Theater Review - ‘Second Stage’ Review by Jeb Ladouceur - Produced by Theatre Three, Port Jefferson
Since 1998 Theatre Three in Port Jefferson has conducted an annual festival consisting of five or six one-act plays, all of which are presented in a roughly two-hour period in the ‘Ronald F. Peierls Theatre‘ section of the 160-year-old Main Street playhouse. The festival serves a number of purposes: it offers live professional entertainment for the theater-going public, functions as an outlet for the talents of playwrights who might not otherwise be so accommodated, and provides local actors a convenient conduit for their talents.
For those who might be unfamiliar with Theatre Three’s intimate ‘Second Stage,’ it is ‘in the round’ and is located on the building’s lower level, immediately beneath the broad ‘Main Stage,’ with its familiar proscenium.
This year’s half-dozen brief dramas and comedies were chosen from among four hundred submissions world-wide, and in keeping with Theatre Three’s festival regulations, are all being produced here for the first time on any stage.
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While the six presentations understandably vary greatly in style, pace, and message, two of the productions stood out for this critic … and they are worthy of highest accolades for both writing and acting. Significantly, one (For a Moment in the Darkness We Wait) is a heartbreaking treatment of loneliness as experienced by two men, strangers unknown to one another, and separated by age, background, and status. They show us in piercing detail the universality of man’s need for affection and understanding. Veteran Douglas J. Quattrock and newcomer Ryan Schaefer are remarkable in this poignant vignette.
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The other standout, (The Unforgivable Sin of Forgiveness) a comedy and a good one, is so rat-a-tat funny that the audience virtually pleads for the two actors, an improbably married couple, to slow down and let us catch our breath between belly laughs. Of course they do not … and we are all the more victimized by the side-splitting hilarity from the pen of playwright Rich Orloff. Antoine Jones and Tracylynn Conner drew the assignment from Director Jeffrey Sanzel (who directed all the plays) and they couldn’t have been funnier.
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The Festival, which features thirteen admirable actors from Theatre Three’s ranks, runs thru May 5. All tickets are $20.
Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of a dozen novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. His recent hit, THE GHOSTWRITERS, explores the bizarre relationship between the late Harper Lee and Truman Capote. Ladouceur’s newly completed thriller, THE SOUTHWICK INCIDENT, was introduced at the Smithtown Library on May 21st. The book involves a radicalized Yale student and his CIA pursuers. Mr. Ladouceur’s revealing website is www.JebsBooks.com