Third Annual Impact Theater Winter One Act Festival

Fourteen exciting new works are presented over three weekends of theater. Ranging from the Absurdist to the profound, from tragedy to laugh-out-loud comedy, these one acts explore the depths of the human condition and reach the heights where imagination soars. Each week presents a different group of one acts exploring family, friendship, love and loss.

Week One: February 7 – 10th

A Fabulous Coat
written by Schatzie Schaefers
directed by Holly-Anne Ruggiero
Countless lives cross paths randomly every day. A Fabulous Coat offers a glimpse into the chance meeting of a cab driver and a woman in a fabulous coat, examining the baggage that determines whether or not they will travel together in life.

Miss Bingley-Hardin’s Kindergarten Class
written by Ian August
directed by Maura Farver
Miss Bingley-Hardin teaches kindergarten at Peasnod Elementary School. After an unexpected divorce, Ms. BH is eager to get her life back in control, beginning with her pupils. But when a new (and oddly mature) student appears, Miss Bingley-Hardin finds that control slipping through her fingers.

One in Every Crowd
written by Bob Canning
directed by Neal Kowalsky
MR. C., the elusive Parking Lot Slasher, has killed nine people. We learn what makes this serial killer tick as he stalks his tenth victim, a young woman who frequents his neighborhood. How is he perceived by the people who observe him, namely the bartender who has served him for a long time, and a young doctor who interviews him at the "end" of this serial killer’s career?

Dissatisfaction #4
written by Jeff Tabnick
directed by Sofia Alvarez
Something unusual happened last night in Vic and Tiny’s bed. As they get ready to attend a wedding, they struggle to understand its significance and where they are each going with their lives. In the end, what is it that they’re really not talking about?

Week Two: February 14 – 17th

Artificial
written by Sean Kenealy
directed by Nathan Dame
Daniel wanders into a bar on New Years Eve and finds Charles. Through a conversation between the two, spanning topics from sex, lies, death, and Oprah, intimate stories are revealed leading to arguments, moments of clarity, and almost a fist fight. “Artificial” explores the small glances and interactions we all share with one another, because some things can’t be shared by simply telling a story.

The Doghouse
written by Sean Pomposello
directed by Tom Mulhare
The Doghouse centers on two middle-aged men who recount a dark incident from their college days that continues to haunt them. As the play unfolds, details of the incident are revealed little by little. By the shocking conclusion, it becomes abundantly clear why these two men are so deeply affected by the events that took place nearly 20 years earlier.

In the Cool Cool Cool
written by Peter Papadopolous
directed by Matt Klammer
A husband’s affair with a hospital co-worker unfolds, breaking apart his family and marriage. His wife narrates the sordid tale in Dr. Seuss-esque language as she reads a storybook to their heartbroken son. In the Cool Cool Cool is a language driven play that take the audience to the moment that they lost their innocence but never even knew it happened.

Public Parts
written by Rich Orloff
directed by Shannon Ward
Two women are forced to reconsider their commitment to each other when they realize they have very divergent career goals, especially as one involves a conservative corporation and the other a strip joint.

Garbage Night
written by Allan Staples
directed by Hondo Weiss-Richmond
In this comedic one-act, a man and a woman discuss their previous marriages over drinks at a bar. A little more drunk and a lot more honest with each other than on their previous dates, they start telling truths, and the fight that ensues threatens to end the courtship of these two divorced forty-somethings.

Week Three: February 21 – 24th

All the Way
written by Steve Korbar
directed by Ilona Mayzen
An old man is waiting alone in a hotel room when a young prostitute arrives. He insists she wear a worn, out of date dress he has brought along, then reveals her task is simply to dance with him. As they sway to a Sinatra song, he admits the dress belonged to his wife, who is ill in a nursing home. His confession of love and longing is the one thing the calloused young woman is unprepared for and, as they dance, she cries for what he has lost and what she has never known.

The Rabbits
written by Lindsay Price
directed by Ilona Mayzen
Debbie has been let go from her high powered job and her husband is threatening seek sole custody of their daughter. Debbie has to make her own second chance at a new life, and she has to do it fast. The first step she takes is to quit smoking: but it isn’t going well. She rides the subway all day just so she won’t smoke, which is where she meets the homeless Andy. But this doesn’t work so well for either woman; Andy waits for a daughter who has never come and Debbie has started seeing Rabbits on the subway tracks.

No Diamonds in the Crabgrass
written by Robert Honor
directed by Tom Mulhare
The years that followed 9/11 remind us of stories of bravery and sacrifice. This story is about a husband who could not be a hero and a wife who felt excluded from the 9/11 widow’s club, and because of this they became lost and ultimately lost everything they valued dear. Their feelings of worthlessness and guilt; their inactivity and ultimate selfishness become a corruptive force in their own family implosion.

Bite Your Tongue
written by George Caffine
directed by Chanda Calentine
We’re all for free speech until we talk about what it is. When students in a Political Science class spell it out, the idea seems to be too risky to accept. Antagonism builds as one student tries to set new rules, until everyone, including the instructor, considers abandoning that freedom.

Edging the Cliff
written by Jae Kramisen
directed by Norah Turnham