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Burning Embers
Four one-act plays centered on a common theme -- Fire -- yet each deals with it differently.

Read the Review by the Florida Times-Union!

The Still Alarm by George S. Kaufman
Directed by Barbara Wells

Well-bred Englishmen react, or rather don't react to a fire. This response to the emergency leads to hilarity.

Set in the bedroom of a hotel which is on fire. The fun lies in the manner in which it is put out. In the face of most exciting danger, the characters play in the well bred manner of English drawing room actors. All amenities are preserved, even when two firemen come in. One of these might be called a practicing professional, but the other is an amateur musician. Although the fire under them becomes hotter every moment, he begins to tune his fiddle. Against a background of flames seen outside, he advances to the center of the stage and begins to play "Keep the Home Fires Burning."

This play features Keith Timmons, Al Sloan, Stacey Matti, Todd Foster and Bruce Watson.

I Bring You Flowers by William Lang
Directed by Michael Fugate and James Matti

A touching drama that speaks to the test of love and the fire that burns within. The play opens in a flower garden at a hospital where a young man is trying to get his wife, who has suffered a breakdown, to come to terms with their daughter's death.

A 20-minute look at an emotionally damaged woman and the loving husband who tries to connect her to the world. Seated on a park bench, Faye (Lisa Hawkins) and Jim (John Pierce) at first seem the picture of happy normalcy as they chat while Faye tends a baby stroller. But it doesn't take long to sense that Faye is going to extraordinary lengths to maintain her psychological equilibrium. She seems stuck in some dark past, deflecting her husband's gentle attempts to bring her into the present as she continually asks questions that have no answers. "If all the flowers in the world looked alike," she asks him, "what color would they be?" What seems playful at first soon becomes ominous as her detachment from reality becomes more and more obvious and a sense of the psychological wound, the soul-searing trauma that has scarred her, emerges. "I Bring You Flowers" slowly reveals the truth as it begins to dawn on the audience that the pleasant surroundings and the couple's time together are not what they seem at first.

This play features Ann Haynes, Pamela Crichlow and Gabriel Hall.

Today A Little Extra by Michael Kassin
Directed by Lynn Fugate and Stacey Matti

Zalman Abrams, a Jewish butcher, and Ester Finkelstein, a long time customer, carry a torch for one another, but can't bring themselves to admit it.

It's an evening for Mr. Ornstein to display versatility and receive instruction. In the pleasantly predictable ''Today a Little Extra,'' he is the ambitious young businessman who learns what being a kosher neighborhood butcher once meant. This sketch serves mainly as an occasion for Norman Golden to put on display his observations of the ways of old-time shopkeepers and to deliver Mr. Kassin's one-liners. When Mrs. Finkelstein (Frances Chaney) casts doubt on the condition of a chicken, he tells her, ''Mrs., you should pass such a physical.'' She responds, ''That chicken belongs in a nursing home.'' No, they don't make stores, storekeepers or customers like that any more. Paul Wonsek's set is an essay in nostalgia all by itself.

This play features Bill LeSeur, James Matti and Julie Mayo.

A Candle on the Table by Patricia Clapp
Directed by Judi Angelieri

This play offers a glimpse into the lives of three aging women who have come to live in a retirement home. As they reflect on their very different lives, they discover the importance of friendship and family.

Three elderly women meet at a lunch table on their first day in a home for senior citizens. A candle placed there by the matron awakens different memories in each. To the frivolous, friendly ex-actress Maribeth Garrity, candles belong with champagne and flowers. To Miss Tolliver, a children's nursemaid, they speak of childhood poverty when candles gave the only light. To the aristocratic Mrs. Bramson, they mean the formal meals which only emphasized the emptiness of her life. The lunchtime conversation reveals some surprising aspects of the lives and personalities of the three women and culminates in a friendship and an affirmative decision. Sensitively drawn characters, gentle humor and a generous dash of truth.

This play features Marianne LeSeur, Mary Lou Bohlen, Lisette Cutcher and Diane Lindsay.

Keeping Down with the Jonses - Cliffhanger - On Borrowed Time - Turnabout - South Pacific - Burning Embers - The Little Mermaid