2011 Marathon of One-Act Plays

Tickets and Information

Cassandra Medley's hard-hitting Cell is the strongest entry within Series B of Ensemble Studio Theater's Marathon of One-Act Plays. Director Jamie Richards pitches the tension levels just right, and the three-person cast all deliver superb performances.

The play revolves around Rene (Lizan Mitchell), her sister Cerise (MaConnia Chesser), and Cerise's daughter Gwen (Shyko Amos), who all work at the Thurston Corporation Immigration Detention Center. The excitement and camaraderie evidenced in the first scene soon gives way to rifts in the family dynamic, particularly as Gwen begins to feel more empathy for the detainees. The piece provocatively addresses issues of race, class, and immigratio[...]

The Ensemble Studio Theatre's Marathon 2011 is aptly named. Series A of this program of one-act plays clocks in at just under three-and-a-half hours, including two intermissions. It also contains long stretches of flat writing and performances, with occasional flashes of excitement and a dynamic finish that makes the whole thing seem worthwhile.

Things get off to a slow start with Ben Rosenthal's Ten High, about a pair of thugs (Danny Mastrogiorgio and Ned Eisenberg) and a married couple (Chris Ceraso, Tina Benko), all in the same restaurant. The piece touches upon issues of infidelity, fate, chance, and redemption, but much of the writing feels forced and the sketch goes on too long for i[...]