GUILFORD-It’s “Shorts” season at Guilford Center Stage, which opens its 11th year with a program of eight short plays. Performances are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, April 30, and May 1 and 2, at 7:30 p.m., and May 2 at 2 p.m. at Broad Brook Community Center.
Half of the playwrights are known in the area theater community, and the other half, gathered through a search, are from other states.
The show opens with “Of Mice and Zen,” by Susan O’Hara, Jessey Ina-Lee, and Georgie Runkle, who describe the play as “a light-hearted encounter between a feisty woman and a helpful police officer.” Dyana Lee directs.
Next up is “A Blessing” by Jennifer O’Grady, of New York City, who describes her work: “On the morning her big departure, Lil and her mom Carly spar over their differing ideas of religion and what constitutes ‘comfort’ for those who remain behind.” Director is John Moran.
Two women walking their dogs meet in a park, with surprising results, in “He Looks Like a Burrito,” by local actor and playwright Rebecca Saunders, directed by Kay Beckett.
Guilford Center Stage Producer Don McLean directs the first performance since its 1964 debut, at Boston University, of his “Cows and Other Esoterica,” in which new students encounter both the vastness of a large university and each other.
Sue Kelly, assistant producer and stage manager for “Shorts,” is also on the bill with her short play, “Strangers,” a chance meeting of a young man and an older woman in a sandwich shop. The playwright directs.
An artist painting a landscape contends with passers-by critics in “The Sky,” by R.A. Pauli, of Edgewater, Maryland, directed by Kay Beckett.
In “Meeting Fingerman,” by Mark Evan Chimsky, of Portland, Maine, a novice writer — of a story set in a Jewish village in Eastern Europe — meets his idol, the literary lion of Yiddish fiction. Robert Marcus is director.
Playwright James McLindon, of Northampton, Massachusetts, comments, “Asking the person you love to marry you should be easy, but the path of love rarely is,” describing his play, “Path of Love,”which closes the show. Sue Kelly directs.
“Shorts” actors, in order of appearance, are Evelyn McLean, Tino Benson, Laura Lockie, EmilyReid, Denise Evans, Lois Scott-Conley, Nick Morgan, Sean Fitzharris, Brandy Reynolds, Ragan Anderson, Gabriel Capy, Sue Kelly, Tracy Berchi, Rus Janis, Dyana Lee, Michael Sola, and Randy Lichtenwalner.
In addition to producers Don McLean and Sue Kelly, and the casts and directors, the show comes to the stage thanks to scenic painters Nancy Detra and S. Rose Watson, principal stagehand Brandy Reynolds, and lighting designer Julie Holland, with assistance from the Guilford Center Stage Advisory Board, sponsoring organization Broad Brook Grange, and Broad Brook Community Center.
General admission tickets are $16 and are only available at the door for this show, which includes sales tax (cash, check payable to “Guilford Center Stage,” or Venmo or Paypal.) Broad Brook Community Center is at 3940 Guilford Center Road in Guilford, just under four miles west of the Guilford Country Store, and is fully accessible.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.