Playwright C. Bonjukian Patten
Music by Cognitive Fungus
Director Corey Brunish
Advising Producer Sue Vaccaro
Reading Producer Myqui Patten
DANIELLE KOGAN
LAURA ATKINS
THURSDAY, JUNE 15 2023
12:00PM-3:00PM
THE DRAMATISTS GUILD
(1501 BROADWAY, NYC FLOOR 7)
(The Mary Rodgers Room)
http://www.cognitivefungus.com/
VEGAS–READING
Please contact us with any questions:
VegasRSVP15@gmail.com
VEGAS was in its first draft in 1997 and presented it in 2 readings in 1998 at the once-famed broadway theater THE LAMBS. We were almost optioned but last minute through some very personal rough patches for our prospective producer; the option did not materialize.
In its 2nd draft VEGAS was again read at the Dramatists Guild in 2005 but due to personal trama’s and interpersonal difficulties, the play lay dormant for years until 2022.
This is VEGAS‘ 3rd time around but this time seems different. In 2018 Cat had a profile on Facebook and started talking to a friend of her partner Myqui Patten; Mark Meyers with whom she played online games with through the years. Mark and Cat friended through the love of a intoxicating BBC Television show, #KILLINGEVE. Through talking and finding out about each other, Mark and Myqui both were Ukrainian. Myqui’s mom was a Hudunish from Perth Amboy, NJ and Mark’s parents were Ukrainian and he spoke and wrote the language having lived there for work for many years.
Through Mark, Cat met Corey Brunish, who was a friend of Marks from Oregon where they worked together on movies and videos. Mark told Cat to send Corey the script and that Corey may be interested in it. She did that and then
ANTHONY GARABALDI – Dominic’s Best Friend
COVID 19 became a problem. The problem caused a lot of trouble in everyone’s world. Broadway and the Theater world literally along with many other industries and businesses in America – LOCKED DOWN. BROADWAY was dark but the Internet was still up during the entire 3 years of hell we all went through and through this time Cat corresponded with Corey Brunish and met another producers 2 time Tony Award Winner- Sue Vaccaro who kept the hope alive that Covid 19 was going to get lost and theater would return to NYC. Cat followed Corey and others through Instagram. She and they corresponded daily – all of us worried about our futures and worried about what was going to happen with certain people leading our country.
It is slowly turning around, which is great and now we are actively looking for a Lead Producer and a production team who will take VEGAS where it needs to go – In front of an audience who will love and appreciate the play the way we want them to – it’s a bittersweet and touching love story between 2 mentally challenged young people who have found a soulmate in each other and want to hold on to that found love forever.
VEGAS is a story about a mentally challenged young adult named Francis Rotundo who lives with his family in East NY Brooklyn in the 1960s. He wants to find a friend who looks and acts like him and meets Laura Atkins who is a ward at his neighborhood church and they fall in love. Because of his father’s disapproval and social morays of the time the two young lovers are faced with obstacles as they try to make their fondest wish become reality.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO KEEP THE ONE YOU LOVE?
COGNITIVE FUNGUS 