting and has to reconcile what impact telling her story to the public will have. As events in the Middle East spin out of everyone's control, the characters try to do their best to manage the situation to bring Michael back to the United Stages, but everyone has their own interests at stake.

Two Rooms navigates the real and imagined worlds of the four characters. As they interact with one another in their minds, their imagined conversations affect their real life actions.

Blessing explores what it means to be an American at war on foreign soil, what the American legacy is, not just for the military and the government, but for people who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the wrong nationality in the wrong place. He also explores the role of the media and the government in releasing information to the public while withholding information from military enemies.

First performed in 1988, Two Rooms is a classic, relevant play about best intentions and the trouble with fighting an enemy with an entirely different philosophy.

Excellent scenes and monologues for all characters, 2 men, 2 women 30s-40s.

Reviewed by Kate

Every Monday night at 9:00 p.m.! LATE NIGHT OPEN MIC at The Drama Book Shop

Staff member, Matt Alspaugh runs a LATE NIGHT OPEN MIC at The Drama Book Shop every Monday night at 9:00 p.m.! Read below for more info on this great weekly night of comedy!

Why Cry when you could laugh? Come watch some of New York's top up and coming stand up comics, performing at the world famous Drama Book Shop.

Stand Up Comics = 6 mins for $5
Audience = FREE

Every Monday night, 9-11 pm. Sign up is on a first come, first serve basis, starting at 8:30 pm. Contact Matt Alspaugh for further details. Matthew.Alspaugh@gmail.com