Summer Festival of Short Plays at 59e59 Theatre B

ThroughLine Artists with J.J. Kandel and John McCormack will present Summer Shorts 4, their fourth annual festival of new American short plays. Performances begin 30 Jul at 59E59 Theater B and continue through to 2 Sep 2010.

Summer Shorts returns for another summer of new American one-acts - the festival . celebrates theatre, summer and the short form. The festival will present eight world premiere one-act plays, in two separate evenings. The two series will run in rotating repertory.

The eight World Premieres are Jonathan's Blaze by Christopher Stetson Boal ('Order'), directed by Alexander Dinelaris; Play With The Penguin by Roger Hedden ('Bodies' and 'Rest & Motion'), directed by Billy Hopkins; The Graduation Of Grace by Wendy Kesselman ('My Sister in This House,' new adaptation of 'The Diary Of Anne Frank'), directed by Stephanie Berry; Fit by Neil Koenigsberg (producer of such films as "Pollack," "A Walk on the Moon," and "High Art"), directed by Merri Milwe; Romance by Neil LaBute ('reasons to be pretty' and 'The Shape of Things'), directed by Dolores Rice; The Expenses Of Rain by Deb Margolin (Obie Award for Sustained Excellence), directed by Laura Barnett; An Actor Prepares by Timothy Mason ('Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical' and 'Babylon Gardens'), directed by Maxwell Williams; Happy by Alan Zweibel ('700 Sundays,' and 'Saturday Night Live'), directed by Fred Berner ("Law & Order").

Rob Gould will provide scenic design, with costume design by Michael Bevins and lighting design by Greg MacPherson.

Series A runs from 30 Jul - 31 Aug 2010

Series A's four short plays are:

The Expenses of Rain
Playwright: Deb Margolin
Director: Laura Barnett
Cast: Iyaba Ibo Mandingo and Jo Yang
Synopsis: What kind of world renders kindness and madness indistinguishable? A man, driven mad by a peculiar kind of tenderness, stands before a Chinese grocery store on a beautiful, dry morning, umbrella open, awaiting his own kind of rain!

An Actor Prepares
Playwright: Timothy Mason
Director: Maxwell Williams
Cast: James Leighton and Mark Elliot Wilson
Synopsis: A former lion of the British stage is in a crisis of his own creation. Now his actor son must let him know that the ship has sailed without him.

Play with the Penquin
Playwright: Roger Hedden
Director: Billy Hopkins
Cast: Allison Daugherty, Josh Helman and Alex Manette
Synopsis: Street thugs snatch a cello as an Upper West Side couple contemplates the future.

Romance
Playwright: Neil LaBute
Director: Dolores Rice
Cast: Jeffery M. Binder and Demond Green
Synopsis: A genderless love story that re-blooms during a tale of anger, deception, and retribution. Character B tracks down Character A to a seaside residence. While they broke up years ago, B only now realizes the level of betrayal that A had brought to their relationship through a series of meaningless trysts.

Series B runs from 6 Aug - 2 Sep 2010

Series B's four short plays are:

The Graduation Of Grace
Playwright: Wendy Kesselman
Director: Stephanie Berry
Cast: Clara Hopkins Daniels
Synopsis: An adolescent girl at the top of her class, leaving her treasured school and friends, struggles to find her place in the world that now confronts her.

Happy
Playwright: Alan Zweibel
Director: Fred Berner
Cast: Scott Adsit and Arthur French
Synopsis: A middle-aged baseball fan goes to a Boca Raton apartment building seeking out its superintendent, Happy Halliday, an elderly man who once played second base for the 1962 New York Mets. The fan has brought a baseball signed by members of the team that Happy played for, which will become much more valuable once his old hero signs it.

Fit
Playwright: Neil Koenigsberg
Director: Merri Milwe
Cast: Allison Daugherty, Josh Helman and Alex Manette
Synopsis: A super-fit, wildly attractive young couple from Southern California - Billy Butch and Kimmy Rose - become involved in an unorthodox liaison with a middle-aged man from London.

Jonathan's Blaze
Playwright: Christopher Stetson Boal
Director: Alexander Dinelaris
Cast: J.J. Kandel and P.J. Sosko
Synopsis: A genderless love story that re-blooms during a tale of anger, deception, and retribution. Angels, fire, death, a gun, a Zippo lighter, and a large container of gasoline all come together in a play about redemption, the horror of inaction, and the hidden consequences of war.