You have to hand it to the octogenarian playwright Horton Foote: He's so grounded in the life and lore of his native Texas that he's brimming over with story ideas. Foote has watched and listened to many local people -- or, at least, seen and wondered about them -- for close to nine decades now. He understands what drives the population in his neck of the woods, what frustrates them, what angers them. That goes some way toward explaining why his one-act piece "The One-Armed Man," which has the gritty feel of a '20s novella, is the Series C highlight in the Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon 2005.

Cotton mill boss C.W. Rowe (Matt Mulhern) is in his Harrison, Texas office when toadying employ[...]

An all-new Love, American Style show hasn't been aired since 1974, when ABC dropped the series from its primetime lineup, but playwrights -- not to mention television scribes -- have been commenting on the subject ever since. Indeed, Series B of the Ensemble Studio Theatre's Marathon 2005 has the look of an up-to-the-minute Love, American Style entry, and that's a compliment, because the series' three playwrights have each come up with a winner.

Indeed, there's a cumulative power that makes the evening one of the most gratifying Marathon entries in memory. Cherie Vogelstein, David Lindsay-Abaire, and David Mamet -- in that running order and perhaps also in that order of achievement -- have[...]

If it's spring, it must be time for the Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon of one-act plays. This year brings the determined company's 27th such outing, and it seems to be packed with more heavyweights than usual. The first of the three series includes works by John Guare, Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros, Warren Leight, and Leslie Lyles; set to follow in Series B and C are David Mamet, David Lindsay-Abaire, Horton Foote, Craig Lucas, and Romulus Linney. Yet if Series A (which resumes performances on Thursday, June 2) is any indication, this may not be the year for consistently heavyweight work.

Indeed, there's little point in sitting through the first half of the program other than to get to th[...]