Every summer the Public theater has a Summer Play Festival where they give the stage to several up and coming playwrights for cheap $15 tickets. These plays run throughout July. I love that in New York you can go to reasonably priced independent plays and see budding talents. This is a non profit project so none of the plays expect to do anything more than break even. They really spend the money on getting a good cast and director and making the best out of their performance space.
Last night I went to Tender by Nikki Bloom. The criticism I often have for plays is that they tend to be too wordy. Writers love to write after all, and often have difficulty limiting their egos or their words. Tender did not have that problem. This concise 1 hour play did not have an intermission and flowed through tightly choreographed scenes. The plot was forgettable- something traumatic happens to a family, they deal with it. But the writing was pitch perfect. It swung you through different emotions and viewpoints, twisting around language in different ways, and only a few times becoming superfluous.
Of the four person ensemble, the only one who really shined was the main actress, Kerry Bishe. At first I didn't want to like her because I thought oh, another skinny blonde actress. But she could actually act quite well!
Well worth the money :)
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