10 Chances to Make Great Theatre

Half Moon Theatre's 10-minute Play Festival at the Oakwood Friends School in Poughkeepsie, NY was an exciting night of theater that really showcased our company and the playwrights who participated in the event.

The theme of this year's festival was anniversaries and it was the fifth anniversary of Half Moon Theatre being established. The first play was GUS AND GLORY by Darrah Cloud, the director of the newly formed Playwright's Collective. The play is a wonderful exploration of how we relate to each other (or not) in relationships by showing a couple who go to a drunk psychic and become possessed by the spirits of their dead mother and uncle.

AUNT PITTIPAT is a tour-de-force monologue written by David Simpatico about the first anniversary of 9/11 and remembering the loss of a loved one who was more than what the New York Times called, "A Planner of Family Fun." The writing is lyric, powerful and moving and the images will stay with you for awhile, much like the images from that event.

DEDICATED, by Suzanne Bradbeer, is another powerful piece about a mother who does not want her to son to go off to college because she can't seem to move on from her husband's death.

DAY ONE is about a young, newly married couple trying to get used to each other at a cabin in the woods. The husband is highly allergic to everything, and his agitation also seems to be symbolic of the anxiety he is having on day one of his new marriage.

MARY'S EDDY by Y York is a surreal piece about a woman who starts to make up an "imaginary" lover when her husband is out of the room. She swaggers around, trying to look sexy, changing voices for both herself and her lover. When her husband catches her, he says his name, trying to bring her back to reality.

DEAR CHINA by Rob Ackerman is about three window dressers in Brooklyn who take turns addressing the titular country about it's woes and wonders. I had the wonderful opportunity to play Duke in the production.

GOTCHADAY is a play by Rob Handel that shows us two parents who have adopted an Asian boy and they are semi-celebrating his "gotcha day" when they made the trip to Hanoi to claim him. They take turns telling their version of that day. The wife cajoles the husband into singing the lullaby that he has been singing to their son because it is the old Tin Pan Alley tune, "Rockabye your Baby to a Dixie Melody." The husband worries that his carefully edited but racist tune will somehow corrupt their adopted child in some way, but he sings it anyway, because it puts him to sleep. I had the privilege of directing this lovely piece and it was well received.

PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE is a play by Jude Albert that I didn't get to see because I was backstage tonight and one of the actors was ill during the rehearsal. From the audience response it was quite powerful.

I also had the great fortune to direct Chisa Hutchinson's BLUE LABEL. A milquetoast of a man comes into a tattoo parlor every year on the anniversary of his wife's death to get a hash mark placed above his heart. This is the tenth year and the tattoo artist has broken out a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue to celebrate. They battle verbally and are attracted to one another and eventually he takes a step forward and kind of asks the tattoo artist out at the end. A very sweet and moving exploration of how to move on from sadness and loss.

The final play is ANNIVERSARY SEASON by Jenny Lyn Bader and this one skips ahead throughout the years of a couple's life as they celebrate their wedding anniversary with threats of hurricanes and unwanted guests.

I enjoy being a part of this festival because I like that we can put together a moving, funny, thought-provoking evening of theater without too much fuss and worry. We hold the scripts in hand, use minimal props, costumes, lighting and sound and the effectiveness of good words spoken by good actors is hard to top. I recommend that everyone experience something similar at least once in their lives. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how moving and enjoyable an experience it can be. Keep LLC'ing!

*Update: We've already had another 10 Minute Play Festival this year (2013)!