Sketches
The following are brief descriptions of each play.
Marginal Man
by
Greg Jenkins
directed by Alan Dale
Max, the troubled
protagonist, meets his close friend Jerry in a bar. A sensitive man,
Max has been buffeted lately by a series of persona; problems that seem to
be getting the better of him. Having lost his job and his wife, Max
now fears he is also losing hi mind. Jerry advises and consoles him as
best he can, but even Jerry is taken aback when Max discloses that he has
come to doubt his own reality as a human being. Indeed, Max now
suspects that everything is just "props and stagecraft," and that he is
merely a participant in a play.
And so he is: Max is the central figure in a dark comedy - the same one
you're watching - that's being actively rehearsed even as he makes his
complaint. His anxiety deepens as the long-suffering director,
Leonard, comes out on stage periodically to debate the play's merits and
presentation with the contentious actors, who step out of and then back into
their roles, and with a colleague, Sandy, who's seated in the audience.
Max suddenly finds himself in the office of a psychiatrist, Al, who was the
bartender in a previous scene. Max and the doctor seek to trace the
cause of Max's delusions, but with little success. He relives the
anguishing moment he got fired from his job, and the even more crushing blow
of having his wife boot him out of their home. The play ends when the
troupe decides they've rehearsed long enough and that it's time to get
something to eat. Discarding his own view of "reality," Max joins
them.
June 10 - June 26
Thurs - Sat at 8, Sun at 2
Mobtown Theatre
at Meadow Mill
410-467-3057
3600 Clipper
Mill Rd., #114
Ouch
by
Joe Dennison
directed by Alan Dale
Ouch is a quirk, dark comedy dream
within a dream depicting an alternative reality. A stranger, Olivia,
pays Annie a visit, delivering the ashes of her adopted father as per his
will's request. But is it just a figment all playing in the comatose
Annie's mind?
June 10 - June 26
Thurs - Sat at 8, Sun at 2
Mobtown Theatre
at Meadow Mill
410-467-3057
3600 Clipper
Mill Rd., #114
Blue Mermaid
by
Mark Scharf
directed by Alex Willis
Blue Mermaid examines
how family connections endure between a grandmother, her mixed-race
granddaughter, and the aunt raising the granddaughter because of the drug
addition that has recently led to the death of the young girl's mother.
Anne Mercer lives in seclusion at her beach-front condo in Ocean City,
Maryland. Anne suffers no illusions about life and has recently
weathered the loss of her oldest daughter who passed away suddenly while in
rehab. Anne's self-imposed exile is shaken by the arrival of her
mixed-race granddaughter, Keisha, who is living with her Aunt Karen.
Keisha has been compelled by her mother's recent death to reach out to her
grandmother in search of answers and a connection to who she is and who she
may yet become. When Keisha's Aunt Karen (Anne's younger daughter)
arrives to take Keisha back to Baltimore, the women must face the family
legacy of miscommunication and missed opportunities. Blue
Mermaid look at how the "sins of the mother" make their way down
through succeeding generations and explores self-responsibility and the
obligations and connections between the women of three succeeding
generations.
June 23 - July 10
Thurs - Sat at 8, Sun at 7
Fell’s
Point Corner Theatre
410-276-7837
251 S. Ann St.
$40 Million if
You Want It
by
Stephen LaRocque
directed by Barry Feinstein
At the Institute for Applied Psychology; an obscure academic
think-tank, there is astonishing news: an anonymous donor has bequeathed $40,000,000 to the institute! Reggie, the
freewheeling assistant director, pounces on the news and begins spending the
money even before he has it. Meanwhile, Mrs. Pavlin, the institute's
director and corporate memory, puzzles over who the mysterious benefactor
might be. As she confronts Reggie about his premature spending spree,
she divulges what she suspects as the source of the unexpected gift: the
Institute's long-forgotten mission of smuggling endangered academics out of
the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Reggie impetuously decides to
revive the idealism of yesteryear and sets out on a search for present-day
endangered academics. However, as he confronts the harrowing realities
of present-day intellectual repression in the world, he regretfully
concludes that the Institute is not up to the task. Just as it appears
that the only choice is to decline the gift, a young woman shows up,
claiming to be the deceased benefactor's daughter. In private with
Mrs. Pavlin, she reveals that the source of the bequest was her mother, a
barely remembered former employee of the Institute who, by quietly
succeeding in numerous investments, amassed a gigantic estate. She
made the bequest out of gratitude for the human contact she had experienced
at the Institute. Mrs. Pavlin decides to accept the bequest and to
reinvent the institute with a genuine new purpose.
July 21 - August 7
Thurs - Sat at 8, Sun at 7
Fell’s Point Corner Theatre
410-276-7837
251 S. Ann St.
Myron & Evelyn
by
Daniel Mont
directed by
Evelyn's life has not been what
she expected, and at the age of 72 she is on the verge of stepping out on
her own. Her family struggles to stop her and a series of events, as well as
a startling discovery that re-casts her five decades of marriage, conspire
against her. Myron and Evelyn confronts the issue of how to best
live for ourselves and the ones we love.
July 22 - July 31
Fri and Sat at 8 and Sun at 7
Vagabond Players
410-563-9135
806 S. Broadway
Real to Reel
by
C. J. Crowe
directed by Jason Kimmell
Life has never held much challenge for Mary Baker... nice husband, nice
house, nice kids. When she is diagnosed with cancer, she is left with
a driving need to prove that her life has been worthwhile. She
convinces her family to let reality a TV series, Reel to Real,
cover the progression of her illness.
August 19 - August 28
Fri and Sat at 8 and Sun at 3
Chesapeake
Arts Center
410-636-6597
194 Hammonds Lane, Brooklyn Park
Holidays In
by
Jim Sheehan
directed by Kathleen Amshoff
Bev and Mike, a young couple, are deadlocked in
that bitter struggle enacted in households throughout America’s exurban
sprawl: what to do on the holidays. Bev, bored to tears, yearns to get out,
but lacks nerve. Mike has plenty of nerve, but absolutely no ambition. He
sits, self-satisfied, in front of the TV, pepping himself up with pleasant
memories and mostly harmless distractions.
Enter Kyle, Mike’s wild work buddy. Can this impulsive, phallocentric,
loudmouth rescue them? Kyle finds that with every passing holiday, he must
go to more and more outrageous extremes to drag them kicking and screaming
from their domestic funk.
July 22 - August
7
Run of the Mill Theatre
performing at Mobtown Theatre at Meadow Mill
410-499-7629
3600 Clipper
Mill Rd., #114
Socks
by
Rosemary Frisino Toohey
directed by Kathleen Amshoff
Socks grapple with abandonment and rejection when they find
themselves left behind in a clothes dryer. Hailing from four different
walks of life, the socks, (actuality three socks and a legwarmer) debate
their fate, the human condition, and the question whether people are
subconsciously jealous of beings who "pair up" right from the start.
A determined twosome eventually strikes off for uncharted
territory. An older duo finds fulfillment in each other’s arms.
Why do socks always come out on the short end. The play
explores the ultimate question... they never make it to the lost and found,
so where do missing socks go?
July 22 - August
7
Run of the Mill Theatre
performing at Mobtown Theatre at Meadow Mill
410-499-7629
3600 Clipper
Mill Rd., #114
Get Stuffed
by
Mark Scharf
directed by C. Dan Bursi
When Marty
Evans was a 7-year-old boy, he and his oversized stuffed bear, Furball, were
inseparable; the talked about everything. But when Marty got older, he
became embarrassed by his attachment to the bear, and Furball was exiled to
the attic. It wasn't until after college, while searching the attic
for things for his new apartment, that Marty rediscovered and rescued his
old friend. Soon, it's
just like old times with Marty talking to Furball and the bear talking back.
Of course, Marty is the only one who can hear Furball talk.
In this one-act comedy, Marty tries to live his life while contending with a
foul-mouthed teddy bear who says all of the things that Marty can't or
won't. It isn't easy for a grown man to live with an oversized talking
stuffed bear, and Furball fears being sent into exile again. But who
needs who more? During a visit by a woman Marty is interested in,
Furball's antics cause Marty to imprison the bear in a closet painfully
reminding the bear of his years of attic exile. In response, Furball
stops talking and Marty must decide if life is better with or without the
voice of his friend.
Get Stuffed mixes fantasy and realism to examine our need to
communicate -- including the things we shouldn't say, and the ways we
shouldn't say them as well as our need for acceptance, love, and a place to
belong we call home regardless of what others think.
August
5 - 27
Fri and Sat at 8 and Sun at 7
The
Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre
410-752-1225
817 St. Paul Street
Cornered
by
Rosemary Frisino Toohey
directed by C. Dan Bursi
Intelligent,
attractive Laura loved fencing. But now that multiple sclerosis has
her almost completely paralyzed, the only "match" in which she can engage is
the nightly verbal battle with her husband, Stephen. Although she
escapes her wheelchair only in flights of fancy, she is determined to have
her way, resolved that he must have a life apart from her.
August
5 - 27
Fri and Sat at 8 and Sun at 7
The
Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre
410-752-1225
817 St. Paul Street
The
Best Christmas Murder Ever
by
Ron Holsey
directed by Miriam Bazensky
The play takes
place at the LaMaline family estate, tucked away in the Catoctin Mountains
in Western Maryland. The home is not far from the Camp David presidential
retreat. Jasmine, Rosemary and Cardamom are sisters who have each brought
their children to celebrate Christmas with their Grandmother, an eerie woman
who always wears sunglasses and white gloves but never speaks a word.
The entire family, which functions within its own warped sense of normalcy,
still believes in Santa Claus. The problem is he hasn’t visited the children
in the last fourteen years. He stopped coming the year Little Nancy was
born. The same year that Grandfather died.
As Cardamom attempts to weed out the “naughty” children, Little Nancy tries
to make her mark by getting a lead role in the Christmas pageant. When her
spoiled cousin Alexis beats her out for the part of the Virgin Mary, Little
Nancy becomes depressed.
But a ray of light comes when Nick, an escaped convict, scuttles down the
chimney on the night before Christmas Eve. Thinking he is Santa Claus,
Little Nancy hides him away in the attic and the two form a bond.
He tries to help Little Nancy to achieve her dream of Christmas pageant
stardom, but Grandmother throws a monkey wrench into the plan, setting off a
power struggle that ends in murder.
August
11 - 28
Thurs - Sat at 8, Sun at 2
Uncommon Voices
performing at Fells Point Corner Theatre
410-276-7837
251 S. Ann St.
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