Every wonder what happens when you don't donate to your friends' Kickstarter? A generous donor swoops in and saves the day...and changes the story! Originally performed by theatrical sketch comedy troupe Uncle Function, "Hasidic Fiddler on the Roof," written by Gianmarco Soresi, gets the video treatment! And it's sure to go viral! Check it out below. Oh, and speaking of donating, why not take a visit to patreon.com/theaterinthenow and become a Patron of Theater in the Now today!

Halloween is just around the corner as is another edition of Rule of 7x7: All Hallow's Eve-dition. Before you head to The Tank, check out the writers for this month's edition!


Name: Jon Caren

Hometown: Los Angeles

Education: Vassar, Julliard

What is your rule?: A whisper on page 4.

Why did you pick your rule?: Because I hate when people talk loudly.

Tell us about BUSHWHACK SHARE, PRIVATE ROOM: Bushwhack Share, Private Room is a play about a guy who AirBNB’s his apartment to a couple from Sweden and we all know what happens when you AirBNB your apartment, right?

What can we expect to see at Rule of 7x7?: Sex and violence.

Why should we check out Rule of 7x7?: Because you will leave feeling smarter, more cultured, and a humanitarian.

What is your Halloween costume this year?: The same as last year because I never wore it. Movie theater employee.  Stand near me if you like popcorn.

For more on Jon, visit www.jonathancaren.com


Name: Dylan Dawson

Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Education: NYU Tisch School of the Arts

What is your rule?: A bathroom item is used as a weapon.

Why did you pick your rule?: I'm hoping someone gets creative with a plunger.

Tell us about HAUNTED PORNO: Theater is sacred. It can illuminate certain truths about what it means to be human and lift the curtain on those secret places where dreams are made. And that is why I wrote "Haunted Porno."

What can we expect to see at Rule of 7x7?: In my case, a boner.

Why should we check out Rule of 7x7?: Because theater is sacred, etc, etc, boners.

What is your Halloween costume this year?: I have an Italian Stallion boxing robe and a Mr. T doll, so probably "Rocky 3." Again.

For more on Dylan, visit www.dylanjdawson.com


Name: Brett Epstein

Hometown: Hamden, CT

Education: Providence College

What is your rule?: Someone is very, very, very scared on the last page.

Why did you pick your rule?: HALLOWEEN!!!!!

Tell us about I CAN FEEL YOU BREATHE: The title is based on that classic Faith Hill ballad. That's all I can legally say at this point in time.

What can we expect to see at Rule of 7x7?: People dressed up, hanging out on the stage, a spooky drink (that we're still devising), rules. What you won't see is scripts. Because it's an #Off-Book affair.

Why should we check out Rule of 7x7?: It would mean a lot to ME.

What is your Halloween costume this year?: An NYC playwright. Just kidding. What if I was serious about that.

For more on Brett, visit www.itsbrett.net


Name: Ken Greller

Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland

Education: NYU

What is your rule?: Real estate.

Why did you pick your rule?: I read Curbed and still get StreetEasy alerts even though I moved in July and never want to move again. I'm a sick individual.

Tell us about PIT CITY: It's about Baltimore, where I'm from, and - going off of my own rule (because theatre is about community but it's also about ME) these strange spaces in often marginalized parts of the city where (largely white) kids would gather for music shows. I don't really know anything about music, and I never have, but the Baltimore music scene is pretty substantial. Most of the members of Animal Collective and Yeasayer went to my high school, and I think I saw Beach House in a basement with a trashcan filled with beer before they were famous. My best friend for a while in high school was part of a "noise band," so my dad would begrudgingly drive me to these shows, and I never really understood a lot of it.

What can we expect to see at Rule of 7x7?: I am honestly so bad at writing ten minute plays, and especially bad at writing "challenges" and things like that, but I think this set of rules is so enticing and funny and weird that I'd have to imagine you're going to see seven really fun, really different plays that don't feel like a bunch of "exercises."

Why should we check out Rule of 7x7?: You get to sample the work of seven playwrights and seven directors and god knows how many actors! It's like drinking a green juice but for theatrical consumption. Or getting an appetizer platter. Those are two different metaphors, it just sort of depends what you want to get out of it.

What is your Halloween costume this year?: I'm going as a "Verified" (someone whose existence is deemed, well, verifiable, by Twitter).


Name: Monet Hurst-Mendoza

Hometown: Pasadena, CA

Education: B.A. Theatre Arts, Marymount Manhattan College

What is your rule?: Someone recounts a childhood trauma that deeply affects them to this day

Why did you pick your rule?: I'm fascinated by how traumatic events shape humanity.

Tell us about STOCKHOLM SYNDROME: A LOVE STORY: The title comes from an actual One Direction song. It's kind of nutty that someone had an idea for this song with that title in mind, and then wrote corresponding lyrics for tweens (and girls like me who grew up on boy bands) to listen to. Also, I've always wanted to write a play about a secret society devoted to boy bands. The Skull & Bows is actually what my old roommates and I used to call the last apartment we all lived in together. We never sacrificed boy bands members, but I do recall being inebriated on several occasions and forcing them to learn N'SYNC choreography from me.

What can we expect to see at Rule of 7x7?: Witchcraft, Boyband hysteria, synchronized dance moves.

Why should we check out Rule of 7x7?: Because everyone who is working on 7x7 is magic. And everyone needs magic in their lives.

What is your Halloween costume this year?: I don't normally dress up for Halloween anymore. Call me lame, but I'd much rather be at home watching scary movies instead. But I do have Halloween pajamas - so maybe I'll just wear those and some kind of animal ears!

For more on Monet, visit http://risingcircle.org


Name: Sylvia Khoury

Hometown: Purchase, NY

Education: BA, Columbia University; MFA, New School for Drama; Currently: Medical School at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai

What is your rule?: Someone has to say "I would turn back if I were you."

Why did you pick your rule?: It's nice and creepy for Halloweentime.

Tell us about NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: I was always scared of the Egyptian Wing at the Met growing up. This play grew out of that!

What can we expect to see at Rule of 7x7?: Proof that Brett Epstein should host the Oscars.

Why should we check out Rule of 7x7?: It's really, really exciting when you recognize a rule.

What is your Halloween costume this year?: I haven't committed to anything yet, but Bellatrix Lestrange is my forever backup.

For more on Sylivia, visit www.sylviakhoury.com


Name: Gianmarco Soresi

Hometown: Potomac, MD but I tell people DC to sound cool.

Education: Worthless.

What is your rule?: Faith.

Why did you pick your rule?: As adverse as I am to astrology, The Secret, and Pope visits, I unfortunately have my own faith(s), which I'd define as beliefs sans evidence, that if I ever was forced to articulate would probably sound equally ridiculous. I imagine we all have such beliefs, some more fleeting than others, only be verbalized by the extremest of circumstances or several strong beers. I hope my rule conjures the former in these plays and inspires the latter once they're done.

Tell us about ORIGINAL RITUAL: You never forget your first.

What can we expect to see at Rule of 7x7?: Given the impending holiday and Brett's rule ("someone is very, very, very scared on the last page"), some really fucked up shit.

Why should we check out Rule of 7x7?: Because everything Kristin McCarthy Parker touches turns to gold.

What is your Halloween costume this year?: Young Jeff Goldblum (Lies. Once as a child I went trick-or-treating dressed as a hippie. The resident at one home said to me, "Why hello there, are you supposed to be a boy?" I don't do costumes anymore.)

For more on Gianmarco, visit www.GianmarcoSoresi.com

Name: Gianmarco Soresi (I am, however, just 1/8 Italian)

Hometown: Potomac, MD. But I tell people DC to sound cool.

Education: University of Miami, Ward Studio, Alan Langdon (three different phases of my acting training, at least)

Favorite Credits: Danny in Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Officer Lockstock in Urinetown, and, one day, I hope, Salieri in Amadeus and Max in Becky Shaw

Why theater?: A longing to connect with other human beings, I sucked at sports, and a very big ego.

Tell us about <50%: <50%, a stand-up comedy filled “Annie Hall” meets Charlie Kaufman with a dash of “Inception”, is a show about me and my ex putting on a show about ourselves putting on a show about ourselves. This will hopefully make more sense when I answer the next question.

What inspired you to write <50%: I originally wrote <50% to reunite my ex-girlfriend and I. After five years together, we amicably split with the caveat that we would be in the show at the next Fringe Festival. The plot was based on our plan to reunite with a play about ourselves…Unfortunately that show did not get in. On top of that, my friendship with my ex got, as they often do, complicated. Undeterred by rejection on all fronts I continued to work on the play, this time acknowledging that the play was literally about the two people performing it, allowing her and I to break out of the play at times to try to figure out what the f*ck we were doing in the first place. From there, time got warped, plays within plays within plays merged with real life, and hopefully what has emerged is a hilariously tragic emotional trainwreck. You can see me attempt an explanation of the show here as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmBShDSvaH0 - though I’m not promising it’ll make it any clearer.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: I. LOVE. TELEVISION. I love sitting at home with a glass of the most inexpensive wine I could find at the grocery store and watching Netflix. So theater that speaks to me is anything I couldn’t have gotten on my iPad. It really doesn’t get more specific than that. I recently saw “Queen of the Night”, which, based on its description, I would never have considered my jam. But when I was there, sharing food with complete strangers, getting touched in places I’m not normally touched in public, etc….IT WAS AWESOME! That certainly doesn’t mean interactive/immersive/w/e is all that it takes..my top three experiences at the theater are Philip Seymour Hoffman in Death of a Salesman, Liev Schreiber in A View From the Bridge and the OBC in August: Osage County. At the end of the day, if you make me feel connected to other people I’m gonna dig it.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: I would like to work on a Stephen Adly Guirgis play with Sean Penn and Julianne Moore as my parents and Rooney Mara as my love interest, directed by David Cromer. It has to all happen at the same time or I’m simply not interested.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: Unfortunately the run has ended but Animus Theatre Company’s Dutch Heart of Man at the Cherry Lane Theatre was some of the best acting I’ve seen all year. For the two or tree non-theater people I know I always recommend Sleep No More to establish trust and gradually get riskier with my recommendations.OH! You know what was really spectacular? And full disclosure one of my Fringe producers is working on the next incarnation, Strangeman & Co.’s The Woodsman at 59E59 was a pretty extraordinary experience. The puppetry, the movement, the music…that one is coming back to 59E59 at some point-don’t miss it!

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: My doppelgänger, Jeff Goldblum, would star as Gianmarco Soresi in: “Stop Telling Me I Look Like Jeff Goldblum”

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Blockheads. I love cheap frozen margaritas. When the Fringe Festival is done I plan to have many.

What’s the most played song on your iTunes?: "Quando m’en vo" from La Boheme (1990, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra). That being said, the second is "Legally Blonde Remix" from Legally Blonde The Musical.

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: In advertising. However, my knowledge as to what that means is entirely informed by Mad Men.

What’s up next?: I’ll continue acting in Pipeline Theatre Company’s immersive Clown Bar, Off-Broadway at The Box every Saturday night. Depending on the night I play Zeezoo, a newly immigrated French Lecoq school drop-out diligently manning the bathrooms, Happy, an ex-clown cop hell bent on avenging his unfunny dead brother, and Bo Bo, a slimy mobster clown with a taste for bananas. We were recently extended! http://pipelinetheatre.org/main-stage/clown-bar/
My web series, "An Actor Unprepared", which just completed its first season with 1909 Productions, is actively being submitted to festivals. www.AnActorUnprepared.com And I’ll also begin work on Para-, a play about a phony psychic’s rise to riches in the infamous Camp Chesterfield, Indiana, a stand-up comedy hour called Sex, Drugs and Anxiety, and my first children’s book, Sisyphus and Sam, is nearly done being illustrated by the incredible Brian Cheng. If any of these things actually get done you can find out at www.GianmarcoSoresi.com