By Julianne Mosher
Seven small plays packed into a two-hour festival will leave you with plenty of emotions; you’ll laugh, cry, gasp and smile.
Now in its 26th year, the Festival of One-Act Plays at Port Jefferson’s Theatre Three has been the place where world premieres have been shown. Throughout it’s almost three decades, they have received 14,000 submissions worldwide. This year, 1,000 plays were sent in and seven made the cut.
Directed by Jeffrey Sanzel, the festival starts out with the somber “A Happy Child” featuring the incredible Jae Hughes and Linda May. Written by Melinda Gros, Hughes plays Rory, the child of the woman (May), who is a drifter. They won’t go home to a stable shelter where their child lives and grows, and it hurts both them and their mom. The mom expresses how much she misses them when they’re away and the end of the show will leave your heart hurting for the family that seems to be holding on by a thread.
“Monster Love,” written by D.L. Siegel, is next featuring Steve Ayle as Victor and Julia Albino as Bonnie. Bonnie is getting married, and she must plan the festivities with her scientist father, Victor Frankenstein. He really wants his late wife, Bonnie’s mother, there, so he shows off his new creation (Samantha Fierro) … And it happens to have his wife’s head. You’ll laugh at this one, it’s silly, but a clever take on modernizing the classic tale and making it more… relatable? While Fierro doesn’t have much speaking parts, she plays a great monster with her hilarious body language and facial expressions. Albino is a successful working woman and Ayle’s mad scientist is absolutely hysterical.
Port Jefferson local Melanie Acampora’s third show in the festival premiered with “Too Much Fondant” which starts off with funny banter between a husband (Evan Teich) and wife (Brittany Lacey). Teich, a workaholic, is unimpressed by a piece of cake Lacey brought home after the neighbor’s birthday party. Too much fondant can ruin a cake. But in a quick turn of events, we see their relationship completely unravel. What went wrong? Teich and Lacey’s chemistry on stage is beautiful and tragic, especially when we watch the relationship fall apart.
The tension in the room could be cut with a knife.
Before intermission, Larry (Jason Furnari), Jess (Hughes), Luke (Will Brennan), Amy (Fierro), Bobbi (Phyllis March) and Desi (Steven Uihlein) are putting on a community theater production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” in “Final Dress, or Places for the End of the World” by Matthew Green. The five are rehearsing the famous end scene, and Bobbi is tired and wants to leave the theater … which is actually a shelter from the end of the world outside. When Bobbi leaves, Jess, who has become stage manager and director, needs to figure out how to produce “Romeo and Juliet” with just four actors. This one feels all too real in a post-pandemic world.
Mark Mulkerin’s “Where Illusions End” is a sad one, but also relatable to people who have felt the effects of cancer firsthand. Cam (Furnari) and his brother Alex (Teich) are navigating how to better care for their sick mother. Alex is a magician by trade, and he is completely against their mom trying a new type of treatment that he is convinced is a scam. An illusionist, himself, he says he can do a better job at pretending to cure her than an expensive doctor can.
On a lighter note, we’re then brought to a business pitch in James McLindon’s “Sinergy.” Aubrey (Lacey) plays a businesswoman whose specialty is combining medieval prayer with modern cleansing … of your sins. She’s pitching this wellness practice to Taylor (Ayle), and to prove it works, Tistram (Uihlein), a poor man dressed in pauper’s clothing, who reluctantly will take on the sins of the consumer, clearing their conscious and making them feel great. This one is funny. It’ll be a sin to not to laugh at it.
The festival ends with “Cliff” by Teri Foltz. Cliff (Douglas Quattrock) is sitting in a waiting room anticipating a cancer diagnosis. His hurricane of a wife, Carrie (May), is there with him along with four other patients; (Albino, Brennan, Fierro and March). Cliff, a quiet, delicate man tells us the story of his life. He’s always been known as shy, kind of a doormat, and relatively awkward in social settings, but he’s kind, and deep down he wants more. This diagnosis, whether it’s negative or positive, could be the start of a new chapter for Cliff.
Quattrock’s performance received a standing ovation and should continue on throughout the remainder of the shows.
Overall, the festival was an amazing production of short and sweet plays that will appeal to everyone. There’s a reason The Festival of One-Act Plays has been selling out shows for 26 years.
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Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson presents the 26th annual Festival of One-Act Plays at the Ronald F. Peierls Theatre on the Second Stage through April 5. Tickets are $25. To order, call 631-928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com.
