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review The ten-minute play is a seemingly inexhaustible genre. There have been hundreds of these plays written since Actors Theatre of Louisville birthed the form in the late 1970s -- some great, some not, ranging from skits to fantasias. Some of the better ten-minute plays can be experienced annually in Orange County, CA in the Vanguard Theatre's annual "6@8" -- a show featuring six such plays, generally at 8:00pm. "6@8" includes the three winners of director-producer Jill Forbath's annual West Coast Ten-Minute Playwriting Contest, along with three published ten-minute plays from big-league dramatists. "6@8" is consistently interesting for two reasons. The plays often have a gritty, urban feel, and they frequently and unabashedly present gay and lesbian storylines. That praise aside, this year's "6@8" is a mixed bag: though the acting is good, the direction (and some of the scripts) frequently leave us wanting. The hero of the show is an actor named Mitchell Nunn, a face from previous "6@8" productions who turns in three varied and strong performances in three wildly different plays in about an hour. Nunn is the solid rock of the show, whether he's playing a prison warden, a forgiving father, or a man ready to sell dildos. So, on to the plays. The first-place play is Magdalena Gomez's "The Andalusian Dream", which presents a family at war with itself in terms of identity. A young Latina named Luisa (Jessica Martinez) comes of age in the mid-1960s and dreams of an Andalusian lover, a man kind of like her Papi (Eric Pina). Mami (Shannon Flinn-Lambert) makes reference to a proud Andalusian (i.e., European) heritage that has been spurned or denied by Papi, who is simultaneously of Latino and Gypsy (i.e., mostly non-European) ancestry. Young Luisa dreams of the romantic Andalusian who will sweep her away; meanwhile, Papi is taking Mami from behind in the kitchen. And then Vietnam begins. The play is dreamlike, but hard to follow. Are these people Puerto Ricans? Cubans? Gypsies? Mexicans? (Does it matter?) Do Mami and Luisa have actual or imagined Andalusian heritage? Is the man who goes off to war Papi, or the imaginary Andalusian lover? (Pina plays both parts.) What is the rosary scene for? What does the doll mean? And yes, "Why does there always have to be war, Papi?" How about offering ten bucks to the first audience member that can figure it all out? Next is Thomas Babe's "Singleton, The Medal Winner", which presents a secret gay history of the Civil War. Directed with no sense of period at all by David Grace, Babe's script studies the titular Singleton (an intense Craig Johnson), a Union soldier suffering from emotional deprivation and a wound which will require amputation of his foot. The script is truthful, even romantic in its question of love vs. war, but little of its power registers here. Things improve with Tom Snyder's "Cool Waters". The second-place winner is a terrific plea for compassion that could make Dubya shit his pants. In a Texas prison, an inmate awaits the chair at midnight. But tomorrow, we learn, will be a very special day. In fact, it will be Judgment Day, for all on earth have heard the voice of God. Never mind that; Bible-thumping Warden Branch (a sternly perfect Nunn) is determined to carry out the letter of the law (Texas law, Old Testament law; what's the difference?) and end one more murderer's life at the scheduled hour. But isn't all killing evil? No, denies Branch, never imagining a comparison between his work and the murders Loomis Biggs (Grace) has committed. The drama builds to a satisfying, intellectually resonant end. Robert Macadaeg's "Penis Play" is notable for what is probably the first appearance of a butt plug onstage in Orange County. The third place-winning script is an amusing trifle on the sales culture and the sex industry. Two entrepreneurs (Stacey Stallard, Pina) try to convince a reluctant man (Nunn) to sell sex aids. It will boost his self-esteem as well as that of his customers. Paulette Kendall's direction is swift and expert, milking the script for maximum value. And hey, that is one big butt plug. Romulus Linney's "Stars" introduces us to two people that find out they're right for one another in a roundabout way. They both secretly want edgier sexual experiences than the ones they've known. The writing is elegant, but the fact that the characters are bored rich people at a summer party in the Hamptons throws up an insurmountable barrier of indifference between the play and the audience. Johnson and Flinn-Lambert act elegantly and tell their respective stories well. The finale comes from the redoubtable Craig Lucas, one of America's most gifted playwrights. In "What I Meant Was", Lucas takes us back to his own youth (it's 1968 in Columbia, Maryland), as he imagines the conversation of understanding, forgiveness and regret his family never had when they were alive -- a dinner at which parents and children finally say what they need to say. Lucas' writing is touched with that special magic that is uniquely his: always colloquial, yet always hinting at more than matters on earth. Nunn, Stallard, Bette Muellenberg and Michael Carney achieve nice warmth under Tommie Tinker's direction. This is not one of the best "6@8"s, but still worth a visit; the production does offer an interesting smorgasbord of styles encompassed by the ten-minute play. "6
@ 8", presented by Vanguard
Theatre Ensemble and the West Coast Ten-Minute Play Festival at
the Vanguard Theatre, Copyright © 2001 The Write Word, Inc. All rights reserved. |