By Pat Stinson, using staff reports
When was the last time you watched a couple try to escape from a friendly alien abduction or listened to ancient microbes discuss life on Earth? Would you dare to weigh the merits of a painting created by Hitler or sip coffee flavors brewed from various disappointments?
These musings and many more are the subjects of “An Evening of New Short Plays” coming to Ludington and Manistee. The performances will be held at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts (LACA), Sept. 9-10, and at the Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts (RRCA), Sept. 13-14. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m.
The combination of 60-second to 20-minute works of local playwrights Maripat Allen and Dr. Rick Plummer will be performed by a cast of experienced local actors and directed by Plummer.
“The evening promises something for everyone, including zany comedies and hard-hitting dramas,” Allen said, adding, “Rick is an extraordinarily talented and experienced director and playwright. It’s a dream of a lifetime to have my plays staged alongside his, and directed by him.”
Allen indicated she is also impressed with the cast.
“I’ve watched or worked with almost all of them, and believe me when I tell you, they are talented,” she emphasized, “(and they are) able to bring a depth to characters that is a playwright’s dream.”
Plummer echoed her praise.
“This ensemble of actors is so talented and that (I am) certain audiences will thrill to their vivid characterizations,” he said. “Audience members can expect to laugh, cry, and feel everything in between.”
He said he appreciates the opportunity to work alongside such a talented playwright as Maripat Allen.
“Her work is always so thought-provoking and such great fun,” he remarked. “She is such a master storyteller.”
Maripat Allen has had various plays produced live and virtually in cities across the U.S. and abroad. Among her awards are two first place honors in the Community Theatre Association of Michigan playwriting contest. She began her theater acting with the Manistee Civic Players, who produced her first play, “The Would-Be Lover’s Guide”, in 2015.
Dr. Rick Plummer is well known in the area as the former director of the performing arts series at West Shore Community College and as the director of many plays at the college and at Ramsdell Theatre. He is a professional actor, director and playwright with many credits in stage, film, video and television. He taught theater for 40 years at colleges and universities and tours his one-man play, “Live from the Front: byline Ernie Pyle”, around the country.
Each evening’s performance includes 12 vignettes of varying lengths, with topics ranging from the historical and fantastical to the emotional and political. The playbill includes:
‒ “Preparing to Cross.” A woman and her husband face mortality as the woman packs a casket for her trip across the River Styx.
‒ “Monster’s Art.” A beautiful painting by Adolf Hitler is uncovered 70 years after WWII. Can we separate the quality of art from the life lived by the artist?
‒“Lost and Found.” A woman struggles with the loss of her mother as she searches for her lost car.
‒“Bitter Grounds.” A coffee shop specializes in coffees for every type of disappointment. Dee-lish!
‒“Aufseherin”. A widowed grandmother at Chanukah is haunted by the ghosts of three female French resistance fighters.
‒“What Happened in Greyston”. Sisters hear of the questionable death of a friend.
‒“One-Minute Plays”. Two characters in three situations encounter unexpected twists and turns as they explore relationships.
‒“Xiernon from Glixtar”. A couple try to escape a friendly alien abduction.
‒“Becoming Zelenskyy”. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is interviewed, but is it an interrogation or something else?
‒“Will of Steel”. A 93-year-old Ukrainian Holocaust survivor relives the horrors of a WWII massacre, as she endures a present-day bombardment of Kiev.
‒“Aussie Hilltop”. It is 3.5 billion years in the past. Life on Earth has just begun, and microbial characters contemplate their future while watching the sunset.
‒“Cry Ki Yippie Yi”. A man and woman are trapped in a dystopian world in which the state controls all reproductive rights—but not in the way you might expect.
LACA is located at 107 South Harrison Street in Ludington. RRCA is found at the intersection of Maple and First streets in Manistee. For tickets and information to the Ludington performances, contact LACA at 231-845-2787 or go to ludingtonartscenter.org. For Manistee performances, contact RRCA at 231-398-9770 or go to ramsdelltheatre.org.
