Review: LAUNCH 2024
Review: LAUNCH 2024
Produced By: Playwrights Round Table
Location: Santos Dantin Studio Theatre @ Orlando Shakespeare Center
Date of Review: Opening Night - 1/5/23
Author: Hunter Rogers
PRT’s mission under its President and Artistic Director Chuck Dent, who has probably “produced more 10- minute plays than anyone else in America”, is to support local playwrights in our community and showcase completely original works. LAUNCH 2024 is a wonderful embodiment of that essential goal.
LAUNCH 2024 is a collection of 7 shorts that engage the heart and mind. Through a “potluck of appetizers”, the audience is offered a diverse spread of options to enjoy. Many of these shorts focus on light-hearted absurdist humor while others offer a deeper and more complex study of the human experience.
COLLECTIBULLIES
Our evening began with COLLECTIBULLIES, written by Ken Preuss with direction by Chuck Dent. The short is a farcical sketch about Max (Kenny Robinson) who has “accidentally” invited two women Ava (Susan White) and Penny (Susan Woodbury) to bid on one of his prized collectables, a Burnt Out Baby named Gus (think of the Beanie Babies craze from the 90s). Each woman is hell bent on acquiring Gus. White plays an intensely rigid Ava, who is seeking to acquire Gus for her very wealthy employer while Woodbury serves Penny, a midwestern soccer mom willing to do ANYTHING to get Gus for her son. Meanwhile, Robinson as the affable Max, serves a cavalcade of weed humor and puns as he “knowingly” or “unknowingly” pits each woman against each other in a bidding war. COLLECTIBULLIES is a silly comedy that skewers the culture of adult toy collectors and delivers some absurdist fun for its audience.
DIRECT DEPOSIT
Our next short is DIRECT DEPOSIT, written by John Bavoso and directed by Joshua Caleb Thomas. It is the story of a chance encounter between two men Aiden (Lavalle Moore) and Ray (Chuck Roberson) at a sperm bank. Aiden, a gay black man, is seeking to find out more information about potential donors for surrogacy when he meets Ray, a white donor. Over the course of the sketch the two very different men turn an initially awkward encounter into a moment of bonding that was, quite frankly, heartwarming. Moore’s queer anxiety pairs well with Roberson’s easy-going nature and both actors deliver a genuine authenticity that really drives home the message. We need more pieces like this. Our world is so bitterly divided amongst tribal lines and raging towards conflict. We need art that demands us explore our common humanity with people that we may not, at least initially, seem to have a lot in common with.
ORGANIC
Next up was ORGANIC, written by Jenna Jane and directed by Cheryl Cox. This ambitious short is set in a future where bionics and cyber-enhancements have become the norm in everyday society. However, the piece begins with Donna (Anne Paine West) a older human woman who has absolutely no cyber-enchantments meeting with Dr. Flores (Jessie Ehrenberg) in his office. Donna is faced with a grim medical diagnosis of kidney disease. However Dr. Flores explains that through a simple procedure he can replace her old kidney with a new bionic one. Donna is skeptical of this idea and the two engage in a deep discussion on the morality of bionics and discuss at what point does someone stop becoming physically human. This piece could easily cave under the complexities of the issues being discussed at hand, however the short succeeds by keeping its characters' humanity in focus through a surprising connection. Ehrenberg is committed as Dr. Flores as he passionately defends the benefits of the technology and shares how it has allowed him as a trans man to live a happy, authentic life. Meanwhile, Paine West as Donna is beautifully sincere and resolute as she explains that perhaps they each made the best decisions for themselves. For a 10 minute short, this piece is impressive in how much it accomplishes in such a short period of time.
LINE, PLEASE
For the final short of Act 1 we have LINE, PLEASE, written by Ellen Abrams and directed by Gordon W. Brown. This witty relationship comedy takes place in the dressing room of a London theater as we see two actors (and couple) getting ready for their next performance. Jackie Levine plays seasoned acclaimed actress Arabella with Anthony Marando playing Alford, her younger partner, who is struggling to get out from behind her shadow. They are clearly in love but decide to give each other notes on their performances. What could go wrong? What follows is delightful bickering as they each try to maintain both their nontraditional relationship and their ever fragile actor’s ego. Clever staging from director Gordon Brown also allows the story to unfold effortlessly. Levine and Marondo are equally dynamic and exude such natural chemistry that it’s impossible not to enjoy this light comedic dish before intermission.
LENORA
Act 2 starts with something different, LENORA, written by Jonathan Cook and directed by Jac LeDoux. It features the story of a mother Vivian (Marcie Schwalm) who visits therapist Dr. Hadley (Jackie Giralt) to discuss a series of strange events that have been occurring to her daughter Lenora. Vivian discloses that Lenora has been physically manifesting dreams in her sleep. She describes occurrences of walking into her daughter’s room and witnessing fantastic scenes of rainstorms and jungles that defies explanation. Giralt as Dr. Hadley aptly but non-judgmentally tries to dig deeper into Vivian’s psyche. However, what begins as light and even humorous encounters turns very dark as Vivian (in a marvelously wrenching performance by Schwalm) describes facing a terrifying physical nightmare to protect her daughter. LENORA is an eerie psychological mystery that delivers.
RAINBOW BRIDGE
We now take an absurdist trip to the RAINBOW BRIDGE, a dark comedy by Tony Pelham and directed by Bradley Thornton. If you are an animal lover you might want to take the invitation to step out because this one was a WILD RIDE. Carol and Shawn (Olivia Kennedy and Anthony Marando) are a couple on a journey to a very special national park when they encounter the very kooky Ranger Bob (Roy Hamlin). You may have heard that old poem about the Rainbow Bridge, a magical place in heaven where all animals go after they die. Now just imagine a bunch of cynical politicians got together and actually created The Rainbow Bridge where all of your beloved deceased pets are dumped out of an airplane, falling thousands of feet to the ground and subsequently incinerated or turned into fertilizer. I told you this was a dark comedy. Hamlin as Ranger Bob amusingly educates a horrified Carol (Kennedy) and Shawn (Marando) on The Rainbow Bridge as the audience is forced to ask ourselves what other atrocities do we ignore for the sake of convenience?
REPLAY
We end our evening on an 8-bit journey with REPLAY, a comedy written by Tom Moran and Directed by David Strauss. Rob Del Medico plays Pac-Man who,after living the high life in the arcade era of the 80s and 90s, is now a “broken down sack of pixels”. He is met by a passerby played by Roswell Strauss and a literal ghost from his past, Blinky, played by Susan Woodbury. Blinky comes bearing a new opportunity and contract for Pac-Man. But the devil is in the details. Del Medico is a hilariously train-wrecked Pac-Man as he explains how his life has changed since the end of the 8-bit era. “When they took away the joycons, they took away the joy” may be my favorite line of the night. Woodbury as Blinky is equally committed and hilarious as the pair bring up old grievances and try to figure out their place in the modern world. With comically appropriate staging by David Strauss, REPLAY was a short filled with laughs and offered a fun conclusion to the evening.
Overall, LAUNCH 2024 offers 7 distinct shorts with interesting concepts, clever writing and great performances. Well worth the trip to the Orlando Shakes.
Remaining Performances:
Jan 6th @ 8:00 PM
Jan 7th @ 3:00 PM
Jan 12th @ 8:00 PM
Jan 13th @ 8:00 PM
Jan 14th @ 3:00 PM
