Night of 1000 Plays at Haddonfield Plays and Players

The play’s the thing, William Shakespeare wrote. This June 7^th and 8^th, plays were about a lot of things. Haddonfield Plays and Players hosted their annual Night of 1000 Plays special program. The company presented 24 short pieces submitted by local playwrights. I attended the Saturday, June 8^th performance.

HPP Artistic Director Pat DeFusco directed the program. Mr. DeFusco selected a variety of dramatic styles for this endeavor. They ranged from the comical (such as David Lewinson’s Crazy), to the topical (Allie Costa’s Failure to Communicate) to the absurd (Absurdity by Jim Moss). They even included a philosophical piece contrasting the ancients’ views of gender roles with the modern one. (RA Pauli’s Man & Woman) Drama containing powerful soliloquys made the bill, as well. (Scot Walker’s Whole and Lily’s Fine by John O’Hara.)

The program’s sequence reminded me of Pink Floyd’s Echoes. On that best of compilation, producers mixed various songs from the band’s catalog into a sequence. The arrangement made them flow together naturally. Some have said the mix makes the album sound like one song.

The same could be said of Mr. DeFusco’s arrangement for this program. Somehow all these diverse plays flowed well with one another. That’s a testament to Mr. DeFusco’s creativity.

The Haddonfield Plays and Players stage became a busy place on Friday and Saturday nights. They still managed to present all 24 plays in less than two hours. Your correspondent has a rule about writing: the running time of anything I review should be greater than the time it takes to read my assessment of it. To adhere to that philosophy, I’m going to borrow an idea from another show I attended at HPP. High Fidelity’s protagonist, Rob, had a “top five” list for everything. For this post, I’m going to present my “top six” plays performed.

Two shows impressed through their imaginative use of language. Ron Baruch’s Love (directed by Pat DeFusco) took a minimalist approach. The playwright selected a difficult setting in which to do so. Amber Kusching played a director instructing two actors on how to play a scene. Performers Maddox Morfit-Tighe and Cassidy Scherz enacted a heartwarming result.

Jack Helbig crafted creative language in Thinking of Her Made Him Think of Her (directed by Bill Fikaris). The dialog included repetition a bit reminiscent of some passages in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal. Performers Zach Martin and Amanda Barrish played a couple expressing their inner feelings towards one another. Repeating the same words in different context can become comparable to speaking in tongue twisters. Both performers handled this challenge flawlessly.

George Sapio also used language ingeniously in his The One-Minute Mamet (directed by Pat DeFusco). Anecdotally it’s said that the average person uses only 23 different English words during a 24 hour period. Based on Mr. Sapio’s dialog, it seems Mr. Mamet gets by with two. Performers Lisa Croce, Pat DeFusco, Andrea Veneziano, Victor A. Martinez and Steve Kreal expressed the delicate nuances of the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright’s prose.

Playwright John O’Hara drew on the subject of theatre for his work. Cast (directed by Omi Parrilla-Dunne) envisioned what happens to actors after they die. Performers Steve Kreal, Lisa Croce, Connor Twigg and Lili Myers took the audience on a journey through the theatrical equivalent of the afterlife.

Mr. O’Hara’s Fan-Tastic (directed by Pat DeFusco) presented a twist on the traditional sports bar. The playwright envisioned the concept of a “theatre bar”: a place where supporters of the arts could pound a few brewskies with like-minded people. Performers Steve Kreal, Bonnie Kapenstein, Victor A. Martinez and Pat DeFusco brought this world to life.

Patti Perry both wrote and directed the evening’s concluding piece, Young Miss Sissy Fanning. This parody of Inside the Actors’ Studio contemplated the extremes aging actresses will pursue in order to remain relevant. It featured performers Pat DeFusco, Bonnie Kapenstein, Ricky Conway, Lili Myers, Brynne Gaffney, Andrea Veneziano and Cassidy Scherz.

The following shows rounded out the program: Complete Stranger or Completely Strange written by Carol M. Rice and directed by Lisa Croce, Air Rage written by Shirley King and directed by Omi Parrilla-Dunne, Balls written by Emily Hageman and directed by Alex Hawthorne, Remove Your Belt and Shoes written by Shirley King and directed by Bill Fikaris, It’s All in the Breast written by Robin Rice and directed by Bill Fikaris, The Down-Low Dating Show written by Steven G. Martin and directed by Pat DeFusco, Pseudo-Human Resources written by Rex McGregor and directed by Randy Hendler, In the Heist written by Allie Costa and directed by Nicole DeRosa Lukatis, Diagnosis: Improv written by Peter Dakutis and directed by Amanda Frederick, Proverbs written by Donna Latham and directed by Lisa Croce, Post-Apocalyptic Romance written by JJ Steinfeld and directed by Amanda Frederick, and Suit Yourself written by Chip Bolick and directed by Alex Hawthorne.

This elaborate show contained an extensive cast and crew. The following actors performed in various skits: Amanda Barrish, Amber Kushing, Andrea Veneziano, Bobby Kramer, Bonnie Kapenstein, Brynne Gaffney, Cassidy Scherz, Connor Twigg, Debbie Tighe, Isabella Capelli, Lana Croce, Lili Myers, Lisa Croce, Liza Chesebro, Maddox Morfit-Tighe, Melynda Morrone, Pat DeFusco, Ricky Conway, Sarah Pardys, Sera Scherz, Steve Kreal, Victor A. Martinez, and Zach Martin.

Pat DeFusco produced the show and handled the sound and projection design, Omi Parilla Dunne stage managed and designed the lighting, and Kalman Dunne worked as the sound engineer. Lana Croce and Emma Scherz assisted the Stage Manager.

Night of 1000 Plays treated audiences to an entertaining evening of theatre. For those who missed it, Haddonfield Plays and Players has more opportunities for budding playwrights on their calendar. This August 24^th, they will present a 24 Hour Play Festival. On September 13^th and 14^th, they will host a Teen One Act Play Showcase.

Haddonfield Plays and Players received an “overwhelming” number of submissions for Night of 1000 Plays. They presented 24 of them. Playwrights have crafted plays since the fifth century BC. In a world where sources of entertainment change regularly, theatre still retains its popularity. To paraphrase Shakespeare: the play will always be the thing.