Summer Shorts 3 With Giles, Huff, Colin, Slezak & More Begins 7/27

J.J. Kandel and John McCormack will present SUMMER SHORTS 3, their third annual festival of new American short plays, at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street). Performances begin Friday July 24th, and continue through Thursday August 27th. Featured will be Nancy Giles ("CBS Sunday Morning"), Neal Huff (Take Me Out), Stephanie D'Abruzzo (Avenue Q), Margaret Colin and Victor Slezak (Jackie), Rosalyn Coleman (Seven Guitars, Radio Golf), Robert DuSold (Les Miserables), Leenya Rideout (Company), Mary Joy, Sherry Anderson (Chris Durang & Dawne), and more, in eight World Premieres from some of New York's finest established and emerging playwrights, including John Augustine ("Encore! Encore!" starring Nathan Lane), Nancy Giles ("CBS Sunday Morning"), Bill Connington (Zombie) & Skip Kennon (Herringbone, Time and Again), Roger Hedden (Bodies, Rest & Motion), Neil LaBute (reasons to be pretty), Carole Real (ABC's "Relativity" and "Port Charles"), Keith Reddin (Life and Limb, Rum and Coke) and the late William Inge (Come Back Little Sheba, Bus Stop, Picnic). (A complete cast list and schedule follows).

Summer Shorts returns for another summer of new American one-acts featuring original plays by the country's top playwrights. Representing some of today's best writing, directing and acting talents, Summer Shorts celebrates theatre, summer and the short form. The festival's two separate series offer a diverse range of voices, styles, and subject matter. Summer Shorts 3 offers eight world premiere one-act plays, in two separate evenings. The two series will run in rotating repertory (a detailed description and schedule follows below). Last year The New York Post declared "one-act shorts fit nicely in summer heat!"

59E59 Theaters is the Drama Desk Award-winning state-of-the-art theater complex located on 59th Street between Park and Madison Avenues in Manhattan. Owned and operated by the Elysabeth Kleinhans Theatrical Foundation, a not-for profit operating foundation, 59E59 Theaters has set an invigorating policy of bringing new, challenging and entertaining work to a new Off Broadway neighborhood.

Performances will be Tuesday at 7:15pm, Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 8:15pm, with matinees Saturdays at 2:15 and Sundays at 3:15. Tickets are $18 each (59E59 Members $12.60). Tickets can be purchased from the Box Office, by phone through Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or online at www.ticketcentral.com. Service fees apply to phone and web purchases. For more information, please visit www.59e59.org or www.summershortsfestival.com

SERIES A

THINGS MY AFRO TAUGHT ME

Written and Performed by Nancy Giles

A black girl, her hair, her adventures, and eventual escape from a Los Angeles acting cult.

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE

by John Augustine
Directed by Robert Saxner
With Mary Joy, Sherry Anderson, and Aaron Paternoster

A woman copes with menopause, her birthday, and the death of her husband. Luckily, she has alcohol and candy to help her get through the day. Unluckily, she faces an unwanted visit from her sister-in-law.

A SECOND OF PLEASURE
by Neil LaBute
Directed by Andrew McCarthy
With Margaret Colin and Victor Slezak

A couple head off for a romantic weekend - or do they?

THE ETERNAL ANNIVERSARY
Book by Bill Connington
Music and Lyrics by Skip Kennon
Directed by Thomas Caruso
With Leenya Rideout and Robert W. Dusold

A hotel chef in 1913 New York City makes the perfect meal for his anniversary dinner. Very much in love with his wife, he is haunted by the suspicion that she was unfaithful to him years ago. Finding a lost bottle of Grand Marnier to complete the meal, he discovers evidence of her innocence. They can finally rest assured in their "perfect love."

SERIES B

DON'T SAY ANOTHER WORD

By Carole Real

Directed by Ian Belknap

With Stephanie D'Abruzzo and TBA

Irascible and compulsively honest, Josh tells his girlfriend Laura about a conversation he had with his guy friends. Big mistake.

THE SIN EATER

By Keith Reddin

Directed by Billy Hopkins

With Clara Hopkins Daniels, Jamie Watkins, Rosalyn Coleman, J.J. Kandel, Teala Dunn, and Sheldon Woodley

El is 14 and her father has been murdered. She's plotting revenge and nothing is going to stop her. Not the police, not the court appointed psychiatrist, and definitely not her mother. Because her mother was the one who killed El's father.

IF I HAD

By Roger Hedden

Directed by Billy Hopkins
with Shane McRae, Andy Powers and Emily Tremaine

Landscape maintenance, class struggle, and a bikini-clad girl collide in a country with potable water.

THE KILLING

By William Inge

Directed by José Angel Santana

With Neal Huff and J.J. Kandel

Desperation leads one man to ask for the ultimate favor from a stranger.