The 2014 Second Annual Watermelon One-Act Play Festival presented four original plays followed by an Awards Ceremony held at Three Notch Theatre (home of the Newtowne Players) in Lexington Park on Sunday, June 8. Welcoming remarks were made by Festival Coordinator, Thomas Esposito.
The plays selected to be performed for the finals after the previous day’s adjudication were: Monteggia Fracture, by Jack Wibbe; True Colors, by Kim Moore Bessler; The Nature of Man, by Jeremy Keith Hunter; and Therapy, by Cindy Mendicino.
Jack Wibbe’s Monteggia Fracture*, directed by Timothy Joyce, tells the story of an abused wife who flees from her husband and his detectives; she then endeavors to help other women who find themselves in a similar predicament. This thought-provoking, dramatically poignant story gave depressing statistics on the battered wives’ syndrome and engaged the audience through the strong acting skills of the actors.
The student cast included Kaytlin Medley as Julia, Alex LaClair as Detective Adam Turner, Amanda Connelley as Emily, Jacob Lejune as Wayne, Tiffany Kurtz as Anna, Ashley James as Tara, Kate Patterson as Green, and Manuel Lugo as David. Jessica Fogle was Stage Manager. There was a strong connection between the characters of the detective and Julia which served to keep the audience guessing: was the detective friend or foe?
Both of the husbands were quite effective in the closing scene. The set changes were handled smoothly and the soundtrack included Beatles hits. Guest Adjudicator Jonathan Rizzardi made brief impromptu comments at the conclusion of the play, praising the changes that had been made since the performance on the previous day. Actress Kaytlin Medley, who showed great emotional range in her role as Julia, received an Award for Outstanding Performance.
(*Note: As defined by Wikipedia, a Monteggia fracture is “a fracture of the proximal third of the ulna with dislocation of the head of the radius. It is named after Giovanni Battista Monteggia”. It is a common injury among battered wives.)
Second on Sunday’s playbill was Kim Moore Bessler’s True Colors, directed by Lynne O’Meara. In this play, a jaded “material girl” realizes her life’s ambition through the intervention of two highly improbable, yet world-famous, personalities – long-dead famous movie star Humphrey Bogart, and retired President of the United States Ronald Reagan. Through the unlikely interactions of these three characters, the play explores a deeper meaning of the idiom, “…to show one’s true color
