Sketches
The following are brief descriptions of each play.
Return of the 5th Sister
by
Kimberley Lynne
directed by Ryan Whinnem
Four sisters are living alone on a farm in a male-dominated society. Twenty
years ago, their older sister Eve left the farm in protest to the religious
oppression by the local patriarch. One autumn morning, Eve appears in the
apple orchard, grown to a silent giant. She shakes blank pages out of the
trees, and one sister collects them. As the day wanes, messages appear on
the pages. By the end of the day, nature is moving faster than the sun, and
fertility transforms fall into spring. Several barnyard animals and one of
the sisters become mysteriously pregnant, and the corn grows as tall as the
farmhouse.
August 4 - August 20, 2006
Thurs - Sat at 8, Sun at 2
Mobtown Theatre
at Meadow Mill
410-467-3057
3600 Clipper
Mill Rd., #114
SOD
by
Mark Squirek
directed by Ryan Whinnem
After the passing of their Father, three brothers find themselves working
together to continue with the family landscaping business. However, long
seated resentments and disappointments quickly rise to the surface on the
first morning of a new season. Silently watching it all from the sidelines
is a young boy who is captivated by the behavior of the brothers. They are
nothing like his father. The brothers work outside and do manual labor. They
scream and use words that Johnny knows are bad, but he still wants to watch
them work. He can't understand exactly what these brothers are.
August 4 - August 20, 2006
Thurs - Sat at 8, Sun at 2
Mobtown Theatre
at Meadow Mill
410-467-3057
3600 Clipper
Mill Rd., #114
Willie Baby
by
Joe Dennison/Carol Weinberg/Kimberley Lynne
directed by Marianne Angelella
What would happen if William Shakespeare’s
agent appeared in the office of a local theatre? What if he demanded
royalties for all previous Shakespeare productions?
Willie Baby is a short play considering an artist’s rights and
how little we know of history.
June 29 - July 23,
2006
Thurs - Sat at 8 pm, Sun at 7 pm
Fell’s
Point Corner Theatre
410-276-7837
251 S. Ann St.
Memory Garden
by
Mark Scharf
directed by Sharon Weaver
Do you ever
wonder about the story behind the roadside crosses and memorials you pass by
while driving? Who the person was and how they lost their life? And what
happens to those that remain behind? In MEMORY GARDEN, a young widow devotes herself to maintaining
a roadside memorial where her husband lost his life. When a man claiming to be a reporter stops to get her story,
she unexpectedly finds the answers to her unanswered questions about what
happened on that terrible day. MEMORY GARDEN examines how we
deal with the anger, longing and confusion brought about by loss -- and the
ways in which we try to hang on to and let go of the past in order to keep
living.
June 29 - July 23,
2006
Thurs - Sat at 8 pm, Sun at 7 pm
Fell’s Point Corner Theatre
410-276-7837
251 S. Ann St.
Wilderness
by
Mark Scharf
directed by Miriam Bazensky
Killer
rabbits in the suburbs must be stopped! In this bittersweet and poignant
comedy, recently widowed Spencer faces the lawnmower police and wrath of his
neighbors when he decides to let nature take its course with his yard. Just
where does the reach of your arm end and the beginning of your neighbor’s
nose begin?
June 29 - July 23,
2006
Thurs - Sat at 8 pm, Sun at 7 pm
Fell’s Point Corner Theatre
410-276-7837
251 S. Ann St.
Miss Alice Plays
by
Rich Espey
directed by Mark Squirek
The
Miss Alice Plays are a series of three loosely
connected ten-minute plays centering on similar themes and structures. While
Miss Alice never appears in any of the plays, she is mentioned as the
kindergarten teacher of at least one adult character in each of the plays.
Each of these adults is struggling with how to create a meaningful
connection with at least one other character, and their struggle, as is the
struggle of most disconnected adults, I think, is the result of failing to
remember some of the basic tenets we all learn from a good and caring
kindergarten teacher: it’s better to share, you need to be a friend to have
a friend, don’t be bossy, enjoy the simple pleasures of life, etc. If we
could truly put into practice the simple lessons we learned when we were
five, life would be a lot simpler.
The plays are also characterized by a playful use of
language – a man who can speak only in words of one syllable, a couple who
speak in seven-word sentences with the same pattern of initial letters, a
woman who unexpectedly interjects personal commentary into her
telemarketer’s spiel.
In “Freedom of Information” a persistent
telemarketer makes a connection with a lonely young man.
In “Old Maids Never Worry” a word game on a
short, suburban train ride provides a young wife the opportunity to gain
acceptance into her husband’s world.
In “Time Out” a young woman’s excessively
fast-paced lifestyle lands her in a cosmic time out with the kindergarten
teacher she has long forgotten.
June 29 - July 23,
2006
Thurs - Sat at 8 pm, Sun at 7 pm
Fell’s Point Corner Theatre
410-276-7837
251 S. Ann St.
A Modern Pas De Deux
by
Susan Middaugh
directed by Barry Feinstein
A
Modern Pas De Deux is a dramatic comedy about a middle-aged man and
woman who meet by accident at a singles dance. Pickles and Paul's romance,
which reflects man and woman's yearning to find the right partner in life,
is the main story line of the play.
Are they too set in their ways to acknowledge their need for one another, to
fall in love?
July 28 - August 6
Fri and Sat at 8 and Sun at 7
Vagabond Players
410-563-9135
806 S. Broadway
Turn Your
Head and Kafka
by
Laura Ridgeway
directed by Jenny Tibbels
TURN YOUR HEAD AND KAFKA is a play in three acts that uses the
life and work of Franz Kafka to chronicle the inspiring role that Czech
theater has played in it’s country’s history and political life. Inspired
by the incredible resilience of Czech theater artists in the twentieth
century, their incorporation and adaptation of Czech author Franz Kafka, and
their impact on Czech culture and politics throughout various oppressive
regimes, the play takes three prominent Czech directors and incorporates
Kafka’s letters and fiction into pieces resembling those that the directors
produced in their lifetimes. Each act, therefore, recreates for the audience
the atmosphere and drama under which each director worked, including Nazi
oppression, Communist oppression and post-revolution chaos.
June 22 - July 9, 2006
Thurs - Sat at 8 pm, Sun at 7 pm
Run of the Mill Theatre
performing at Loyola College
Hope's Arbor
by
Rich Espey
directed by Jayme Kilburn
The play begins with seventeen year old Hope and her mother
Jean on opposite sides of the stage each directly addressing the audience.
As the action switches rapidly between direct address to the audience and
quick snippets of traditional dialogue, we see Hope’s and her parents Jean
and Peter’s views of the previous summer in which Hope was sent first to a
college essay seminar and then to fat camp while her parents vacationed at
their summer home on Squibnocket Island. Hope tells us also about her world
of online acquaintances which includes Chris, a college student, and Saiko,
a girl from another boarding school near Hope’s own Thwaite Academy. Hope
also tells us about Caitelynne, a popular girl in her dorm at Thwaite.
Hope develops an intense online relationship with both Chris, who’s
desperate to escape the intense pressure he feels at college, and Saiko,
whose loneliness, pain and affection have sparked in Hope some previously
unacknowledged romantic feelings. Hope also develops a friendship of sorts
with the popular Caitelynne, only to be humiliated in a horrifying act of
cruelty at her school in which she is “outed”, not only to the school, but
to herself as well. Desperate to run away, she convinces her parents to take
her to a college interview where Chris attends school. She plans to offer
Chris the use of her parents’ summer home as a refuge. Hope takes Chris to
her parents’ summer home where, uncertain of her next step, she makes
awkward romantic advances towards Chris in a naive attempt to squelch or at
least challenge her awakening feelings for Saiko. After an understanding
Chris helps Hope accept her own feelings. Hope prepares to leave to find
Saiko, but just as she does, Jean and Peter arrive and confront Hope.
Hope refuses to return to Thwaite Academy, and in a confrontation with her
parents she manages to assert her identity and break free from the
strictures imposed by her parents, and especially by her mother. Jean’s loss
of control over her daughter drives her to a breaking point, and she is
brought back from the brink by Chris’s reassurance. The play ends with the
image of Hope having achieved her goal of autonomy and self-acceptance.
August 11 - 27, 2006
Fri and Sat at 8 and Sun at 7
The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre
410-752-1225
817 St. Paul Street
Split
by
Ira Gamerman
directed by Ian Bellnap
Adam has got problems: An overly impulsive
girlfriend, A bossy shrink, an obsessive compulsive mother, no direction to
his life, and a demanding pair of imaginary friends who resemble Vince
Vaughn (circa Swingers) and a Mysterious Eskimo Shaman (respectively). To
make matters worse, Jenny (the girl who reneged on a promise to deflower
Adam in college) has come back into Adam’s life after a 4-year absence. Can
Adam confront his own insecurities, confusions, fears, and past histories in
order to set his life straight?
August 10 - 27, 2006
Thurs - Sat at 8 pm, Sun at 7 pm
Uncommon Voices
performing at Fells Point Corner Theatre
410-276-7837
251 S. Ann St.
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