Feature: PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD'S LOVE NOTES at DARIEN ARTS CENTER

What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a date night of theatre? Play With Your Food, in collaboration with JIB Productions, is offering just that with Love Notes on February 12 at the Darien Arts Center Weatherstone Studio.

Love Notes is an hour-long show that mixes short plays about relationships between couples, in-laws, and children. Included are Kelly Younger's Best Lei'd Plans, Craig Pospisil's Torpid, Mo Gaffney's A Traditional Wedding, Fred Stroppel's Signs of Life, Mark Twain's The Diaries of Adam and Eve, and "Modern Love," a series of essays from The New York Times Styles Section. The stories in the various plays build on each other, creating a unique narrative performed by Susan Vanech, Damian Long, Katie Sparer, John O'Hern, and Kim Maresca (pictured above clockwise from left, with Maresca in the center).

Play With Your Food co-founder Carole Schweid has been bringing staged play readings to various public and private venues since 2003. Each production includes "expert writing and expert acting," according to Schweid, who also serves as the company's Artistic Director. Working with Executive Producer Diana Muller and Managing Director Inge Maki, Play With Your Food has attracted the talents of both well-known and emerging professional playwrights and performers.

Schweid, a former Broadway performer, notes that the play readings have a special intimacy for audiences. They're not seeing a fully rehearsed production with a jaw dropping set and lighting, but they are still experiencing the vitality and spontaneity of live theatre. The format makes theatre truly a moveable feast. The company has performed in various locations including the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum in Norwalk, the Pinetum Montgomery Park in Greenwich, the Lachat Town Farm in Weston, and even the parking lot of the Fairfield Theatre Company. Soon it will move to its new venue, MoCA (the new Museum of Contemporary Art) in Westport.

Productions typically start off at around noon as people gather for lunch and about 30 minutes later, they go into the theatre. Following the play is a talkback with the actors and audience. Since the pandemic, they switched the order, offering a boxed lunch after the show for patrons to stay and eat on the premises or take it with them as they leave, whatever they're comfortable with. The season usually runs from January through April, but the Omicron variant caused them to delay the start of the season to March. Productions will run until June this year.

JIB Productions also offers Seasons Readings in December and an annual film festival, Short Cuts. Visit the website, www.jibproductions.org, for information on upcoming events and follow Play With Your Food on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PWYFood.

Right now, though, you need to book your reservations for Love Notes, as tickets for the Darien Arts Center Weatherstone Studio are limited. There are a cash bar and cabaret-style seating at spaced tables. Patrons must wear masks and have proof of vaccination. Doors open at 6:30 and the performance starts at 7:00 on Saturday, February 12. Tickets are $40 and are available through the Darien Arts Center's website, www.darienarts.org.