Anya Sebastian

BENCHWARMERS is Santa Fe's longest running, one act play festival. Created and produced by the Santa Fe Playhouse and now in its 14th year, the event features local playwrights, actors and directors, in a collection of 15 minute playlets with just one thing in common  -  a bench. With no stage sets and minimal props, it's left to the playwrights, actors and directors to create a virtual world, in which the bench is transformed into a living room sofa, a garden chair, office seating, or anything else the playwright may dream up.

THE HAT, which opened at the Santa Fe Playhouse on March 12, is a personal and highly original tale, dealing with some of the lesser known human stories of world war II. Written by Santa Fe playwright, Dianna Lewis, the play is grounded in historical fact. While the details of this particular story are fictional, the circumstances under which it unfolds are shockingly real.

The Santa Fe Playhouse is the oldest, continuously running community theater west of the Mississippi and summer would not be complete without its production of the FIESTA MELODRAMA. First performed in 1919 and reinvented each year by an anonymous group of local writers, the melodrama has established itself as a good natured, satirical send-up of some of the most noteworthy personalities, eccentricities and scandals in the City Different during the previous twelve months.

Before there were cell phones, before there was Facebook, before there was even email... there were the BROADWAY BABES, Kaye Ballard, Liliane Montevecchi and Donna McKechnie. Now legends in their own lifetimes, these three stars are still strutting their stuff and doing it better than most performers less than half their age.

THE YES MEN, Mike Bonnano and Andy Bichlbaum (not their real names) met about ten years ago when they were introduced by mutual friends. "They felt we were on a similar path and might be interested in working together," explained Mike when I met with him before the duo's appearance at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe. Little did those friends know what they had started.

Since its launch in 2003, Fusion Theatre Company's festival of short works, THE SEVEN, has established itself as one of the premier theatrical events of its kind in the country and even beyond. Playwrights from around the world are invited to submit a mini play, about 15 minutes in length, based on a common theme selected each year by the theatre's own patrons. This year's theme is 'Worlds Collide.' Works are then submitted, anonymously, to a panel of experts, who are faced with the challenging task of reading them all and selecting just seven for full production.

THE GOOD BODY, performed for one night only at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, is Eve Ensler's younger, less well-known companion piece to THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES. It follows a similar format - a series of monologues told by a cast of women from a representative cross section of races, backgrounds and nationalities. But this time, rather than focusing on just one (previously taboo) part of the female anatomy, Ensler has broadened her scope to take on the entire female form.

LUMA, which lit up the Lensic stage on April 6, is a unique theatrical experience. A symphony of light, music, words and movement, is performed against a background of complete darkness. Using the dark as a canvas, the brilliant, colored light displays produce ever-changing kinetic art forms that are completely captivating to behold.

THE LYONS, which opened at the Santa Fe Playhouse on March 27, is aptly described by director, Janet Davidson, as a 'dramedy.' The subject matter is definitely the stuff of drama, but playwright Nicky Silver delivers it with fast-paced wit and no-holds-barred humor. This is a black comedy that keeps you laughing, in spite of yourself, even as the dramas are unfolding on the stage.

The career versus marriage debate has been going on ever since women's lib first appeared on the scene and made it an issue. And if you think there can be nothing new to be said on the subject, then RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN, by Pulitzer Prize nominated playwright, Gina Gionfriddo, is sure to make you think again.

In an age of 30 second sound bites and attention deficit disorder, keeping an audience engaged and entertained for a non-stop 70 minutes is quite an achievement, And when a subject as dry as the US Constitution provokes regular gales of laughter throughout, the performer is clearly not your average, run-of-the-mill comedian.

Who would have thought that a cheap, black and white horror movie, shot in 1960 by Roger Corman in just two days, would resurface some 20 years later, to become an off-Broadway musical comedy smash hit? The show, in its new incarnation (created by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken) ran for over four years, before transferring to Broadway and from there to London's West End.

It was Mel Brooks' runaway success with his musical version of THE PRODUCERS,' that inspired him to do the same thing with YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. Fans of the classic, black and white horror spoof, will no doubt recall the story. Frankenstein's grandson, a brain specialist and American college professor, is called back to Transylvania to sort out his infamous grandfather's estate and, in the process, is inspired to 'join the family business.' Since this is Mel Brooks we're talking about, there's also a wacky assortment of love and lust interest, scientific fantasy and delicious nonsense along the way.

Think Chekhov and the last thing that comes to mind is comedy. So to be inspired by Chekhov to come up with a play that's laugh-out-loud funny is, to say the least, quite an achievement.

The three comics who were inspired to condense all of Shakespeare's 37 plays into 97 minutes - and then went ahead and did it - had no idea where that whacky idea would lead. First performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1987, THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, went on to become a runaway success, playing at the Criterion Theatre in London for over ten years. It has since been translated into dozens of different languages and has become a world-wide theatrical phenomenon. Whether you love Shakespeare, hate him or are completely indifferent, do yourself a favor and head over to Albuquerque Little Theatre, for an evening of guaranteed hilarity.

No single word can adequately sum up Kaye Ballard and Liliane Montevecchi's one night appearance at the Lensic Performing Arts Center on August 8th.Their performance was engaging, entertaining, inspiring and uplifting, with a pace that never faltered and an array of talents guaranteed to keep the audience glued to their seats all the way through. In other words, it was a dose of good, old-fashioned entertainment.

There is virtually nothing in the world of show business that Kaye Ballard and Liliane Montevecchi haven't left their mark on - acting, singing, story-telling, comedy, cabaret, dancing. . . in movies, on TV and performing live on stage - they've done it all. These legendary stars have over a century of artistic experience between them and, when I caught up with them between rehearsals for their upcoming show at the Lensic Performing Arts center in Santa Fe, it was abundantly clear that they show no signs of slowing down.

Since it began in 2003, Fusion Theatre Company's festival of short works, THE SEVEN, has acquired a reputation as one of the most notable events of its kind in the nation, and even beyond. . .

Duke City Rep is celebrating its first appearance at the Cell Theatre with a feisty production of Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, a comedy by award- winning playwright, Alan Ball (American Beauty.) Set in Knoxville, Tennessee, the play features five, very different bridesmaids, all reluctant participants in a fancy, over-the-top, Southern wedding. Having survived the ceremony itself, they are now taking refuge in the upstairs bedroom of the bride's rebellious, pot-smoking younger sister, Meredith, as the reception proceeds on the lawn below.

I have a great deal of respect and admiration for the Fusion Theatre Company. Their productions are highly professional, well produced and consistently deliver good, solid theatrical entertainment. So it pains me considerably to have to say that HUMBLE BOY, which opened at the Cell Theatre on April 25, falls disappointingly short of the mark.