MPG: Summer
July 9 – 24
MPG: Summer
Mobtown Playwrights Group presents three weekends of repertory theater featuring the best of Baltimore’s writing and acting talent.
Four original one acts are taking the stage at the Mobtown Theater in July. Three of them will run on Fridays with another, longer one-act play scheduled on Saturday. Two of the works, “The Docents” by Kimberley Lynne and “Bookends” by Kathleen Barber, are receiving their world premieres at Mobtown. The other two one acts, Walk Like a Man by Jim Cary and “Conference at Night” by Mark Squirek, are original works by two of Baltimore’s most respected playwrights.
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Scheduled to run on Fridays, July, 9, 16, 23 with performance times at 8 each night are:
The Docents by Kimberly Lynne. Directed by Raine Bode. Featuring Marianne Germaine, Kevin James and Alec Weinberg. When Japan invaded China in 1939, the Chinese packed the contents of the Beijing museum into peasant carts and disguised citizens as refugees who rolled the treasure in front of the battle and protected China’s art history from the marauding invaders. In the beginning of The Docents two volunteers, a woman and a boy, have become separated from their platoon of carts. Alone, pulling their prized cargo only a few miles from enemy lines and surrounded by war, the two encounter an AWOL soldier, a thief, who slowly determines that they are carrying precious artwork wrapped in burlap.
Bookends by Kathleen Barber. Directed by John Garner. Featuring April Rejman and Nancy Flores. Set in fifteenth century England, two sisters find themselves at odds with each other when faced with their father’s demanding requests. One chooses to stand up to her father and fight for her own will while the other decides to side with her father, and thereby conform with the expectations of a proper woman’s behavior in their time.
Conference at Night by Mark Squirek. Directed by John Garner. Featuring April Rejman, Michael Butscher and Mark Squirek. In 1954 the comic industry is dying. Senate hearings about the influence of comics on American youth as well as the presence of communism in the country are just around the corner. A female in a male-dominated industry, Marie finds herself at the center of attention as her cover art has caused a spike in the sales of a barely living company. When faced with unemployment as well as insinuations about her own past, Marie looks to come to terms with the reality of the business she has chosen.
Scheduled to run on Saturdays July 10, 17 and 24 with performance time at 8 is:
Walk Like a Man by Jim Carey. Directed by John Garner. Featuring Mark Squirek, Mike Page and Beverly Shannon. At 51, Alan Long Jr. finds himself injured and laid off from a job he loves. While he broke his foot in what he considers an act of heroism, the company used the opportunity to replace him and his crew with cheaper temp labor. His friend Herb, who works in the white collar part of the same company, shares Alan’s fascination with guns and visits him often. The complications of Alan’s life are compounded by the fact that his wife recently left him for another worker at the plant. Over the course of 75 minutes Alan’s rage builds until it explodes in an act of violence from which he may never be able to recover.
Tickets are $10 per night and will be available through Brown Paper Tickets.
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