By Amy Modesti
The third time was the charm. After two cancellations due to inclement weather, the presentation of a series of five short comedic plays and monologues by local authors and playwrights, went on as scheduled on Tuesday, January 29 at the Sand Lake Center for the Arts. Opening Shorts & Sweets was a brief monologue, “Before Your Applause,” presented by actress, Paula Hoffay. Dressed in black, with a red feather boa, Hoffay sang the opening line, “There’s No Business Like Show Business” to her audience before she spoke her monologue and left the stage for the next following act, “The Squeaky Door Survey,” written by S.L.C.A. director, Val Cavanaugh.
The Squeaky Door Survey was funny and unique. Its storyline centered on how individuals respond to filling out a survey to receive a $50 Wal-Mart gift card amid the annoyance of a squeaky door. Whenever a customer came to the office to pick up their gift card, the door would squeak loudly. From the cranky yoga practitioner that was annoyed at filling out the survey and refused to pick up her gift card, to the businessman that was happy to use his gift card to purchase flowers from Wal-Mart that he would re-sell to suburban housewives, to the girl that was going to use the card to buy fishing lures and the mother that bragged about her over-achieving children that always kept her busy to the final customer, an elderly gentleman who became tired of hearing the door squeak, oiled it so it no longer squeaked, despite having no interest in completing surveys. It took only one considerate person to take the time to fix a squeaky door.
The second monologue featured a solo appearance by Barbara Peterson who gave out funny advice on how to keep a marriage happy between a husband and wife. The story, based on a lover’s quarrel, had the audience learn that although people may fight over the simplest things, maybe to the point that they would even go to the extreme of throwing out their family couch, it is important to not go to bed angry.
Storyville, a short skit written by Susan Frost, was set within a condominium, featuring many famous fictional characters; the therapist, Christopher Robin’s granddaughter, Lil’ Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, Mrs. Chicken Little, and the Big Bad Wolf. All the characters were in a therapy session concerning the theft of the Big Bad Wolf’s flowers that were picked out by Mrs. Chicken Little. Little Red Riding Hood was wrongly accused of taking the flowers. The Big Bad wolf wanted to build his brick wall to get people away from his lawn and to protect his flowers. He was too focused on jumping to conclusions about his flower theft.
The second act was just as funny and entertaining as the first act, featuring three short skits and solo monologues; “Plane Talk,” “Towel Woman,” and “Ride On.”
SCLA has a Special Valentine’s Weekend planned, as it presents its first Dinner Theater. The February 16 performance centers on three one-act plays written by three area playwrights. For more information, please call 518-674-2007.