On May 14, HB Studio presents a reading with students from American Scoreboard, led by instructors Fran Kirmser and Chris Burney
American Scoreboard Workshop Reading – Spring 2025 Showcase
Wednesday, May 14 at 7:30pm
Basement Studio at HB Studio, 120 Bank Street
Pay-What-You-Wish, $30 Recommended
HB Studio is excited to host an open rehearsal and reading with students from American Scoreboard, a Spring Term workshop that explores how the language of our past continues to shape the present. In this special presentation, students will share selected readings from historical Congressional transcripts that resonate with today’s issues, followed by a discussion about process and performance. Conceived and produced by Fran Kirmser and created and produced by Chris Burney, American Scoreboard invites citizens of all backgrounds to engage with the words of our elected officials—and the ongoing impact of their decisions.
Fran Kirmser is a two-time Tony Award-winning producer who began with creating and producing theater in the West Village and recently produced Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ on Broadway. Kirmser co-produced the award-winning August Wilson play Radio Golf, the last play and final chapter in an epic ten-play cycle by Wilson. Kirmser also produced Glengarry Glen Ross starring Al Pacino, and she has earned two Tony Awards for the Broadway revivals of Hair (2008-09) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (2013-14). She also served as Executive Producer for the film Lombardi. Kirmser has taught master classes at The New School, New York University, Columbia, Fordham, The Field, and Commercial Theater Institute. Having started out her performing arts career as a young professional dancer and self- produced choreographer, her passion is teaching self-producing and fundraising to emerging artists of all disciplines and helping them to realize their projects to the stage.
Christopher Burney is the Artistic Director of New York Stage and Film. Previously, he was the Tony-nominated Artistic Producer of New York’s Second Stage Theatre. Highlights of the over 100 productions he has shepherded include the 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner Between Riverside and Crazy, 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Water by the Spoonful, 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Next to Normal, Dear Evan Hansen, The Last Five Years, and many more. As a champion of emerging artists, he has launched the careers of Rajiv Joseph, Leslye Headland, Michael Golamco, Chisa, Hutchison, Kenneth Lin, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Brooke Berman, and Adam Bock, among many others. An advocate for the importance of fostering future generations of theater artists and practitioners, he is on faculty at Columbia University where he teaches creative producing. He has lectured at Barnard College, The Einhorn School for the Performing Arts at Primary Stages, The Juilliard School, Bard College, and more.
The performance takes place in the Basement Studio at 120 Bank Street on Wednesday, May 14 at 7:30pm, and tickets are pay-what-you-wish. Come watch a staged reading from Kirmser and Burney’s students – friends, family, and fellow artists are invited to support them as they demonstrate their hard work in a welcoming, educational setting.
This workshop is made possible with the generous support of the Noël Coward Foundation.