One Act Festival at Phoenix Stage Company - My Review [UPDATED]

The second annual One Act Play Festival opened at Naugatuck's own Phoenix Stage Company on Thursday night. The weekend is a celebration of short plays that were submitted two years ago when the theater sent out the call for new works and over 600 were sent in from across the United States, the UK, Scotland, Japan, Russia, France and Uzbekistan. The reading committees selected a small number of scripts to be performed over four days. 

Plays ranging in length from ten to 30 minutes, comedies, dramas and farces will be performed in this hosted event.  It is not too late to enjoy some of plays that will be performed on Friday and Saturday evening at 8:00 pm and the highest ranking ones that will be repeated on Sunday at 2:00 pm.  I got to see most of the play presented on opening night and director/actress Donna Storms filled me in on what I missed while on "Mom taxi" duty.

The evening of one acts opened with a three-character piece called The Promise submitted by Jeffrey Strausser. PSC partner Agnes Dann directed this well-written piece that featured Jonathan Ross as a man divorced from Mary (played beautifully by Lucia Dressel) and currently married to the much younger and very pregnant Wendy. Emily Diedrich nailed the role of the new wife who matched the verbal daggers thrown by the ex-wife. Much was packed into this 20 minute comedy with a surprise ending and it was probably my favorite play of the evening.

Next up was a fun piece by New York playwright Donna Spector entitled Blind Date.  Ms. Spector traveled to CT to see her play come to life on opening night. John Fabiani directed this funny piece with Julian Cook and Mike Ritts as a married couple setting up single friends that were played by Elizabeth Fricke and Brian Horbal.

Brett Hursey, the author of last year's beloved Kung Foolery,  submitted a one-act called Scrambled that was directed by Ms. Storms. Leland Schick played a young newlywed named Max who inadvertently upsets his new wife Chloe, played by Alana Kingsley at her best. The audience loved laughing as their argument continued and the toaster that popped up at precisely the right time (engineered by the clever husband of Lori Poulin) was only matched by the frame that repeatedly fell off the wall. The off-stage voice of the director also helped to make this piece a hit.

Attic Monster was a more serious dramatic piece that was written by John Patrick Bray and was directed by Ms. Dressel. In this play Nicole Thomas played the young wife of Frank (Chuck Stango in a dramatic role for a big change.) Daniel Beaudoin played Frank's brother who was helping to clean out their recently deceased mother's attic.

The Breakdown was written and directed by Tim Phillips and featured the multi-talented Tom Sheehan as a psychiatrist attempting to examine a difficult patient, played by the inimitable Rob Richnavsky. Leland Schick returned to play another patient named John.

The final piece was a one-act written during the 24 hour Give Local Campaign by Ed Bassett, Tim Cleary and members of the cast. Mr. Schick played Santa, Ms. Kingsley played a princess and Denise Whelan played what was called in the script "a dress."

On Friday night the festival continued with six one acts. Canyon by Jordan Rawlins was directed by Lori Poulin and featured the talented Tori and Rob Richnavsky as a married couple and Marsha Gaylord as a young woman about to jump off a cliff...literally. The playwright of Ripple Effect was in the theater to see his play. Here Ed Bassett and Preston Bogan were directed by Ms. Richnavsky in a poignant piece about love and loss. Finding Love @ Dot Com was written by Cary Pepper and directed by Donna Storms. Michael Accuosti and Beth Steinberg played singles communicating online.