Something To Hide

Suspense Thriller by Leslie Sands

September 12 - September 27, 2008

The setting is a charming house in the New England countryside, where Howard Holt, a writer, is visited each weekend by his wife, who is also his publisher. During the week he is joined by his mistress-a fact (although Howard doesn't realize it) of which his wife is well aware. As the action begins the departing mistress is (apparently) run over and killed by the wife as she enters the driveway, and Howard gallantly offers to dispose of the body. Thereafter begins a sequence of events in which one unexpected turn follows another, as a seemingly gullible police inspector accepts the story cooked up by Howard and his wife to cover their tracks. But their relief is short-lived as blackmail, another murder, and questions as to the real fate of the mistress enter the picture-and all are deftly used by the inspector (who is more clever than they thought) to set the trap which untangles the twisted web of lies and brings the real murderer to justice.

Searching For Eden: The Diaries of Adam & Eve

By James Still
Based on the Writings of Mark Twain

January 30 - February 14, 2009

More than a hundred years after Mark Twain wrote his own short stories about Adam and Eve, James Still combines those stories to create this completely original and contemporary play about the world's first love story. In the imaginations of Still and Twain, the Garden of Eden is a place where the battle of the sexes begins, where language is deliciously invented, and where loneliness and heartbreak are poignantly discovered. After intermission, we jump forward to the present day-but Adam and Eve have only aged into their 40s and are dealing with middle age and the distractions of high-power careers. Adam has surprised Eve with this trip back to Eden (a last-minute vacation package Adam found on the Internet) as an anniversary gift. The "first couple" returns to present-day Eden (now an upscale resort simply called "E") in an attempt to recapture the primal passions of their youth. At its heart, Searching for Eden is about the pleasures and terrors of knowing one person-and being known by that person-for a long, long time.

Polish Joke

by David Ives

June 12 - June 27, 2009

A comedy about ethnic identity and the eternal American search for "roots." Jasiu (thirtyish) is a Polish-American who has been taught not to value his own roots, so he decides to make his own roots, reinventing himself first as a sort of non-ethnic everyman, then as an "Irishman." Jasiu's adventures-alternately zany and heartbreaking-take him through a job interview with an Ur-Wasp; to an attempt to become a Catholic priest; to a flower shop where he can't get service because he is weirdly invisible; to a doomed love affair with a Jewish woman; to a wacky Irish travel agency where he has to prove that he is Irish before he can buy a ticket; and to a doctor more interested in ethnic pain than in healing. Jasiu is also bedeviled by a reappearing Polish relative and has to face off with the ghost of a dead Polish patriot. In the end, by trying to get away from his ethnic background, Jasiu finds out who he is and what it means to be "a Pole."