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Michael Louis Serafin-Wells

MICHAEL LOUIS SERAFIN-WELLS

  
Nationality:    USA
twitter     email:    n/a     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    Elaine Devlin Literary, Inc.  UK representative: Meg Davis, Ki Agency Ltd, Suite 315, Screenworks, 22 Highbury Grove, London N5 2ER. +07813 798 665. meg@ki-agency.co.uk

Michael Louis Serafin-Wells - His writing praised by The New York Times as "LaBute territory with fresh angles and sustained tension", Michael Louis Serafin-Wells is a winner of The London New Play Festival, Icicle Creek Theatre Festival resident playwright, two-time finalist for the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Heideman Award, inaugural recipient of a First Light commission from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and finalist for the Verity Bargate Award at London's Soho Theatre & Writers Centre. His plays have seen production, publication, workshops and readings in New York, London, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington, DC and elsewhere. The first anthology of Michael's work, "Collected Plays" - featuring DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, SEVEN PAGES UNSIGNED, REAL REAL GONE, THE "I" WORD: INTERNS, DETAIL and TWO FROM THE LINE - was released in print (Aug 2014) by indie publishers The Ginger Press. An e-book version is now also available via Amazon (for Kindle), Barnes & Noble (for Nook) and iTunes (for iBooks).Serafin-Wells made his professional debut in New York with Real Real Gone (published by Smith & Kraus), which The Star Ledger observed "heralds a new writer with an acute sense of language and a special ability to dramatize human behavior" and Variety pronounced as "the best of the bunch -far and away - with language that laces the natural poetics of the street with erudition".Other works include The "I" Word: Interns (Faber & Faber), about idealistic Clinton staffers, cited by Show Business as "ripe with political savvy" and The Village Voice for "handling the Beltway lingo with brains and Shavian brio!" as well as Detail, winner of The London New Play Festival and produced in a new version in New York in June 2006. Most recently, Michael's new full-length, MY BEFORE and AFTER, was given a two-week workshop co-produced by Seattle's ACT Theatre and the Icicle Creek Theatre Festival. In June 2011, his one-act, Two From The Line, saw production Off-Broadway at New York's Ensemble Studio Theatre as part of their Annual Marathon of One-Act Plays. Cited by The New York Times as "La Bute territory with fresh angles and sustained tension", it was also selected for publication by Smith & Kraus for their "Best Short Plays" anthology. In July 2010 Michael adapted this work for the screen overseeing casting, rehearsals and principal photography. And in February 2011 the film version of Two From The Line took Best Screenplay and Best Film honors at the 11th SC Independent Film Festival in San Francisco. His play, District of Columbia, set in a cooperative house on the eve of the 1988 US Presidential election, was workshopped in March 2007 at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and given a subsequent developmental reading off-West End at The Finborough in November 2007 - both under the direction of Wilson Milam. Another full-length, Seven Pages Unsigned, in development with San Francisco's Magic Theatre under Artistic Director, Chris Smith, received a workshop in December 2007 as one of three plays selected for "New Voices West", a programme dedicated to new works from emerging American playwrights. The play saw its European premiere in May 2010 with a workshop reading directed by Wilson Milam at London's Finborough Theatre as part of their "Vibrant" festival, curated by Finborough Artistic Director Neil McPherson in celebration of the theatre's 30th anniversary. Several other works are currently in development. Serafin-Wells is a member of New York's Ensemble Studio Theatre (Founding Artistic Director- the late great Curt Dempster), The Dramatists Guild of America and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

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below is a list of Michael Louis Serafin-Wells's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         "I" Word, The : Interns         All Shook Down         Brief History Of Technology, A         Detail         District of Columbia (new version)         Fourth Time Around         Friends         Gary X-Mas         Hermit Of Ninth Avenue         My Before And After         Prosaic Nation         Real Real Gone         Seven Pages Unsigned         Taken By Faeries         Two From the Line         Where the Ocean Meets the Eye         Zeroes
"I" Word, The : Interns

Idealistic Clinton White House interns face-off after one of their number is dismissed for leaking inside info to the press. Finally coming to grips with their disillusionment when challenged by their superior, herself a one-time intern for Senator Robert F. Kennedy, they find a renewed sense of hope in "the lifetime of work" required to further their shared beliefs and the understanding those beliefs can and must overcome the frailties of any one individual.

Notes:
Describes the original (one-act) version of the play. There is also a full-length version of the same title. Included in "Collected Plays". (The Ginger Press, Ltd c.2014) http://amzn.com/B00QJ2U968

1st Produced:
Ensemble Studio Theatre, NY     1999

Organisations:
Annual Marathon of One Act Plays

1st Published:
Faber & Faber (1999)
The Ginger Press (2014)    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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All Shook Down

Synopsis:
Ex-lovers wake up the drunken morning after in bed with each other (and some even more ill-advised take-out) to horror, coffee, confessions and passionate resolves, in exactly that order.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
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1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Light Drama/Serious Comedy Comedy

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Brief History Of Technology, A

Synopsis:
Last day of business in a typewriter repair shop.

Notes:
First Light Festival of plays concerning Science And Technology. Commissioned by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

1st Produced:
Off-Broadway, NY     1999

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Detail

Detail
Brother and sister meet in a bar the week before Christmas to exchange gifts and warily attempt coming to terms with the family from which they're both estranged amidst a sudden and secretive crisis.

Notes:
Winner 2001 London New Play Festival; Finalist 2001 Heideman Award, Actor's theatre of Louisville. New version- produced June 2006, 28th Annual EST Marathon of One-Act Plays, NYC. Included in "Collected Plays" (The Ginger Press, Ltd c.2014) http://amzn.com/B00QJ2U968

1st Produced:
Gielgud Theatre, London     2001

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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District of Columbia (new version)

District of Columbia (new version)
On the eve of the 1988 Presidential election, a group of activists, loafers, students and ex-punkrockers must ask: What are one's morals really worth when idealism becomes inconvenient? And where does one go when it's time to leave your youth behind? - "All this was supposed to change in the 60's. It's twenty years later. What happened? Where are those people? They were going to make politics - and everything else - relevant. their big word, remember? The mainstream ate 'em up. They became as deaf as the generation they were dyin' to replace. Just look at the music, for one thing. Nothin' that came after they took off their big Koss headphones around 1973 mattered anymore. they stopped listening. They don't hear us. They got too busy inventing Classic Rock Radio and a national advertising strategy for the Gap. These people are not our friends!"

Notes:
Other workshops and readings include Boston's Huntington Theatre Co. (dir: Darko Tresnjak), Washington's Arena Stage and production, in an earlier version, at New York's Ensemble Studio Theatre. Included in "Collected Plays". (The Ginger Press, Ltd c.2014) http://amzn.com/B00QJ2U968

1st Produced:
Workshop - Royal Academy Of Dramatic Arts, London - Directed By Wilson Milam     2007

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Fourth Time Around

Synopsis:
Valentines Day Night, 1994. the loft apartment of former punkrock guitarist and club owner, Tommy "Fitz" Fitzgerald and his neurotic best friend, Paulie, a Columbia University pedant. Whatever can go wrong, probably will.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Ensemble Studio Theatre, NY (Workshop Production)     1994

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Friends

Synopsis:
revised as Two From the Line

Notes:
1995/1996 New York, Off-Broadway, "Hell's Kitchen Sink", "Sex & Violence - West Bank/Ensemble Studio theatre. Finalist 1998 Heideman Award, Actor's theatre of Louisville

1st Produced:
Off-Broadway, NY     1995

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Gary X-Mas

Synopsis:
Home for the first Christmas since the death of her father, a woman's magazine editor has trouble facing the past with her kid sister as well as an uncertain future with the man she's brought home to meet what's left of her family

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The New Directors Lab, NY     1998

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hermit Of Ninth Avenue

Synopsis:
Man stages "intervention" of sorts forcing his way into the apartment of his friend a traumatised, young, New Yorker who has vowed never again to leave. Or, apparently, bathe.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
West Bank Theatre    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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My Before And After

Synopsis:
The discovery of the abandoned workshop of an elusive abstract artist brings together Wes, his sister Olivia and old friend, EJ, to catalog the artist's work and rebuild their own lives, revealing the beauty, melancholy and wry humor of relationships reborn in the wake of great loss.

Notes:
reading - Dramatists Guild, New York, 2004. In development

1st Produced:
Workshop Co-Production Act Seattle/Icicle Creek Theatre Festival     2012

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Prosaic Nation

Synopsis:
Appearing in yet another godawful "experimental" work, an actress and her husband consider her leaving the theatre and perhaps the marriage during a cigarette break on the street between entrances.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Real Real Gone

Real Real Gone
Two men brought together by the sudden and coincidental deaths of their fathers on the same day five years before, meet on its anniversary in an abandoned cemetery, ultimately confronting the past, each other and themselves.

Notes:
Included in "Collected Plays" (The Ginger Press, Ltd c.2014) http://amzn.com/B00QJ2U968

1st Produced:
Ensemble Studio Theatre, NY     1997

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Smith & Kraus, 1998
The Ginger Press (2014)    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Seven Pages Unsigned

Seven Pages Unsigned
December 21, evening of the Winter Solstice. "the Darkest Night of the Year". Still reeling from the suicide of one of their number, friends gather for an engagement party, escaping to the roof but unable to elude the difficult choices each of them now face.

Notes:
Workshop production premiere, New Voices West honoree, San Francisco's Magic theatre (Artistic Director, Chris Smith); European premiere, directed by Wilson Milam - London's Finborough theatre at invitation of Artistic Director, Neil McPherson for Vibrant Festival, in celebration of Finborough's 30th Anniversary. Included in "Collected Plays". (The Ginger Press, Ltd c.2014) http://amzn.com/B00QJ2U968

1st Produced:
Workshop Production Premiere, Magic Theatre, San Francisco, Ca     2007

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Taken By Faeries

Synopsis:
Estranged Irish-American family attempt to reconcile, decamping to the Old Country after the death of their patriarch.

Notes:
Finalist 2000 Verity Bargate Award, Soho theatre & Writers Centre, London

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama/Fantasy Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  1

Further Reference:
-

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Two From the Line

Two From the Line
Two men a get a little too personal watching a basketball game on television.

Notes:
Cited by the New York Times as "LaBute territory with fresh angles and sustained tension" it was also selected for publication by Smith & Kraus for their "Best Short Plays" anthology. In July 2010, Michael adapted this work for the screen overseeing casting, rehearsals and principal photography. And in February 2011 the film version of Two From the Line took Best Screenplay and Best Film honors at the 11th SC Independent Film Festival in San Francisco. Included in "Collected Plays". (The Ginger Press, Ltd c.2014) http://amzn.com/B00QJ2U968

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Ensemble Studio Theatre - 2011 Marathon of One-Act Plays

1st Published:
Smith & Kraus - "Best Short Plays - 2008"
The Ginger Press (2014)    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy one act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Where the Ocean Meets the Eye

Synopsis:
Labour Day Weekend and Rhys's young wife, Beth, has invited friends to the island for his 50th birthday. But once assembled the festivities give way to the unforeseen and what may well mark the end of far more than just the summer.

Notes:
1st reading - "Octoberfest" , Ensemble Studio theatre, NYC, October 2006

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Zeroes

Synopsis:
Five insomniacs walk into a bar and out of life as they know it

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy/Fantasy Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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