Andrea Cárdenas' STACKS Wins SPF NYC 2026 Short Play Festival Week Three
Next up with Be Bold! Productions is their brand-new festival LOL! Short Play Festival.
The third and final weekend of Be Bold! Production's 15th annual NYC Short Play Festival ran last weekend at The Players Theatre in the West Village, with five original NYC-themed short plays. Last weekend's audience-selected winner was 'Stacks', written and directed by by Andrea Cárdenas.
In 'Stacks', Lizzy (Anita Castillo-Halvorssen) and Dawn (Sarah Cuneo), two librarians at the Ottendorfer Public Library in Manhattan, aren't getting along very well. Dawn keeps passive-aggressively calling Lizzy 'Richard,' pretending she is talking to a former coworker even though Dawn has been working with Lizzy for three months, which in turn upsets Lizzy. As the two prepare for some special guests arriving for a tour, they must see if they can put their differences aside for the good of the library.
'Stacks' appeared among four other NYC-themed one-acts.
'New york, new York', written by Alan CordoBa-Diaz and directed by Lillybeth Gonzalez, begins with Dino, a native New Yorker, who is excited to be going on a second date with Sophia (Hunter Corbett) because she is what he considers to be a jackpot of a woman: someone born and raised in New York City. The problem is, it turns out Red Hook, Brooklyn is not the Red Hook Sophia is from. Realizations and tensions come to the surface as Dino grapples with his disappointment and a recalcitrant waiter.
'House Warming', written by Andrew Boszhardt and directed by Robert McCaskill, features Oliver (Joshua Hinck), a neurotic newcomer to New York who throws himself a housewarming party, only to have no one show up except the bartender Evan (Skyler James Bailey) he hired. As panic sets in for Oliver, his neighbor Alex (Andrew Boszhardt) arrives. Soon after the superintendent (Steven Sarao) shows up to check for a problem, accidentally revealing one of the other tenants whom Oliver invited was actually in the building (though he had told Oliver he wasn't so he wouldn't have to show up at the party), and Oliver admits to Alex how alone he feels in the city. Will a new friendship form between Oliver and Alex?
'Trash-Hole,' written and directed by Bram Hartman, is set on a great New York equalizer: the fire escape. Gabe (Ian Slade) is a struggling actor and new to NYC. He meets Jamie (Willow Lautenberg) on a fire escape, and vents how stressed he is about life in the Big Apple. It turns out Jamie is just the right person to share how special living and working in NYC can be and how to embrace the challenges.
'Love, Lysol and Other Delusions', written by Brian Brijbag and directed by Noa Brenner, takes place in a worn Greenwich Village apartment. Newlyweds Kara (Rose Lane Sanfilippo) and Ethan are moving into their new apartment, which turns out to be more rough than ready. When they are approached by human-sized cockroach Sal (Michael Giorgio), Ethan passes out, leaving Kara to deal with Sal. It turns out Sal is a psychologist and he helps Kara explore the fragile space between expectation and reality in early marriage.
Next up with Be Bold! Productions is their brand-new festival LOL! Short Play Festival. For two weeks in July, ten short plays will debut upstairs at The Players Theatre. Each week, five new short plays will appear onstage Thurs - Sun, and a "Best of the Week" production will be selected by audience vote.

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Broadway Magic Hour Broadway Comedy Club (1/01-6/30) |
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The Braata Singers in Concert: All We A One A.R.T./NY (6/26-6/28) |
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Cock East Village Basement (6/17-6/28) |
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Miss Julie Gene Frankel Theatre (6/24-6/28) |
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Operatini™ — A Boutique Opera & Live Music Series Presents: La Dolce Vita Green Room 42 (6/26-6/26) |
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Shrek, the Musical! Emelin Theater (7/09-7/12) |
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SpinQueen™ Brooklyn Art Haus (7/07-7/08) |
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The City Speaks: How New Yawkahs Tawk Studio Dérive (6/14-6/28) |
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Who We Become: One-Act Plays by Lanford Wilson Factory Series at the Chain Studio Theatre (6/25-6/27) |
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waiting: a queer black tragicomedy in two acts The Flea Theatre (6/25-6/26) |









