The Playwrights Database
ASHLIN HALFNIGHT
(1975 - )Nationality: Canadian
email: n/a Website: n/a
Literary Agent: Diamond Management
Ashlin Halfnight was born in London and raised in Toronto. He has a BA in English and American literature from Harvard University and an MFA in playwriting from Columbia University. His play, Bird Bones, received staged readings at New York Theatre Workshop and Cherry Lane Theatre. In 2006-07, the Stars above Balaton was in development at the Lark Play Development Center; a commission, Dis, was in rehearsal at St. Andrews College; and Mud Blossom, was being workshopped at the emergency Theater Project in preparation for its premiere at Soho Rep's Walkerspace. Halfnight is the recipient of a Ford Grant (1997), a Ludwig Vogelstein artist Grant (2003), a Howard Stein Playwriting Fellowship (2005, Columbia University), and a Fulbright Fellowship (2005-06, National Theatre of Hungary). He spent time on two Canadian National Hockey teams and two U.S. World Junior National teams. He was the captain of the Harvard Varsity Hockey team, and played two seasons of professional hockey after being drafted by the Hartford Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes) of the NHL in 1994. He works mostly in education, and lives in New York City. His play, Diving Normal, is published in Plays and Playwrights 2007.
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below is a list of Ashlin Halfnight's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
+30NYC Arms, Legs, And Hand Sanitizer Artifacts Of Consequence Baby Face Balaton Bird Bones Dis Diving Normal Fat Kid In A Freezer Garotting God And Hockey God's Waiting Room Good Pictures Hard Wall At High Speed, A Hephaestus Project, The Hush, Hush Hidden Thing, A Lathem Prince Laws Of Motion Mud Blossom Nevermind the Baby Playtherapistplay Short, Sad Biography Of the Magician's Assistant, A Stars Above Balaton, The Synesthesia 2010 Waking the Dead Way To Begin, The+30NYC
Synopsis:
a sustainable project, this evening of short plays examines how our actions today will directly affect our lives in 30 years. as per the mission of Red Fern theatre Company, that each production is paired with a philanthropy whose work relates to the social themes of the play, +30NYC is paired with Material For the Arts.
- nytheatre.com
- nytheatre.com
Notes:
written by Bekah Brunstetter, Victor Ismael Cazares, Christine evans, Michael John Garces, Ashlin Halfnight, Mac Rodgers, Tommy Smith
1st Produced:
Center Stage, NY 06 Mar 2010
Organisations:
Red Fern Theatre Company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Short Play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageArms, Legs, And Hand Sanitizer
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Samuel French Festival 2004
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageArtifacts Of Consequence
Synopsis:
In a crumbling, burnt-out America, an underwater bunker stores the relics of our everyday lives: Barbie, Moby Dick, Twinkies, and bond traders are all preserved in a labyrinthine warehouse, shelved in boxes, awaiting the stabilization of the continent above. One woman is charged with safeguarding our cultural artifacts for the rebuilding of a great society. . .but the walls are leaking, resources are running out, and her wide-eyed assistant is hell-bent on losing her virginity to the first man she can find. as the facility nears collapse, it's clear that vast quantities of our legacy will be lost. artifacts of Consequence asks if that's such a terrible thing.
- press release
- press release
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Artifacts Of Consequence, NY 2009
Organisations:
Performance Lab 115 and electric Pear Productions
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageBaby Face
Synopsis:
Dad drives himself through the Wal-Mart display window on a Vespa. . . and post-funeral, his wife and kids are left debt-ridden and mystified. as mom ramps up her midlife money-making scheme with a Russian cosmetologist of questionable reputation, her daughter faces the angry mobs at the abortion clinic, and her son gets embroiled in a wild search for Dad's missing corpse. Baby Face charts one Florida family's bizarre and hilarious journey through grief and guilt-into the heart of American consumerism and a sickening obsession with wrinkle-free skin
press release
press release
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Walkerspace, NY 2007
Organisations:
electric Pear Productions
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageBalaton
Synopsis:
Set in a tenuous afterlife, Balaton is a multi-generational Drama that charts a fractured Hungarian family's fight for unity and security in a world after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Frightened and disoriented, Sabrina stumbles her way through a cold and indiscernible space, where time lurches forward, rushes back. . .and disarmingly stands still. In this liminal world, where memories replace and highlight reality, Sabrina and her divided Hungarian kin must confront the post-communist, Americanized world that has drastically altered their lives. Desperate for unity, the family struggles violently against the infiltration of fast food, designer clothing, infidelity, assimilation and uncompromising youth. and all the while, the stars shine above Balaton.
- nytheatre.com
- nytheatre.com
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
The Theatre At 30th Street, NY 17 Oct 2009
Organisations:
electric Pear Productions
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageBird Bones
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Staged Reading At New York Theatre Workshop 2006
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDis
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
In Rehearsal At St. Andrews Colleg -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageDiving Normal
Three twenty-somethings combat histories of abandonment, misfortune, and sexual deviation as they strive for the deceptive stability of traditional relationships
Notes:
Venue 4: Access theater
1st Produced:
Organisations:
electric Pear Productions
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
Comedy Drama 90 min Comedy
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageFat Kid In A Freezer
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
American Theatre Of Actors, 314 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019 2003
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageGarotting
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Kraine theater
85 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003 2004
85 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003 2004
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageGod And Hockey
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Focus Theatre Festival, Toronto 2005
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageGod's Waiting Room
Synopsis:
Inspired by Bulgakov's MASTER AND MARGARITA, the play snaps four perplexed people into purgatory for the ride of their afterlife. There has been a plane crash and the passengers (i.e. the audience) arrive in limbo and must watch four people relive their final moments over and over.
Notes:
Winner of Best Play Award
1st Produced:
Organisations:
1st Published:
http://www.indietheaternow.com/Play/gods-waiting-room -
Music:
-
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Genre:
50 min One act
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageGood Pictures
Synopsis:
Charts the course of one bloody night in an upstate town jail, where an ailing immigrant and a young hustler construct an uneasy alliance and a desperate escape plan.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
Monarch Theater
1st Published:
http://www.indietheaternow.com/Play/good-pictures -
Music:
-
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Genre:
1h 35m, Drama, Comedy
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageHard Wall At High Speed, A
Synopsis:
Donnie Cole is a Floridian with the ideal existence: he's a charter pilot who loves to fly planes - he has the perfect family, owns his home, and basks in the respect of his community. But when he misjudges a situation at work, an unexpected burst of media attention turns an uneasy community against him. a play about one man's mistake, and how it changed the nation, a Hard Wall at High Speed asks how we heal, how we forgive, and how far we've come
- nytheatre.com
- nytheatre.com
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
The Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, 30-44 Crescent St, Astoria, NY 05 Nov 2011
Organisations:
astoria Performing Arts Center
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageHephaestus Project, The
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
The Kennedy Center hosts its 11th annual Page-to-Stage festival, featuring more than 40 D.C.-area theater companies. This three-day event offers free readings and open rehearsals of plays and musicals being developed by local, regional, and national playwrights, librettists, and composers
1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageHush, Hush Hidden Thing, A
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Merlin Theatre, Budapest, Hungary 2006
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageLathem Prince
Synopsis:
Lathem Prince is a hilarious, sprawling, and sexualized romp through the subconscious of a mild-mannered Canadian. When he returns home from an archeological dig to find his Father dead, his mother bedding a deranged Frenchman from Detroit, and his best friend seeing ghosts, Lathem's world is thrown into a Hamletty spiral of indecision. He becomes obsessed with his dad's untimely end; his girlfriend goes bat-shit insane. . . he kisses his mother a lot, and then pretty much everybody dies.
- nytheatre.com
- nytheatre.com
Notes:
Playwright Ashlin Halfnight And director Kristjan Thor present two world premieres, Lathem Prince And Laws of Motion, And one Award-winning remount, God's Waiting Room, playing in repertory under the title: theater in the Dark, With Lights. A company of Actors gathered from the TeaM, Pumpkin Pie Show, the Amoralists, PL115, electric Pear And more will offer 34 performances in the span of 18 days. All three plays Are staged Around A Viking-style long table And will operate under the conceit that stellar Acting And innovative storytelling Are essential to great theater; the plays All hover Around 75 minutes, And provide spirited And impactful theater without relying on heavily technical or complicated design
1st Produced:
9th Street Theater, NY 26 Jan 2011
Organisations:
Nobody
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
75 min Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageLaws Of Motion
Synopsis:
Laws of Motion is set in the uncertain aftermath of the financial collapse in 2008. Young lovers, families, and financial power brokers fight to keep their lives afloat in four intertwined New York stories. Laws of Motion asks if our modern appetites carry too high a price, and if accountability is still an American value.
- nytheatre.com
- nytheatre.com
Notes:
Playwright Ashlin Halfnight And director Kristjan Thor present two world premieres, Lathem Prince And Laws of Motion, And one Award-winning remount, God's Waiting Room, playing in repertory under the title: theater in the Dark, With Lights. A company of Actors gathered from the TeaM, Pumpkin Pie Show, the Amoralists, PL115, electric Pear And more will offer 34 performances in the span of 18 days. All three plays Are staged Around A Viking-style long table And will operate under the conceit that stellar Acting And innovative storytelling Are essential to great theater; the plays All hover Around 75 minutes, And provide spirited And impactful theater without relying on heavily technical or complicated design
1st Produced:
9th Street Theater, NY 26 Jan 2011
Organisations:
Nobody
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
75 min Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageMud Blossom
Synopsis:
In Mud Blossom madness, cruelty, and betrayal linger in the muddy fields surrounding three generations of women living in a rundown farmhouse in the rural South. they struggle to pay the bills, live right, and hold their family together in a world that is fast becoming incomprehensible and dangerous, particularly for Camille, the youngest. In an effort to get clear of the mistakes her mother and grandmother have made, Camille sets off for the Canadian border, thousands of miles north, with a knife, a black eye, and secret. Mud Blossom tracks Camille's passage from the blindness of childhood to the startling reality of her family, her house, and the world around her.
nytheatre.com
nytheatre.com
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Walkerspace, NY 2007
Organisations:
emergency Theater Project
1st Published:
in NYTe's Plays and Playwrights 2007, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageNevermind the Baby
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Hungarian National Theatre, Budapest 2006
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PagePlaytherapistplay
Synopsis:
In the church basement - three women, a sex offender, milkshakes and a bad first novel
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Montreal And Toronto Fringe Festivals 2001
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageShort, Sad Biography Of the Magician's Assistant, A
Synopsis:
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Notes:
Part of the Spring Fling: 8 Brand New Plays. F*It Club presents A program of eight new short plays: French Toast And Parsley by Brooke Berman, Drunk by Bekah Brunstetter, A Short, Sad Biography of the Magician's Assistant by Ashlin Halfnight, Our Trip to Ohio by Greg Keller, Minotaur Scavenger Huntby Caroline V. McGraw, Come Here by Isaac Oliver, We Have the Music by Mark Schultz, And If by Anna Ziegler.
1st Produced:
Irt, 154 Christopher Street #3B 21 Apr 2011
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
short play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageStars Above Balaton, The
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
In Development At The Lark Play Development Center -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSynesthesia 2010
Synopsis:
Now in its fourth season, Synesthesia is a live, annual event, which unites a select and diverse range of Arts and artists for eight performances only. In October 2009, a composer/lyricist team was asked to select a fortune cookie. they created a musical theatre piece based on the fortune. Two weeks later, they presented their work to another artist. This artist then had two weeks to create a piece based on the work shown to him (never having seen the fortune), and then presented his art to the next artist in the series. She then created a piece. . .and then another artist, and then another artist. . .eventually, eleven in all. the result is this year's show, featuring: ari Hest (Singer/Songwriter extraordinaire; Jon Morris's the Windmill Factory (Fuerzabruta's Running Man)featuring William Nayan and Natalie Thomas; Brent Arnold (electric Looping Cellist); Mariana elder and andrew elsesser (Musical theatre's Next Hot Team); Thomas Doyle (Micro Sculpture artist); Meghan Frederick (Superphysical Dancer/Choreographer), with dancer elisa Davis; Brian J. Bustos (Broadway Costume Designer); Stone Cold Fox (UCB's House Sketch Comedy Team); Tariq Cherkaoui (animator and Motion Graphic artist); the Mayhem Poets (Spoken Word/Slam Poet Dream Team); Joel Bravo (Indie Rock Interstitial Music);and adam Ramsey (Mixologist).
- nytheatre.com
- nytheatre.com
Notes:
conceived by Ashlin Halfnight And Melanie Sylvan
1st Produced:
Organisations:
electric Pear Productions
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Piece
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageWaking the Dead
Synopsis:
after the Chernobyl accident. Samcha works alone at the town of Pripyat collecting the dead bodies and reporting each day the number collected to Fex, a government official who urges him to increase his productivity. Gregor arrives from St Petersburg after the death of his children and begs for a job counting the dead. Gregor is accompanied by his dead wife, Iona, who taunts him to find out what happened to her - was she kidnapped or is she still alive but insane?
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Kraine Theater New York 2004
Organisations:
Bohican Theatre Company & Kiva Company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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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
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageWay To Begin, The
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Alternate Theatre Company 2004
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
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of Page