'One-Act Bonanza': Feminist slaps at old sterotypes

Alice Gerstenberg would have been pleased at the sight of the Old Academy Players' One Act Bonanza in East Falls last weekend. Her He Said and She Said, a short play she wrote nearly a century ago, was a centerpiece of the first act. Dale Mezzacappa's direction didn't need to mess with the protofeminist text - its message ran throughout all six of these one-act comedies.

In He Said, nosy Mrs. Packard visits her friend Enid and relishes a piece of gossip that she savors like dessert and treats like truth, to the detriment of Enid's best friend, Diana. It's a tale too common in gossip-entrenched cultures, when a rumor doesn't need to be confirmed to do damage. Diana, Mrs. Packard says, is actually in love with Enid's husband, Felix. Packard's innocence tactics are linguistic: "What everyone else says isn't what I say!" she exclaims, and, "Not in my mind, everyone else's!" The gentleman is never questioned; it's Diana who gets vilified.

It was a night of women directing, writing, and starring in thematically feminist ruminations on outdated tropes of romance. Nicole Miller Marks playfully interprets Julianne Homokay's The Wedding Story, in which a grandfatherly storyteller attempts to tell the romantic tale of a happily-ever-after marriage. The bride (Courtney Fusselman) and groom (Warren Johns) are intent on listening in and correcting him on his inaccuracies. It's a classic correcting of fairy tales that are borderline dangerous - not every woman will meet a man at the right age or time (also, he might be gay).

Chelsea Rose Thompson is convincingly crazed in Writing Day, Lisa Lutwyche's story of a mother who simply "needs" to write a book. About what, we'll never know. Any and every distraction keeps her from making any reasonable progress on her laptop, and Sarah Labov's direction invites absurd chaos (constant, relentless obstacles in the way of a woman's advancement).

I Can't Think of It Right Now mines that feeling when you are disconnected from WiFi but need it to remember movie trivia. It's clever and just enough for a one act - especially when you know the movie in question.

The last two plays worked best and felt the most ambitious. In Mimi and Ray's 26th of December Absolutely Not Christmas Party, written and directed by Courtney Bambrick, Mimi tries to get every single person she knows hooked up romantically. Geri and Brandon find each other in a closet, fleeing from brutal initial offerings (like Curt, the woman-hating loser).

The Love Boat's Life Boat was pure bizarro laughs. Laura Lee Lenhoff's script has four best friends set adrift on a lifeboat after the Desperate Hearts Cruise they are enjoying comes crashing to a halt. Norma Kider is hilarious as Oma, a former English Channel swimmer whose delusions are highly amusing (as is her sailor lust). Laura Salinas directs. Simple wave props go to great lengths. Jane Jennings, a clear talent in this showcase, reappears from He Said.