Everyday life can easily turn into theatre. Political theatre, familial theatre, personal theatre: We encounter it all the time. But good writers and directors can translate that onstage and make the audience connect with a scene they may have never encountered before.
Even better, playwrights, directors and actors can translate it into one-act plays.
Island Theatre Workshop (ITW) opens its annual one-act play festival tonight with works by George Bernard Shaw, Christopher Durang, Mary Louise Wilson and an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven this weekend and next weekend, as well as matinees this Saturday and both Sundays.
Kevin Ryan, vice president of ITW, chose many of the plays being performed because he recognized people he knew in the characters.
“When I read Deer Play a year ago, I was hooked because who hasn’t made a change in their life and done something new and run up against a wall?” Mr. Ryan, who’s directing the one-act by Mary Louise Wilson, said earlier this week.
“Who hasn’t done something and it completely changes their life, if not for that moment but the long term? It caught me. It is a bit of a farce, but I just found when I read it these are people I know.”
Deer Play tells the story of two longtime actresses catching up on old times, one of whom is still active on Broadway and the other who has decided to drop the act and take up gardening.
Linda Berg paused in the middle of her line at rehearsal on Tuesday afternoon. She plays the daydreaming but borderline hysterical gardener.
“Can I ask something about this? I kind of think I don’t want to listen to her at all, how do I these are all such non sequiturs, I can’t decide what Madge’s motivation is.”
Ms. Berg was spewing out complex Latin words of Madge’s prized flowers, effortlessly letting phlox paniculata and rosa rugosa role off her tongue, while Madge’s friend Mabel (played by Shelly Brown) listened with one ear and a raised eyebrow.
“You’re talking at each other, you’re not dialoguing,” Mr. Ryan directed. “Stay in your world, stay up. This is the joy.”
Ms. Berg and Ms. Brown have worked together many times before, and their chemistry is infectious. Many of the players have worked with each other in the past and been a part of ITW for years, making it easier for them to pick up on tones and gestures. Former ITW artistic director Lee Fierro opens the festival with a dialogue by Christopher Durang in Mrs. Sorken. The title character has been asked to give the opening comments to a one-act play festival, much like ITW’s, and gives a brief overview of the history of drama.
“It follows through a very twisted pathway of interconnection,” Mr. Ryan explained. “To work with someone in a monologue situation is very different. You’re always looking for wonderful characters, whether they’re tragic, triumphant or comical. With Mrs. Sorken, the character jumped right off the page as a very endearing person that I would like to hear speak.”
Other monologues in the festival include a performance by Mr. Ryan about the reality and faults of Prince Charming, as well as Brian Morey performing I Am Hamlet. Mr. Ryan describes Joe Siricussa’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s play as a “very modern, bordering on pop/slash rock musical version of the story in 11 scenes.”
ITW is also welcoming back regional high school drama students tonight and tomorrow afternoon, who will perform an original play called Laces. Set during the Holocaust, Laces was performed at the state high school theatre competition last week.
With the exception of Laces, most of the plays are on the comedic side. Gorge Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan tells the story of the heroine in a lighter fashion. Ms. Fierro is directing an excerpt of the play with Don Lyons, Brad Austin, Mike Gilman and Katrina Nevin as Joan of Arc.
Like Ms. Berg and Ms. Brown, Ms. Fierro enjoys working with a familiar bunch of players.
“It’s always fun working with Don, he’s a challenge and he has so much natural energy,” Ms. Fierro said in a phone interview this week. “It’s like a vaudeville scene.”
Casting for community theatre proves more difficult every year, Ms. Fierro said, but if she hadn’t been able to cast Ms. Nevin as Joan, she might not have done it at all.
“She’s a natural Saint Joan,” Ms. Fierro said. “There are some splendid young actors around the Island. But Joans are born, not made, and Katrina is a born Joan.”
The excerpt selected for the festival is one of the more comedic acts, but Ms. Fierro chose it because of its natural narrative arc.
“The man has a huge breadth of knowledge and imagination,” Ms. Fierro said. “Next to Shakespeare I think Shaw rates tops the way he uses the English language. He has an incredible knowledge of the characters in each of his plays.
“As an actor I fell in love with him. He seems to understand actors, he gives them breadth, he allows them their own breadth. And he’s witty. The man is witty. But he’s also very spiritual.”
ITW’s One-Act Play Festival is March 10 through 13, and March 17 through 20 at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven at 7:30 p.m. Sunday matinees are at 3 p.m. Tickets are $10 plus an item for the Island Food Pantry.
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