Here we are in Week Two of the four-week Fritz Blitz. This week we have three plays, two from San Diego and one from a San Francisco playwright. These productions are running through September 3rd, 2006. One of the joys of short plays is that they have to be written tightly. No lingering about. The payoff and the precursors have to be quick.
Passing/Together by San Diego's Richard Markgraf, with D. Candis Paule directing. Ray (John Garcia) is whiling away the day playing solitaire on his coffee table, which is also strewn with newspapers that hide a small revolver. Emily (Kara Hayes), an alleged college student is conducting a survey. After much protestation, he lets her in. What transpires is weird, including an attempted shooting and a knifing. Garcia, as a recluse, and Hayes, as a multi-emotion woman, play off each other nicely. Passing/Together is an emotional roller-coaster, well modulated under Paule's direction.
A View Unassisted, penned by San Diegan Craig Abernethy and directed by Dane Stauffer. Nancy (Wendy Savage) enters a dark public park. A pay phone rings. She picks it up. We can see "Ralph" (Duane Weekly) on his cell phone, prowling the park. They meet. He has what she wants, and they begin bargaining about payment. They arrive at an agreement with a handshake. The arrangement in this futuristic drama is twist number one, but playwright Abernethy has one more delightful turn for us. Stauffer's direction works quite well.
Vial is the work of Nicholas Turner from San Francisco and is under the direction of Jason Connors. Turner's play and Connors' direction combine to make a delightful little mystery. The integration of authentic sound effects (door chime, doors opening and closing) and fitting music define this English parlor drama. Connors uses a minimum of furniture to place the scenes in various rooms, including an off-stage dinner party.
The action takes place in a countryside manor outside of London in 1974 on, of course, a dark and rainy night. Alan Granger (Eric George) is hosting a party for some of his former school-mates. These include Nelson Woodruff (Walter Ritter), an MP, and his wife, Melissa (Jo Dempsey), actor Foster Willets (Patrick McBride) and his actress date, Josephine Randall (Susan Hammons), and Chet Morley (Steven J. Warner), a none-too-successful writer. Alan's solicitor, Yvette Smith (Sherri Allen), is also present, as is the butler, Roland (Patrick Hubbard).
Alan announces that one of the desserts has been poisoned. He also produces the antidote in a small vial. The fun begins in typical fashion -- but there's also fun twist.
I do hope you have an opportunity to see the plays. They are all fun. If there is any fault, it is that all playwrights belabor their plots just a tad too long. That, though, should not dissuade you from attending this evening's offering.
