Tonight through Saturday, June 15, is the run of the inaugural Sandbox One-Act Play Festival (at Erickson Theatre Off Broadway; tickets), presenting, as promised, four one-acts from playwrights Scot Augustson, Emily Conbere, Elizabeth Heffron, and Paul Mullin. If you’ve ever prayed on your knees for theatre to break free from the tyranny of the 3-act structure, this festival is for you. Also, if you have a shorter attention span — PAY ATTENTION! — this festival, etc.
I haven’t seen anything by Emily Conbere, who won an Artist Trust grant in 2011 and was a member of the Seattle Rep Writers Group last year, but Augustson, Heffron & Mullin, Playwrights, are a trusted name in theatrical entertainments & misc. Place yourself in their hands, is what I’m saying, but keep an eye open.
The lineup is as follows:
MILWAUKEE, by Scot Augustson — Humor and pathos collide as an aging mother struggles to communicate with her two grown sons. Directed by Julie Beckman.
…DISPOSE OF ME…, by Elizabeth Heffron — A young woman and a former step-father figure try to redefine their relationship, in the midst of a life-changing event. Directed by Carol Roscoe.
OPENLY WE CARRY, by Paul Mullin — An allegorical tale about an openly carrying gun community and the rise of a comely female prophet. Directed by Annie Lareau.
KNOCKING BIRD, by Emily Conbere — What happens when a professional couple leaves the city and desperately attempts to cut ties with the outside world? Directed by Andrew McGinn.
City Arts spoke with Augustson, who says Mullin “challenged him” (that sounds like playwright-ese for a bet involving whiskey) to write “something completely realistic, with no flashbacks, no talking animals, just start to finish, no cuts in time.” This to the author of Shadow Odyssey. “Knocking Bird,” Conbere told The Examiner, “is about the extreme and uncomfortable ways that couples transform and adapt themselves to each other in order to remain together.”
Heffron you may remember from such works as Mitzi’s Abortion or Her Mother Was Imagination: profanely funny phenomenological quests. Mullin hit the “completely realistic” trail himself, earlier, with his Ballard House Duet. His new work, Openly We Carry, has attracted the attention of open-carry advocates, says The Stranger. Apparently, they “fantasized that the play might support their cause—until they got their hands on a copy.” Sad trombone.
