.
.
Heller Theater has for years offered a Playwright's Forum that allowed new local talents an outlet to find their theatrical voice. They could come to the theater with their still-in-progress scripts and hone their craft with others in a read-and-critique type of setting that jolted the creative juices.
And, for years, Heller has annually produced a show devoted to new one-act plays, which were submitted from far and wide for consideration. So, after taking the reins of both activities, Scott Heberling couldn't help but notice that an opportunity existed. He and others came to love the idea.
A marriage of these events was in order, he figured. The result: the first Playwright's Forum One-Act Festival.
"I mean, if you're going to do a playwrighting course at a theater, it just made sense to me that the final step would be production," Heberling said. "You're writing, and you're rewriting, and if (eventually staging the play) is what you're looking for ... This just seemed like the obvious thing to do."
It's made for some invigorating meetings of the playwrighting group every two weeks as this year's authors know they won't complete the course with a finished script and no venue at which to show it off.
"We're all very excited to see these plays come alive on stage after a year of hard work. It'll be a payoff not only for the playwrights, but for the audience," Heberling said.
This year's trio of world premieres includes:
"John's Parents and Joseph, Too," the first of several short plays by Loretta Sullivan recounting biblical tales in a quirky and contemporary manner. In this episode, Sullivan retells the story of Zachariah and Elizabeth -- John the Baptist's parents -- and how they first learn of her impending pregnancy from the angel Gabriel.
In George Calvert's intense work "The Date," we meet Helen, a single mother who's been out of the dating pool for some time and is prepared to dive back in. Her new suitor seems the perfect gentleman, a warm and charming soul, but he hides a volatile secret.
A bit of relief comes in the form of George Willson's "The S&M Library," a wacky comedy that chronicles a day in the life of a librarian at the Southern and Metro Library. Bruce encounters a stream of eccentric patrons at his workplace, suffers his incompetent immediate supervisor and dreads a visit from the big boss on what may be one of the worst days in library history.
The lineup is a bit of a mixed bag that may surprise observers -- including the playwrights themselves and the directors they've been working so closely with, Heberling said.
"These works are certainly odd," he laughed. "You're going to see three very distinct styles, and they're three very different plays: an oddball biblical retelling, one that's dead serious and a farcical comedy at the end.
"From these three very distinct voices, you're not going to see necessarily polished scripts. Not every single scene or every line is going to work. These are first productions. But you're going to see a lot of heart."
Local theater veterans George Addison and George Romero are directing the plays for Heller. Cat Dillon, a fourth member of the Playwright's Forum, also completed writing a play during the session, and "A Very Warped Meeting" is scheduled to be presented in March at Heller Theater.