Common themes tie together theater festival

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Apr 25, 2008 | by MARK ARNEST

I got a cozy feeling at the Six Women Playwriting Festival at the Manitou Art Theater. There are connections between these gentle 10- minute plays -- pregnancies, traditions, relationships -- that created a nice suite. And charming emcee Barbara Peckham made me feel right at home.

In its second year, the festival attracted nearly 200 entries -- all are by women and all previously unproduced.

This makes the festival an artistically risky venture: There are a lot of novice playwrights, and while the short format enables writers to skirt some structural issues, it makes establishing characters more challenging. So directors Eve Tilley, Birgitta De Pree and Rhonda Greder and their cast earn kudos for finding and projecting so many vivid individuals.

Tencha Avila's "Did It" is a one-trick pony -- a newlywed woman doesn't want her father to see her pregnant -- but Kaleb Kohart and Emily Keller play the note for all it's worth.

Maureen Brady Johnson's "Planting the Music" didn't give Kari McPherson and John Pepe much to do as it addressed family traditions.

Molly Rhodes' "Mrs. McKenzie Makes Herself Known" is the most delightful offering, a quiet, warm romance incongruously inspired by The Beatles' classic. Sallie Walker and Tony Babin are outstanding - - she as the prim Eleanor and he as imaginative but dutiful Father McKenzie.

Barbara Lindsay's "Canyon's Edge," about an encounter at the Grand Canyon, featured a heartfelt performance by Babin, Kathy Paradise full of life as his wife, and Fabiola Shaw as a distraught young woman.

May Casey's "Hound Dog" addresses the sentimental arch of a mother-daughter relationship, framed by Elvis Presley's classic song. Though it had more costume changes than are practical in a short play, Barbara Summerville and Keller gave a touching performance.

The closing "Bloomingdale's Elephants" -- in which two workers in the wrapping department of Bloomingdale's encounter a customer who's desperate for some wrapping paper, and plenty of it, is the evening's funniest piece. It features hilarious performances by Jessica Compton, Sue Bachman and Jessie Wilson.

The festival also includes Joni Sheram's "Cups" and "Hannah Rockey's Comedy Cabaret."