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Saturday, September 08, 2001

By Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Critic

A clever concept, a touchy situation, passages of surprising dialogue and a couple of distinctive characters -- that's what the New Works Festival has to offer in the first week of its 11th season.

Not that it offers all these in the same play.

Still, that's not bad because three new plays out of 14 one-acts spread over four weeks is a grab bag. No one can guarantee high quality, or even that what quality there is will be evenly spread over all four weeks.

	New Works Festival, First Week Where: Hamburg Studio, City Theatre, Bingham and 13th streets, South Side. When: 6 and 9 p.m. tonight, 4 and 7 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets: $7 ($20 for four weeks); 412-881-6888.

But one thing New Works can guarantee is a sense of occasion. We New Works groupies love the anticipation, followed by varying degrees of discovery and disappointment. Even the latter is interesting, especially to a crowd of sympathetic but competitive theater folk.

That's the whipped cream on the top of the occasion: fellowship. With 14 small theater groups producing what is really a showcase of small theater Pittsburgh, the audience in the 100-seat Hamburg is heavily theatrical, like a serial party, week-to-week.

David Dietz, "Breeder's Cup"

Dietz's clever concept is to set "Breeder's Cup" in a time when procreation is scheduled with a government bureau. Each potential Bearer is assigned a Breeder, so Brett (blandly cheery Matthew Clarey) arrives to be met by Jessica (brittle, hyper Jodi Renee Coleman). After we get by the drawn-out comedy of his assuming she's his client, he discovers the request came from the much older Marcy Anne (wistful Linda Tracey Kennedy), who remembers how these things used to be done.

The details of sex bureaucracy and legislation allow some faint sci-fi satire, but the playlet suffers from the blankness of the characters. Ultimately, a small but predictable emotional bond is created across the gap between robotic sex worker and the two women. Pat Kording directs for McKeesport Little Theater.

Richard Mesch, "Temporary Arrangements"

As pickup artist He (Joseph Martinez) encounters prickly She (Mary Rose Helffrich) in a hotel bar, we can't help but note the bed waiting across the stage. In spite of the bitter turns to the seduction/repulsion dialogue, we know where the scene is headed. And when they get there, the melancholy residual tang to the formulaic one-nighter is just about what you'd expect.

No, maybe it's a touch darker than that. That's the attraction of Mesch's dialogue, which runs dark counter-riffs on the usual pickup negotiation. The woman's anger has truth to it, while the man's smooth exterior cracks to show glimpses of a person inside. Tim Colbert directs for The Summer Company.

Shaun Rolly, "The Stone Circus"

Rolly's characters are more specific still, especially Dawn, the Serbian immigrant played with sculpted-cheekbone glamour by Allison McAtee in the performance of the week. We learn a lot about what's forced her to prostitution; her emotions ring true.

Sharing her corner is nebbishy street entertainer Tam, played as a thoughtful waif by Edd Fairman. Unfortunately, he has to sell some pretty abstract philosophical musings -- it's a wonder Dawn follows them as closely as she does. The heart of Rolly's play is these two disparate characters meeting and finding a small common ground. If they could do it more through shared action than throughtalk, the play would be better still. Lisa Pinkerton directs for Penn Avenue Theater.