FALL 4 NY 2005: FILM -- GOTHAM SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

The 2005 Gotham City Short Film Festival will begin with a Festival Launch Party on September 15, featuring The Meters and Wyclef Jean, and befitting the Red Cross' Katrina Fund.

The festival itself runs from September 21 - 25 and includes many short films, several after- screening parties, How-To-Pitch and How-To-Get-Funding classes and a Pitch Fest.

Quite a few of the special events require the VIP Pass, which doesn't mean that you have to pass a velvet-rope VIP test, but simply that you need to buy this VIP Pass which automatically makes you a VIP.

The complete schedule for the festival includes several other Katrina benefit events.

FALL 4 NY 2005: THEATER CLASSES -- HB STUDIO

One of the best places in the city to learn acting and theater (and also one of the least expensive) is the HB Studio. It was founded by Herbert Berghof about 50 years ago, and has trained legions of distinguished actors. It has had, and does have, great teachers (many of them very well known actors, screen writers, comedians, and directors).

Among the favorite teachers I have studied with there are Sam Waterston, and Jerry Stiller (whose wife, Anne Meara, would substitute for him when he couldn't make it to class). Also, just recently, Jill Clayburgh, twice nominated for an Oscar, and soon to be seen in A NAKED GIRL ON THE APPIAN WAY, taught a great class there in Acting For Film.

They have both beginning and advanced students, both full time and "a la carte" students taking a single class, both foreign and American students, both day and night classes, both teen and adult classes, both scene study and technique classes.

They also have movement, writing, and directing classes.

Many classes do not have any requirement for admission, and are perfect for beginning and intermediate students. Other classes have either an interview or audition requirement and include many very fine, advanced actors. I have worked with actors while they were on Broadway, in major movies, and others developing important careers.

HB is just starting their Fall season, which is the best time to start a class. (Though it is often possible to join a class after it has begun if it is not full.)

FALL 4 NY 2005: THEATER -- TSI / PLAYTIME

TSI/PlayTime is a great venue for new theater works. They encourage new playwrights, directors and actors. It's perfect if you want to see new theater talent and new works or if you want to write, develop, act in and present new plays yourself.

To become involved in TSI/PlayTime as an actor, director, or playwright, just see their website for instructions and then send them an e-mail.

Similarly, the site will direct you to their current schedule of performances.

They are a very busy theater. They usually have three or four short plays in a show, and they often have shows (in some cases two or even three the same day) on Wed, Fri, Sat and Sun.

They will put on plays that are related to a specific theme, and plays unrelated to any theme. Here are some of the special festivals for the Fall:

SEP 16 - OCT 2, 2005 -- SEPTEMBER STORM AND STRESS
See five Eugene O'Neill "sea plays" up front:
Beyond the Horizon; Bound East for Cardiff; Ile; In the Zone; The Long Voyage Home

OCT 5 - NOV 30, 2005 -- NINTH ANNUAL BI-COASTAL PLAYWRIGHT'S FEST
Not the Least of the East meets the Crest of the West.
55 new, original playwrights from New York and California reveal a range of exposures.

OCT 14 - OCT 30, 2005 -- HEADHUNTERS AND HEARTBREAKERS
G.B. Shaw's socializing mania presents scenes and adaptations from:
Passion, Poison and Petrification; Mrs. Warren's Profession; Arms and the Man; Candida; Village Wooing

NOV 2 - NOV 20, 2005 -- SHAKESPEARE: LOVE AMONG FLAWED NATURES
Ambivalent love and violence in selections from five of his plays:
Taming of the Shrew; Richard III; Macbeth; Hamlet; Othello