(Mary)Todd

(Mary)Todd

Playwright: Dennis Bush

Director: Lester Thomas Shane

 

Dennis Bush

(Mary)Todd playwright

Playwright/screenwriter Dennis Bushʼs plays have been performed in New York, and throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Philippines, South Africa, and Egypt. His work has received awards at numerous theatre and film festivals. His full-length comedy, Like A Man, has been optioned for a commercial run in New York. A New York production of his play In the Sack is also planned. His plays …and others, Asylum, Below the Belt, and Fetal Pig have had successful New York runs, and his plays Bowling Without Balls, Scratching the Surface, and Windows have had well-received NYC readings. The film of his screenplay, Love or Whatever (directed by Rosser Goodman), has been a hit on the international film festival circuit, with featured screenings in Barcelona, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Seoul, Aukland, Johannesburg and Capetown, and at festivals throughout the United States and Canada. It will be released on DVD this summer. As of this writing,Bush has twenty-five published plays and nine published monologue collections. His play Asylum has had more than 400 productions around the world. In the span of three months, this past Fall, his play Below the Belt was produced in the United States, Canada, and Egypt. In addition to Asylum and Below the Belt, his other published plays include …and others (released this summer), After Happily, Drift, Fetal Pig, Treasure (released this summer), Find Me, Opening Doors, Ritual, Responsible, Nightmare, Exposed, Nobody, A Wave in the Ocean, Outside In (in both full-length and one-act versions), Scratching the Surface, Stop Time, Turn the Page, Windows, Before We Go, Between the Lines, I Remember, and On the Edge. His monologue collections include Spontaneous Combustion, Scattered Mannequins, Truth on a Spoon, Just the Messenger, Emotional Baggage, Green Means Go, Never the Same, Life and Death, Laughter and Love, and Confessions & Consequences (released this summer). Bush has extensive credits as a coach for writers and actors, and as a script/ dialogue consultant for theatre, film, and television. In addition, he has had short fiction and creative nonfiction published in noted literary periodicals. He has written commissioned texts for a variety of clients and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

 

Lester Thomas Shane

(Mary)Todd director

Lester Thomas Shane’s directing credits include the award-winning production of Dennis Bushʼs Asylum (Wonderland Festival) and DisConnections (Fetal Pig, Below the Belt, and Asylum; 45th St Theatre); Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, The Tempest (Artistic Director, Shakespeare at the Met, Jacksonville, FL), Bright Room Called Day, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Sweet Phoebe, Science Gets Serious (Cleveland Public Theatre); Awake and Sing (Halle Theatre), Shatter The Vessel (Charlottesville New Play Festival); Last Chance For Happiness, Loot (T.Schreiber Studio); Hedda Gabler, Smoke (Manhattan Theatre Club); The White Whore and the Bit Player (The Production Company); Pretty Witty Nell, Grit in a Sensitive Instrument (Vineyard). As Director in Residence at The Basic Theatre, he directed the New York premieres of Shaviana, Bertolt Brecht: In Dark Times, The Haircut, and Santa Monica Threeway, revivals of Sure Thing, Let us Go Into The Starry Night and Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. In addition he has directed numerous readings and workshops and has worked with the literary departments of Manhattan Theatre Club, Westbeth and Hartford Stage. His award-winning one-man show, Mortal Coil has toured the US. The Norwegian translation, Livents Lenker, premiered in Oslo, directed by Lester. Lester is on the faculty of Pace University, The American Academy of Dramatic Art, and The New York Film Academy.