Short Play Festival big on laughs
Nantucket Theatrical Productions has named a winner in its annual Short Play Festival competition.

"Interrupted Memories," by playwright

John Bohane, won the $200 cash prize and top honor over the 150 submissions sent in to the competition, according to Artistic Director and co-founder of NTP, Bruce Yancy. Bohane also wrote "Flying Object," which was performed this spring by NTP as part of the first wing of its festival.

"The play is about a son's retrospective of his life growing up in the context of his parents' relationship," Yancy explained. "The parents never let each

other, or him, finish a sentence." Set over the course of 40 years, with comedic historical cues (the mother opines that The Beatles will never get anywhere because their hair is too long), the story ultimately makes a point of how a fundamental lack of communication can become a form of communication itself. And how something so simple as a bad habit can lead to an entire lifetime of stunted revelations. "The dialogue between mother and father is hysterical, and I'm sure many people will identify," Yancy said. "So much is going on here - between the relationship of the parents and the relationship of each parent to him, which is very different."

The NTP adaptation of "Interrupted Memories" will feature Margaret Hitchcock as Edith - the mother, Dwight Beman as George - the father, and Yancy as the son, Jonathan. Grace Noyes will direct.

NTP will stage two other submissions as part of the fall wing of its festival: "What are Words Worth to a Long Fellow?" by Texas writer Carl L. Williams and "The Crucifixion and Moe and Ira" by Lynn-Steven Johanson.

In Williams' original work, Norris (played by Christy Kickham) is a young poet intent on living a dissolute artistic life but he is driven by necessity and the insistence of his older, more accomplished sister Phyllis (Susan McGinnis) to get his life together. "It's well written and the characters are very interesting," Yancy said of the script. The seductive twist of the show, which will be directed by Eddie Loring, is that the siblings have each inherited a substantial amount of money - Norris has blown his, and Phyllis has invested it wisely.

"Crucifixion" is a Godot-like, go-nowhere kind of play set in 30 A.D. Moe (played by Adam Skogen) is a Judaean clown and Ira (Ciaran Byrne) is a Samaritan - both are nailed to crosses for the duration of the play. In their immobile ire, they turn humorously on the unseen Centurian guard keeping watch on them.

"It's slapstick on a stick, as far as I'm concerned," said Yancy, who will direct this reading. "It's crazy, funny and weird."

According to Yancy, 150 submissions is average for the theatrical group, which allows actors to read and perform the original work of playwrights all over the country.

The Nantucket theater group, which is always looking for new performers, also hosts a reading group that meets year-round and stages Cupid's Nightmare in February - a series of shows that are related to Valentine's Day "with a skewed view of romance," said Yancy, who selects the group's material alongside NTP Literary Director and co-founder Jim Patrick. The two created the company to showcase the material of new writers, no matter their backgrounds.

"The plays are all original, and they come from amateurs to professionals, kids to grown-ups, artists to college professors," Yancy said.

I SHORT PLAY FESTIVAL
    Nantucket   Theatrical   Productions   Short   Play
Festival
When:   Thursday - Saturday, Oct. 19-21 and Oct.
26-18, 7:30 p.m.
Where: upstairs at the United Methodist Church,
2 Centre Street
Cost: $10
For reservations, please call 241-1760.