Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon of One Act Plays

Marathon Goes Gasping

by Jesse Schmitt

When I first attended a show at the Ensemble Studio Theatre more than 10 years ago I was dazzled at their wall of pictures of previous performers. One picture always caught my eye; a show at EST from 1986 starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Elias Koteas. The picture caught my eye not so much for her as, at the time, she was not nearly the superstar she is today (though, at the time, I was able to appreciate her performance in Steve Martin’s “LA Story”) No, it was for Mr. Koteas as he had starred as the renegade Casey Jones in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie from my youth.

Another thing that I noted was the creaky, slow, small elevator, the tepid cough from the air conditioning unit, the cramped seating arrangements, and that big pillar which runs right through their second floor theatre.

I guess that was what was always impressive about the Ensemble Studio Theatre; what had happened there before. Being an eternal optimist when I first arrived here, I imagined some young scribe gazing up to the wall in the future and seeing a photograph of a show of mine and listlessly imagining themselves as I did before.

Time and experience changes a lot of things, but the spaces at the Ensemble Studio Theatre are a bit like Time in a Bottle. The elevator is the same, the waiting area is the same, the air conditioning is still lukewarm, the seating is still the same, and the same pictures still hang on the wall. Though the inside may have been moved around and the paintjob appears to be fresh, I wonder about what’s new that’s going on at EST. When I found out that the historic 30th Anniversary of their popular “Marathon of One Act Plays” series was taking place, I quickly jumped on board and made my way to series C.

Let me take a step back and say that the outgrowth from EST is really quite amazing. To think not even of Ms. Jessica Parker and Mr. Koteas, the list of those who the entertainment media have been or are currently associated with the popular off Broadway venue is awe inspiring indeed: Sam Shepard, John Patrick Shanley, Jon Voight, Cassandra Medley, Billy Aaronson, Leslie Ayvazian, Lewis Black, Leslie Caputo, Danny DeVito, Richard Dreyfuss, Christopher Durang, Horton Foote, Amy Fox, Richard Greenberg, Romulus Linney, William H. Macy, David Mammet, David Margulies in addition to the late Wendy Wasserstein, Shel Silverstein, and of course the former artistic director Kurt Dempster, among countless others. So it is not that a great many talented people are not regulars at EST. In addition, two very excellent playwrights with whom I studied; Christopher Ceraso and Edward Allen Baker regularly have their work showcased at EST and they may even still be teaching through the theatre.

So needless to say, more than 10 years hence and my being quite cynical about the state of things in general, the bar was set quite high in my mind for the caliber of work I would be seeing at Series C of the EST Marathon. I had been to the Marathon in years past and one thing which I was always impressed with was the brevity I felt in seeing the plays. 5 one act plays, some as short as 10 minutes, showcased with talented actors, minimal staging, few scene changes, and important themes.

The first play of the evening, “Piscary” by Frank D. Gilroy, directed by Janet Zarish was a relationship play set around a Scrabble board. The “He” character, played with nervous abandon by Mark Alhadeff was having second thoughts about his marrying the “She” character, ably played by Diane Davis. He starts the play zoned in on his fish tank, feeling like they should call off the wedding which is set to go down in three weeks. She reacts with an unreal amount of calmness in the eyes of this reviewer who was just married within the year (that, or my new wife is quick to pull her punches; the truth, I’m sure, lie somewhere in between) Maybe Ms. Davis’ character is used to this crazy talk from Mr. Alhadeff which would be considered by some a role reversal for genders, but who’s keeping track?

The embattled couple get down to brass tacks when he declares that she is no good at Scrabble; that’s the reason he wants to call off the wedding. They decide to square off in a mano-e-mano game of winner-take-all Scrabble, the house, the stuff, the fish tank. He is confident, she is cool. When she opens up her verbose vocabulary and takes him to the ropes, he is despondent. The ending is something of a compromise and really speaks to the amount of marriages that are rushed into by late in life couples (ugh! Late 20’s!)

The second play, “In Between Songs” was written by the popular comedian Lewis Black and directed by Rebecca Nelson. Starring Jack Gilpin as Chaz, David Wohl as Ed, and Cecilia DeWolf as Grace, this play stands as a trippy retrospective on a life lived. At the outset, the indistinguishable characters are all sitting, listening to a Bob Dylan record; then the song stops. All the rest of the action of the play takes place before the music gets going again.

This play really seemed more like an homage to how good life is (particularly when fueled along with cannabis) and how good their life had been. They all feel “interconnected;” Grace hits the bowl, literally, of some Stove Top stuffing, like it was like warmth for hypothermia sufferer and that was the whole point, I imagine. That we all need things, sometimes for much longer or much greater than we are conscious of; and when we get these needs fulfilled, we have a very hard time letting go.

The third play in the series, “Flowers” was written by Jose Rivera and directed by Linsay Firman. Starring Raul Castillo as Beto and Flora Diaz as Lulu this play is a fantasy trip of the imagination of children. Beto and Lulu are brother and sister and Lulu, slight elder, is 12. She has begun sprouting acne and she feels this is a revelatory event that her video game playing brother should take note of.

One thing that these two did in the play which really got to me was they addressed the audience directly. One thing I learned in my studies as a playwright (especially my more advanced studies at EST) was that breaking down that fourth wall should only be of absolute necessity and should be used sparingly. Every time the other character left the stage, the one left would talk to the audience and fill us in on all the back-story. If you can’t tell the story in the present moment and if what is going on onstage isn’t interesting enough for us to be engaged, then you probably shouldn’t be telling said story.

This was, by-and-large, the case for “Flowers.” Lulu’s acne began sprouting branches and these branches began flowering. This idea was a little strange premise for a play that otherwise seemed so real.

It was after this play that the intermission took hold. It was almost 105 minutes in! I deciphered my other obligations for the evening (I had to be at work at 11PM) and bolted during intermission. I hastened to even write a half-baked review of this series, but apparently I had a lot to say.

I do hope for the reinvention of the Ensemble Studio Theatre; I imagine a day when I can return there and see challenging work from unknown playwrights and be satisfied that the time spent there was at least thought provoking. However I have to say that this latest go-round, with three tapped out old stoners, two kids with wild imaginations, and a bickering couple, pre-marriage, is nothing all that new.

Ensemble Studio Theatre
549 W 52nd St
New York, NY 10019
(212) 247-4982
www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org