2010 Original One Act Festival

The Village Playhouse of Wauwatosa's Original One Act Festival has been an ongoing project for 25 years. The festival is intended to give playwrights a means to see their work move from the paper to the stage. Working together, a playwright, a director, a cast, and a crew develop and polish scripts for presentation to an audience over the course of three weekends. To our knowledge this project is unique in the state and certainly has no competitors for longevity.

Eve and Adam

by

W. Patrick Fogarty

How Can I Tell if it's Love?

by

Rand Higbee

After the human race annihilates itself, God decides to try a do over with a changes Adam and Eve. The results are the same as the first time. It also is discovered that rabbits may not be a good second choice.

Jack kand Nora are a young couple in love. But are they really in love? How can they know for sure when they have no experience in such matters? Their parents give them advice, but in the end Jack and Nora realize they themselves are the only ones who can decide if this is love ... or something else.

Potions and Pets

by

Nick Schweitzer

Self Improvement,

Old Testament Style

by

Richard Paul Klein

The theme, "if your pets could talk," is the heart of this comedy. Bobby goes to an Apothecary type shop to buy a potion to increase her ability to speak in social settings. Her dog and cat lap up some spilt potion just before a party Bobby is hosting. Let the fun begin.

In order to "cure" herself of her new found wicked ways, and prevent her college roommate, Bunny, from telling her parents about her latest escapades, Stephie agrees to undergo an exorcism. Alone in their form, the girls go through a bungling ordeal that reveals an unlikely result. Bunny, with the religious fervor of a right-wing activist and the theological knowledge of a first year divinity student inflicts wonderful punishment -- a combination of restraints, scripture and holy water -- on the supposed demons possessing Stephie.

The Conductor

by

Jennifer Najoom

The Free Man

by

Mike Willis

It's the intermission of a long opera (is there such thing as a short opera?)and things are not going well for the orchestra.  "The Maestro,"is working feverishly to fix the score when a parade of people barge into the dressing room and offer their opinions. From a feuding Flautist to the flippant ex-wife to the companies major donor a host of characters take us backstage and into the sophisticated life of a symphonic conductor.

The story of James Hamlet, the first black arrested under the Fugitive Slave Bill, enacted by Congress in September of 1850. The bill stated that any runaway slave living in any of the northern free-states could be tracked down by slave-catchers and returned to their owners. A signed piece of paper from a slave owner claiming ownership of a slave was all that was needed to have the slave arrested. Escaped slaves, as well as free men and women of color were equally afraid of being arrested, since by law, colored people were not allowed to testify against whites. The Anti-Slave Society headed by the likes of Lewis Tappan, Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony fought against the Fugitive Slave Bill and questioned its constitutionality.

Divine Word Lutheran Church

5505 W Lloyd Street

Milwaukee Wisconsin

Alchemist Theatre