Burton Leavitt Theatre

Pieces

Burton Leavitt Theatre

Windham Theatre Guild

779 Main St

Willimantic, CT

March 6-7, 2020

The collection of six plays is called Pieces because each play is part of a larger script that the playwright is working on. This is the second year of the Windham Theater Guild’s “Playwrights Showcase.”

The works range from absurdist comedy to serious investigations of social issues.

The Guild has consistently offered quality productions of new work, older established plays and now, we have the chance to see lesser known playwrights who are perfecting their chops.

The Funny Affair by J. Mason Beiter is a great way to start the evening. He is a clown. She is leaving him for another man. She says that among his many great qualities, the other man, “has great hands.” He is a mime. The clown, and the mime, face off in a fight to the…death?

I was fortunate enough to see this short play done at another venue as a cold reading, but this production put it on its feet and brought it to life. Beiter has a strong sense of what makes a production work: clearly differentiated characters, opportunity for physical movement that reinforces the spoken word, and a linguistically satisfying text that pulls the audience on with forward momentum.

With: Harry Gagne, Olivia Kurnyk, Jake Buckley

Curse You, Matt Damon by Jill Zarcone brings us two elderly sisters who grow pot in their basement. This wouldn’t be so dangerous except that one of them is having an affair with a South Boston policeman.  The other one is jealous.

Playwright Zarcone has a wonderful sense of the absurd and a great sense of timing. Although she writes with authority she shows us a kind of hesitance and unsureness in her characters that is very playable by actors.

With: Michele Abbazia, Jim York, Kody Mileski, and by special arrangement, Sharon Soderbergh.

Playing by the Rules by Peter DeNegre. In the script the athlete wants the tutor to help him put the paper he bought on-line into his own words. The frat house is never seen from the inside but various characters enter and exit through the window and the door.

Mixed signals, frat rape of the young tutor Francis, and boozy seduction of women are par for the course in this comedy that makes us stop and think about what we accept as funny.

With: Alex Gentile, Raven Dillon, Dan Reynolds, and Rachel Lewis.  

Kindling by Rebecca Steigelfest is the most poetic of the pieces offered in this evening of one acts. It also seemed to be the most personal-confessional.  If I have the quote right Steigelfest   says “My throat is sore with words I haven’t spoken.”

Kindling portrays the character (and maybe the writer) as struggling to overcome a violent betrayal that threatens her ability to go forward with life. But she says, “I won’t burn out, I’ll burn through.”

            Performed as a monologue by the author.

The Waiting Room by Scotty Duval brings together Mozart and several people from the 21st Century. They are caught at the limen between this life and “The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.”

The group of recently deceased souls meets in between life and the afterlife, unable to let go of life due to regrets and unfulfilled dreams. We see shades of Sartre’s No Exit (Huis Clos).

Whose fault is it that they died, committed suicide, had a fatal accident. Does responsibility end with our life on earth, or does it continue in the afterlife? Can we do anything to fix it, after the fact? These are some of the questions that come to mind as we watch the longest of the plays offered this evening. It has 3 scenes, the second scene is played in the middle aisle of the theatre and is very powerful monologue that ties the first two together.

With: Jacob Wurst, Joshua Stern, Jay Barbeau, Natalie Pavone, Carly Oliver, Julianna Cargo, and Scotty Duval.

Jorts by Julianna Cargo is a fashion-forward fashion-disaster. Cargo (the playwright not the pants) tells us that fashion is a way of showing who you are without speaking. But in doing so she gives us a blizzard of comedic dialogue.

Words are a kind of clothing. Writing for performance, like understanding retail, is not as easy as it seems. Cargo manages both with a sense of style.

With: Zoë Hayn, Allison Sawtelle, Jake Lachinet, Joe Martin, and Kody Mileski.

The Windham Theatre Guild is to be commended for their commitment to developing new talent. The “WTG Playwrights” is a group that will bring increased audience and admiration to the whole Windham Theatre Guild organization.