This FREE and LIVE playreading kicks off Alleyway's Developmental Reading Series. Creating new plays for over 40 years, we know one of the most important parts of the process is for the playwright to hear their work out loud.
Red Alien is a blood-soaked allegorical comedy about women at the edge of the known universe who are the first to make contact with another life form by accidentally sending them a mating call. It’s Caryl Churchill meets, the Alien Franchise, meets The Office. All while remaining roaringly funny, Red Alien tells a timely story about the frustrations of communication with a perceived “other” and the futility of aspiring to greatness within an unexamined system designed to defeat you.
Join us to hear brand new work in-process, and participate in a short Q&A after with the playwright, moderated by Alleyway Dramaturg Samantha Marchant.
This FREE and LIVE playreading kicks off Alleyway's Developmental Reading Series. Creating new plays for over 40 years, we know one of the most important parts of the process is for the playwright to hear their work out loud.
Something strange is happening to Maisie Clark—but instead of being afraid, she’s using her new power to protect close friends from their abusive partners. When a young woman named Penny stumbles onto Maisie’s porch after a difficult night at a local bar, Maisie’s powers not only come in handy to help, but also set off a chain reaction of events that will forever alterMaisie’s life, and the lives of her closest friends.
Join us to hear brand new work in-process, and participate in a short Q&A after with the playwright, moderated by Alleyway Dramaturg Samantha Marchant.
Currents: 716 and Alleyway's Digital Theatre Festival are made possible through the generous support of the Venturous Theatre Fund of the Tides Foundation
JANE B. JONES is a playwright, director, and educator. Jones delights in making work that is playfully provocative, surprising, theatrical and humorous.
Her play Tell the Truth was commissioned and produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2020 as part of the New Play Project. In 2019 To the Moon and Back was part of the Voices HEaRd Festival in Lexington and Red Alien was a finalist for the Maxim Mazumdar New Play Competition.
Jones has developed several works with the Actors Theatre of Louisville Professional Training Company including many Solo Mios, directing in the New Voices Young PlaywrightsFestival and Electric Harvest by A. Ray Pamatmat (2019 New PlayProject).
Jones worked in the Education department at Actors Theatre of Louisville for 9 years. Jones has an MFA in Playwriting from Spalding University and was a Gen 3 Hadley Creative. She currently teaches at the Youth Performing Arts School in Louisville.
Sara Kow-Falcone is thrilled to be making her debut at Alleyway.
She's fresh off a stint atthe Road Less Traveled Theater where she directed three ten minute audio plays for Buffalo Rising 2.0. Sara was last seen onstage in RLTP's The Illusion (2019) and O'Connell & Co's Painting Churches (2017).
Thanks to Chris and Sam for including her on this project, and to David for being the best.
JAMIE NABLO is so happy to be involved in this new play reading. It is a privilege to be able to create theatre during these unprecedented times.
She was part of Alleyway’s Scotch and Madness when the theaters were shut down. She hasrecently been seen in Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s Intermezzo Season touring show and The Francis Bacon Experiment’s Drive In shadowcast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
She holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from Niagara University. Jamie is also a member of the Association of Regional Theatre Artists.
NIKI NOWAK TOLNAY is a professional actor, writer and producer. Over the course of her career, she has been recognized numerous times for her work on both stageand screen.
As an actor, Niki earned critical acclaim from The Los Angeles Times, BackStage West and other notable media for her performance in SkyPilotTheatre original plays To the New Girl, 4 Murders and Earthbound which she co-produced.
Notable on-screen credits include a best-supporting actress win from the Oregon Film Festival, the lead role in the Lifetime pilot, My Life is a Lifetime Movie, and as co-host of In Search of Health, an international holistic health program. Niki is represented by Synergy Talent Agency, Los Angeles.
Bella Poynton is a playwright, director, and Ph.D. candidate at the University at Buffalo.
As a director, she recently directed “Digitally Dramatized: Zoom Plays for a New World” at Post-Industrial Productions. As a playwright, her short play The Offer was recently published in The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2019 (Smith &Krauss) and her play “Eleven Things that Almost Happened to Rick and Hanna…” is forthcoming in The Best American Short Plays 2018-2019 (Applause Publishing, delayed due to COVID-19).
As a scholar, her article “Playwriting with Robots: Creating Cyborgian Theatre with Online Chatbots” was recently published in Theatre/Practice. Bella is Literary Manager of Post-Industrial Productions, the program director of Queen City Playwights, a co-editor ofInterventions at Contemporary Theatre Review and served as President of the University at Buffalo Theatre & Dance GSA club from 2017-2020.
DOMINIQUE KEMPF is a professional actress from Buffalo and SUNY Fredonia alumni.
Recent credits include: Ragtime (Sarah *Artie Award Winning Performance), West Side Story (Maria), Little Shop of Horrors (Ronnette), Late in the Evening World Premiere (Mysterious Woman), First Date (Alison/Lauren/Ens.), Avenue Q (Gary Coleman).
Dominique would like to thank her friends, family,and God for her continued success.
BRETT KLACZYK is ecstatic to be working with Alleyway for the first time.
A Niagara University alumnus, Brett has performed in, directed,and choreographed for stage productions and films across Western New York. Notable performances of his include Joe Pendleton in Heaven Can Wait, Lancelot in Spamalot, Antonio in The Tempest, and Poseidon Medusa Undone. Brett thanks everyone at Alleyway for bringing him in on this reading and his cast and crew for a great process. "Love for all who have love for all." www.nami.org
SMIRNA MERCEDES is a founding ensemble member of Raíces Theatre Company. Among her most memorable shows are: Botanica, Hell Hole Honeys, Real Women Have Curves, La Gringa, and recently, La Luz De Un Cigarillo, In the Heights, and Little Shop of Horrors.
She has also worked behind the stage as a stage manager, costume designer and music director. When she is not on or around the stage, she works as a registered nurse and is a proud disabled veteran.
EMBER TATE holds a BFA in theatre performance from Niagara University. N.U. credits CYRANA(La Bret), AFFLICTED: DAUGHTERS OF SALEM (Tituba), THE DROWSY CHAPERONE (Trixthe Aviatrix), MACBETH INSURGENCY (Lady Macbeth), CHICAGO (Matron Mama Morton).
She has worked with MusicalFare on shows such as VIOLET (Music hall singer),DISENCHANTED! (Princess Who Kissed the Frog) and COOKIN AT THE COOKERY (YoungAlberta).
With Alleyway she has done GIRLS WHO WALKED ON GLASS.
EMILY YANCEY is a professional actress and crossover vocalist performing in plays, musicals,and operas across the WNY area. She was very recently nominated for the 2020 WBFO/WNED Artie Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Play (FACTORY FOR MURDERERS at Alleyway Theatre), as well as sharing a nomination with the Subversive Theatre cast of SHE KILLS MONSTERS for Outstanding Ensemble of a Play.
Last year she received the Artie Award for Outstanding Ensemble of a Musical alongside her cast-mates in O’Connell and Company’s all-femaleproduction of 1776: THE MUSICAL, where she also garnered an individual nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Edward Rutledge. She has also been nominated for Outstanding Leading Actress in a Musical for her work in theworld premiere of KILLER RACK: THE FEMINIST HORROR MUSICAL COMEDY (BettyDowner) at Alleyway Theatre.
Other favorite credits include:OKLAHOMA! (Laurey), FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (Hodel) with Lancaster Opera House, A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Belle et al), GIRLS WHO WALKED ON GLASS (Katrina) with Alleyway Theatre, SPRING AWAKENING (Martha) at Shea’s 710 Theatre with MusicalFare Theatre, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Margaret) with Shakespeare inDelaware Park, and DIE FLEDERMAUS (Adele), THE MAGIC FLUTE (Pamina) with Buffalo Opera Unlimited.
Emily holds a BS in Vocal Performance and a BS in Biology & Psychology from Canisius College.
SAMANTHA MARCHANT is playwright and director and the resident dramaturg for Alleyway Theatre in Buffalo, NY. She graduated from Spalding University’s MFA Program in Creative Writing with a concentrationi n Playwriting (Fall 2015).
Her work has been produced in Buffalo and San Diego and has had readings in Boulder, Buffalo, Chicago, Houston, Louisville,Rochester and Toronto. Her writing has been published in The Louisville Review, Sick Lit Magazine and Women Writing Letters Season 3 and 4.
Favorite directing credits include: Blasted by Sarah Kane and Orestes 2.0 by Charles Mee - both productions at Bread and Water Theatre (Rochester, NY). She longs for what's weird and a good laugh.
Alleyway Theatre is a member of the National New Play Network, Theatre Communications Group, Theatre District Association of Western New York, and Theatre Alliance of Buffalo.
1 Curtain Up Alley, Buffalo, NY 14202 | 716-852-2600
Alleyway Theatre, Inc. is a 501c3 organization. EIN: 22-2779994
