12:00 PM: The Man in the Closet by Elizabeth Jordan
Directed by George Andre Tittle
Elizabeth Jordan’s 10-minute play, The Man in the Closet, directed by George Andre Tittle, dramatizes the effects of dementia as three grown children attempt to remove a gun from their delusional father.
1:00 PM: Tying the Knot by James L Beller Jr
Directed by Terry Moritz
When the 35-year old Michael announces to his mother, Arlene, that he is getting married, it is the happiest day of her life. But when he tells her he’s marrying Pauline and not his ex-boyfriend, David, Arlene is not merely shocked she is outraged. Turning the stereotypical parental reaction on its head, Arlene uses every arrow in her quiver to try to prevent this disaster and make sure her son marries the right man and not the wrong woman. This no-holds-barred comedy traces Michael’s relationship with David from meeting to break-up and beyond, and explores Michael’s journey to forgiveness and commitment.
3:00 PM: Long Live the Pig! by Barbara Barnow
Directed by Miriam Bazensky
Two sisters, Sarabeth and Susanna, want to spare their Jewish parents by preserving the secret that they no longer keep kosher. However, their mom’s real concern is that the girls marry soon and to Jewish men, particularly since one daughter dates only gentiles and the other rarely dates.
Can a “nice Jewish boy” – or two – make everyone happy? Probably not.
Elizabeth Jordan
The Man in the Closet is Elizabeth Jordan’s second play to be read at the Baltimore Playwrights Festival. In 1996, her one-act play, Kinships, was given a reading. Although she has had public readings of various other plays, only two of her plays have been produced: A Grave Situation, which later went on to the Maryland One-Act Play Festival in Rockville in 1993; and Boundaries (directed by Ben Kamine), which won second place in a short play festival at the Times Square Arts Center in NYC in 2011. Elizabeth also has written screenplays while working with a screenplay analyst in Hollywood. In 2004, after one of her screenplays – William and Harold – received a “Consider” rating, she took the play to London where she hired eight professional actors to give a reading in her London hotel. Currently, she has been working in Washington, DC, with the Playwrights Forum, where she is concentrating on an adaptation of Shakespeare’s All’s Well that Ends Well, set in Chicago and New York City in the 1950s. Elizabeth is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
James L Beller Jr.
James L. Beller, Jr. is a playwright, director, and actor, and has worked at such theatres as Studio, Studio Second Stage, Signature, Classica, Source, and the Warehouse. His full-length play Ethan Now won the award for best drama at the Capital Fringe Festival. Tying the Knot (or a more perfect union) was named as a semifinalist to the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Tying the Knot is dedicated to his husband, Christopher Wolf, with whom he forms his “more perfect union.”
Barbara Barnow
The first play Barbara wrote was, “Martians From Outer Space,” a musical which she also directed, choreographed and produced as well as starred. Although the reviews were mixed, all agreed that it was a tour de force for a 10 year old. After a considerable hiatus which included a marketing career and published technical papers and poetry, she has returned to playwriting. “Long Live The Pig!”is her second play as an adult; two other plays are in progress.