BWW Reviews: Solid, Original Offerings Launch First Wave of Artists' Exchange's Annual ONE-ACT PLAY FESTIVAL

Each summer, Cranston's Artists' Exchange welcomes playwrights into its black box performance space to showcase a variety of one-act plays. The writers are challenged to craft a scene - mere minutes long - that fully engages the audience through clever, condensed storytelling, precise dialogue, and memorable characters.

The first wave of this year's One-Act Play Festival, very ably directed by Artists' Exchange actors Tom Chace and Kate Lester, features five selections highlighting the work of both local and national dramatists.

Kay Poiro's Family Business is a delightfully-fractured fantasy, as two well-known fairy-tale characters (hilariously played by Meg Taylor-Roth and Briana Assante) turn tough to extort information on the mysterious "Fairy Godmother" from an elderly shoemaker (Livi Yeaw). With an emphasis on "the Family," a collection of obscure aliases, and carefully-negotiated payoffs, Poiro's work shines as the Enchanted Forest encounters Organized Crime.

Kevin Broccoli's Blanche reimagines the dynamic between sisters Blanche DuBois and Stella Kowalski from Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. This gripping, intensely-performed scene by Lester and Christine Treglia (with Jeff Almeda as the ambiguously-presented "Doctor") bleeds fiction and reality together to leave a series of intriguingly unanswered questions in its wake.

In Why Don't We Just Play Salad Bowl, Ben Jolivet examines the complex dynamics between old friends and relative strangers as a pleasant dinner party rapidly dissolves into open hostility. Actors Taylor-Roth, Nick Viau, John Carpentier and David Kane balance the scene's taut blend of comedy and tragedy well, though the material's mature themes and coarse language make Salad Bowl the edgiest offering in Wave I.

Ray Battocchio's charming Goodie Bags turns expectations on their heads when a small-time thug (Ian Sanphy) encounters a wily grandmother (Mary Kelliher DeBerry) in a busy bus station. Sanphy and DeBerry are well-matched scene partners, and their exchanges make the act a joy to watch as the knitting needle-wielding pensioner thoroughly flummoxes the wise-guy whippersnapper. Viau also plays a small but important role as the characters' interaction draws to a close.

Wave I ends on a highly-entertaining note with A Fit of Pique, a creative and quirky offering from Mark Harvey Levine. Taylor-Roth gives a show-stopping performance as Annie, a woman thoroughly convinced that she is only beautiful when annoyed. Kane and Carpentier as Annie's increasingly-befuddled date and hilariously-besotted waiter, respectively, turn in spot-on comedic performances. Amanda Beaton plays Annie's obnoxious, irritating sister as the ideal straight man for the surrounding zaniness, and she brings a refreshing touch of sweetness to the scene as well.

Wave I of Artists' Exchange's 8th Annual One-Act Play Festival plays a limited run at Theatre 82, Thursday-Sunday only, through July 21, 2013. Wave II of the Festival opens at Theatre 82 on July 26. Advance tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at www.artists-exchange.org or by phone at (401) 490-9475; tickets are available at the door for $20. Theatre 82 is located at 82 Rolfe Square, Cranston, RI.

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Pictured: Meg Taylor-Roth, Amanda Beaton, John Carpentier, David Kane
Photo credit: Christina Monahan Photography

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