One Act Play Festival — Show B at The Magnetic Theatre
As music venues all over Asheville pulled off a major logistical feat, staging a few hundred bands over three days during AVLFest, the Magnetic Theatre was coordinating an admirable coup of its own with the 4th annual One Act Play Festival, pulling together a total of 24 works, 17 directors and more than 70 actors for a short play blitz shown over the course of two separate performances.
The fest is a testament to this tight and dedicated theater community, and the shuffling of actors in the hallway, shows of support from fellow thespians in the audience, and the come-what-may quick pacing gave the Magnetic — already a haven for fringe productions — a notable DIY aesthetic with even a slightly punk rock feel.
The 12 plays featured in “Show B” (see review for Show A here) ping-pong back and forth between hilarity, intrigue, and insight, and the bite-sized stories are a neat way to see how much writers and performers can pack into 10-15 minutes of stage time. In some cases, it’s a lot — “What’s in the Basement, Honey?” by Oviedo, Fla.-based Bethany Dickens Assaf, and “Princess Poppy’s Perfect Husband” by Charlottesville, Va.’s Rainah Gregory had the audience absolutely howling, while the poignant and moving “Forwarding Instructions” by Eldersburg, Md.-based Jeff Dunne manage to get quickly and compassionately to the heart of rejection, abandonment, and homelessness. There are also some unexpected twists and turns, like the menacing reveal in Louisville, Ky. playwright Nicholas Hulstine’s “How Long Before Our Hearts Explode?” and a grisly but comical turn towards sci-fi horror in “Flyblown Meat” from Seattle’s Nelle Tankus.
The switches from play to play happen so often and so quickly that there isn’t much to speak of in the way of sets — the shows rely primarily on a spare black backdrop and a stage adorned with chairs and wooden crates to allow for the speedy changes. I haven’t seen the notes used by show runner Gina Purri, lighting designer Abby Auman, or board operators Kathleen Ayers and Walker Linkus, but I assume it’s a lot. But the team pulled it off, with much if not all of the stage work being done by the actors themselves.
Since there is still the opportunity to vote for favorites to appear in the “Best of the Fest” program on Sunday, Aug. 13, I won’t risk swaying ballots by revealing my personal favorites, and I won’t issue any spoilers not already in the extensive notes about each play covering the wall outside the theater. But I will say that the brief vignettes do allow for some of the players to truly shine. Sammi Mills is unstoppably hilarious as Doris in “What’s in the Basement Honey?” showing the extent she will go to protect domestic peace in a home that’s literally cursed.
So too are George Awad’s comedic timing as the dad in the family confessional “Haunted House” by Greensboro’s Travis Byram, and Skylar Goff’s expressive emoting in the bawdy farcical fairytale “Princess Poppy’s Perfect Husband.” Veris Meyer-Wilde and Quinn Terry, playing an older and younger version of the same character, are at once heartbreaking and inspiring in the coming out tale “(Trans)Parency,” by Asheville’s Eli Hamilton and Kai Strange. And Luke Thompson’s back-to-back wry slacker turns in both the Christmas story revamp “A Holiday Song,” by Asheville’s Hunter Miyan and in “Flyblown Meat” are the stuff comedic trademarks are born from.
Coming in at just over three hours with one intermission, the show is a long sit, but the rapid-fire changes appeal to a short attention span, and the variety of stories told is satisfying. And while there are a few plays that may have felt a bit long for their premises, others feel like a good launching point for a larger story. For instance, I’d love to see more of Miami, Fla. resident Alicia K. Garcia’s “Space Latinas” — which is, to my memory, the only play in Show B featuring BIPOC characters — and its exploration of the place of Latina women in the universe.
The One Act Festival is undoubtedly a capital “E” event for the local theater troupe, as actors become directors, writers become actors, and actors pull off double or triple roles throughout the productions. For instance, Kai Strange, co-writer of “(Trans)Parency,” takes the lead in the blisteringly biting “It All Adds Up,” written by Detroit, Mich.’s J.R. Spaudling Jr., and in the roommate yarn “I’m Really Glad You’re Here,” by NYC’s Gianfranco Lentini, Quinn Terry and Sammi Mills shake off the intensity of their previous roles to have some good downtime in a new apartment.
The cross-collaboration of actors and directors working onstage and behind the scenes is so complex that it would take a wall of playbills and True-Detective-style lines of red yarn to show how all the connections work. But they do work, and the One Act Play Festival is an enjoyable, exciting, and offbeat theater experience.
The 4th Annual One Act Play Festival runs through Sunday, Aug. 13 at the Magnetic Theatre. For details and tickets, visit themagnetictheatre.org.
(Photo by JenBen Media)
