Also this issue:

Spontaneous Combustion
Dance, drums and tabla combine to light up the Painted Bride.
-Deni Kasrel

Out of this World
-Susan Hagen

Lee Blessing
-Interview by David Anthony Fox

He Talks Pretty
-David Anthony Fox

Family Affair
-Debra Auspitz

Quilting Bucks
-Helen i-lin Hwang

From Chippendale to Talavera
-Lori Hill

Moving to the Desert
-Deni Kasrel

October 17-23, 2002

artpicks

Stage Flight

by Debra Auspitz

Each year since 1986, Philadelphia Theatre Company has offered a chance for emerging playwrights to present their work. PTC's STAGES Festival works only with new plays, presenting each script's first staged reading. Past entries have gone on to local and national fame -- Michael Hollinger's Red Herring and Tiny Island, Bruce Norris' The Infidel and Craig Wright's Molly's Delicious all got their initial exposure through STAGES. This year's program will be presented over the next four Monday nights, with each free reading followed by a reception (sponsored by Yards Brewing Co.). First off is Sheri Wilner's Father-Joy. Wilner wrote Bake Off, a big (and messy) comic hit at this year's Humana Festival of New Plays in Louisville, about one woman's violent reaction to a man entering a baking contest. Father-Joy examines the relationship between a father and his mid-20s daughter, who's dating a 51-year-old man. The next three selections in this year's festival include an as-yet-untitled play from Tom Donaghy, a PTC artist-in-residence this year; A Small, Melodramatic Story by Stephen Belber, a member of Moisés Kaufman's Tectonic Theater Project (of Laramie Project fame); and Compleat Female Stage Beauty and Three Viewings author Jeffrey Hatcher's A Picasso, featuring the legendary artist being interrogated by the Gestapo in Paris.

STAGES Festival: Father-Joy, Mon., Oct. 21, 7 p.m.; Untitled play by Tom Donaghy, Mon., Oct. 28, 7 p.m.; A Small, Melodramatic Story, Mon., Nov. 4, 7 p.m.; A Picasso, Mon., Nov. 11, 7 p.m., free but reservations recommended, Plays & Players Theater,1714 Delancey St., 215-985-1400, ext. 110.