Wide Eyed Productions presents: A Girl Wrote It 2012
Wide Eyed Productions, now in its fifth season, has brought back its festival of female playwrights entitled A Girl Wrote It (AGWI). For the sake of full disclosure, it should be said that my work was presented by Wide Eyed as part of a the original A Girl Wrote It last season. The evening is presented in support of the 50/50 in 2020 project, an effort to increase the 17% of plays produced written by women to 50% by the year 2020.
Wide Eyed has been producing solid work for years and has returned to the venue where it all started, the Richmond Shepard Theater located at 309 East 26th Street, NYC. The show runs Thur, Fri, Sat @ 8pm and Sundays @ 3pm. Tickets are reasonably priced at $18.00.
The evening features nine short pieces by seven playwrights. Each has their own style and unique take on life, love, relationships and loss. The evening's line up:
Being Late
By - Judith Goudsmit
Yes
By Bekah Brunstetter
Bologna Sandwiches
By Erin Singleton
Penicillin
By Deirdre O’Connor
Jeans
By Liz Magee
Early Michigan
By Heather Lynn MacDonald
Robot
By Judith Goudsmit
Posing
By Laura Maria Censabella
Stones Fall, Birds Fly
By Laura Maria Censabella
Goudsmit, Singleton & Magee have written smart and poignant monologues that serve as transitions between the longer works. Liz White begins the night with the apt opener, Being Late, a perfect match of writer and actor as White has the energy and chops to sell Goudsmit's deep and idiosyncratic humor. Amy Lee Pearsall performs Singleton's monologue with a magnetism that brings life to the charm and pain of Bologna Sandwiches. Carly Knight ably portrays the disenchanted and frustrated humor to Magee's Jeans while Savvy Clement gives an impressively haunting performance of Goudsmit's Robot.
While each of these monologues entertains and provokes, AGWI's short plays are the larger attraction of the evening. Bekah Brunstetter's Yes is a witty microcosm of relationships that will tickle even the most bitterly jaded. The cast, Andrew Harris and Sarah Cook, are both that rare sort of actor that can nail comic timing and never lose a moment of honesty. Ali Scaramella and Michael Komala show the pitfalls of being young and single with performances that delight in Deirdre O'Connor's Penicillin. Heather Lynn MacDonald provides the most thoughtful piece of the evening with Early Michigan. The script provides opportunity for actors to shine and Sky Seals, Lisa Mamazza, Patrick Bonck & Judy Merrick seize it.
The final two pieces of the evening are by Wide Eyed's Resident Playwright, Laura Maria Censabella. Nate Faust and Dana Mazzenga offer two of the strongest performances of the evening in Posing and bring integrity to characters that might be dismissed as caricatures in the hands of lesser actors. The last piece of the evening, Stones Fall, Birds Fly, is peformed by Curzon Dobell and is worth the wait. Dobell's natural charisma enriches a beautifully written piece that had me floating out of the theater.
There are limitations to the production and the space, but nothing that detracts from the evening. Opinions may vary as to what piece is more enjoyable than others, but one aspect of AGWI is undeniable. The collective talent of the actors involved in A Girl Wrote It is not to be missed. Treat yourself to this night of talented writers and amazing performances!
