Drama Queen

Girl Play 2013 is a varied look at life from a lesbian perspective

The Women's Theatre Project, based for its main stage productions at the Willow Theatre at Boca Raton's Sugar Sand Park, has long included plays with lesbian themes and points of view in the work that it does.  Girl Play, a festival of short-play readings, is part of that mission, and this year's fourth edition happens June 21-23.

Sixteen short plays are included in the lineup, with eight read on Friday starting at 7:30 p.m. and eight on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.  Audiences will pick their favorites, and those plays will get a second reading on Sunday at 2 p.m.

This year's plays, chosen from more than 100 submissions, are Joan Lipkin's Are You Married?, Sharon Goldner's Based on True Events, Donna Hoke's Cake Top This, Rahti Gorfien's Diaphanous, Dian "MJ" Perrin's Dyke Tracy, Detective, Karen L. Lewis' Gallery Postmortem, Jan O'Connor's Gayby's Playdate, Ruth Dyck Fehderau's Hildie and Hilda Go for a Walk, Tabia Lau's In the Water, Penny Jackson's Palpitations, Barbara Lhota's Personal Penchants, Eileen Tull's Semi-Circles, Kathleen Warnock's Sharing the Pie, Patricia Milton's Stonehenge, Michelle F. Solomon's Taste of Thai and Carol Mullen's Zero Mile Mark. 

Directing the readings are Genie Croft, Marj O'Neill-Butler and Kim Ehly.  Ehly isn't just directing four shows -- she's also playing the lead in Dyke Tracy, Detective.  The other actors in Girl Play 2013 are Sally Bondi, Casey Dressler, Lela Elam, Noah Levine, Ann Marie Olson, Barbara Sloan, Karen Stephens, Carol Sussman, Pilar Uribe and Elayne Wilks.

The festival takes place at Art Gallery 21 at the Woman's Club of Wilton Manors, 600 NE 21st Ct., Wilton Manors.  Admission is $15 for one program, $25 for two and $35 for three.  Patrons on Saturday and Sunday will be given a parking pass because of the Stonewall Festival taking place those days (otherwise, parking would be $10).

For more info or tickets, call 1-866-811-4111 or visit the Women's Theatre Project web site.

Also note:  This festival is intended to be festive, so show up at least a half-hour early for drinks, music and an art exhibit.

Fresh theater at a bargain price

New Theatre hosted Foryoucansee Theater's debut production of Toners in Time the  last weekend in June, and a raucous time was had by all for just $10 a ticket.

Since the company isn't putting up its own production 'til The Taming of the Shrew opens Aug. 27, artistic director Ricky J. Martinez and managing director Eileen Suarez are opening their theater to another group of young artists.  Lili Bita's Women of Fire and Blood runs Friday-Sunday, July 10-12, followed by The New Ones Festival July 17-19.  Both productions are the work of recent New World School of the Arts alumni, and again, you can see either show for just $10 a ticket.

Betsy Graver, Ashley Olberding, Ann Marie Olson, Jackie Rivera and Gladys Ramirez are in Women, described as "edgy, raw and erotic poetry, as seen through the eyes of 'the other women' in Greek mythology."  Anne Chamberlain (in Road to Crazy Town, pictured here), Mark Della Ventura (Small Membership), Justin McLendon (I Wish), Olberding (For as Long as We Both Shall Live) and Ramirez (The Blushing Bride) are the "New Ones," actor-playwrights performing one-person shows.

The shows go on at 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 5 p.m. Sunday.  New Theatre is at 4120 Laguna St. in Coral Gables.  Call the box office at 305-443-5909 or visit the theater's web site for more info.