W-B Native Douglas Carter Beane's Hit Off-Broadway Play Lysistrata Jones May Transfer to Broadway

Three-time Tony nominee and Wilkes-Barre native Douglas Carter Beane may soon have another show on Broadway.

Beane, whose previous theater writing credits include Xanadu, The Little Dog Laughed, and Sister Act, recently wrote the book of the new musical Lysistrata Jones, a modern day take on the classic Aristophanes play. The update, currently playing Off-Broadway at the Gym at Judson in New York City, tells the story of Lysistrata Jones, a spunky transfer student at the University of Athens, whose basketball team hasn't won a game in 30 years. In the name of team spirit, Jones dares the squad's fed-up girlfriends to stop "giving it up" to their boyfriends until they win a game so their legendary losing streak can come to an end.

Lysistrata Jones has recently been extended Off-Broadway and is now set to close on June 24th (for tickets, click here). However, according to Playbill.com, the show is looking at a possible Broadway transfer and "is currently looking for a suitable Broadway theatre to house the production; possibilities include the Broadhurst or the Walter Kerr."

Let's keep our fingers crossed for one of our own.

For a previous blog entry on Douglas Carter Beane, click here.

Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game by Dan Barry (2011)

Bob Nicoteri, the eagle-eyed groovy former Scrantonian and writer of the Scrantonicity column on the Life in the Office website, Facebooked me this past week to tell me about a local reference he discovered in a new book he randomly found on the "Interesting New Reading" shelf of his local library in Seattle. The book is Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption and Baseball's Longest Game by Dan Barry.

Bob wrote me the following:

"Hey Bill! Here's a nice coincidence, ever since I discovered your "NEPA in entertainment" blog; I just finished reading a good non-fiction book called 'The Bottom of the 33rd.' It's about an utterly inconsequential minor league baseball game that turned out to be the longest professional game in history. The author weaves fascinating stories about the now mostly-forgotten players and their wives into the narrative. One of the riveting stories involves a player's wive, who was born and raised in...ta-DA!...Tunkhannock, PA!"

Bottom of the 33rd is now available to borrow from Albright Memorial Library; to place a hold, click here.

Thanks again to the ever-awesome Bob Nicoteri for this reference!

Fundraiser to Produce Jason Miller Documentary "Miller's Tale" on DVD & How You Can Help

This past March, PBS aired the excellent documentary Miller's Tale. Filmed over seven years, Miller's Tale told the story of Scranton's Jason Miller, Tony- and Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright of That Championship Season and Oscar nominee for The Exorcist. The film follows Miller's journey through Broadway and Hollywood, and his subsequent move back to Scranton, PA--where he continued to work in local theater and film.

Director Rebecca Marshall Ferris has been getting tons of request to release Miller's Tale on DVD, and our library is dying to add a copy or two to our Circulation Collection. However, this will not be possible without raising $5,000 to cover expenses to both produce and release the DVD.

Rebecca plans to include a whole slew of DVD extras to accompany the film--such as a director's commentary, several deleted scenes, her student film Birthday (which captures Jason Miller in one of his final performances on film), and more.

In order to reach their fundraising goal of $5,000, the filmmakers are offering a number of groovy goodies to anyone who makes a donation to make the DVD release a reality--ranging from $25 (which will actually get you a copy of Miller's Tale on DVD once it is released) to $250 (which will get you eight--YES, EIGHT--signed Miller's Tale DVDs and tickets to an upcoming screening of Miller's Tale in either Scranton or New Orleans.

For more information or to make a contribution, click here.

Let's get Miller's Tale released on DVD!!!!!!

www.indiegogo.com/Millers-Tale-DVDs

www.itvs.org/films/millers-tale

Miller's Tale - Trailer from Cottage Films on Vimeo.

Must-Read: "Scrantonicity" Column on "Life in The Office" Website by Scranton Native Bob Nicoteri

I recently received an email from all-around groovy guy and Scranton native Bob Nicoteri. Bob now lives in Seattle, but he stays close to Scranton by comprehensively documenting every local references featured on NBC's The Office for the past two years.

Titled Scrantonicity, Nicoteri's column has appeared for the show's last two seasons on the website Life in the Office (which was started in January 2006, a handful of episodes into the show's second season), documenting every single reference to the Electric City and surrounding areas. His column is really great and a lot of fun to read, and the details Bob catches with his eagle eyes are absolutely amazing.

Bob works for the Hilton Corporation as a bartender, and his name tag proudly displays his hometown of Scranton, PA; he told me via email, "What a conversation starter that has been these past few years! I've met guests in our hotel from all over the world that LIGHT UP when they see I'm from Scranton, PA, 'home to Dunder-Mifflin.' How cool is that?"

Bob told me he became aware of this blog when one of my colleagues, Michele L., left a message on one of his Scrantonicitiy articles about the Lackawanna County Library System library card appearing in one of the episodes; she, in turn, sent him a link to this blog.

Bob also devoted a column of Scrantonicity to some of his memories of the Albright Memorial Library, which is quite terrific.

When Season 8 of The Office premieres this Fall, I have a new favorite "first-website-to-check-on-Friday" site.

www.lifeintheoffice.com/category/scrantonicity/