THE THEATER MIRROR, New England's LIVE Theater Guide
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MARQUEE | USHER | SEATS |
INTERMISSION | CURTAIN |
note: entire contents copyright 2008 by Larry Stark
This will not be a review. The five plays I will list below will disappear by Sunday morning --- unless some of them get enough audience votes to be reprised a week from now. But if I even try to summarize the plots, it could be called, well "electioneering" in an exceptional event in which competition is not at all what's important. Instead of reviewing, let me explain what went on:
The Mill 6 Collaborative looked around for ten playwrights, ten directors, and twenty actors --- all of them brave and inventive theater people. A team of writer and director then rode one of the five colorful lines of The T. The writer got 24 hours to write a script, the actors got a day of rehearsal and then, out-a-the-hat, after one tech-rehearsal the five ten-minute plays were thrown into the laps of the audience. The faint smells of adrenalin and coffee might be apparent, but the quality of Everyone's contribution in every one of the plays (so far!) is astonishing. Each playlet took place "on the T", so a bare stage with five chairs were the sets, and lighting-effects were minimal, and each one featured two people. That's about it.
What happens on The T? Well, what happens when two people stuck in a temporary delay notice they're using the same words on their cell-phones? What if father and son are a little late for a wedding? What if a T-lover tries to convince a car-driver that The T is really The Way To Go? What if a born-again proselyte tries to convert a homeless woman? What if two articulate dolphins get on at Aquarium Station?
THAT's what happens on The T!
And these, so far, are the brave people who make it happen:
Directed by Barlow Adamson
Mike Bash & Julie Specht
Directed by Jeremy Johnson
Brashani Reece & Irene Daly
Directed by A. Nora Long
Rodney Raftery & George Saulnier
Directed by Antoine A. Gagnon
Greer Rooney & Andrew Winson
Directed by Meg Taintor
Tony Dangerfield & Rafael Marinho & George Saulnier
Next week there will be five new (Very New) plays in what they'll call "The Outbound Run" and the week-end after will highlight the five plays chosen by the audience. If you're part of the audience, you'll be able to vote. But The Factory Theatre seats only 52 and there's not much time left.
What are you waiting for?
Love,
===Anon.
( a k a larry stark)