Forty-Second Street Workshop One-Act Festival (1999) - Series A

Maestro, which pays homage to Keaton, Chaplin and Leonard Bernstein, is performed entirely in silence, except for the sounds of an orchestra passionately playing a symphony, and equally passionately led by the Maestro, who, having entered with dignity and verve, bows to his audience, placed upstage, then faces his orchestra, in the direction of the actual audience. Gerber's baton doesn't miss a nuance, now gentle, now demanding, now almost losing control in his enthusiasm, and always appreciative of his players. During his final bow he appears to find time to set up a date with the first violist. Then he pushes aside a curtain, to reveal a boom box from whence the sound has issued. A poignant ending closes this charming, funny, and often moving piece.

In Going, the Lewis family: Dad Alex (G.W. Reed), Mom Julia (Jill Kotler), 2 year old Marlon (Scott Andrew Kurchak), and 7 year old Matthew (Walter Hyman) take the subway from Manhattan to pay an SOS visit to Alex's ailing mother Sarah (Helen Hanft) in Brooklyn. Alex's old-maid sister Helen (Laurie Graff), Sarah's caretaker, insists Sarah lies dying, for she refuses to eat or even to get out of bed. No one's persuasions can convince Sarah to move; she is determined. During everyone's pleading the two kids drive everyone crazy with their constant demands. Matthew complains the house smells, and Marlon always wants ice cream and wants to be going! The adults want to send Sarah to a hospital. Finally a sensitive visitor (Rich Eisenberg, in one of four roles) puts his finger on the problem -- Sarah wants her bathroom ceiling fixed, and he will see to it -- and Sarah leaps from bed to the acclaim of actors and audience alike. A very witty and warm family picture, with fine performances by all, under Rosalind Gnatt's excellent direction.

In Tickets, Please! efficient businesswoman Barbara (Susanna Frazer) is on a NJ Transit train talking busily on her cell phone. A mysterious visitor appears. Introducing himself as Terry (Mark Hofmaier), he gently but briskly informs Barbara that she is about to die and that he's been sent to see to that. All goes dark for Barbara, when suddenly Terry realizes he's on the wrong train; he should be going in the opposite direction and he's picked the wrong Barbara. "They're stupid up there," he fumes. Terry corrects the error, and the two talk about Barbara's rather cold-blooded approach to life. Further, she can save her own sister's life if only Terry agrees to let Barbara remember this conversation ... This warm and funny play boasts excellent performances by Frazer and Hofmaier, and sensitive direction by Manfred Bormann.

The startling, one-character Diving For Bijoux is winningly played by Joanna McNeilly. What do we have but a budding young lesbian who surprises even herself with her unusual desires? We follow as she develops into a daring, feisty and sensual creature demanding what she needs out of life, and reaching, you'll pardon the expression, a climax of ecstatic entitlement. Unusual and compelling material, beautifully played by McNeilly under Robert Trumbull's fine-tuned direction. Overall, an impressive debut for the One-Act Festival, to be followed by Series B and C.