playwright, director & instigator
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What's New

May 2008: Sanctuary: Playwrights Theatre produces Sweet Cantatas at New England Youth Theatre, Brattleboro VT, including 5 of Bob's plays.

January 2007: Bob's plays being read at the Brooks Memorial Library, Brattleboro VT.

January 2006: Sanctuary: Playwrights Theatre announces it's acquired the lease on a 100 seat fully-equipped theatre in Brattleboro VT.

August 2005: Bob's directing Adam Klasfeld's Good Fences Make Good Neighbors in the NYC Fringe Fest. August 18-28. For tickets, see http://www.fringenyc.org/ 

March 2005: Film Star's show Coffee Shop features two of Bob's short plays
Bob's plays Fun City and Men's are featured in Film Star Productions' new night of original one-acts. Click here for more information.

Jan-May 2005: Cafe Antarsia
Sanctuary: Playwrights Theatre presents Ruth Margraff and Nikos Brisco's new operetta, Cafe Antarsia. For more information about show times and tickets, see Sanctuary's website.

September 2004: 6 Nights
Sanctuary: Playwrights Theatre's inaugural production. Six nights of exciting theatre - six new short plays commissioned by Sanctuary: from six of the most amazing playwrights working in theatre today - Kia Corthron, Sheila Callaghan, Lisa D'Amour, Jason Grote, Sung Rno and Caridad Svich - "staged" in six different locations all over NYC. Want to stay in the loop? Join Sanctuary:'s mailing list!

May 2004 workshop of The New Life
NYC's Praxis Theatre Project presents six workshop performances of Bob's newest, The New Life. Set 125 years hence, it's a wild ride of a play where immortality, Italian poetry, terror, and the emergent intelligence of networks interfold DNA-like into the noir classic D.O.A. The New Life was developed over a course of meetings arranged by Praxis directly between Bob and the actors who are performing it. Workshops were presented script-in-hand and the play was still very mutable from night-to-night. At the Actors Institute, 159 West 25th Street, NYC 

March 2004
Bob's new play The New Life, developed with Praxis Theatre Project as their Genesis 2004 new play, had an open rehearsal Friday, March 12 at Champion Studios, 257 West 39th St., NYC, 7:30 PM. A further open reading and two-week workshop production are in the works. If you want to attend, you must send an email to me (jude@pipeline.com) as seating is very limited. Get on the mailing list and we'll email the info to you.

October 2003
Bob's just been named a finalist for the 2003 Heideman Award from Actor's Theatre of Louisville for his short play Scene Analysis for Fun & Profit.

September 2003
Bob's started a blog covering the ongoing process for his new play commission at Praxis Theatre Project. Yeah, I love to read self-indulgent writer play development notes (click here to read the blog).

July 2003
Bob has been selected as the Genesis 2003-2004 Guest Playwright in Residence by Praxis Theatre Project, NYC. For more information see the Praxis website.

April 2003

See a photo sheet of recent productions of Bob's plays.

Bob's pacifist poem She Said was published on About.com's website.

October 2002
A whole passel of new plays is now posted on the Play Synopsis page — have a look!

September 2002
Twinges gets a rave review from BackStage and good notices from Off-Off-Broadway Review (OOBR)
[Read the rave review in BackStage]
[Read the review in OOBR]

August 2002
NY Play Development workshop:
Twinges from the Fringe  
written and directed by Bob Jude Ferrante
at Shooting Star Theatre, 2 blocks north of Manhattan's South Street Seaport.
Featuring Gary Trahan, Larry Rothman, and Colleen DeSalvo. 

NY Play Development workshop
Sensation
by Philip Hopkins 
August 15th-18th 
at Trilogy Theatre (part of Feed the Herd's Stampede of New Works).

June 2002
Bob directs a reading of Sensation by Philip Hopkins at the Dramatists Guild. 

Keep an eye out Department: Sensation has been scheduled for a workshop production at Feed the Herd's Stampede of New Works 2002, produced by NY Play Development and Auspices Productions.

May 2002
Fun City (10 minute comedy) Directed by Deborah Mathieu-Byers
Part of CityScapes, produced by Streetlight Productions, Inc.
at PC II, 616 9th Ave (at 44th St) NYC
May 15-18 2002

Scene Analysis for Fun & Profit (10 minute comedy)
Sauk Theatre
Jonesville, MI
May 16-18 2002

April 2002
Nixon (10 minute comedy) Directed by Maite Quin
The Shock Troupe's The Emergency Refund
Trilogy Theatre 341 W. 44th, St NYC (between 8th & 9th Aves)
April 4-6 2002

Tragedy, A Comedy (One-act) Directed by Bob Jude Ferrante
Emergence Theatre Company's 3SUM
7:30 Thu Fri & Sat; 6:30 Mon & Tue
at ShowWorld 303 W. 42nd St (near 8th Ave) NYC
Tickets $14
April 25-30 2002

January 2002
Bob’s short play Scene Analysis for Fun & Profit is performed by Heartlande Theatre Company, Ann Arbor MI as part of their play Marathon Play by Play 2002.

November 2002: Where-istan?
Bob's short plays The Audience and The Ittle Bittle Spat are performed — apparently to packed houses — in Kazakhstan. No, the plays are not translated to Kazakh (whose parent language is Turkish) but are performed in their original English.

October 2001
Bob lives in NYC. His article Ozymandias about September 11 and the darkness that began then is published on WirelessReport.net — readers say “unbelievable,  riveting, terrifying...“

August 2001
Bob's 10-minute play Men's is featured in NYC’s Luminous Group’s evening Women Women Women.

April 2001
Three more of Bob’s pieces appear in the anthologies The Best Men’s Stage Monologues of 1999 and The Best Stage Scenes of 1999 published by Smith & Kraus.

Sept-Oct 2000
Hear about 4Play 2000! [click to see the press stuff]
4Play 2000 is NY Play Development’s very first Festival of New American Plays at the Philip Bosakowski Theatre, 354 West 45th Street,  NYC; running September 21 - October 8, 2000. 4Play showcased premieres of three new full-length plays & one short—including subCity, Bob’s time-jumping serio-comedy about architecture, sexuality and right livelihood.

July 2000:
Bob’s play subCity is read by Abingdon Theatre Company (424 W. 42nd Street, NYC) on Monday July 10th at 7PM as part of their ongoing reading series.

Bob's 10-minute play Men's featured in Nyack Arts Center’s Midsummer Nights Fest.

December 1999:
subCity rocks in front of a crowd again in NYC on December 16th, 1999 at 7PM as part of  Fat Chance Productions Ground Floor Reading Series. 

November 1999: At BackStage ActorFest Bob speaks as a panelist on “Producing Your Own Showcase.”

October 1999:
NYC, October 27, 1999, 7PM: Bob’s play subCity receives a sponsor’s reading at the Dramatists Guild. Four miles away, the Yankees win the World Series—and subCity plays to a packed house, too.

June-Dec 1999:
NY Play Development continues its reading series

May 1999: BackStage invites Bob to speak on a panel to give advice on “Producing Your Own Showcase”on May 5.
&
The Spring/Summer issue of  NY Play Development’s AllianceNEWS debuts.

April 1999:
Just found out department: The Dallas Observer’s Jimmy Fowler awards Hemlock a 1997 year-end kudo:

“... Bob Jude Ferrante’s Hemlock was a rudely funny, Kafkaesque horror story about one man targeted by a god who appears to be a cold, cruelly rational Western abstraction. Ancient Greece and contemporary Brooklyn may never seem so close again.”

September-November 1998: NY Play Development had its Fall Reading Series (#3); six Sunday afternoons filled with new plays — Sept 27-Nov 15, 1998 at 78th Street Theatre lab.

May 1998: Bob’s story Dog Beach is published in the latest issue of Noir Mechanics (Ignorant aRmies).

April 1998: NY Play Development’s Spring Sundays Reading series runs weekly from April 19th-May 31 at 78th Street Theatre Lab in NYC—a new play each week.

See a list of plays developed at NY Play Development that have been produced to date.

March 1998: Excerpts from subCity and the Buffoon Piece are published in Smith & Krause’s Best Stage Scenes of 1997.

February 1998: NY Play Development’s Spring Reading series is in the works... including a reading of bob’s newest full-length play, subCity.

December 1997: Hemlock gets a reading in NYC at 78th Street Theatre Lab.

September 1997: Look for excerpts from Hemlock and Twinges from the Fringe in these books published by Smith & Kraus:
—The Best Men’s Stage Monologues of 1996
—The Best Women’s Stage Monologues of 1996
—The Best Stage Scenes of 1996
(click the link to see and even buy them from amazon.com)

July 1997: Hemlock’s Dallas run receives critical praise from Jimmy Fowler at the Dallas Observer:
“... Extra Virgin Performance Cooperative has chosen to debut a brittle, sinister, but consistently funny script...”
“... Hemlock shoves a piping-hot dish of contradictions in your face and asks you to savor each one. Luckily, both the playwright and Extra Virgin have full grasp of the recipe... chances are you won’t stop ’til your plate is clean.”

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