NEW PLAYS

OLLIE’S DAY OUT

OLLIE at the Bar.

OLLIE, 84, awakes one day to find his shoes wrapped and waiting under the Christmas tree.  He takes this as a ‘suggestion’, and wandering away from his assisted care facility finds himself in Fitzgeralds, an upscale hotel bar.  He immediately takes a shine to NIKI, who is waiting there for her boyfriend, PAUL to show.  Love struck, OLLIE decides to try and woo her. 

 While talking with OLLIE, NIKI lets it drop that she is pregnant.  OLLIE offers to marry her.  PAUL, the father, who arrives late, is hesitant to get married.  OLLIE’s ardor and commitment battle with PAUL’s youth and hesitance for the heart of NIKI.

To read the first 10 pages of this script, click on OLLIE’S DAY OUT under “Pages” to the right….     – Editor

Advertisement

Scot Bastian, Roving Pundit

 

   

This Critic, For the Next Couple of Months, Does not Want to see any Plays with Women Speaking About Their Vaginas

The Saint Valentine’s Day Push-Back

Editor:  After all this lovey-dovey it’s only natural that the System must re-boot; re-callibrate; and realize where it lives.  Here’s the first in a flurry of broadsides this awakening World has sent us:

 

 

How I Learned to Rant

 

reviewed by Scot Bastian

“Let me state at the outset that I’m in a particularly curmudgeonly mood today. It must be hard for a professional critic (which I definitely and emphatically am not) to objectively separate out the value of a work of art from their mindset when they experience it. Anyhow, with that caveat, here goes. Last night I saw the play “How I Learned to Drive” by Paula Vogel, which was capably staged by the folks at Stone Soup Theatre. They did a fine job. Good acting, staging, directing and, based on the short talk-back after the the play (which I did not participate in) a real audience-pleaser. I hated it. The play is about Uncle Peck who, over the course of his relationship with his niece, “Li’l Bit,” tries to seduce her, beginning at the age of 11 right on through to the age of 18. The uncle provides emotional support and a “haven” for Li’l Bit from her weird highly-sexualized family. Uncle Peck never changes. He’s a manipulative scumbag in the beginning, going through various deviant behaviors throughout, and he ends as a scumbag. The tone of Uncle Peck’s character is sympathetic, but he seems closer to pathetic to me, and Li’l Bit does change—but she seems more like a survivor than a hero. Perhaps many in the audience thought this play “insightful,” but I found it as inspiring as “The Jerry Springer Show.” I’m just a little sick of seeing theater that, in an attempt to be “edgy” or clever and sophisticated, ends up as pseudo-intellectual clap-trap. (See note above about bad mood.) For the record, for at least the next couple of months I don’t want to see any plays about: 1) Women talking about their vaginas, 2) People screwing goats, or, 3) Priest pedophiles. Maybe I’ll go and see “The Misanthrope” at the Odd Duck Theater again—if it’s still playing—I can relate to the main character.
Rant mode off.
I feel better now.”

– Scot 

Photo by Carl Nelson

Plays and Such with Jorj Savage

Editor’s Note:  Jorj will get to your show as soon as is possible.

Jorj Picking Up the Money Which Several Have Sent: Thank You!

“Nebunele Theater Presents FRIEND’S ENEMY by ensemble at Stone Stone Soup Upstage.  I took some friends visiting from Alaska to the last performance August 29th.  We sat in the front row and it was theater of Kings.  We were just a few feet from the actors.  We got some real close ups.

It wasn’t an ecology message but a play about an organization that purchased land for wildlife habitat then let logging companies log it.  Nina, the daughter of the deceased co-founder, is investigating what is really going on.

The co-founder and now CEO Laura Richards, played by company founder Alissa Mortensen, is having a lesbian relationship with her secretary Courtney.  When Nina finds out the truth about the company Laura has to resign and it causes a breakup in her relationship with Courtney played by Grace Booth..  A eco-terrorist played by Erwin Galan is well portrayed. There is use of sound overs and a scrim.  As Nina writes her piece for Newsweek scenes are seen typed out on the screen and then deleted as Nina reworks her story.  Sophie Nimmannit was very effective as Nina, a woman who finds the truth about her father, and finds the truth about her mother’s work, and finally finds her own identity.

FRIEND’S ENEMY ran 70 minutes without an intermission so it could be called a long one act in keeping with Stone Soups mission of doing one act plays.

My friends from Alaska, not big theater goers, were very impressed and entertained. The script was a successful collaborative effort. The troup of 9 even went on a two week retreat to the forests of Northern California to ‘augment research’.   – Jorj”

Photo by Carl Nelson