9th Annual Labor Day Theatre Festival

2004's festival was a great success!
Thanks to all who helped make it possible!

August 27 - September 4, 2004

Always a surprise, often provacative, frequently trancendent, never dull. In its 9th year, the Festival continues to reinvent itself. Primarily a venue for the production of fresh and challenging plays that are acted, directed and/or written by Bay Area artists and NDNU students and alumni.

Play Descriptions:

SHARING DAD
NDNU alum Jonathan Knott returns once again, not only as director, but also as playwright. In this warm and charming comedy, Ralph, an ailing, yet witty old man successfully attempts to reunite his two daughters (Janet and Jenny) at his own birthday party, after fifteen years of separation. The meeting eventually leads to comical as well as grave consequences including an encounter with Jenny's slimy ex-husband, Brad; played by Belmont mayor, George Metropulos.

Selections from TALKING WITH...
NDNU alum, Festival veteran, and Belmont Arts Commissioner, Karen Byrnes comes back with full force to direct four stellar selections from the monologues by Jane Martin. In Audition, a young, insecure actress gets the support she needs by bringing her cat to auditions. A middle aged "plain Jane" finds transformation as she uses her body for a canvas in Marks. In Rodeo, we find a veteran woman rider trying to come to terms with the commercialization of her sport. And a lonely old woman finds sanctuary at a fast food restaurant in French Fries.

THE DANCE AND THE RAILROAD
First-time Labor Day Theatre Festival director and NDNU alum, Harley Tallett, takes charge of this David Henry Hwang play. Two workers on the American rail gangs of the 1880's, racing east through the Rocky Mountains, across the Continental Divide, also cross their own personality and generational divide. Traditional Chinese opera master, Lone, finds he can yet learn something fundamental from the idealistic, young dreamer, Ma, as they confront the power and prejudice of the rail bosses.

Staged reading of ST ETIENNE
Written and directed by Heather You, a recent graduate from Carlmont High School, this play takes place in France during World War II. It is about a group of resistance fighters and how they grow as a result of being in the resistance movement.

Staged reading of THE CORRIDOR
Written by local playwright, Pam Brown, and directed by Karen Byrnes, this play is about middle school bullying: a societal disease that is threatening our young children and through them, impacting our future as a country. This is a story about the school corridor; the hallway through which we all enter and leave some of the toughest growth experiences we are ever asked to face.

Quid Pro Quo
We ask you to join us as our studio audience for a 1940s era Murder Mystery Radio show. In this short play written and directed by Tammy Massa, when Emma Aldrich walks in to Detective Stewart Blake's office, trouble walks in with her. She needs help with a murder case, and Blake is just the gumshoe to do it. However, it's the special kind of help that Emma needs that twists this story up into a nice little knot at the end.

IDENTITY
Rounding out this year's Festival is a story in dance by NDNU dance instructor Coleen Lorenz.