Midtown International Theatre Festival presents Third Annual Midwinter Madness Short Play Festival, 2/4-24

John Chatterton and The Midtown InterNational Theatre Festival (MITF) have announced the Third Annual Midwinter Madness Short Play Festival, from Feb. 4 through 24, 2013. The Festival will take place at Roy Arias Studios' Stage 2, 300 W. 43^rd St. 4^th fl. Tickets (from $13 to $18, depending on a play's length; no discounts for seniors or students) are available at www.smartTix.com (search by play title or follow the link provided below) or by calling 212/868-4444.

"Mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow. Tennessee Williams's college professor made him write one-act plays, before he went on to write STREETCAR. Writing one-acts or even ten-minute plays is a natural step in a playwright's development, or even a way for the master to step back and amuse him- or herself between blockbusters. This year's Festival crams three performances of three-dozen one-acts into three weeks in one theatre, which must be some sort of record!"

A BABY'S ARM HOLDING AN APPLE by Mandi Riggi (45 min.). Two souls long for lost love as they await their fate in the afterlife.

Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=BAB22

A CREDIT TO HIS RACE by Steve Gold (60 min.). A tale of racism, forbidden love, and Mussolini based on the life of Ernest Just, a pioneer black scientist.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=CRE15

ADELE'S HEART by Giapiero Rappa & Paula Wing (75 min.). Lucas and Adele struggle to survive during a war.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=ADE0

BRIDGE TO BARAKA by Yvette Heyliger (30 min.). Emboldened by an unlikely 1960s movement, Yvette X stakes her claim as a female dramatist coming of age during the ongoing fight for parity in the American Theatre.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=BRI42

CHILD OF FAITH Written & directed by Christopher Tedrick; starring Kayla Wickes, Jason Faust, & Simone Zvi (60 min.). The fight for survival in a post-revolution world.

Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=CHI46

FELDMAN & SONS by Lawrence Apple (60 min.) A fateful decision confronts a struggling family clothing company and its aging leader.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=FEL6

FORCE REDEMPTION by Shawn Belpanno (60 min.). Star Wars parody of a high adventure on a space station.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=FOR39

FRIENDLY Written & directed by Mike Durell (60 min.). Starring Alexandra Hellquist, Jenny Paul, Gary Lizardo, John Felidi, & Mike Durell. Two young women making their way in the big city fall into a mysterious plot.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=FRI16

GET ME A GUY by Israela Margalit (45 min.). Comedy about women needing a guy.

Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=GET10

LIFE AS A POMEGRANATE by Dawna J. Wightman; directed by Ginette Mohr; sound composition by David Mesiha (60 min.). One-woman comedy about a young woman with kids and a bad marriage in a redneck Canadian town.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=LIF34

LINOLEUM'S HARD by Joanne DeSimone, directed by Jay Michaels; starring Sara Minisquero, Laura Aristovulos, Gaby Mook & Abigail Formas, stage managed by Joanna Barbaro and Andrew Liebowitz (60 min.). Vicki & Emily dream of love and fame... but that might not be the hand they're dealt.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=LIN23

LIVING ARRANGEMENTS by Laura Pederson, directed by Ludovica Villar-Hauser (45 min.). When their apartment lease conflicts with their marriage contract Charlie and Lois get creative.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=LIV153

MACHO MOMENTS by Joseph P. Krawczyk (45 min.). Two war veterans adjust to civilian life.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=MAC29

NEWLYWED HOSTAGE PARTY by Adam Pitzler (45 min.). Rocky Horror Show parody about a couple going home to visit divorced Dad, when videogame-loving pal and criminal niece stop by.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=NEW218

NEXT STOP, ANYWHERE by Yasmine Lever (60 min.). Father and daughter have a reunion as he tries to get sober.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=NEX12

NOBODY BUT SOMEBODY by Davon Clark (45 min.). A modern-day musical talking about civil rights events of the past, Claudette Colvin, Rosa Parks, Freedom Riders, etc.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=NOB6

NOBODY'S BONES by Heather McCuen (30 min.). Emma awakens to find the unlikely hitman sent to kill her family.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=NOB7

OLD MAN RIVER by Corey Pajka, directed by Guil Fisher (45 min.). A young man with the eyes of the world on him, and a young woman who's been let down by human nature, cross paths in a New York bar discovering they weren't as alone as they thought.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=OLD10

PRETTY LITTLE MOUTH by Marcus Yi (60 min.). A former dominatrix is blackmailed into having an affair by her music student.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=PRE37

QUICK BRIGHT THINGS IN CLIP ON TIES by Colleen Scriven (45 min.).
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=QUI9

RADICAL by Nelson Diaz-Marcano (60 min.). September 11, 1973 Chile. An American missionary and a wounded young man are trapped in a basement where they are met by an armed cynical idealist while society crumbles during one of the most devastating coups in Latin american history.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=RAD18

RADIO MARA MARA by Libby Emmons, directed by Ali Ayala; starring Christopher Burris and Zoe Metcalfe-Klaw (45 min.). In an abandoned radio station in the hills around a bombed-out capital city, the DJ and the Archivist come to terms with the world that's left them behind.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=RAD19

RED FLOWERS IN THE SNOW by Lavinia Roberts, directed by Irene Kapustina; starring Joey Lozada, Lucie Pohl, & Mike Amato (45 min.). Three squatters try to take care of themselves when no one else cares.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=RED28

SHOOTING POOL WITH A ROPE by Lynn-Steven Johanson (45 min.). A meeting between an old man and a teenage boy forever changes each of their lives.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=SHO155

THAT WOMAN'S CHILD by Rebekah L. Pierce (30 min.). A woman running a hat store runs into her father's wife who hated her mother for having an affair and child with her husband.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=THA13

THE LIFEGUARD by Tony Manzo (60 min.) Frank and nephew Bobby try to keep Larry from making a big mistake in marrying a "Black Widow" type in a Fla. nursing home.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=LIF33

THE LIGHT OF LIFE by William Packard, directed by Gregory Higgins (60 min.) A young actress endures a horror of an audition to get a lead on a Broadway show.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=LIG12

THE PRANKSMITH by Anthony Guerino (45 min.) A man must choose between a friend he cares about and a joke he loves.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=PRA5

THE SUPREME BEINGS by Michael Horn (30 min.) Mister and Missus God compare notes. Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=SUP4

THE TOUPEE by Tom Dunn (60 min.) When her husband dies in the arms of a prostitute, the wife makes a startling proposition.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=TOU5

THE TRAINER by S. Karlan (60 min.) The increasing submission of a solitary man to his personal trainer and its attendant consequences.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=TRA40

TRUE ARTISTS by Gregory Nissen (45 min.) Was Beethoven a revolutionary? See slices of his life in early 19th-century Germany. Including excerpts from his music.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=TRU20

WAITING ROOM by Brian-Paul Mendoza (60 min.) Two people in a waiting room talk about crime, punishment, God, etc.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=WAI21

WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR? by Bill Beasley (30 min.) Two male friends deal with one of them being dumped by a supermodel.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=WHA46

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO HENRY? by Scott Rogowsky (45 min.) An unorthodox meditation on Orthodox Judaism, as explored by three old friends who reunite in Israel for the wedding of an estranged classmate.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=WHA45

WHO KNEW? by Russ Gerard Ritriato (60 min.) A standup comic ruminates.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=WHO16

WICCANS IN THE 'HOOD by Michelle T. Johnson (60 min.). Friends conducting rituals in an urban cemetery are mistakenly taken for being Wiccans by a black neighbor who stumbles upon them.
Tix: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=WIC

John Chatterton created the MITF in 2000, a Midtown alternative to other theatre festivals, as a way to present the finest off-off Broadway talent in convenience, comfort, and safety. The MITF's artistic emphasis is on the script itself, and therefore the Festival focuses on minimal production values. If anything, the Midwinter Madness Short Play Festival, and Mr. Chatterton's other showcases for short plays, take the theme of minimalism even further. As he puts it, "The shorter the plays, the more plays we have in one space, so the less space we have for each one. We learn to share."