Barefoot in the Park is a comedy play by Neil Simon, about a young couple and their odd neighbors in their small apartment building in Greenwich Village, New York. It explores the troubles the newlyweds face involving their surroundings and themselves. It was later made into a movie (in 1967), with the screenplay written by Simon, and starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford as the couple.

• .....Benny Baldwin
• .....Jessica Miller
• .....Ann Donnell
• .....Bill Hacker
• .....Brian Scott

Featuring works by Kalli Smith, Kate Bakewell, Laura Guidry, Danielle Bringard, Elise Wilson. All are returning playwrights except Elise Wilson. Elise is 8 years old and this is her first time with the festival. The playwrights submit their plays for consideration and participate in a series of workshops with an experienced playwright. Parts are played by local actors. Themes this year include an exploration of suicide, a foray into the realm of fairies, a detective story about a missing science project, a reflection on the roles students take on, and a counterpoint between two teens dealing with fathers in the war.

Big Dawg
[see the show photos]

Lady Day @ Emerson's Bar and Grill - Rhonda Bellamy is founding board member and president of the Black Arts Alliance, Inc. and artistic director of Ayara Productions, where she is regularly commissioned to craft one-woman stage performances from an extensive repertoire of African-American and women's literature.

Her signature performances, include "Ain't I A Woman?", "Somebody Hold My Muse", "The Golden Age of Harlem", and "Reckoning Forces: Women of Color Find Their Voices." Ensemble acting credits include Sam Irving Productions' "God's Trombones", Tapestry Theater's "The Man Who Came to Dinner" and "The Good Doctor" and "The Dance on Widow's Row", written and directed by Samm-Art Williams.

Her voice is featured in television and radio promotions for the General Motors' exhibition "A Slave Ship Speaks", the Japanese animation film "Blue 6", and numerous spoken word productions for public radio.

• Billie Holiday.....Rhonda Bellamy

Set in a dilapidated Connecticut farm house in 1923, A Moon for the Misbegotten focuses on three remarkable characters: Josie, a towering Irish woman with a quick tongue and a ruined reputation; her conniving father, Phil Hogan; and James Tyrone, Jr., Hogan's landlord and drinking companion, a cynical alcoholic haunted by the death of his mother.

As an off-handed joke during one of their drunken bouts, Tyrone threatens to sell his land and evict Hogan. To secure his farm, Hogan schemes to take advantage of the mutual affection between his daughter and Tyrone. In the play's poignant conclusion, these two "misbegotten" lovers come together to realize the truth about themselves and the tragedy of their future.

• Josie Hogan.....Rachel Lewis
• James Tyrone Jr......Mike O'Niel
• Phil Hogan.....Tom Huff
• Mike Hogan.....Chris Schatzle
• T. Stedmond Harder.....Jon Everdyke

An enormously successful revival of this classic opened on Broadway in 1977 fifty years after the original production. This is one of the great mystery thrillers and is generally considered among the best of its kind. Lucy Seward, whose father is the doctor in charge of an English sanitorium, has been attacked by some mysterious illness. Dr. Van Helsing, a specialist, believes that the girl is the victim of a vampire, a sort of ghost that goes about at night sucking blood from its victims. The vampire is at last found to be a certain Count Dracula, whose ghost is at last laid to rest in a striking and novel manner. The play is intended for all who love thrills in the theater.

• .....Steve Coley
• .....Geoff Goss
• .....Tamica Katzman
• .....Anthony Lawson
• .....Daniel Marks
• .....Brandon Medack
• .....Laura Odegaard
• .....Windy Wenderlich