The Pocahontas County Drama Workshop will present the inaugural Pocahontas County Opera House Playfest, May 20-21, at the Opera House in Marlinton. Lewisburg resident and actor-playwright Eric Fritzius will be directing all seven of the festival’s short plays, each in the 10 minute range.
“The 10 minute short play format is one I enjoy because they make for an interesting evening of theater,” Fritzius explains. “They will serve as a sampler pack of different playwrights and different styles, from drama to comedy and all points in between.”
The selected works are plays primarily by West Virginia and Appalachian playwrights, as well as one by a playwright from Fritzius’ home state of Mississippi.
For his first time directing at the Pocahontas County Opera House, Fritzius chose to stick to the familiar territory of a festival of short plays. For the occasion, it seemed fitting to remount his first play, “…to a Flame.” Based on Fritzius’s short story of the same title found in his collection A Consternation of Monsters, “…to a Flame” is the story of a man who accidentally shoots one of West Virginia’s most infamous native sons, the Mothman. Other plays for the festival will include: “Legacy,” by Chris Shaw Swanson (Ohio), in which a woman on death row contemplates her final words; “Pumps” by Brett Hursey (Virginia) which tells the tale of the love hate relationship between a woman and her favorite pair of shoes; “About the Baby,” by T.K. Lee (Mississippi) in which a son comes home for dinner at his mother’s, bringing with him a baby she didn’t know he had; “Tammy and Tom,” by Jonathan Joy (Huntington), in which a woman finally gets a date with the man of her dreams, who turns out to have complicated dietary requirements; “Suburban Garden,” by Tom Stobbart (Wheeling), a play about the unrequited love between a flower and a weed; and “Playing Cards by Twilight’s Shine”, also by Fritzius, in which the sheriff and doctor of a small West Virginia town explain to the defense attorney of the county’s well-known moonshiner why his client is so important.
Parents are advised that some of the plays contain themes and language that may not be suitable for young children.
The Pocahontas County Opera House Playfest will be presented at the Opera House in Marlinton, Friday, May 19 and Saturday, May 21 beginning each evening at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 and will be available at the door. For more information visit the Opera House website at http://www.pocahontasoperahouse.org or call 304-799-6645.
