[NEohioPAL] PRESS RELEASE: CVLT's “10-10 Festival” returns with 10 new 10-minute plays

[Chagrin Valley Little Theatre]

  *PRESS RELEASE*
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: 6-10-11

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Contact: Andrew Rothman
From: Chagrin Valley Little Theatre

40 River Street
Chagrin Falls, OH 44122
Phone: 440-247-8955
E-mail: cvlt at cvlt.org <mailto:cvlt at cvlt.org>
Website: www.cvlt.org <http://www.cvlt.org/>


    CVLT's “10-10 Festival” returns with 10 new 10-minute plays

CHAGRIN FALLS, OH - In June of 2009, Chagrin Valley Little Theatre 
launched THE 10-10 NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL at its River Street Playhouse, a 
smaller venue adjacent to the main theater building. THE 10-10 
FESTIVAL// was designed to give burgeoning playwrights and directors a 
chance to shine through an evening of ten plays, submitted directly by 
their authors, each lasting roughly ten minutes. The 2009 production's 
six performances played near capacity to great critical and audience 
response, so it was decided that THE 10-10 should become a biennial 
event. CVLT again called for scripts in its current 81st consecutive 
season, which a panel of CVLT members read (with the playwrights' names 
held anonymous) and selected their favorites from. On July 1, it all 
comes to fruition as a band of actors premiere ten new one-acts, none of 
which have ever been seen by audiences before. The topics and styles are 
as broad as can be, from the tiny confines of a residential bathroom to 
the outer regions of space and time.

No location can seem as tight as a shared vanity sink when you're in a 
rush to get out of your house. THE BATHROOM by Robert Fortlage of 
Beachwood is an imagined scene between a middle-aged couple trying to 
co-navigate their cramped bathroom on a Saturday morning, with 
conversation and pantomime which should be familiar to anyone who has 
ever shared a small bathroom with family/./ Also examining married life 
is Chagrin Falls resident Amy Pelleg, whose PEANUT BUTTER WARS is about 
a married couple, Alice and Erica, who argue about a peanut butter 
sandwich until they realize that the sandwich is not really the problem. 
UNDER THE TABLE by Maureen Brady Johnson of Oberlin, also deals with 
troubled love. When Charlie married Maddie, they dreamed big dreams of 
their life together, but things changed as real life intruded. Can 
something under the table actually revive and bring them back together?

OR, WHAT YOU WILL by Chagrin Falls' own Bob Abelman looks at love 
through a Shakespearean lens, tapping the central characters, language 
and melancholy of the comedy /Twelfth Night/ to tell a contemporary tale 
about unrequited love. The play finds Orsino and Viola, newly separated 
from their spouses (divorce and death, respectively), awkwardly 
attempting to make a connection at a Christmas party. Shakespeare's 
comedies often centered on mistaken identity. Here, too, Orsino and 
Viola attempt to be what they are not.

THE 10-10 moves from matters of the heart to matters of the mind. THE 
SOMETHING SPECIAL COFFEEHOUSE by Janis Butler Holm of Athens, OH, is an 
examination of class tension as two executives try the patience of a 
coffee-shop cashier, and A PENNY SAVED by Willoughby Hills' Gary Webster 
is the tale of an ambitious television script writer who earns a 
promotion for an unexpected reason. BIPOLAR PHYSICS by Chagrin Falls 
native Rollin DeVere, is about a 'creation of the universe' quarrel 
between astrophysicists Basingstoke and Slatternly. The former espouses 
the standard Big Bang theory, while the latter favors the new Slow Leak 
hypothesis. Hasty words lead to insults in various languages and result 
in a startling conclusion proving nothing.

Matters of the spirit are also touched on. In CLEAR HISTORY, by Leo 
Simone of Aurora, introduces Carl Sunview, a middle aged man who is 
finding it so hard to move forward in his life that he decides to see a 
psychiatrist. Fortunately for him, his new doctor is developing an iPad 
app that is sure to do the trick. WHEN ALL IS POSSIBLE by Jonathan 
Wilhelm of Cleveland Heights, takes place on a late summer day, as a man 
and a boy meet on a mountaintop. The man escapes into the memories of 
his past as the boy faces the unknown future. We learn that making it to 
the top of the mountain doesn't mean you know how to get down again.

Rounding out the selections is MRS. KENNEDY DOESN'T DO CHORES by Cynthia 
Wilcox and Sarah Kellogg of Washington, D.C., which illuminates the 
bittersweet moments we will all experience when facing life's final 
mystery — what happens when we die? When Mrs. Reynolds meets Andrew, a 
youthful visitor, he turns out to be more knowing about her current 
plight than even she understands. As she packs her home up for a fateful 
trip, and comes to terms with her son's emotional needs, Andrew helps 
her see that it isn't what we take with us but what we leave behind that 
matters most.

/The 10-10 Festival/ is directed by Yvonne E. Pilarczyk and Sue Beattie, 
and stars Ralph Beattie, Natalie Dolezal, Claudia Lillibridge, Doug 
Lillibridge, Mark Moore, Catherine Remick, Richard Szczepinski, Bill 
Sonnie, Bobby Thomas, and Adrienne Wasserman.

Performances are on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 PM from July 1 
through June 16. The River Street Playhouse is located at 56 River 
Street in Chagrin Falls. All tickets are $10 and can be purchased online 
24 hours a day at www.CVLT.org <http://www.CVLT.org>, or by calling the 
Box Office at 440-247-8955 between 1 and 6 PM, Monday through Saturday.

Chagrin Valley Little Theatre is generously funded by Cuyahoga County 
residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture and is supported by the Ohio 
Arts Council.

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