Fresh Fruit Festival’s annual MULTI-MEDIA FESTIVAL Monologues-to-Film and RADIO Plays available now at https://freshfruitfestival.com/25-26media/
PORTUGAL – written & filmed by Billy Luce Jr.
What a fun and high energy piece this was. Both of the actors, Setz Retzlaff (Rowan) and Kory Merten (Seth) gave wonderful performances and it was clear that they had both put a great deal of work into this. The pacing of the piece is spot on and the ebbs and flows of the dialogue were well paced. My one issue with the piece was It felt disconnected, disconnected from the audience and also the actors disconnected from each other. Because of this I was more impressed by the back and forth, timing and the actors’ cadences than the context of what they were saying.
SEATING and Other Arrangements – by Barbara Kahn
Asking two actors to sit on a bench and perform a long scene like this, creates a myriad of challenges for the actor and director. Both Jamie Lee Coffey (Amy) and Kathleen Carthy (Gina) did a good job under these conditions, but I think with a few more props at their disposal they could have been able to find a few more interesting moments. Both actors had good stage presences but there were times where it felt like the lines were just being rattled off verbatim rather than really communicating with each other.
Love Lost – by C. B. Murray IV – a film by Leonard Joseph
Written and performed by author Charles Bernard Murray, Love Lost is a beautiful and powerful poem and I enjoyed it on all levels. The writing is open and vulnerable and speaks to love, pain and loss, things that we all can relate to regardless of who we are. That being said, the idea to film in multiple locations and jump around from place to place was confusing and distracting. With such
beautiful source material I think the wisest choice would have been to shoot in one location and let the words speak for themselves.
Comfort and Joy – by Dana Leslie Goldstein
It’s nice to listen to a radio play, it is definitely not as common these days as it once was so it’s a lot of fun to hear a different medium. Julia Crowley (Pia) and Sarah
Guilbault (Helen) gave spirited performances and it is always nice to hear stories from less predominant family arrangements. All in all the message and the writing was good, but by the end of it it felt more like a PSA than a play.
The Cocktail Bench – by John Harney
Alex White (Paul) and Gabrielle DuBrul (Willow) did a wonderful job in this short radio play by John Harney. The story of two neighbours who met and found some common ground over discarded art work had me from the start and was a sweet and compelling story. My only gripe was that both actors seemed to be stuck in a monotonous tone at points, which took away from the story a little. But all in all Ithoroughly enjoyed it!.
Carter – by Alex Bernstein
If you told me this was put out in the 1950’s as a radio play about being gay I would believe you. In all honesty I am not sure if this is supposed to be a joke or a serious piece? It gives a rather archaic view of life and families and plays to the old cliche that old people are stupid and not in touch, I think Lynn Langone as Grandma, and Rosy Lum as Ivy did the best they could with the material they were given, but I’m still not sure who the intended audience for this piece is.
inDfilm 