Summer Theatre Festival 2005 (2005)

For their first production of 2005, Sight Unseen decided to open up to both the regional and nationwide theatre communities and invite submissions for a festival of one acts.  After reading and reviewing submissions from cities all over the country, the directors put together two evenings of selections to run concurrently for a six weeks.  Besides meeting and working with some new artists, a goal was set to focus on the actors' work on the floor with no frills in the technical department.  The intimate Black Box Theater in West Los Angeles proved an appropriate venue and hosted a spring production that would prove to be a rewarding and well-attended event.

Both nights of the festival began with May I Offend You by Dana Yeaton, the one-woman show about a kindergarten teacher giving her class a unique lesson after getting some bad news from her doctor.  Jaime Ray Newman adopted the character and began every night with an up-close-and-personal one-two punch.  Sight Unseen's Sam Roberts was director.

Night A continued with John Wildman's one-man comedy act You Don't Want to be a Heathen, Do You?, a stand-up routine that serves as a study of the single life in modern America.  Through the show, the long-time Los Angeles comic 'evolved' from his caveman suit to modern dress on a set decorated with a bar, a dining set, a soapbox, and a patch of grass.  Wildman was directed by Christopher Fessenden. 

The first night of the festival ended with a raucous production of Jess Lacher's stage adaptation of Mark Twain's The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, which premiered earlier in 2005 at the Fringe Festival in New York.  A colorful ensemble told the classic story of Jim Smiley, a hapless gambler in the Gold Rush times whose habits are threatening his budding romance with the town beauty, Molly.  The cast included Sight Unseen co-founders Mariah Sussman and Andy Mitton (who also directed the show), as well as new SUS collaborators Cassidy Freeman, Shane Callahan, Stan Kelly, Isaac Laskin, Martha Marion, Eric Bloom, and Matt McKenna.  Costume design Vania Ouzounova.

Night B's second show was the world premiere of Liz Shannon Miller's Something Biblical, a quiet love story set during the apocolypse between a young pregnant woman and her boyfriend who's returned from the dead to be with her.  Amy Wolf and Tye Kamerman starred and Jon Howard (co-director of Sight Unseen short Missing Persons) helmed the production.

The festival's closing number was Forget My Chrome Embrace, a world premiere by Frank Smith (who performed in 2004's Monster).  The unique and hilarious love story of two amateur writers of erotic fan fiction who decide to collaborate on a new story.  When early friction takes a turn to romance, the story begins to flourish.  But she's got a husband and he's got a secret.  The show was directed by Paul Cibis and starred Nell Rutledge, Darren LeGallo, and Jeff Stone.

When the festival concluded its run, Sight Unseen found themselves with a whole new network of artists, friends, and audiences who were all excited to have been able to introduce some fresh new material to the Los Angeles Theatre scene. 

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