Actors Theatre Playhouse (ATP) presents "Spotlight," a program of short stories, poetry, music, and more, on Saturdays, Sept. 7 and 14, at 7:30 p.m.
Spotlight is ATP's new literary variety show. This year, actors, musicians - and perhaps audience members - will explore what it means to be "good" (and not so good!) through various short performances.
The evening will include works of Mark Twain, Bertolt Brecht, Dorothy Parker, John Prine, Robert Frost, Aesop, John Steinbeck, and others. "Spotlight pieces will range from old to new, profound to ridiculous, and promise to give audiences an entertaining, engaging, and thought-provoking evening at the theater," say organizers.
The cast includes Veda Crewe, Rebecca Cross, Walter Cramer, Daniel Patterson, Mo Hart, Charlotte Traas, and Noah Carmel. It is directed by Wendy Almeida and Lin Snider.
In a news release, Almeida says the idea for Spotlight came from Sam Pilo, producing artistic director of Actors Theatre Playhouse, who had been talking about performing excerpts from plays and poems. "I volunteered to put one together for this season. And then Lin kindly volunteered to work with me on this, which has made it much more fun and much easier. She decided to put some music in too."
"And I actually may even sing myself," Snider says. "So this was not a selfless suggestion. It's been really fun because Wendy is much more familiar with poetry and short stories, and I'm more in the world of musical theater. So we've exposed each other to a lot of different pieces."
Snider says the theme of Spotlight,"Good People," came from the need for "something positive in these crazy times. I've known of this poem by Bertolt Brecht for years and just love it. It's called 'Song for the Good People' and each stanza describes one characteristic of a good person.
"I thought we could use that as a framework. We could have a narrator introduce each verse and then have various things that comment on, or are elicited from, each of the verses. And then we're adding our own verse at the end. And we're not just being serious, like, 'This is one way to be good.' Some of the pieces are very funny."
Advanced ticket purchase is strongly recommended. Reservations may be made at atplayhouse.org.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.