Sethzvirosenfeld

chronicles the collision of cultures in urban America chronicles the collision of cultures in urban America chronicles the collision of cultures in urban America chronicles the collision of cultures in urban America

Seth Zvi Rosenfeld

This page is an archive and testament to the thirty plus years I’ve spent as an award winning Playwright, Filmmaker and TV writer/producer. I credit my youth cemented to a loud corner on Amsterdam Avenue in NYC with setting my imagination afire. It was the characters and experiences that I had on the block that formed my world view and ethos. A lot of my early work both in plays and film are love-letters to that corner. That would include the Play Servy-N-Bernice 4Ever and the films A Brothers Kiss, King of the Jungle and the NetFlix series The Get Down. It has been said that my work chronicles the collisions of cultures in Urban America. Read More

Film & TV

Plays

Aye mi madre, Jesus, Mary, God” I’m cryin’ “Puta, fucking motherfucker!”, I’m coming, she’s coming, we’re both gonna burn in hell for this

There’s gotta somethin’ to be learned from this, otherwise that kid died for nothin’…Jesus Mike, are there kids out there dyin’ for nothin’?

My mother, she went away, she’s not coming back, I couldn’t make her…Now all I got is this gun

I said I didn’t love him, climbing out the hole, sinning like a thief in the night, trying to steal a soul

Motherfuckers build bridges, send people to the moon, make bombs that could kill everybody, all we wanna do is love each other, right?

Look at this park, bro. Bulldozers runnin’ over every step we ever took here! Runnin’ over our whole fucking lives and did anyone ask us?

Tensions in a rapidly gentrifying NYC on a sultry, summer night in 2005. Nine characters, from all walks of life, inhabit a neighborhood Handball Park. Lovers love, players play and dreamers dream. Their fates tied inexorably to the fate of this place. Change is afoot and everyone can feel it. The shifting of power forces one’s hand to shocking effect. They say some secrets ought never be told. HandballBuy on Amazon

This play with music takes place late one Christmas Eve in lonely New York City, when a couple of down-on-their-luck songwriting partners, hitless, loveless, and facing their forties, come together for a night of composing and soul-searching. This “musical story” finds Sam and Brenda facing the light of a new day and confronting a practical matter: they don’t want to mess up their friendship or their working relationship.

Everythings Turning into BeautifulBuy on Amazon

Bernice, a young black model living in Boston, has fabricated a splendid new background for herself. Having been beaten by a former boyfriend, she sends an urgent message for help to the lover she has not seen in years Servy, a white kid who grew up with her amid the projects around New York’s Alphabet City. Servy, fresh out of prison, breaks parole by visiting Bernice. He brings his black friend Scotty with him.

Servy -n- Bernice 4EverBuy on Amazon

These three short plays that make up the collection BROTHERS, MOTHERS & OTHERS, spilled out quickly. They were written between 1987-89, in the height of the crack era in NYC. My generation in particular was caught off guard by crack. We the “party-hearty people”, used drugs recreationally and to increase the fun. Crack was not about fun. We didn’t see it coming. It was a devastating drug that consumed many people I knew.

Brothers, Mothers & OthersBuy on Amazon

Poetry

INDEFATIGABLE

I saw men dreaming vertically, I saw brick, I saw steel,
I saw men dreaming vertically Then I saw you…
Strong words,
Well constructed,
Many syllables,
I saw you,
planting perennials,
Every day a gift,
words like inevitable
Are my enemy
I saw men dreaming vertically I saw Brick, I saw steel,
Then I saw you,
Same time as God,
And so we struggle.
he being God,
Me being…
Indefatigable
Not a day does he promise I grieve each night
My woman warrior
Her life,
And I dream of old age
grandchildren we won’t see Together
And I saw men dreaming vertically I saw bricks, I saw steel
And I saw you
the un-perrenial
And I know now
that,
I knew nothing
Of dreams.