←

Larry Rinkel

Recommended by Larry Rinkel

  • Les Pamplemousses (a monologue in 12 courses) by Matthew Weaver
    12 Feb. 2019
    “ This is so sweet. How often does a young guy lose his virginity, and how often does he memorialize the occasion by taking his lover to a 12-course meal at a 3 Michelin-star restaurant near San Francisco that he can barely afford? Well, me neither, but Weaver does a charming job portraying the unworldly, unsophisticated, slightly gauche young man whose desire to please his girl is so sincere that he comes across as totally unpretentious. Impossible to know where this relationship will go, but this one exquisite meal is a perfectly realized moment in time. ”
  • Love Letters Made Easy by Jeanne Beckwith
    9 Feb. 2019
    “ Updated and freely adapted from "Love Letters Made Easy" by Gabrielle Rosiere (1919, public domain), this charming play consists of thirteen brief vignettes separated by spoken choral interludes, almost like a set of 5-10 minute plays loosely organized around the theme of love letters. Despite the often gentle tone, there is more bite here than may meet the eye. The cast requires a minimum of six actors but may be played by many more (as in a production I saw on Feb. 9, 2019, off-off-Broadway in New York City). ”
  • THE LILAC TICKET, a romantic dramedy by CJ Ehrlich
    4 Feb. 2019
    “ An old Jewish married couple, fighting like — an old Jewish married couple. Feeling the ravages of age, fighting over the smallest things, the man getting too old to drive safely, both living in their memories that come across not as "exposition" but the characterization of an old couple who can only live by remembering their youth. And a fling the younger Sam resisted involving a room number written on a lilac ticket by a temptress with a great tush. Confession, forgiveness, love, fidelity are at the heart of this little gem, where even Bernie Madoff gets in there. ”
  • A Monogamy of Swans by John Minigan
    3 Feb. 2019
    “ A lovely little love story about two girlfriends reuniting after one of them has tried to go the straight route and found it didn't work. Watch how Minigan surely but patiently shifts the change in their relationship and uses the motif of the two lesbian swans as a kind of catalyst. And if you have any doubts about the depths of Violet's devotion to Ellie, check how far Haverhill is from Boston on a map. ”
  • Champagne by Thembi Duncan
    3 Feb. 2019
    “ The contrast is sharp between these two black women downing champagne together - one a well-to-do jive talker, the other a well-educated chemist who just moved to DC. But they're both looking for a connection at the same time they are both resisting one. Will they get past their mutual defenses and Stef's obsession with STDs to hook up? Will Nicole try that call again or just give up? The play's not saying! ”
  • Momma by Quinn Xavier Hernandez
    3 Feb. 2019
    “ One would not expect a young man to write so convincingly about the pain and difficulty of childbirth, but though I am also a man, I feel Hernandez has done just that. Slowly paced, understated, and highly poetical, this play pits a woman unable to conceive against a woman who wishes to abort, with an enigmatic young girl both literally and figuratively between them. Images of wildflowers, water, a pomegranate, and Internet searches dominate the poetic texture here. In tone and subject matter, this play reminds me of Lorca's "Yerma," that great play about the pain of conception and motherhood. ”
  • 153 by Steven G. Martin
    31 Jan. 2019
    “ An exquisitely charming vignette about three stages in our journey through life and what we come to learn as we age, and how we look back on our younger selves. Though the character(s) is/are gay, his/their experience can apply to anyone, gay or straight. Steven Martin has an effortless gift for characterization, dialogue, and pacing, and I'd love to see this performed. The title, for the math-challenged among us like myself, refers to . . . . ”
  • THE PEEK by Scott Mullen
    15 Jan. 2019
    “ This 5-minute play makes cute fun of the fascination we all have with attractive bodies, in this case an attractive nearly naked male body, and of our even greater temptation and fear to discover what's underneath that "nearly" part. It might be fun to think of how we'd react if the sexes were reversed, and the play hints at that. The play is also enhanced by our awareness that the actors know they're on a stage with an audience participating vicariously, and raises the question: wouldn't some of us too like a peek at what's inside those shorts? ”
  • 172 PUSH-UPS by Scott Mullen
    15 Jan. 2019
    “ A nice little play that contrasts generational attitudes between vets from WW2 (male) and Afghanistan (female), and shows some signs of incipient tolerance from the older homophobic male towards the two gay girlfriends. The very last line, I think, can stand a number of ambiguous interpretations. ”
  • Wordplay by Kevin Cirone
    11 Jan. 2019
    “ Tension builds in this competitive Scrabble game as a white red-haired challenger debates whether to play the obvious derogatory word against the black champion. A very clever and suspenseful 10-minute exploration of how a member of the dominant culture both uses and fears language to characterize minorities of all kinds - only to find himself outplayed and outwitted at the perfectly timed blackout. ”

Pages