Entertainment

September 5, 2008

One-act wonders take center stage

By Mary Therese Biebel mbiebel@timesleader.com
Features Writer
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A woman trapped in a love triangle discovers her rival is the goddess of love, Aphrodite.

A director becomes overly involved in a kissing scene between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

And Hank and Karen Sue meet every night in a Texas roadhouse to discuss their lonely lives.

The connecting link? All three plots are part of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Theatrical Alliance’s “One Night of One-Act Wonders,” and, the directors promise, they’re all hilarious.

In fact, most of the nine one-acts, set to begin at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at The Phoenix Performing Arts Centre in Duryea, sound lighthearted, even “Medea,” which Bracken Theatre will perform.

“It’s a short, really, really silly spoof of the tragedy,” Bracken spokeswoman Kelly Clisham said. “Anything you know about the heart-wrenching and agonizing ‘Medea’ that has come down through myth and Theater 101 class, this isn’t it.”

Diva Theatre’s offering, “Hank and Karen Sue,” is “hysterical,” director Paige Balitski said. “It’s full of the silly stuff you hear in bars, from lonely people in bars.”

The Hazleton-based Pennsylvania Theater of the Performing Arts will present “Triangle,” in which the goddess Aphrodite makes an appearance.

The Lakeside Players of Lake Wallenpaupack will bring elements of both poker games and Tupperware parties to “If Men Played Cards As Women Do.”

“To Tongue or Not to Tongue,” presented by the Pennsylvania Rep Company of Monroe County, will focus on that Macbeth kiss. Hmmm. Did the Scottish Lord and Lady ever actually kiss in the original?

The Endless Mountains Theatre Co. of Susquehanna County will tell the tale of an actress trying to commit suicide in “Dreamchaser.”

The Worthington Players of Shawnee-on-Delaware will investigate how “Easy to Love” some people can be, the Rock Bottom Theater Co. of Wyoming and Susquehanna counties will examine the woes of “The Worker,” and the Phoenix Performing Arts Centre will present the struggles of an easily irritated person in “Anger Management.”

Tickets to “One Night of One-Act Wonders” are $12, and proceeds of the evening will benefit a NEPTA scholarship fund. Call 457-3589.

Tonight in Shawnee, meanwhile, Bob Hughes of Clarks Summit will portray his old friend from St. Patrick’s High School and the University of Scranton in “The Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller.”

Why exactly was the late playwright/actor from Scranton in “purgatory?”

“It’s partly the fact that he couldn’t handle Hollywood,” director Suzanne Ford said. “It was too fast-paced, too much pressure. He became such a famous person so fast.”

“The mystery remains how this guy could go from the top of the Hollywood sign and do a nosedive,” Hughes said. “Alcohol played a part, but I don’t think it explains it all.

“This was a guy who had it all, an overachieving student and athlete, and then along came the arts, and he nailed that, too.”

Whatever the reasons for Miller’s torment, Hughes considers the play a celebration of his friend’s life.

The play, written by Tom Flannery and Rodger Jacobs, will be presented at 8 tonight at the Shawnee Playhouse, 5 River Road, Shawnee-on-Delaware. Tickets are $15. Call 421-5093.

For all you Agatha Christie fans, Actors Circle is presenting “Go Back for Murder.” This may be one you haven’t seen yet.

“Whenever you hear someone is putting on Agatha Christie, it’s usually ‘Ten Little Indians,’ ‘Witness for the Prosecution’ or ‘Mousetrap,’ ” director Lou Bisignani said. “But she wrote 19, and if I live long enough, I wouldn’t mind doing them all.”

Christie wrote the book as a Hercule Poirot mystery but wrote him out of the play version because she considered the Belgian detective “too intense.”

Instead, all the questions will be asked by a lawyer as a young woman seeks to determine if her late mother was innocent of her father’s murder.

To find out, she and the lawyer invite her father’s mistress, her mother’s child by a previous marriage, that child’s governess and two friends of the family to reconstruct scenes from 16 years earlier.

“This calls for the cast to look 16 years younger,” Bisignani said. That alone may be worth the price of admission.

Show times are tonight through Sept. 14 at the Providence Playhouse, 1256 Providence Road, Scranton, with performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $12 general, $10 for seniors and $8 for students. Call 342-9707 for reservations.

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