Traveling to the Asphalt Jungle

Getting itchy feet from too many weeks at home, so I decided to take a short cruise into Ontario in 2 weeks. The Asphalt Jungle Shorts Festival in downtown Kitchener is featuring two of my short plays and I decided to go see them.

My monologue BALANCING ACT, about a Libra, is being performed in a bar -- this will be its North American premiere. (Its first performance was in London, England by Short & Girlie Productions.)

Also, JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, about a bride-to-be waiting for her lesbian wedding, is being performed in the Kitchener City Hall.

I'm particularly thrilled about the latter. It should have a very different resonance in Ontario, where gay marriage has been legal for a year (see Toronto Pride brides in photo) than here in Ohio, which recently passed an anti-gay-marriage constitutional amendment (ick).

While I'm doing my theater swing through Ontario, I'll also get to see 3 other shows -- LONDON ASSURANCE at Stratford, and THE CRUCIBLE and THE MAGIC FIRE at the Shaw Festival. Both of these companies are among the best in North America, and it's great for them to be within driving distance. I'm crazy for Tadeusz Bradecki (THE CRUCIBLE), who is one of the best directors I've ever seen, and I've always wanted to see one of Lillian Groag's plays (THE MAGIC FIRE). And how often do you get to see a Dion Boucicault play?

HEART SMART at Pandemonium 06

Because Cleveland Public Theatre's Pandemonium! benefit's theme is "The Cure for What Ails You", and A.D. Raymond Bobgan invited me to contribute a piece, I decided to mount a production of my award-winning 10-minute play HEART SMART.

It's a seriocomic dust-up in a hospital ward between a cardiac patient's 50-something wife and 20-something mistress. I have two terrific actors for the roles, who are divinely matched: Jacqi Loewy (photo), whom I've wanted to work with for years, and Teresa McDonough, whom I'm just getting to know. Terrific chemistry between these worthy dames!