TNC’s New City, New Blood Reading Series: Songs of Love and Madness

About

Songs of Love and Madness is a postmodern romantic comedy that consists of a duet, a love triangle, and a quartet, in which the romantic tropes popularized by contemporary love songs collide with delusions listed in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistics Manual of Mental Illnesses): Is love truly a madness to be desired. All three of the scenes/songs have been produced separately in play festivals, two receiving awards at those festivals. About the Crew Mark Tjarks (Author/Composer) teaches scriptwriting, film, and literature at Hawaii Pacific University. His Buskers, the Musical, based on the real lives and performance of New York subway musicians) was presented by the Theater for the New City as part of a pre-COVID New Blood Reading series and Dream Up! Festival. He has had 5 plays staged in Manhattan, including The Unsalable Thing (winner of First Place in the William Faulkner Literary Competition Best Play Contest) and Houseless in Paradise (Po’okela Award winner for Best Overall Play and a Festival Best Bet at the NY International Fringe Fest—“one of the most powerful pieces of documentary theatre I’ve seen” – Ran Xia’s Theatre is Easy). Tjarks is also a recipient of three WIT Best Comedy Awards, Aloha Theatre’s Opie for Best Play, PlayBuilders’ judges and audience awards for Best Play, and Kumu Kahua Theatre’s Playwriting Resident Award. Overall, he has had 32 productions and staged readings of 15 plays.