Third Annual
One-Act Festival

January 13 - February 5
Various Playwrights and Directors

A compilation of the winners of the Elite Theatre Company’s 2011 Play Writing Competition.

February 24 - April 1
Drama by F. Andrew Leslie
from the novel by William E. Barrett
Directed by Andrea Tate

Having decided to travel about the country after his discharge from the army, Homer Smith has fixed up a bed in the back of his station wagon and headed west, his plan being to stop for a day's work here and there as the spirit moves him. Rolling through a parched valley in the remote Southwest he encounters a group of nuns working in the dusty fields, and his offer to help them for hire is quickly accepted. His job is to fix a leaky roof, but when the time comes to discuss payment the rather imperious Mother Superior seems to understand even less English than usual. Although he has every intention of insisting on his pay and moving on, Homer stays for supper, and then another day, and another. Almost without realizing it he is drawn into the life of the nuns—giving them English lessons, buying food for their table, driving them to Mass, singing to them in the evenings and, most important, coming to share the dream of building the chapel which is Mother Maria Marthe's fondest hope. But the project proves to be a burdensome and discouraging one and as the weeks wear on Homer, with no bricks, no pay and no real hope for success, loses heart and resolves to go. He leaves, but just as Mother Maria Marthe is convinced that God sent Homer to her in the first place, so does she know in her heart that he will return—and he does. With the help of the local farmers and the gift of many adobe bricks, the chapel becomes a reality and Homer, despite his staunch Baptist background, is invited to sit in the front pew for the first Mass to be said in it. But his work is done, faith has earned its reward, and he is free to go—this time for good. Yet even as he heads off into the quiet night the meaning of what he has accomplished begins to flourish and grow, creating a legend which, in time, brings fame and success to the nuns and instills in their hearts a lasting gratitude for the simple man who saw their need and gave unselfishly of himself to meet it.

April 20 - May 27
Thriller by Tom Eubanks
World Premiere
Directed by Brian Robert Harris

Sixteen-year-old Hannah lives in a California girls' dormitory. When a night watchman named Marshall begins coming to her room at odd hours to reprimand her and her two fellow students for curfew violations, things begin to disappear from her room and mysteriously her ability to play a multitude of musical instruments disappears as well. Marshall and Hannah's relationship takes them on a journey of self-discovery that exhumes Hannah's past and turns her reality into a nightmare of delusion and deception – and nothing will awaken the truth like confronting pure evil.

June 15 - July 22
Comedy by Moliere
Directed by Elissa Polansky

The widower Harpagon, so cheap he'd swipe the pennies off a dead man's eyes, rules his roost with a tight, iron fist. His unhappy, rebellious children, Cléante and Elise, are afraid to tell him of their romantic attachments: Cléante has fallen in love with the beautiful but penniless Mariane, who lives with her invalid mother, and Elise has secretly promised to wed Valère, a young charmer of unknown parentage who has flattered his way into being Harpagon's chief steward. When Harpagon reveals his own marital designs—he will wed Mariane himself and yoke Elise to the wealthy but aged Seigneur Anselme—children, suitors, disgruntled servants, and the wily Jill-of-all-trades Frosine conspire to foil the miser before the marriages can take place. When Harpagon's treasure, buried in the backyard, is stolen, he rounds up all the suspects and threatens torture and imprisonment. Only the last-minute arrival of Seigneur Anselme, bearing secrets of his own, can unite the proper couples and restore Harpagon to his one true love—40,000 pounds in gold.

August 10 - September 16
Drama by Cormac McCarthy
Directed by Tom Eubanks

On a subway platform in New York City, an ex-con from the South saves the life of an intellectual atheist who wasn't looking for salvation. Now, the reformed murderer-turned-savior ventures to offer salvation of another kind, bringing the failed suicide victim back to his Harlem apartment for an articulate and moving debate about truth, fiction and belief. The two men are named Black and White, as indeed they are. White is disillusioned and disenchanted by the modern world. Black had an epiphany after a nasty knife fight in the penitentiary and discovered a faith that he now wants to share with others, or at least with White. Black begins in control, but it quickly becomes clear that the nonbeliever is much more secure in his convictions than the believer. And when White goes on the attack, his nihilism steam rolls his opponent. Is Black a guardian angel or just a sinner looking for redemption? Was White really saved, or is he stuck in a kind of purgatory?

October 5 - November 11
Dark Comedy by George F. Walker
Directed by Peter Krause

Set in a rough Toronto neighborhood, Escape from Happiness tells the story of Nora and her three adult daughters: the dutiful Gail, activist lawyer Elizabeth and self-help junkie Mary-Ann. Rejoining the family after a 10-year disappearance is Tom, Nora's ex-cop husband — though Nora insists that the semi-catatonic man now living upstairs merely resembles her children's father. Escape from Happiness could be compared to classic American comedies such as You Can't Take It with You, Moss Hart and George S. Kauffman's 1936 screwball portrait of a quirky Brooklyn household. Yet it also contains grittier, almost Tarantinolike elements. The play opens with Gail's husband, Junior, lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. Sent to investigate are Diane and Mike, a pair of mismatched police officers who believe the attack might be linked to organized crime. Instead, they discover drugs in the family basement and arrest Nora for possession. From that, all hell breaks loose. But for all the outrageousness, in some ways it's also very conservative. Despite the terrible things that happen, this seemingly hopeless little family is able to stick together and rise above.

November 30 - December 16
6th Annual Youth Production
TO BE ANNOUNCED

All performances are at
8 pm on Fridays (8:30 pm 6/15-8/17) and Saturdays, and 2 pm on Sundays

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