Tiger's Heart Players

06/13/2026

TIGER’S HEART PLAYERS
A GLOBAL THEATRE COMPANY
HOUSED IN THE BRONX, NYC
AND VALENCIA, SPAIN

ANNOUNCES

OUR 165th LAB SESSION

SUNDAY June 14th @ 2 PM-4:30 PM EASTERN TIME (EDT))
IT’S FREE—YOU DON’T NEED ANYTHING BUT CURIOSITY TO DROP BY!

WITH PLAYWRIGHTS AND ACTORS THIS WEEK

from

Spain, United Kingdom, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Tennessee, California,
Georgia, New Jersey, NYC

ENTER HERE:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84196922564?pwd=ZlJ3d0p2Y05WblZ0Q1MxTnYrSUE2Zz09

MEETING ID: 841 9692 2564
PASSCODE: 310747
SUNDAY June 14th @ 2pm ET

~THE PLAYS~

The Fruit Man (Scene 1) by Darcy H. Sternberg

That Day Is Coming, Every Day Is Coming
by Scott Cameron

Improper Nouns by Melanie Payne

~THE PLAYERS~


TBA, Aliona Garcia, Lori Federico,
John Malatesta, TBA

Peter Andrews, Wayne Paul Mattingly

Saanchi Amin, Joshua R. Read, Maggie Merritt, TBA

(Still looking: female in her 60s onwards,
1 female 30s, 1 male any age)

A REMINDER:

DOORS OPEN 15 MINUTES EARLIER.

Principally, we’re gathered as colleagues…

We’re not here to instruct but to offer our “feedback,” our responses, whatever form that takes, to what’s been presented

We’re not here to take a loftier, more powerful pose, that condescends:
We’re not professors, teaching
We’re not the “audience” other than oneself
We’re not advisors
We’re not even here to assume to improve a playwright’s work
The latter is up to the playwright. Our job, if we should call it that, is to offer response—

And, as my friend Nancy, who has run NYC Playwrights all these years practiced, the playwright may choose not to receive ANY Feedback at all.

THP’s mission, beyond offering a platform for a playwright to present their work in view of an audience, is to assist the playwright in finding/creating/writing the play they seek.

These principles may be disregarded at the playwrights’ discretion. And so, if your play is being presented, we now ask all playwrights before your play is read, to let us know which Feedback Method you prefer: The above (THP Method), No Method, or No Feedback.

Assuming Feedback, which follows each piece, the playwright may then ask questions of the audience.

If the playwright so chooses, they may place the script in the chat for the audience to upload. We will then shift the actors to the left of the gallery so audience members may view the script along with the actors’ performances.

WE ASK THAT ALL ACTORS ARRIVE READY TO PERFORM—THAT IS, WITH PERFORMANCE ENERGY-- IE: CAMERA OR STAGE AS OPPOSED TO LIVING ROOM COMFORT. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

PLEASE FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH YOUR SCRIPT SO YOU CAN DELIVER YOUR BEST FOR OUR PLAYWRIGHTS. (AS WELL, BE AWARE OF VOLUME, SINCE ZOOM OFFERS A NUMBER OF UNEXPECTED CHALLENGES).

FOR “FEEDBACK” LET US LEAN MORE TOWARDS DISCUSSION.



TIGER’S HEART PLAYERS OPEN CALL!
PLAYWRIGHTS! OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS
FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD
PRESENTLY WE ARE SEEKING SHORT WORKS—10 TO 25 PAGES
OR UP TO 25 PAGES FROM A LONGER WORK
TO BE READ IN INSTALLMENTS TO CONCLUSION. ~IN ENGLISH~
PLEASE SUBMIT FULL SCRIPT
~WE ARE ESPECIALLY SEEKING WORK FROM FEMALE IDENTIFYING, LGBTQ+, POC, PLAYWRIGHTS~
AS WELL AS FRESH, STRUCTURE-BENDING PROVOCATIVE WORK

PLEASE NOTE: TIGER’S HEART DOES NOT EXCLUSIVELY CAST YOUR PLAY; WE WILL BE HAPPY TO ASSIST

WE ARE ALSO SEEKING
ACTORS! OF ALL IDENTITIES!
MALE and FEMALE IDENTIFYING, POC, LGBTQ+
WORK AND PLAY WITH OTHERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD!
DROP IN—CHECK US OUT!
SUBMIT MATERIALS TO:
[email protected]


THE MISSION OF TIGER’S HEART PLAYERS IS EXTRAPOLATED FROM ITS NAME AND SO PRIMARILY, BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY, DEVOTES ITSELF TO OFFERING OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN, OUTLIERS, AND NON-GRADUATE DEGREE PLAYWRIGHTS & ACTORS. AND TO BRINGING TO THE COMMUNITY THE TRIALS, TRAVAILS, TRIUMPHS, AND MIRRORS TO THE WORLDS IN WHICH WE FIND OURSELVES. GLOBALLY.

~CLASSICAL THEATER WATCHWORDS~
*RESPECT YOUR AUDIENCE BY PLAYING AT THE TOP OF YOUR INTELLIGENCE.
*ASSUME THAT THEY ARE AT LEAST AS SMART AS YOU ARE, OR SMARTER.
*RESPECT EVERY CHARACTER YOU PLAY, EVEN THE DARKEST VILLAIN.
*PLAY ALL CHARACTERS FROM WITHIN AND NEVER BE SUPERIOR TO THEM.
*BRING EVERY BIT OF YOUR TALENT TO THE STAGE.
*TELL THE TRUTH.

TIGER’S HEART PLAYERS IS PROUD TO PROMOTE

The premiere of the commercial short film “On the Record with Roger Mondrane” for Superposition, featuring Artistic Director Wayne Paul Mattingly:
https://luma.com/inymnmxh?fbclid=PAZnRzaASXOFhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAafe6Pv8kozdu0wMbsgbA4SPsZEjzdnl_nnyijoeGk9xoaaiA29F7RBzhBiCqQ_aem_tY53j0MdZBinLR66NLWdOw&utm_id=97760_v0_s00_e0_tv6_a1dennhaz00aco
Thursday, June 18th @ 7PM ET in NYC

Also:
See! MISTI TINDIGLIA this weekend as:
NAN in TRANSIT INN by Kathryn Rossetter, for ACT, Taylor Hall at Christ Church, 18 Kensington Road, Bronxville, NY on June 12th, & 13th, @7:30pm and June 14th . Tickets $12 www.actshows.org

&

Reginald T. Jackson’s Crabs in a Barrel at
Midtown International Theatre Festival
July 8th, 11th and 12th

https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-off-broadway/article/CRABS-IN-A-BARREL-Named-Featured-Production-of-Midtown-International-Theatre-Festival-20260515


THANK YOU! HOPE TO SEE YOU & YOUR WORK SOON!

Wayne Paul Mattingly
Artistic Director

Aliona Garcia
Executive Director

Playwright Reginald T. Jackson's Crabs in a Barrel, a psychological drama about three individuals trapped in an existential hell, will anchor the Midtown International Theatre Festival's return at the American Theatre of Actors in NYC.

06/13/2026

The King & The Singers

Elvis was told his singers weren't welcome. His answer was one sentence.

44,000 people had paid to see him.
The contracts were signed. The venue was enormous. Everything was ready.
He was told four of his singers weren't welcome on that stage.

His answer took about one sentence.

February 1970. Houston Astrodome.

The Sweet Inspirations had been singing behind Elvis Presley since 1969. Cissy Houston, Myrna Smith, Estelle Brown, Sylvia Shemwell — four voices that had become the backbone of what Elvis sounded like live. The low harmonies under his ballads. The gospel swell that turned a concert into something close to a revival. They had traveled city to city with him for a year. The show didn't work without them.

That winter, at the Astrodome, venue officials raised concerns about the group performing. The Sweet Inspirations were Black women. The year was 1970. The implication didn't require elaboration.

Elvis had everything to lose by making it a problem.

Contracts. Sponsors. A venue the size of a small city. An audience of 44,000 people who had come for the music. The easiest path was to let it go, take the stage, keep the machine running.

He didn't take that path.

His answer came without deliberation and without negotiation: if my girls don't come, I don't come. That was the whole conversation. No carefully worded statement. No offer to revisit it after the show. He meant it.

The Sweet Inspirations would perform. Or 44,000 people would go home.

What happened next is the part that doesn't appear in the concert photographs.

The Astrodome shows featured a pre-show entrance where Elvis circled the arena in a jeep while the crowd built itself into something enormous. According to accounts from people close to the production, Elvis arranged for the Sweet Inspirations to have their own entrance. Their own jeep. Their own full circle of the arena floor.

Not a side entrance. Not a quiet es**rt in after the lights went down. Before the show began, before the first note was played, the audience inside the Houston Astrodome watched four women ride through that building like they belonged there.

Because they did.

Myrna Smith gave interviews about Elvis for years after his death in 1977. The thing she and others in the group kept returning to wasn't a gift or a grand gesture.

It was the ordinary experience of being respected. Of not having to fight, on most nights, for the basic acknowledgment that their work had value.

That night in Houston wasn't an ordinary night.

The officials calculated. The show was too large to cancel. Elvis was not moving.

The Sweet Inspirations took the stage.

Cissy Houston left the group later that year. Her daughter was born in 1963. Her daughter's name was Whitney.

The sound that Whitney Houston carried into the world — the control, the depth, the gospel foundation — had been shaped in part by the years her mother spent on the road, singing behind Elvis Presley, in venues that weren't always sure about welcoming her.

If you have ever heard Elvis Presley live — the full, layered sound of him at his peak — you have heard Cissy Houston's voice.

You just didn't know her name.

05/30/2026

05/29/2026

Please be advised that The Mark McQuown Memorial Literary Short Play Competition has reached its limit and will not be accepting further submissions.

Thanks to all who have submitted!

05/26/2026

TIGER’S HEART PLAYERS
A GLOBAL THEATRE COMPANY
HOUSED IN THE BRONX, NYC

ANNOUNCES
OUR TWENTIETH FULL DAY SESSION
SUNDAY APRIL 31st @ 2PM-5PM EASTERN TIME (EST)
IT’S FREE—YOU DON’T NEED ANYTHING BUT CURIOSITY TO DROP BY!

with
James Perry’s
play

FRAGMENTS OF WAR

With

Joseph Cohen, Aliona Garcia, Glenn Thomas, Kinah Britton, Goreti da Silva, Jona Zeschke

Stage directions by Wayne Paul Mattingly

Preceded by

TBA

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
ENTER HERE:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84196922564?pwd=ZlJ3d0p2Y05WblZ0Q1MxTnYrSUE2Zz09
MEETING ID: 841 9692 2564
PASSCODE: 310747
SUNDAY MAY 31st 2026 @ 2pm ET

Logline:
A traumatized Iraq War veteran seeking treatment for PTSD is forced to revisit the buried events that shaped him—including a deadly wartime decision he and his closest friend swore never to discuss.

A REMINDER:
WE ASK THAT ALL ACTORS ARRIVE READY TO PERFORM—THAT IS, WITH PERFORMANCE ENERGY-- IE: CAMERA OR STAGE AS OPPOSED TO LIVING ROOM COMFORT. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

PLEASE FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH YOUR SCRIPT SO YOU CAN DELIVER YOUR BEST FOR OUR PLAYWRIGHTS. (AS WELL, BE AWARE OF VOLUME, SINCE ZOOM OFFERS A NUMBER OF UNEXPECTED CHALLENGES).

“YOU DO A RISKY PLAY…; YOU HAVE A CRITIC WHO UNDERSTANDS AND LOVES THE PLAY FOR WHAT IT IS; AND THEN YOUR AUDIENCE COMES AND HATES IT FOR THE VERY THING IT IS. IF THIS IS WHAT NECESSARILY HAPPENS—AND I BELIEVE MOST THEATRE PRACTITIONERS IN OUR COUNTRY HAVE THIS EXPECTATION, BORN ALAS OF PAINFUL EXPERIENCE—THEN WHY BOTHER?
DOES THIS MEAN, THEN, THAT THE GREAT BOLD DREAM OF THE NONPROFIT MOVEMENT—OF REVITALIZING AN ART-FORM BY EXPANDING THE DEFINITION OF WHAT’S POSSIBLE—STANDS NOW REVEALED, SOME FORTY YEARS ON, AS A SNARE AND A DELUSION? IS IT IN FACT THE CASE THAT THEATRE IS SO LOCKED INTO A SET OF EXPECTATIONS—ABOUT WHAT A PLAY IS, ABOUT WHAT AUDIENCES WANT—THAT IT IS EFFECTIVELY PARALYZED?
~ JEFFREY M. JONES

FOR “FEEDBACK” LET US LEAN MORE TOWARDS DISCUSSION

WE CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU ON SUNDAY!

Wayne Paul Mattingly
Artistic Director

Aliona Garcia
Executive Director

05/24/2026

:)

05/23/2026

TIGER’S HEART PLAYERS
A GLOBAL THEATRE COMPANY
HOUSED IN THE BRONX, NYC
AND VALENCIA, SPAIN

ANNOUNCES

OUR 163RD LAB SESSION

SUNDAY May 24th @ 2 PM-4:30 PM EASTERN TIME (EDT))
IT’S FREE—YOU DON’T NEED ANYTHING BUT CURIOSITY TO DROP BY!

WITH PLAYWRIGHTS AND ACTORS THIS WEEK

from

Spain, United Kingdom, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Tennessee, California,
Georgia, New Jersey, NYC

ENTER HERE:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84196922564?pwd=ZlJ3d0p2Y05WblZ0Q1MxTnYrSUE2Zz09

MEETING ID: 841 9692 2564
PASSCODE: 310747
SUNDAY May 24th @ 2pm ET

~THE PLAYS~

When Claudia Sees God (excerpt)
by Emma Rey Dias

The Mathematician and the Philosopher
by Gordon Blitz

Save, Sell, or Scrap
by Arnold and Deborah Johnston

Bostonians on Vacation by Brian Marsh

Cry by Meredith Perry

~THE PLAYERS~


Aliona Garcia, Marlo K. Shaw, Susan Neuffer, Misti Tindiglia, Stephanie Schwartz,
Reginald T. Jackson

Peter Pasco, James Perry

TBA, Glenn Thomas

Paul Navarra, TBA, Ian Thal

Robert Chambers, TBD, James Perry, Aliona Garcia

A REMINDER:

DOORS OPEN 15 MINUTES EARLIER.

Principally, we’re gathered as colleagues…

We’re not here to instruct but to offer our “feedback,” our responses, whatever form that takes, to what’s been presented

We’re not here to take a loftier, more powerful pose, that condescends:
We’re not professors, teaching
We’re not the “audience” other than oneself
We’re not advisors
We’re not even here to assume to improve a playwright’s work
The latter is up to the playwright. Our job, if we should call it that, is to offer response—

And, as my friend Nancy, who has run NYC Playwrights all these years practiced, the playwright may choose not to receive ANY Feedback at all.

THP’s mission, beyond offering a platform for a playwright to present their work in view of an audience, is to assist the playwright in finding/creating/writing the play they seek.

These principles may be disregarded at the playwrights’ discretion. And so, if your play is being presented, we now ask all playwrights before your play is read, to let us know which Feedback Method you prefer: The above (THP Method), No Method, or No Feedback.

Assuming Feedback, which follows each piece, the playwright may then ask questions of the audience.

If the playwright so chooses, they may place the script in the chat for the audience to upload. We will then shift the actors to the left of the gallery so audience members may view the script along with the actors’ performances.

WE ASK THAT ALL ACTORS ARRIVE READY TO PERFORM—THAT IS, WITH PERFORMANCE ENERGY-- IE: CAMERA OR STAGE AS OPPOSED TO LIVING ROOM COMFORT. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

PLEASE FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH YOUR SCRIPT SO YOU CAN DELIVER YOUR BEST FOR OUR PLAYWRIGHTS. (AS WELL, BE AWARE OF VOLUME, SINCE ZOOM OFFERS A NUMBER OF UNEXPECTED CHALLENGES).

FOR “FEEDBACK” LET US LEAN MORE TOWARDS DISCUSSION.



TIGER’S HEART PLAYERS OPEN CALL!
PLAYWRIGHTS! OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS
FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD
PRESENTLY WE ARE SEEKING SHORT WORKS—10 TO 25 PAGES
OR UP TO 25 PAGES FROM A LONGER WORK
TO BE READ IN INSTALLMENTS TO CONCLUSION. ~IN ENGLISH~
PLEASE SUBMIT FULL SCRIPT
~WE ARE ESPECIALLY SEEKING WORK FROM FEMALE IDENTIFYING, LGBTQ+, POC, PLAYWRIGHTS~
AS WELL AS FRESH, STRUCTURE-BENDING PROVOCATIVE WORK

PLEASE NOTE: TIGER’S HEART DOES NOT EXCLUSIVELY CAST YOUR PLAY; WE WILL BE HAPPY TO ASSIST

WE ARE ALSO SEEKING
ACTORS! OF ALL IDENTITIES!
MALE and FEMALE IDENTIFYING, POC, LGBTQ+
WORK AND PLAY WITH OTHERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD!
DROP IN—CHECK US OUT!
SUBMIT MATERIALS TO:
[email protected]


THE MISSION OF TIGER’S HEART PLAYERS IS EXTRAPOLATED FROM ITS NAME AND SO PRIMARILY, BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY, DEVOTES ITSELF TO OFFERING OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN, OUTLIERS, AND NON-GRADUATE DEGREE PLAYWRIGHTS & ACTORS. AND TO BRINGING TO THE COMMUNITY THE TRIALS, TRAVAILS, TRIUMPHS, AND MIRRORS TO THE WORLDS IN WHICH WE FIND OURSELVES. GLOBALLY.

~CLASSICAL THEATER WATCHWORDS~
*RESPECT YOUR AUDIENCE BY PLAYING AT THE TOP OF YOUR INTELLIGENCE.
*ASSUME THAT THEY ARE AT LEAST AS SMART AS YOU ARE, OR SMARTER.
*RESPECT EVERY CHARACTER YOU PLAY, EVEN THE DARKEST VILLAIN.
*PLAY ALL CHARACTERS FROM WITHIN AND NEVER BE SUPERIOR TO THEM.
*BRING EVERY BIT OF YOUR TALENT TO THE STAGE.
*TELL THE TRUTH.

TIGER’S HEART PLAYERS IS PROUD TO PROMOTE

Tickets available at:
http://www.freshfruitfestival.com/


THANK YOU! HOPE TO SEE YOU & YOUR WORK SOON!

Wayne Paul Mattingly
Artistic Director

Aliona Garcia
Executive Director

Welcome to the Fresh Fruit Festival! An Ongoing Program by All Out Arts An ensemble piece from our 2019 Harvey Milk musical “Here To Recruit You” ALL OUT ARTS? What We ARE! WHO We Are! The ALL OUT ARTS Fresh Fruit Festival MAINSTAGE for 2026At our home base “The Wild Project” –...

05/22/2026

👏🤪