5th Night Screenplay Readings at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

"The people from Miramax are here. So are a guy from Savoy Pictures, a woman from MTV Films and a couple of agents ... The film industry sorts come to the Fifth Night to trawl for scripts, screenwriters, maybe actors. They also come because everyone else is here. ...Merely to be among the writers whose scripts are read at The Fifth Night confers a coveted status ...Those that are chosen get a classy showcase."

>> Find out all about THE PEOPLE BEHIND 5TH NIGHT

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>> Find out all about THE ACTORS ON STAGE AT 5TH NIGHT

Fifth Night is a eight and a half-year-old program which began in 1994 in order to pull screenwriters out of the isolation that writing requires, and offer a place where they can garner response to their work. Since then the evenings have evolved into a full-blown weekly screenplay reading series featuring talented writers, casts and directors. The evenings have been termed a "sellers market," where the writers exhibit their work to industry professionals: directors of development, producers, production companies and agents seeking out new, up-and-coming talent.

The success of our readings has been nothing short of phenomenal, of the 213 (and counting) screenplays read, 40 have either been made into films or are currently in production. More than 2,000 of the finest actors in the country have read with us including: Liev Schreiber, David Strathairn, Ruby Dee, Kyra Sedgwick, Steve Buscemi, Frances McDormand, Christina Ricci, Alan Arkin, Wallace Shawn, John Leguizamo, Stanley Tucci, Delroy Lindo, Jennifer Connelly and Betty Buckley. Writers have included Karyn Kusama ("Girlfight"), Dylan Kidd ("Roger Dodger"), Steve Buscemi ("Trees Lounge"), Matthew Harrison ("Kicked in the Head"), Michael Ondaatje (of "The English Patient") , Darnell Martin (of "I Like It Like That"), Jeremy Pikser (of "Bulworth"), Maria Maggenti (of "The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love"), Todd Alcott (of "Antz" ), and Barbara Turner (of "Georgia" ). Many of our writers have gone on to sign with agents, production companies, gotten writing work and even pulled together the funding to make the films themselves as a result of their reading with The Fifth Night. The series has been imitated in more than a dozen places around the world in cities such as London, Paris, Munich, San Francisco, and Austin, Texas.

We read solicited and un-solicited screenplays which go through a rigorous selection process. Our incredible casting directors then find the right actors to tell each story. The cast is brought together for one intense rehearsal the day of the reading, and after a short break and last minute notes, they are ready...the evening begins. Preceded by an award-winning short film, the actors mount the stage, scripts in hand and read their hearts out. Audiences have left our theatre, laughing, crying and cheering.

The readings are held at The Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City. This New York cultural institution has been around for more than 30-years as a performance space representing the community. The Nuyorican has been the birth place of many famous poets and is at the center of the resurgence of Spoken Word Poetry. Within this energetic environment The Fifth Night staff has created an intimate downtown meeting place for a broad mix of film industry professionals and curious on-lookers to think, talk, linger and enjoy.

We cherish the writer, that's where it all begins.

OUR ADVISORY BOARD:
Jed Alpert, Entertainment Lawyer
Sarah Caplan, Project Coordinator, Todo Mundo
Myriam Cyr, Actor/Producer
Leonard Finger, Casting Director
Ellen Lewis, Casting Director
Kim Martin, Producer
Larry Meistrich, Producer, Shooting Gallery Founder
Annie Nocenti, Writer/Editor, Scenario Magazine
Mercy Pavelic, Director of Heathcote Art Foundation
Michael Peyser, Producer
Lawrence Pitkethly, Writer/Producer
Vivian Sorenson, Director
Betsy Sussler, Publisher, Bomb Magazine
Ezra Swerdlow, Producer, 20th Century Fox
Todd Thaler, Casting Director
Karen Young, Actor

MAJOR FUNDERS OF THE FIFTH NIGHT:
Miramax Films
William Morris Agency
Heathcote Art Foundation (First Funds)
The Rockefeller Foundation
The Andy Warhol Foundation
The New York State Council on the Arts
NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs (Challenge Grant)
The Ben Sonnenberg Fund
Script Thing, Script Perfection Software
Edith Meiser Foundation