Allison Page as The Bear.
(Photo by Erin Maxon, http://www.erintatemaxon.com/)
Okay, if you are near San Francisco, you should just seriously really come to SF Theater Pub’s Pint-Sized Plays, July 16-31.
It’s free, it’s in a bar, and I’m super-duper happy with how the team did my script “BEEEEEAAR!” (a solo play about a dancing bear who drinks beer). My piece is one of 10 shorts that make for a very lively evening of theater.
Rather than tell you how much I love Allison Page’s performance as the titular Bear, or how Meg O’Connor is the ideal director for this play, I’ll let other people do it for me… here are a few actual audience reactions from yesterday’s opening night show.
We got the bystander, we got the heavenly shout-out, and we got a killer review. Check it:
* We got the bystander. The dude innocently running the pop-up BBQ concession at the show (he does a weekly food night at the bar, and so was captive audience, although not affiliated with the theater event at all) liked our play so much that he asked actor Allison Page for her autograph! He had that beer-drinking bear on the brain so hard, he even went home and tweeted “It waz a Beer! Bear! ROCKN Nite!”
* We got the heavenly shout-out. During a tonal shift in the piece, the room fell from laughter to a complete hush… well, complete but for a single voice. Out of the silence, (like the lone “Who” that Horton heard), a single small voice emerged from an audience member, who said two little words of surprised woe: “Oh, Jesus.”
Nice try; Jesus can’t help you now, honey, you’re in Bear country.
* We got a killer review. Check out this cool review of the Pint-Sized Plays by blogger, playwright, and artsy-gal-about-town Rachel Bublitz. Sweet!
Pretty good opening night, huh? Doesn’t it all make you want to come see one of the 4 remaining performances (July 17, 18, 30, 31)?
You can read all about the festival, including more about all 10 plays (killer directing and acting talent, and scripts by awesome playwrights like Stuart Bousel, Tim Bauer, William Bivins, and Marissa Skudlarek) at the SF Theater Pub Website. I’ll be at some of the performances, come say hi!