Bailiwick Directors’ Festival
Bailiwick Repertory’s tenth annual showcase of directorial projects features one-acts ranging from established classical and contemporary selections to untested material. This year’s edition, in which several different plays are presented each evening, finds 18 directors chosen from “numerous applicants . . . identified only by their social security numbers, not names, so that the merit of their directing proposal and resume outweighed any personal influences,” a press release proclaims. Productions are organized into alternating “A” and “B” weeks, allowing directors to continue working on their shows after their initial performances.
Bailiwick Repertory, Bailiwick Arts Center, 1229 W. Belmont, 773-883-1090. Through August 12: Mondays-Wednesdays, 7:30 PM. $8 per evening.
The Reader runs festival listings on a week-by-week basis; following is the schedule for July 27 through 29.
MONDAY, JULY 27
Calm Down Mother
This feminist play by off-off-Broadway pioneer Megan Terry is staged by Lisa Hackman.
The Great Nebula in Orion
Lanford Wilson, another off-off-Broadway trailblazer, examines the friendship of two women in this play, directed by James Eldrenkamp.
Removing the Glove
Nicolas Minas directs a new comedy by Clarence Coco about “lefties struggling to adjust in a right-handed world.”
Note: This entire program is repeated Monday, August 10.
TUESDAY, JULY 28
The Libation Bearers
Aeschylus’ ancient tragedy is presented in a new adaptation directed by Tom Small.
Safe Sex
Harvey Fierstein’s comedy about gay life in the age of AIDS is staged by Elena Yuan.
Love Letters
A.R. Gurney’s epistolary comedy-drama, a readers’ theater work that traces the lifelong friendship of a staid lawyer and an unstable artist through their correspondence, is directed by Michelle Goltzman.
Note: This entire program is repeated Tuesday, August 11.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 29
The Tape Recorder
Australian playwright Pat Flower penned this suspense thriller, directed by Carolyne Haycraft.
A Scene
Fred Gaines’s comedy about premarital infidelity is staged by Malachy Boyle.
Note: This entire program is repeated Wednesday, August 12.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Safe Sex theater still/ uncredited.