The 60-some one-acts (three per night) in this six-week program, produced by Cecilie Keenan for Bailiwick Repertory, range from plays and musicals to performance art and monologues; some are well-established classic and contemporary selections, while others are brand-new pieces. They’re mounted by a slew of directors, most of them little known, who are looking for an avenue to showcase their work and get their names out to the public. See? It’s working already. The final week’s “Best of the Fest” event reprises a handful of shows deemed to be the worthiest of repetition. Each night’s admission price is good for any or all shows that evening; listed starting time is for the whole night’s program, so call the theater if you’re just interested in seeing a particular show. Bailiwick Repertory, March 15 through April 26 (Theatre Building, 1225 W. Belmont, 327-5252). Through April 16: Sundays, 7 PM; Mondays-Wednesdays, 7:30 PM; Thursday, April 16, 7:30 PM. April 23 through 26: Thursday-Saturday, 7:30 PM; Sunday, 3:30 PM. $6 for any or all one-acts per evening through April 16; $10 for “Best of the Fest” shows April 23 through 26.
SUNDAY, MARCH 15
THE CORRECTION Jeremy Wechsler chose to direct Heiner Mailer’s drama, written in the 1950s for workers at an industrial combine in postwar socialist Germany.
COLUMBUS’ CIRCLE The discoverer/encounterer/plunderer of the New World inspires an abstract theatrical exploration of “what it means to us today to wonder if we’ll fall off the earth if we keep on traveling in the direction we’re headed.” Kristin Gehring directs the Coyote Company in a production commissioned by and recently performed at Valparaiso University to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage.
ROCK, ROLL, LOVE, SOMETHING FORGOT Amy Landecker directs Jimmie Cumbie’s play “filled with love, hate, anger, stupidity, loneliness, humor, and of course, rock and roll.”
MONDAY MARCH 16
OOOOOGY GREEN AND OTHER FABLES Page Hearn directs, acts in, and wrote this solo program aimed at kids.
TONE CLUSTERS A married couple is interviewed on a TV talk show about their son, who’s an accused sex killer. Joyce Carol Oates’s play is directed by Beverly Brumm.
HALF-ASSED TEENAGE SUICIDE ATTEMPTS Scott Sandoe’s play concerns “five characters whose common denominator seems to be zero.” Rick Carter directs.
TUESDAY, MARCH 17
THE PILE A businessman and an engineer confront a field of waste they’ve created together, in Mavor Moore’s play. Nancy L. Fagin directs.
PLEASURE OF THE DEAD Craig Carlisle’s play, directed by Lisa Gingerich, concerns negative emotions associated with death and self-justification.
THE MAN WHO CLIMBED THE PECAN TREES Alcoholism, adultery, and denial are problems affecting a southern family in the 1930s, in Horton Foote’s play. Robert Saxner directs.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 18
EXTRA BODY The son of a senator and a mortuary beautician develop a love/hate relationship in Michael N. Cimino’s play, directed by Kent Nicholson.
PURGATORY William Butler Yeats’s portrait of an old man revisiting the past is directed by Bill Wilkison.
THE PAST IS THE PAST Ernest Black directs Richard Wesley’s play about “single mothers, unknown fathers, and forgotten children.”