“As a result of (New Edgecliff’s) Directors Competition, theater activities have really picked up for me,” e-mails Arnie Shayne. He even credits the win with a call from an agent in NYC.

“I agreed to do a staged reading of a new play, “Flutterbies,” by Frank Christopher, where he’ll read along with Peter Scolari (you know him from TV’s “Bosom Buddies” and the “Bob Newhart Show”). There are hopes for the play “for Broadway or off-Broadway,” says Shayne.

 

Today Shayne is in NYC rehearsing. “Naturally I play a 110-year old grandfather with a sharp mind and a foul mouth.”

Closer to home, Shayne says to watch for a return of his Blue Chip Players in early June, to the Monmouth Theatre in Newport, where he will produce and direct “Footprints of the Polar Bear,” the script he used to demonstrate his deft touch for the Directors Competition.