St. Louis playgoers are in the middle of a festival of one-act plays that examine important issues.
According to The Riverfront Times, the LaBute Festival began earlier in July and runs through the end of the month, offering people a chance to see original, thought-provoking theater performed by great actors in a local venue.
The festival is named for playwright Neil LaBute, whose prolific body of work includes the play ‘Reasons to be Pretty’, which was nominated for a Tony.
LaBute's play ‘Life Model’ opened the festival, and used its two characters—an artist and the artist's model—to debate what art truly is.
‘Fire sans Matches’ describes a picnic ordered by a therapist working with a dysfunctional family. The husband tries to light a fire using his rusty Boy Scout skills while his wife belittles him and their teenage son deals with a barrage of emergency texts from friends.
‘Winter Break’ examines social issues such as gay rights and religious affiliation by way of a mother and her college-age children, and their rocky relationship.
The final play, ‘Mark My Worms’, is an out-and-out comedy about a playwright with no spelling ability who insists he has not made any typos, and his play is “about a man with a bun who threatens to hoot.”
The festival runs through this Sunday, July 31 at the Gaslight Theater. Organizations like these can benefit if they work with poster printing companies, who can create original artwork to advertise shows.
