Ashley Wren Collins News

Come sit at the edge of the pool with your feet in the water (literally!) and enjoy synchronized swimming, a snarky fish, water aerobics, an explorer in an inflatable boat, and an examination of America's long, joyful, and complicated relationship with the swimming pool.

How do people who love each other keep their differences from tearing them apart? This is one of the many questions pondered in Shades, the new play written by Harvard psychologist Dr. Paula J. Caplan and having its New York premiere next month.

How do people who love each other keep their differences from tearing them apart? This is one of the many questions pondered in Shades, the new play written by Harvard psychologist Dr. Paula J. Caplan and having its New York premiere next month.

Back by popular demand after a run at the home of En Garde Arts producer Anne Hamburger, This Is Not A Theatre Company has extended the site-specific Versailles 2016 by Charles Mee and Jessie Bear. Performances are September 24 and 25, and October 21 and 29. Capacity is extremely limited at 20 persons per performance.

Chasing Taste, the comedy for food lovers everywhere, has just been released on iTunes and Verizon FIOS via Seed&Spark.

Medea Gets 21st Century Adaptation with a Twist in Struan  In Struan, Scottish playwright JD Stewart gives the classic Greek tragedy, Medea, a bold and battering 21st modernization…with men. Struan's husband, Jason, has left him for a new bride, Sophia. Rather than fall foul to heartbreak, Struan exacts a plan of revenge on his ex-husband, their shared two children, and the new bride in the form of murder. Struan's Nanny and Publicist play integral roles in a love triangle while also acting as a traditional Greek chorus.

?Back by popular demand after a run at the home of En Garde Arts producer Anne Hamburger, This Is Not A Theatre Company has extended the site-specific Versailles 2016 by Charles Mee and Jessie Bear. Performances are February 20, March 14, and several weekends in April. Capacity is extremely limited at 20 persons per performance.

Award-winning indie film CHASING TASTE will screen at the Anthology Film Archives at 32 Second Avenue in Manhattan as part of New Filmmakers New York tonight, September 16th, 2015 at 7:15pm.

Award-winning indie film CHASING TASTE will screen at the Anthology Film Archives at 32 Second Avenue in Manhattan as part of New Filmmakers New York on Wednesday, September 16th, 2015 at 7:15pm.

Chasing Taste is an official selection of the Sedona International Film Festival 2015. As part of the film's journey to Sedona, a character from the film, The Down Home Taster, (NYC's #1 food critic as featured in Chasing Taste), has a roster of restaurants slated for his taste buds to review.

Running with a “Best Comedy” win at the 2014 Manhattan Film Festival and the 2013 Burbank International Film Festival, as well as an “Outstanding Achievement in Editing” (Steven Tyler) Independent Vision Award win at VISIONFEST 14, indie film Chasing Taste is an official selection of the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema, deemed “Like a mini Sundance” by The Hollywood Reporter

LA MUSE VENALE (M. Stefan Strozier, Producer) to present the world premiere of a new musical by Robert L. Hecker (HONESTLY ABE) at the Actors Temple Theater (339 West 47th St). Limited engagement tonight, October 21st through November 16th.

LA MUSE VENALE (M. Stefan Strozier, Producer) to present the world premiere of a new musical by Robert L. Hecker (HONESTLY ABE) at the Actors Temple Theater (339 West 47th St). Limited engagement October 21st through November 16th.

Broadway veterans Nancy Opel, Chuck Cooper and Rita Gardner also appear in Chasing Taste, along with the Classical Theatre of Harlem's Producing Director Ty Jones.

Cubism comes to life at a dinner party that is also a theatre performance this June with This is Not a Theatre Company's A Serious Banquet, helmed by the dynamic female duo of director Erin Mee and playwright Jessie Bear.

Fresh from a 'Best Comedy' win at the 2013 Burbank International Film Festival, indie film Chasing Taste has sold out of tickets for its world premiere at VISIONFEST tonight, May 16th at 7:00p.m. at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City. To meet the demand of audience members, VISIONFEST is opening up more seats in a second screening room for a simulcast. Chasing Taste tells the story of a down-and-out novelist who is transformed overnight into NYC's next big food critic. On the cusp of fame and fortune, the writer turned food critic suddenly loses his sense of taste and smell in a freak accident, forcing him to rely on a team of super 'smellers' and tasters to help him fake his reviews. The screenplay is written by Lori Fischer and produced by Ashley Wren Collins, Maitely Weismann and Sean Gannet. The picture also marks the feature film directorial debut of Sean Gannet.

Fresh from a "Best Comedy" win at the 2013 Burbank International Film Festival, indie film Chasing Taste has sold out of tickets for its world premiere at VISIONFEST on Friday, May 16th at 7:00p.m. at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City. To meet the demand of audience members, VISIONFEST is opening up more seats in a second screening room for a simulcast. Chasing Taste tells the story of a down-and-out novelist who is transformed overnight into NYC's next big food critic. On the cusp of fame and fortune, the writer turned food critic suddenly loses his sense of taste and smell in a freak accident, forcing him to rely on a team of super "smellers" and tasters to help him fake his reviews. The screenplay is written by Lori Fischer and produced by Ashley Wren Collins, Maitely Weismann and Sean Gannet. The picture also marks the feature film directorial debut of Sean Gannet.

Playwright/Actor Lori Fischer's latest work, The Memory of Damage, will have a private industry reading today, June 7, 2013 at 3pm at The Goldberg Theatre at N.Y.U. (721 Broadway, 7th Floor). Alexander Gemignani (John Doyle's Sweeney Todd, Les Miserables), Jeffry Denman (White Christmas, John Doyle's Passion), and Michael Countryman (Wit) star. Gabriel Barre (Amazing Grace, Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party) directs.

Playwright/Actor Lori Fischer's latest work, The Memory of Damage, will have a private industry reading on Friday, June 7, 2013 at 3pm at The Goldberg Theatre at N.Y.U. (721 Broadway, 7th Floor). Alexander Gemignani (John Doyle's Sweeney Todd, Les Miserables), Jeffry Denman (White Christmas, John Doyle's Passion), and Michael Countryman (Wit) star. Gabriel Barre (Amazing Grace, Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party) directs.

The New York International Fringe Festival will feature the award winning musical Mother Eve's Secret Garden of Sensual Sisterhood, book by Uma Incrocci, Erica Jensen, and Kirk McGee, with music by Christian Pedersen, lyrics by Uma Incrocci, choreography by Ashley Wren Collins, musical direction by Jason Wynn and directed by Erica Jensen. Mother Eve will play at The Players Theatre (115 MacDougal Street) from August 15 - 26. Tickets are available at www.FringeNYC.org for $15 in advance, $18 at the door.