Summer Shorts mini-plays in Programs A and B
 

BY South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Published: Jun 2, 2008

With so many stories to tell, costuming is the main design element, this year by regional veteran Ellis Tillman, who doesn't miss any cue.

Other Summer Shorts designers work on simple palettes that work splendidly overall, particularly in the Arsht Studio's space with the audience nearly surrounding the players. Jeff Quinn provides scenery and lighting (in a production like this with big assist from properties designer Betsy Paull-Rick). Sound is by South Florida audio guru Steve Shapiro.

"Parent Interview" is a saucy comedy by Justin Warner about parents (Terry Hardcastle and Lindsey Forgey) in a final interview to hopefully get their baby accepted at a pricey, elitist kindergarten. Elena Garcia is the admissions representative who has a secret agenda.

"Tongue Tied" by M. Thomas Cooper finds Garcia and Paul Tei in a psychiatric office, each one fighting to maintain control against sock puppets on their hands who are taking over their lives. It's a mostly funny takeoff on the familiar tales of wooden dummies that overpower their masters, with a coda that's hilarious overkill during the scene change to the next play.

"Laura Keene Goes On" is a show business valentine of sorts, but with a grisly historical basis. Writer Michael McKeever takes us backstage in the moments after Lincoln was shot to imagine how a diva with a superstar ego (Turnbull) might have reacted when told the show can't go on. The kicker is that the finale is what actually happened.

Also in A, Trovillion is a father deeply troubled over his disaffected son. The father finds unexpected comfort at his business from Nick Duckhardt as a young employee in John Yearley's "My Father's Heart."

Duckhardt also turns up in "Rats" by Susan Westfall, about parents who drop into his exotic pet store for pet food and advice. Kim Ostrenko brings in a giant snake, while hardcastle walks out with a bag of crickets and a few lessons about the animal planet.

Ostrenko is a more attractive but lonely hearted single in "In Paris, You Will Find Many Baguettes But Only One True Love." In this cute romance, she discovers a not-so-exotic secret about how her traveling friend (Garcia) became enamored with a mimist who caught her attention on the streets. "Sheepish" by Paul Rudnick opens Program B with Trovillion in a sheep suit and a long-stemmed martini glass, recounting the long saga of growing up gay and eventually finding self respect and happiness.

Trovillion and Turnbull team up again in "Eros is Sore Spelled Backwards" by Martin Russell They're a long-married couple relaxing before sleep one night while he reads a book. She discovers it's an erotic French novel, which leads to an engaging verbal tango that challenges their relationship, its sexuality, and winds up gracefully.

Tei and Trovillion are two disenchanted men whose lives have drifted apart, but are brought together again by the news of the death of an old acquaintance in Carlos Murillo's "Fragment of a Paper Airplane." Like some of the other tales, this one ends with the thematic door ajar, leaving one to ponder what might happen next, but without knowing enough to care.

"Unraveled" by Don Salvo is set in a college locker room after the home hockey team is soundly beaten. One player (Duckhardt) is still there, nursing his bruises and emotional wounds when the next scheduled occupant arrives. It's Forgey as an art student there to draw the testosterone environment, who didn't expect to become engaged in a battle of the sexes in the process.

In addition to the nine actors in the Signature ensemble, eight directors, most from around the region worked on the various playlets: Meltzer, Rafael de Acha, Clive Cholerton, Margaret Ledford, Kim St. Leon, Amy London and Stephanie Norman, and New York-based Michael Montel.

The 16 playlets so far unveiled at the Arsht Center make up the core "Signature Series" A and B of the festival. A first this year, opening June 12 through 21 at the Arsht, is Undershorts, a late-night collection of eight vignettes with a strictly adult, non-PC sensisibility. And who knows? There may be gems included in another new festival fact, Shorts 4 Kids, a series of five family fare tales promised to be fast and funny for kids of all ages.