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“The Women of Athens”

                                               HISTORY of THE WOMEN OF ATHENS 

                                        Running Time: 2 hours (with intermission) 

                                                        Cast:   11       5 F / 6 M 

This musical grew out of a desire to have strong female characters drive a musical.  It grew into a commentary on how the world is being run as the war on terror began, and the country reverted to what Greece must have been like during the time of the show- the Peloponnesian war. 

"The Women of Athens" started as a playwriting project at the O'Neill Center where I was attending the National Theater Institute in the fall of 2000.  My co-writer, Lavel Blackwell, and I wrote a 45-minute version of the show, which was chosen to be the finale of playwriting week.   

It went over so well that we decided to work on it further and two years later had a full version which was mounted at Fordham College at Lincoln Center.  There, it acquired such a following that we added performances to an already sold out run.  Marian Seldes saw it and absolutely loved it. 

We did several re-writes and mounted a reading at Manhattan Theater Club- it was picked up from there by New York Theater Workshop which did another reading of the show with a cast of Broadway actors.  The reading went well, but I felt it was lacking it's original soul after a number of rewrites based on suggestions from the creative team.   

From there, I decided to produce it myself Off-Off Broadway.   I had interest from producers who wanted to take it in strange and random directions (putting it around a pool with business men and cutting out the war part) and after what I had seen at NYTW, I simply wanted to see what I had.  

It went up at TADA! Theater on 28th in May of '05 and the production was taken to the Theater Barn in New London, NY.  With no previous producing experience, I not only got my investment back, but I made a significant amount of money.  

Since then, I have done another staged reading at a theater at the Roy Arias Studios in NYC and am planning another informal one soon.  

Through all the productions and readings, I continued to compile audience feedback, using it to improve the script.  

At this point in its 'evolution', I believe it is a very marketable and topical musical comedy which would be perfect for an Off-Broadway run.  It requires virtually no set (one curtain and a bench are fine), has a mid-sized cast, it runs just under 2 hours.  Also, though a sex strike is the main theme, the script is comedic rather than vulgar, so the show can appeal to almost any age. 

Please contact me if you want a sample of the script or further information.