Crossways Theatre provides a lab for new work telling diverse stories
CROSSWAYS THEATRE THE PLACE WHERE ALL CULTURES THRIVE
Crossways Welcomes the World
CROSSWAYS FINDS THE COMMON HUMAN THREAD
Multiracial multiethnic voices yearning to be heard and seen
CROSSWAYS THEATRE aims to develop playwrights who reflect the diversity of our community. CROSSWAYS' programs and plays will be accessible to a wide range of audience members from teens to seniors. CROSSWAYS is committed to discovering playwrights who recount and reflect diverse experiences: whether comic, farcical or realistic, covering epic struggles, women’s liberation, on-the-job, veteran, trauma survival or facing the challenges of life.
CROSSWAYS THEATRE 2022
EVENTS 2023
Crossways Theatre expands in 2021, wins first grant from PUFFIN FOUNDATION, airs across state lines in radio productions, NY Times article features goals of company.
2023: Crossways sponsored A CHANGE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD at Ballet Hispanico, written by Roberto Schneiger, dealing with the gentrification impact and aftermath in a NYC neighborhood.
On March 26, Sunday, Crossways has its Sixth Annual Women's Festival at the community room of Strycker's Bay, featuring the works of the following playwrights: Katharine Dreves (DOGMOM), Carol Kahn (BESPOKE BABIES), Kathleen Potts (WINNING WOMEN: BASKETBALL CHAMPIONS) Bina Sharf (LIFE IS A ONE ACT PLAY), Jillie Simon (STAND UP), and Lionelle Hamanaka (REFUGE (E)).
In the Fall, the theme of Crossways' Fall Festival will be: SECRETS
2022: The Fifth Annual Women's Festival was in late March at Bernie Wohl Theater, with plays by five women playwrights, including Kathleen Potts.
On April 30, Elizabeth Jennings, a play about a 19th century black abolitionist was staged at Poets & Writers in Greenwich Village, receiving local coverage online with a packed house. On May 2]\1, Covid Crime Part II, depicting Noh theater techniques of masks, suspension of distance, with poetic dialogue, was seen in Flushing and covered in the Chinese Press and on WBAI's announcements, by Asian Americans for Equality, with grants from Humanities New York, the Asian American Bar Association's Women's Committee, and Indie Theater's AAPI travel grants. Actors taking part were: Beth Griffith, JR Carter, Dominique Xi, Timmy Ong, Directed by Konrad Aderer, with Miguel Subjetdo, and moderated by Chris Kwok, Esq.
The Fall Festival took place November 4, 2022 from 6-9 at Dramatists Guild's Foundation new Music Room with a packed audience, featuring Clarion Call by Nathaniel Blake Johnson, Act I of The Mountain and the Valley by Lionelle Hamanaka, The Judgement by Howard Pflanzer, and a poet's circle headed by Lyonel Laverde Hansen. Featured artists including Jalissa Fulton, Ronald Haynie, Katherine Alt Keener, Arthur Lundquist Alyson Linefsky, Beth Griffith, on the theme of FACING THE FUTURE.
In 2023 a new play by Roberto Schneiger will be presented at Ballet Hispanico about gentrification that is forcing working class people out of their neighborhoods, "A Change in the Neighborhood."
On October 24, 2021 Crossways presented Covid Crime, a Stop Anti Asian Hate play, at Richard Tucker Park on 66th Street and Broadway. Featuring John Bernos, Dominique Xi, Dylan Omori McCombs, Beth Griffith, JR Carter, and Howard Pflanzer, directed by Howard Pflanzer, playwright Lionelle Hamanaka, from Noon -4 p.m. Audience heard speeches by Shirley Ng, of Asian American Legal Defense Fund and Jackie Wang of Welcome to Chinatown.
November 14, 2021 Crossways Presented its Annual Fall Festival at the Bernie Wohl Theater at Goddard Riverside Community Center, 92st & Columbus Avenue, Sponsored by the Puffin Foundation, with the theme "Imagining the Future." Playwrights Nathaniel Blake Johnson, Lyonel Laverde Hansen, Kathleen Potts, Lionelle Hamanaka, Ann Mary Mullane, Howard Pflanzer, presented their vision of what the Future holds.
December 18, Covid Crime was co-produced by Rob Gee of 21 Pell Street and Vic Huey of COMA, grassroots organizations in Chinatown, with the cast John Bernos, Dominique Xi, Konrad Aderer, Beth Griffith, JR Carter. Comments from audience will engender revisions to Covid Crime, that was aired on WBAI in Nov., KPFT in Houston, and will be in Berkeley on Jan. 20 presented by APEX.
CROSSWAYS WOMEN'S FESTIVAL 2023
One Performance at 66 West 94 Street Community Room from 2-5
Plays from the POV of women playwrights
WOMEN’S FESTIVAL 2023
TIME: 2-5 pm
Katharine Dreves, Carol Kahn, Kathleen Potts, Bina Sharif, Jillie Simon, Lionelle Hamanaka
Email: Crosswaystheatre@gmail.com
Crossways Theatre is a 501©3
PLAYWRIGHTS: STELLA PULO, KAE FUJISAWA, KITTY CHEN, LIONELLE HAMANAKA
Respect for Nature, Sketches of Happiness, Rowing to America & Covid on a Bridge
Plays from the POV of women playwrights
WOMEN’S FESTIVAL 2021
TIME: 7 pm on YOUTUBE @ Crosswaystheatre.org
DATE: FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 2021
Donations accepted through Square:
https://checkout.square.site/merchant/RYEP4XXD0T69D/checkout/NNQ3W7XZUQHKRH3QHV5OHF24
Facebook: Crosswaystheatre.org
Email: Crosswaystheatre@gmail.com
Fiscal sponsor: Fractured Atlas, 501©3
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ZOE ANASTASSIOU
Starring in Covid on a Bridge
Zoe Anastassiou is a Greek-Aussie-British theatre/TV/film/voiceover actress. She was in Thomas Walters’ (Julie Walters’ brother) new play Help a Handicapped God Trot Across the Universe at the 13th Street Repertory Theater in NY, and is helping develop British Emma Gibson’s Water in my Hands as part of Miranda Theatre Company’s Liz Smith Reading Series at the Cherry Lane Theatre in NYC, and Jamie Ramburg’s Castles in the Air with Midtown Direct Rep in NJ. In Quarantine, Zoe shot an adaptation of Emily Bohannon’s Virtue with Cowboy Bear Ninja productions. Zoe can currently be heard as audio drama regular Maddie the 8 yr old CEO on How We Manage Stuff, in the Hear Now Festival online has a 365 Blog video series. Learn more at www.zoeanastassiou.com
J.R. CARTER
Co-Starring in Covid on a Bridge
JR Carter has played the leads or featured parts in 22 films, on network TV, a Netflix series, regional theater and was featured in several Crossways Theatre’s staged readings over the past two years. He trained in the Meisner method and has an MA from Marist College, NYS.
EMPOWERMENT OF UNHEARD VOICES
Be the first to discover new talent
Crossways is a community theater with a vision, to open the community’s awareness of the diversity of New York. Crossways will be an intersection where people of different backgrounds, religions and races meet.
READINGS
Where communities mingle
In 2021, Crossways presented the Women's Festival and plays by Kitty Chen, Kae Fujisawa, Lionelle Hamanaka, Ann Mary Mullane and Stella Pulo featuring actresses Stella Pulo, Kitty Chen, Kae Fujisawa, Zoe Anastassiou, Beth Griffith.
October 24, 2021 Crossways will have its first Park reading, at Richard Tucker Park on 66th Street and Broadway, of Covid Crime, a Stop Anti Asian Hate play with speakers from the Asian American Legal Defense Fund, Shirley Ng, and Welcome to Chinatown, Jackie Wang. Audiences members will be invited to sign a peace crane that will be hung in a traffic intersection in Chinatown.
In November 2021, Crossways will have a Festival "Imagining the Future" with six plays by Nathaniel Blake Johnson, Lionelle Hamanaka, Lyonel Laverde Hanson, Ann Mary Mullane, Howard Pflanzer, and Kathleen Potts, after winning a grant from the PUFFIN FOUNDATION.
2020 offerings included a Fall Festival with Covid 10,366 (introducing Director Dianna Martin) and The Spitter by Lionelle Hamanaka, monologue from Quarters, Halves and a Whole by Nathaniel Blake Johnson, Viral Effect by Ann Mary Mullane, and Amicus Fidelis by Howard Pflanzer. The Women's Festival (just before the pandemic struck) featured Sherry Bokser's Payback, Tita Aandares, John McFerren Story, Ann Mary Mullane For the Birds, and scenes from The New Place by Hamanaka as well as Filial Piety directed by Nicholas Leung.
In 2019, readings included Lyonel Laverde Hansen's Charles XII, the Carplay Series II, Howard Pflanzer's The Listener, The Biddy Contract by Ann Mary Mullane and scenes from Bina Sharif's new play, The Rise Up by Lionelle Hamanaka.
In 2018 Crossways staged readings included: Lyonel Laverde Hansen's Kill the Beast, Howard Pflanzer's GPS Play, Escape, Breakdown, Killer Car, Kathleen Potts' Miss Nowhere Diner and The Organizer by Lionelle Hamanaka.
FESTIVALS
Where communities celebrate
On March 25 and 26, 2022, Crossways Theatre will present its Fifth Annual Women's Festivals, featuring plays by women playwrights at Bernie Wohl Theater, part of Goddard Riverside Community Center. One play will be "Sheroes" a play with music depicting the struggles of nurses at a hospital outside NYC, through the pandemic as of fall, 2021. The composer is Dom Minasi, a famous songwriter who has composed the scores for Off Broadway shows and 500 children's songs, who has composed beautiful songs expressing the feelings and predicaments of front line nurses' attempts to care for patients. Four other plays will be selected from the Dramatists Guild newsletter opportunities listing.
In 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 Crossways had staged readings during Women's Month at the Bernie Wohl Theater in Goddard Riverside Community Center, Dramatists Guild loft on 41st Street and online during the pandemic. These Women's Festival included the following authors: Tita Aandares, John McFerren's Story, Sherry Bokser, Payback, Kitty Chen, Rowing to America, Kae Fujisawa, Sketches of Happiness, Ann Mary Mullane, The Biddy Contract, Kathleen Potts, Shakespeare's Ghost Writer was a . . . Woman?!, Stella Pulo, Respect for Nature, Christina Wilson's Breast Confessions, Kathy Wilson's Out of the Rabbit Hole, Lionelle Hamanaka, Scenes from The Rise Up, Covid on a Bridge.
FAMILIES, SENIORS, STUDENTS, VETERANS, TRAUMA VICTIMS
Find a welcome gathering place to talk
Due to Professor Kathleen Potts' and Jennifer Tuttle's work with immigrant students, an important montage of scenes enacting the plight of students from immigrant families was presented. In Declared Dead, written and directed by Howard Pflanzer, a man's identity has been stolen; Elizabeth Jennings, a play about an African American schoolteacher who desegregated the NYC streetcar system in 1854. Scenes from A New Place, a play about Military Sexual Trauma, was given a staged reading as well. A reading of What Your Name Is? by Nathaniel Johnson, an urban youth romantic comedy was received well. The Theme of Dislocations in society was the 2019 dramatic umbrella of Crossways.
REGULAR READINGS OF EXCITING DRAMAS
See performance dates section
Date:
Time:
Place:
SOME PLAYWRIGHTS FROM CROSSWAYS
Keep in touch with Crossways Theatre and let us know how you feel after coming to a staged reading or benefit.
WHO'S WHO AT CROSSWAYS THEATRE?
Creative Associates
HOWARD PFLANZER
Playwright
KATHLEEN POTTS
Playwright
LYONEL (L. R.) LAVERDE-HANSEN
Playwright
THIS IS YOUR TESTIMONIALS SECTION TITLE
Playwright
Director
TEAM
Who We Are
NATHANIEL BLAKE JOHNSON
Playwright
JENNIFER TUTTLE
Director
ACTORS
Find Crossways Theatre Irresistible; the Hot New Trend
BRENDAN ROTHMAN-HICKS
Actor
BETH GRIFFITH
Actress
KAREN LEE
Actress
GREAT ACTING TALENT
Crossways Members
GEOFFREY LEE
Actor/Musician
ELLIOTT CEASER
Actor
SELEAR DUKE
Actress
DISCOVER THE ACTING TALENT AT CROSSWAYS
Team Section Subtitle
ETERNANDA FUDGE
Actress
CHRISTINE PENNEY
Actress/writer
FROM THE EAST, WEST SOUTH AND NORTH
Our Actors will Surprise and Move you
WILLIAM KOZY
Actor
KIMBERLY FLORES
Actress
LUIS BRANDON TORRES
Actor
CROSSWAYS THEATRE
Challenging, exciting drama
Crossways Theatre looks foward to seeing you at our Fall benefit. We expect many surprising performances then and later in the season. The theme for the coming season is: Disruptions. Crossways now offers Subscriber Benefits. Please visit our Facebook page as well or email us at: Crossways Theatre.org
CHARLES XII, ACTS I & II
Reading at Crossways Theatre
ELIZABETH JENNINGS
Crossways Theatre reading