Above The Curve’s One Act Festival ~ North Hollywood

By Rebecca Finer

On November 26th, we went to the 5th Annual ONE ACT FESTIVAL at the Above the Curve Theater. Six one acts all put together with a short intermission made for a great night at the theater. It is definitely worth checking out. Now for thoughts on each of the one acts:

GREASE IS THE WORD

This was the first piece of the festival, and it was definitely entertaining throughout. The slight lyric changes in songs were amusing, and, as the cast sang about in the end, Grease is, and always will be, a classic. However, there were too many different accents being done by characters which distracted from the piece, but other than that it was a pretty wonderful thirteen minutes. I would even go so far as to say I preferred “Look at me I’m Prude Magee” over the original.

THE SURPRISE

A superb performance by all three members of the small ensemble cast. The male character is psychic but can only foresee two minutes into the future, making an ability, that might otherwise be exciting, annoying at best.  The excellent writing paired with a cast who knew their timing made for a exceptional experience for the audience. I laughed from beginning to end; speaking of which, what a refreshing and uplifting surprise!

TINY LITTLE CLOUDS

Out of five characters, two were watchable. The Barbie and Ken type characters were fun and entertaining for the short time that they were on stage, and they should have had their own one act piece, yet I regret to say that the rest of it was not really of the same quality. The character from Alabama was very accurate of the Southern archetype, but the best writing was for the two characters who had the hots for each other. Maybe I just felt a connection with their interaction because I, too, mainly do yoga to “tighten my ass.”

THE FIRE BALLET

This show had a very interesting story idea, but did not live up to its potential. The brother/sister relationship was awkward and tense at best. Done differently it could have been a very good piece. The casting wasn’t ideal, especially for the male character; the actor was talented, but his presence didn’t quite hit the domineering level the writing seemed to be aiming for. Very suspenseful and chock-full of potential, The Fire Ballet could possibly be done as a full-length play or even feature film.

THE APOLOGY

The acting in this piece was wonderful and genuine. It very much captured the intensity and urgency of being in love, in a relationship, and not knowing where you stand. It was a beautifully portrayed picture of the misunderstanding that happens between two people in love. I spent most of the piece trying to figure out if the female lead was the girl from Six Feet Under. She’s not, in case you just became as curious as I was.

IN THE JAR

The grasshopper character needed to relax. I recognized the actress as the same who played the stressed out character in the Yoga piece. She played them essentially the same way, just with different costumes. The lighting bug characters were funny-ish and Daddy long legs used an excellent dialect. That being said, the longer and more the bug characters talked about being trapped in the jar, the more I started to feel trapped myself. It was all a little too A Bug’s Life for my taste.