Twentieth Annual Festival of One-Act Plays at Theatre Three

THEATRE THREE proudly presents The Twentieth Annual Festival of One-Act Plays, now through April 1, 2017, at The Ronald F. Peierls Theatre on the Second Stage. Selected from over 350 submissions world-wide, these seven cutting-edge premieres are guaranteed to entertain and engage. 
 
The evening opens with two women trapped in a car—or are they? Tony Foster’s A New Lease is a wild-ride of a comedy where nothing is what it seems.  Difficult questions about racial identity in a dangerous and changing world are raised in Patrick Gabridge’s How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?  The first act closes with a powerful meditation on the power of guilt when a family is torn apart by a tragic accident in Melanie Acampora’s When Driven.
 
The second half of the evening presents the collision of reality and dream-world as Claire struggles with nighttime visitors in Counting Sheep, by Jae Kramisen. Robin Doupé’s Upset Over Nothing takes hilarious aim at rampant consumerism as mother and daughter attempt to return the latest holiday fad. The Kitchen Fairy, by Scott Gibson, presents a darkly humorous look at the hidden dangers of the workplace. The evening closes with Lewis Shilane’s outrageous take on small-town politics and big-world issues in Lower Education.
 
Patrick Gabridge marks his second festival with How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?, having been represented in the Eighteenth Annual Festival with the heart-breaking Quack. Both Melanie Acampora (When Driven) and Robin Doupé (Upset Over Nothing) are Long Island natives.
 
The company features veteran one-act performers Susan Emory, Jacqueline M. Hughes, Linda May, Phyllis March, Steve McCoy, Joan St. Onge, and, in his record-breaking fifteenth Festival and thirty-five plays, Brian Smith.  They are joined by Festival newcomers Nicole Bianco, Skyler Johnson, Antoine Jones, Caitlin, Nofi, Steven Uihlein, and, in his THEATRE THREE debut, Michael Fales.
 
Marking his nineteenth Festival (and one hundred and eight plays), the evening is directed by Festival founder and Executive Artistic Director Jeffrey Sanzel.
 
Saturday, March 18 @ 3 pm
Sunday, March 19 @ 3 pm
Saturday, March 25 @ 3 pm
Sunday, March 26 @ 3 pm
Sunday, March 26 @ 7 pm
Friday, March 31 @ 8 pm
Saturday, April 1 @ 8 pm