Tiny Kushner by Tony Kushner

September 30 thru October 22, 2011

From Award Winning Playwright Tony Kushner, best known for the two-part epic Angels in America comes Tiny Kushner, five short plays which still display the playwright's trademark theatricality and wit. Two former first ladies, a trip to the moon, dozens of tax-evading New York cops, and variations on Hitler, Dostoyevsky, Nixon, George W. Bush, and Shakespeare populate these theatrical gemstones. Proving, perhaps, that the playwright may be incapable of thinking small, even in works of brevity. The broad reach of characters and subject matter, as well as Kushner's eclectic, wicked wit contribute to the charm and excitement of Tiny Kushner. The plays include:

• Flip Flop Fly!
  
• Terminating or Sonnet LXXV or “Lass Meine Schmerzen Nicht Verloren Sein” or Ambivalence
• East Coast Ode to Howard Jarvis: a little teleplay in tiny monologues
• Dr. Arnold A. Hutschnecker in Paradise
  
• Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy

Time of My Life by Alan Ayckbourn

February 10 thru March 3, 2012

First produced in 1992, Time of My Life is the 44th play written by England's most prolific playwright, Sir Alan Ayckbourn. Mr. Ayckbourn confesses to being a "terrible eavesdropper" in restaurants and it is this habit that led directly to the writing of Time of My Life, a play where the audience members are the eavesdroppers, witnessing the traumas of an apparently normal family. 
The story revolves around a family dinner at their favorite restaurant organized by successful businessman Gerry Stratton to celebrate his wife Laura's 54th birthday. Their grown sons, Glyn and Adam are also present. Glyn is with his long suffering wife Stephanie; Adam has brought along his new girlfriend, Maureen, an outrageous hairdresser. It is after the dinner breaks that the play takes off in three different directions simultaneously with all the action taking place in the same restaurant. The parents remain in present time, disclosing secrets which redefine their relationship. The oldest son's story moves forward in time over the course of two years, exposing a troubled marriage and a failing business. The youngest son's story moves backwards in time over the course of two months, revealing the beginnings of a relationship and the joy that comes with falling in love.

The London Times called it, "A play by an inspired master craftsman and cunning psychologist working at full stretch: harsh and funny, simple and cunning, generous but unforgiving." The Guardian called it, "Ingenious."