Two works written by New Hampshire playwrights will be the next shows staged at the Hatbox Theatre in Concord.
One Act Wonders is a pairing of the one-act plays Two Lessons at the Bus Stop by George Kelly of Concord and Whatever You Want by Tom Spencer of Manchester.
It is being produced by Donald Tongue of New World Theatre, who looks to promote newly written plays and has organized a one-act festival in Boston.
The one-acts were presented at the Hatbox’s previous pitch night, Tongue said, but were too short to stand on their own. So, he and Hatbox founder Andrew Pinard put the shows into a sort-of one-act festival.
Each play is being put on by separate production teams and casts, while Tongue coordinates with them and makes sure they have everything ready for the opening show Friday.
It’s the first time he’s worked with either scriptwriter before, though he met Kelly previously.
Two Lessons at a Bus Stop tells the story of a man sitting on a park bench waiting for the bus (Alan Lindsay). The man overhears a conversation between two people (Kellyn and Tina Annis) with different views on the afterlife, that makes him consider his own mortality.
Kelly is directing his own play and also performs in it.
“He begins to understand his own mortality, that he’s not gonna be around forever,” Kelly told the Concord Insider. “It coincides with the newness of spring and how everything is renewing, and he begins to wonder how many more years he’s gonna be renewed.”
Kelly told the Insider the play was inspired by a real-life experience he had.
“I was in the middle of my garden planting flowers – the garden plays a significant role in this (play) because the older man is a gardener,” he said. “The thought came to me that a perennial is a flower that lasts, you can depend on a perennial. Annuals only last for a season. I made the parallel between perennials and annuals and human beings. Human beings are kind of annuals – we have a limited time on earth, and we have to make the best of it.”
In Whatever You Want, a young man teaches himself English exclusively by studying the works of Shakespeare. Unfortunately for him, most people don’t speak in prose.
However, his roommates see an opportunity to capitalize on his skills for their poetry homework and women-wooing, Tongue said.
There’s value in putting new works on the stage, Tongue said. Plays don’t live on the page.
The shows will be held Friday through June 25 at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $16.50 or $13.50 for Hatbox members, seniors or students.
For more information, visit hatboxnh.com.
(Sarah Pearson can be reached at features@cmonitor.com, 369-3324 or on Twitter @SarahPearsonNH.)