The idea of ten-minute play festivals seems to be catching on. Inspired by the ten-minute play series that is part of the famous Humana Festival of New American Plays at Louisville's Actors' Theatre, the Heartland Theatre Company in Normal, Illinois has sponsored a national ten-minute play competition for several years. Now, the Celebration Company at the Station Theatre is following suit, sort of. While both the Humana Festival and the Heartland Festival deals with new plays, the Celebration Company's festival, entitled Raise the Roof! does not limit itself to first-production plays. Basically the brain-child of Celebration Company regular (and a former drama student of mine), Mindy Manolakes, Raise the Roof! presents an evening of eight interesting one-acts in an attempt to raise funds for The Celebration Company and their venue, The Station Theatre in Urbana, Illinois.

Trying to develop a viable plot, with an actual beginning, middle and end, and attempting to do it all in a mere ten minutes is a daunting task for the best of playwrights. Some of Tennessee Williams' most beautiful early plays (my personal favorites being "The Case of the Crushed Petunias" and "This Property is Condemned" and the one he actually withdrew from production, "Ten Blocks on the Camino Real") are one-acts - but none of them are only ten minutes long. Thornton Wilder's "Short, Happy Journey" occupies only one act, but runs well over ten minutes. Let's face it; it is an exercise that is not easy to do. Consequently, any festival of many ten-minute one acts will have some markedly better than others. This was the case in Normal this year (see my earlier review of the Heartland Theatre Company's 10-minute Play Festival on Pamphlet) and it remained the case at the Station Theatre in Urbana.

In as much as this production was a fund-raiser, additional amenities were offered first nighters. When I arrived at the theatre some fifty minutes prior to curtain, there were exceptionally good goodies. Awaiting patrons, was a café set up on the Station platform outdoors, with Adam Wolfe entertaining with his guitar and his voice, and several folks selling raffle tickets for a variety of enticing prizes offered by local merchants and others. It was all very festive and informal, and it set the tone for the evening, which began with a play entitled "Tender Offer" by Wendy Wasserstein and directed by Mindy Manolakes. This two-character play involved a business-consumed dad who has missed his daughter's big ballet recital. The plot was pretty predictable and made me think of a popular song in the 1960s by the late Harry Chapin. Rien A. Rogers, as Dad, got a good lesson in W.C. Field's admonition to actors about appearing on stage with animals and small children as Akiko Kyong-McClain, playing his dancing daughter Lisa, stole the show! Kyong-McCain is a delightful child with much stage presence and quickly won the audiences' hearts. Somewhere, I am convinced Harry Chapin and W.C. Fields were smiling and saying "We told you so!"

To me, clearly the best 10-minute piece of the evening was the second offering, "No Skronking" by Shel Silverstein and again directed by Manolakes. Folks my age remember the late Shel Silverstein from his cartoons and satires in early issues of Playboy. I remember him as a classmate of my brother at the Chicago Art Institute, and a plethora of children and parents remember him from his delightful children's books, such as Where The Sidewalk Ends and The Giving Tree. Somewhere in between all of this falls his delightful little play, "No Skronking" which was well-directed and beautifully acted by Janice Rothbaum as Bertha and Les Schulte as Arnold. While we, the audience, end up with something of an idea of what skronking might be, like Arnold, we are still basically in the dark as the ten minutes become eleven.

"Night Visits," by Simon Fill, directed by Rien A. Rogers, with Eric Sizemore, Robin Stoller and Cara Maurizi as Tom, Liz and Emily, strives mightily to develop an interesting plot in ten minutes, but it may try too hard. There are some interesting lines, involving a young doctor whose wife was killed in an auto crash a year ago to the day. The references to Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, which the doctor tried to read because his wife-to-be liked it (and even accepted his proposal of marriage in a bit of marginalia on page 50) hit home, as I have tried, on three separate occasions, to read Finnegan's Wake and failed miserably each time (my wife, however, did not accept my proposal of marriage by writing in the margin of the book - while interesting, her acceptance was not that literary). We are left at the end wondering if the patient the doctor has treated (or who has treated him) was actually flesh and blood, or was he, indeed, "touched by an angel?"

Offering No. 4, "It's Not You" by Craig Pospisil and directed by Manolakes, dealt with a dumping. In this case, it was a double dumping which provided the twist at the end. While not as convoluted as an O'Henry short story, it did offer a surprise and did deal with the dynamics of group friendships among a thirty-something bunch of New Yorkers. The cast of Mindy Manolakes, Viktoria Ford, Mike Katzenstein and Kay Welch did a very believable job in demonstrating the fragility of certain group dynamics.

The first half of the evening ended with a curious bit of post 9/11 paranoia offered in Neo-Futurist Bilal Dardai's "Staring Contest, or The Enemy in Orange." Aaron Matthew Polk was the director and also acted in the piece as Casey, which also featured David Wilhelm as Dare. The interesting bit of terror paranoia circled around these two close cousins and a goldfish, Gorton. The dialogue was mainly stream-of-consciousness monologues, but was still gripping enough to end the first part of the evening on a pretty firm note.

After intermission, the second half of the evening began with Gabrielle Reisman's "Funeral at 8:35 a.m." directed by Sam Ambler. Station Theatre goers will remember Reisman as the playwright of Brian and Shevat which played at the Station last season. Others might recall Reisman as an employee at Strawberry Fields. The play showcased the talents of Janice Rothbaum as Ceci and Lesa as Liberty, a couple of Fates at a strange funeral - while Walker Reisman played Morgan Bilkman who didn't know if he was awake, dreaming, young, old, male or female, alive or dead. While the point of the play seemed fairly clear, some of the paths taken to arrive at it were, shall we say, convoluted. The dialogue, however, was catchy and the directing and acting were excellent.

I felt the weakest script of the evening was the next 10-minute bit, "Men's Intuition" by Yale University graduate, Itamar Moses, again directed by Manolakes. My main problem with this script was what I call the "So What Factor." Basically the "So What Factor" deals with characters, in this play played by Nick Shoda and Tyler Stein, about whom I couldn't give a damn. I really don't care about who fucked who's girlfriend - I didn't care about it in the last production at the Station (Bilber's Tape, see my review in Pamphlet) and I don't care about it now. And I get very tired of listening to young males constantly referring to each other as "Man," and "Dude." Hey, Dude, come up with some characters with whom I can empathize!

But the evening ended on an interesting script - "The Battle of Bull Run Always Makes Me Cry." Kay Welch, Cara Maurizi and Mindy Manolakes (who also directed the piece) were fascinating as they post-mortemed Welch's date with Patrick, played by Aaron Matthew Polk, who did a great job as the bewildered boyfriend. A long time ago, I resigned myself to the fact that I would never understand women. This resignation certainly assisted me, as I unconditionally surrendered in the Battle of the Sexes - but the mystery of the feminine mystique still remains and still haunts. While this play did not solve the dilemma (nothing can - that's why I resigned myself to ignorance as far as women are concerned!), it did shed a light on it, if only to reinforce what I already knew. Still, it was fun, albeit rather uncomfortable fun, as I watched a lot of myself in the character of Patrick.

I cannot leave this review without mentioning the excellent musical bridges between each play that were provided beautifully by the impressive singing voices of Brandon T. Washington and Kay Welch. They are truly great.

In conclusion, I can say that I enjoyed the evening but was not overwhelmed by it. As earlier noted, the 10-minute play festival seems to be an idea whose time has come, but, should the Celebration Company at the Station Theatre decide to continue with it, I heartily suggest they contact Mike Dobbins, Artistic Director of the Heartland Theatre Company in Normal, Illinois and avail themselves of his expertise. After all, he and his company have been staging such productions for years now.

James L. "Jim" Seay
1507 Collier Avenue
Rantoul, IL  61866-3405
Ph. & Fax No. 217-893-0320
e-mail:  james.seay@mchsi.com
"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it is done, they see it
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