(L-R) Jade Cash and Caitlin Mickey in Neil LaBute's BRUNCH, one of the short plays in the St. Louis Actors' Studio's LaBute New Theater Festival. Courtesy of St. Louis Actors' Studio.
– By Cate Marquis –
Actors Studio’s annual LaBute New Theater Festival offers six one-act plays including one from playwright Neil LaBute, for whom the festival is named. LaBute is not attending this year’s festival but all six plays are delightful, ranging from comic to taut drama, dark humor, family drama, and social drama.
This is the 12th year for the Actor Studio’s LaBute New Theater Festival. The festival always includes a new work written by playwright/writer/director Neil LaBute, who also serves on the Festival Selection Team, which chooses up to eight other short plays from among the qualifying professional submissions. to be performed at the festival, along side LaBute’s new work. In the past, the festival has also had a high school student component, presented as readings. LaBute has attended the festival in past years, although he is not attending this year.
Each of the winning one-act plays is a little gem, and two directors, Eric Dean White and Wendy Renee Greenwood, and six actors, Jade Cash, Tyler Crandall, Xander Huber, Anthony Wininger, Caitlin Mickey, and Nick Barrows (generally in order of appearance), perform them all. The order of the varied short plays is in a well-designed program, alternating humor and drama, dark and light. The plays vary from comedy to dark drama but each has something to say about human nature, relationships, or social issues. The plays each have simple but well-crafted sets, to allow for quick transitions on the Gaslight’s small stage, and minimal props and simple, effective costumes.
Things kick off with a comedy, “Junk Drawer,” written by Erin Fitzgerald and directed by Eric Dean White, where the contents of someone’s junk drawer spring to life and contemplate escape and talk about how each came to this place for random things. The drawer includes a well-traveled coin, Penny (Jade Cash), a mostly used-up Sharpie, Mark (Tyler Crandall), a single poker chip, Chip (Xander Huber) and, finally, BS (Anthony Wininger), a set of bootstraps without the boots. The result is silly and funny, but also somehow philosophical and human. The set is simple, a large wooden front with a drawer knob, and the characters’ identity is signified by head bands topped with a sign for the object each actor is portraying: a coin, a marker, etc., The silly costumes are enough to prompt a laugh, and while the comedy is slight, the actors lean into the silliness and punning and the play also finds a warmth and a sense of community by the end.
We veer into far different territory with the next play, “Go Fish,” is a tense drama written by Cameron Michles and directed by Wendy Renee Greenwood. Two people, who once knew each other, meet again at the younger person’s college. The college student is a young Black man named Whittaker (an excellent Nick Barrows), who clearly was reluctant to meet with Chloe (Caitlin Mickey), a white woman a few years older, although he is not sure why she wanted to meet. Chloe is friendly and quizzes him about his life, but Whittaker is wary and resists the small talk, insisting she get to the reason for the reunion. There are hints of something bad in their shared past, although what comes out very slowly, largely through periodic unsettling flashbacks. Back in the present, Whittaker grows irritated by Chloe’s constant questions, as she avoids his one, once tartly replying “go fish,” as if they are playing a card game. There may be a game going on here but it is one with far higher stakes, in this emotionally-charged social drama.
“The Resurrection Men,” written by Nicholas Dunn and directed by Eric Dean White, is a historical drama with a nice dry, dark humor edge. It opens with two fellows sporting what sound like Irish accents who are digging a hole. The younger one, Fitz (Xander Huber) is very grateful to the older one, Hatt (Anthony Wininger) for the job he’s just started, although he is still puzzled about what exactly they are doing there in a graveyard. Both Huber and Wininger are very funny, and while some history buffs might recognize the term “resurrection men,” and tumble to what is happening, everything becomes clear when a female medical student named Knox (Jade Cash) shows up. This dark humor tale touches on a variety of social topics, such as moral dilemmas, exploitative bosses, women’s rights, the advance of science and things you might do in order to simply live.
After a brief intermission, the play festival program returns with the Neil LaBute short play written for the fest, “Brunch.” Directed by Wendy Renee Greenwood, this play is laced with a dark humor, as two women meet for brunch and cocktails. Shasta (Jade Cash) offers supportive words to Candice (Caitlin Mickey), who is having some troubles, but a cat-and-mouse game quickly unfolds, leaving one of them reduced to jittery nerves by the end. Both Mickey and Cash pull this dark crime comedy off beautifully, with Cash particularly entertaining.
Next is perhaps the weirdest play, “Little Johnny Knows Things,” written by John Pierson and directed by Wendy Renee Greenwood. This one is a tale that teeters between funny and uncomfortable, about two men who meet by chance. Ryan (Nick Barrows) is a man who has ridden his bike ride to a park bench to read a book in peaceful solitude, but is approached by overly-friendly stranger Brett (Xander Huber). Brett has a goal in mind, which involves a ventriloquist’s dummy (a perfectly creepily crafted prop by Erin Knadler). Despite his best efforts to deflect or escape, Ryan can’t seem to lose Brett, and Little Johnny, in this funny, cringe-comedy bit.
The program closes with “The Rules,” written by Domenick Scudera and directed by Eric Dean White. “The Rules” is a drama about two long-estranged brothers who grew up on Long Island, who meet again after many years, when one comes home to deal with the death of a parent. Leo Donatella (Anthony Wininger) is the brother who dutifully stayed to run the family business and feels resentful towards his younger brother Mario (Tyler Crandall), a gay man who has gone on to some modest success as an entertainer in California. The two clash over politics, views on values, family obligations, and their opinions on rules, and at first it seems the chasm between them is too wide, but conversation during a long car ride begins to show a glimmer of hope, as they remember together, in this well-crafted family drama, with both Wininger and Crandall giving winning performances.
It all adds up to a delightful evening, one of laughs, thought-provoking drama and often heart. “LaBute New Play Festival” is on stage at the Gaslight Theater, 358 N. Boyle Ave., through July 26, 2026.
© Cate Marquis
