Playwrights Platform A
"Playwrights Platform Festival, Series A"
Reviewed by Will Stackman
The 34th annual Playwrights' Platform Festival of New Plays got off to a good start this past weekend with nine varied pieces by new and longtime participants. Several were ten minute efforts, from the opener, Ludmilla Anselm's comic view of "Three Friends,"--translated by Natella Poladzade--all Russian emigres seeking male companionship to Marika Barnett's "The 11th MInute," an Absurdist dilemma for playwrights acted with brio by Ted Hewlett and Lewis D. Wheeler which opens part two. Anselm's piece would function as the opening for a longer play. George Matry Masselam's "Charlie's Gift, Sheila's Gift", on the other hand, seemed like the condensation of a longer one-act--or more. Theatre Coop hands, Peter Brown and Linda Goetz, along with Jonathon Popp, tried hard to develop unique characters in the short time allotted, but the play needs more development itself. Erik Sherman's comic confrontation at a bank, "Spare Change," never quite came up to its premise but got more than a few laughs, thanks to the efforts of Dana Ozik and Todd Radford as teller vrs. customer. Holly J. Jensen's "One Two Many" performed by Suzanne Taylor and Emanuel Ward was all setup--for a proposed threesome--but no pay off. Wrapping up the first half, Anthony Donahoe's "Dancers"--with the author playing the male lead--was slice of life meeting between two lonely people with Patti Hathaway as a plain woman who offers a place for the night to an Irishman who missed the last tube home to his flat. A plot that came up to the character potential would make the terpsichorean ending less arbitrary.
In the second half, Jonathon Myers' "Progress" was a sketch ably acted by five young actors playing college students, long on a vaguely science fiction premise but short on development and real complication. The material could be used for a longer piece or the cast reduced for a shorter piece. The most elaborate production of the evening was a mini-musical (three numbers) with book and lyrics by Hortense Gerado, music by Tony Carafone, "River of Babylon" which draws inspiration from a famous Rasta tune, but doesn't use it for any musical purpose in the show. Set in the ladies room of a posh restaurant, the action involves two couples who turn out to have prior relationships and the incipient birth of a child. The resulting farce and the musical numbers, accompanied by David Reiffel, the Program Director of NOMTI, are interesting in themselves but not fully integrated. Perhaps this material could be used for a longer show with a clearer purpose. The program ended with Frank Shefton's urban melodrama, "Wounds," first seen two summers ago at the Hovey Summer Festival held at Turtle Lane. Given the continuing street violence in the city the play has continuing relevance.
The Series B next weekend has seven scheduled plays of various lengths which include usual confrontations between couples plus a play set in a graveyard, some politics, and in closing, G.L.Horton's dark comedy about going to Grandma's for Christmas. A new feature of this year's festival is that Heuer Publishing intends to offer publication to the winners of the audience and playwrights choice winners. The Platform continues its mission of providing a chance for area playwrights to have their works heard, first in cold readings on Sunday nights out in Waltham, then on to the increasing number of new play programs which have grown in the two decades, including the Platforms own annual event. Not a few ten minute plays heard there of course are entered in the Boston Theatre Marathon. Another upcoming new play program is Hovey's Summer Festival in their home theater on Spring St. in Waltham in August, which will feature longer works. Boston area playwrighting has grown during the last three decades.
posted by will at 12:44 PM
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