THE STORIES: Serendipity and Serenity: From The Young Playwrights Festival. Lionel Steinmetz is fifteen years old and has a lot on his mind. In this charming and funny coming-of-age story we go from Lionel dealing with his wish to become Catholic ("they'd love for a little Jewish boy to convert!"), to his conflicts with the girlfriends of his older brother, his father, his grandparents and even his own (sort of) girlfriend. Ultimately, Lionel yearns to find his own place within the family as well as his own identity and, in the end, he finds his own serendipitous serenity. (4 men, 4 women.)
Sons and Fathers. From the Los Angeles Theatre Center. An absurdist look at how a young man deals with the death of his mother. Toby, twenty-one years old, still wears diapers and does not leave the house. His older brother, Max, and his father, constantly goad him, leaving him feeling lost and alone in his grief. His father's masochistic girlfriend only seems to deepen his pain and cause him more confusion. In the end, the new diaper service representative, a pretty young woman, shakes him up and sets him on the path to acceptance, adulthood and a whole new world. (3 men, 2 women.)
Jesus on the Oil Tank. From New York Playwrights Lab, winner of the 1991 21st Century Award for Best Play. Inspired by an actual event, when the image of Jesus Christ mysteriously appeared on the side of a soybean oil tank, sending a small rural community reeling. Many of the town believed the image was fake—nothing but rust, while many more rushed to experience the image in a religious fervor. Centering on the battle between the soybean oil magnate, Rivers, whose tank was blessed with the image, and his jealous competitor, Campbell, the play explores the very nature of what it is that human beings need and what they believe in. This highly imaginative play ends with a shocking act of which only human beings are capable. (14 men.)
