Valentine's Day Love Stories
Oh, yes, it's that time of the year. If you’re single, you cringe when you walk past those aisles at the pharmacy and the supermarket and the mall and the---well everywhere---with the hearts popping out, the flowers poking you, the cards singing loudly, the balloons, the this, the that---all gigantic reminders that you are alone this year. And if you’re not single then, good for you, you get to be obligated to spend this week’s paycheck on all that useless regalia.
But, you know, of course that’s not at all what this, erm, I squirm to call it this “holiday” should be about. It should be about remembering and honoring that beautiful thing every single one of us has: love. Yes, every single one of us. Think harder if you can’t remember at least one person you love or loves you, Now go celebrate. And, well, you think you’re over all the predictable ways in which you can do that, but this year, you have a new option and you should try it. How about going to the theatre? Yes, one of the only places left in the modern world where we can actually sit still and feel.
The theatre I have in mind is the Sandbox, part of the Playground Theatre venue in Miami Shores, and the event is called Love Stories and it features six plays about love from playwrights all over the country.
The mastermind of the idea is Marjorie O’Neill - Butler, who also serves as producer, playwright and director. She received over three-hundred new play submissions from all over the world and picked a lucky six to be featured in the event. The program will involve these six short plays about love, three directors, four actors, a cello player and a vocalist. Seems like it will be diverse, funny, heart-felt and different way to treat your heart on this dreaded or much-awaited Valentine’s day. You can go alone (no one will look at you funny) or you can go with your honey - oh, I really didn’t mean to make a rhyme there - but check it out. Support what promises to be a sweet collaboration between some of our community’s best theatrical artists.
Plays featured:
Afterthought by Scott Herman and Hard To Get by Abigail Taylor, directed by Stephen Elliot Kaiser
Missed Connections by Marj O'Neill - Butler and La Vie en Rose by Allan Provost, directed by David Sirois
P My Valentine by Colette Freedman and Mellow Yellow by Denis Meadows, directed by Marj O’Neill – Butler
Actors:
Jeremiah Musgrove, Nikki Lowe, Troy Davidson and Diana Garle.
Musicians: Joseph Valbrun on cello and Jeremy Greenbaum, vocalist. They will provide pre-show and intermission music, as well as interlude music between the plays.
Love Stories runs February 12 - 14 at the Sandbox Theatre, 9806 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores. 305-751-9550 http://www.theplaygroundtheatre.com