Complex sentence: Thomas Novachek is the writer-director of a new play opening in New York City; this play-within-the-play is an adaptation of the 1870 novel "Venus in Furs" by the Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.
Split into simpler sentences: Thomas Novachek is the writer-director of a new play opening in New York City. This play-within-the-play an adaptation of the 1870 novel "Venus in Furs" by the Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.