Love … and the fragility of life … tie together Jeff Locker’s serio-comedic Threads, an evening of theatrical shorts that doubles as the 2019 Summer Showcase for seventeen talented professional actors studying at Anthony Meindl’s Actor Workshop.

As might be expected in a series of playlets and monologs, some pieces work better than others, but when Threads is good, it is very good indeed, sometimes sweet, sometimes lacerating, alternately funny and heartwarming, and spiced with hope amidst illness, death, and despair.

Locker splits the show-opening “Connections” into three parts, with a guitar-strumming Bruce (boyish charmer Quinn Gasaway) welcoming fellow musician Fanny (a captivating DanniElla Harman) into an afterlife way station he likes to call Bliss.

“Us” serves as a reminder of the consequences of suicide when a father (Jeremy McEathron as George) sends his eighteen-year-old son (Christopher H. Torres as Toby) off to college … but not before years of anger and resentment explode.

A woman (Madeleine McKenzie as Art) seeks out her homeless sister (Sharon Blynn as Charlie) with distressing family news in “Oliver, Or Three,”

Nina Rausch and Beeny Royston’s Jen and Will deal in decidedly different ways with Jen’s terminal ALS in “Before I Go,” and

Aryneta Floyzelle recalls a loved one’s losing battle with Alzheimer’s in “Abe.”

 A particularly disturbing “Scars” pits a couple of psychiatric patients (Alexis Dickey and Jared Scott digging deep and devastating) in a savage duel of words capable of cutting as deep as a razor.

Ashley Rowe displays plenty of quirky girl-next-door appeal in “Bob’s Dog,” a solo piece that starts out a protest against male chauvinist language and ends up a touching salute to man’s best friend.

“Small Town American,” though thematically out-of-place, takes Zhan Wang on an engaging journey from Harbin, China to a new life in the unlikeliest of U.S. cities.

Best of all is the unabashedly romantic “Sweet, He,” side-by-side he said/he said recollections of a gay couple’s first meeting, a mini two-hander with a transcendent denouement you’d never get were one of them a she and utterly appealing performances by Chance Denman (Cory) and Aleckx Bohdi (Fernando).

“The Forgotten” closes the evening on a high, hopeful note with the equally charming Locker and Emily Vanni delivering back-and-forth monologs as two lonely coffee lovers who’ve battled mental illness and lost … or at least until today.

Under Eric Gutierrez’s assured direction, the Threads cast deliver the dramatic-comedic goods in five-to-seven minutes or less with only the most minimal of set designs and lighting limited to on and off, and Gasaway and Harman score bonus points as talented singer-songwriters, he with “Isn’t Made Up,” she with “Write Out Love In The Stars.”

Some minor tweaking could eliminate a couple of unnecessary casting-based distractions. (Since Royston is English and Rausch American, it might make more sense for Jen and Will to be lifelong besties rather than siblings, and since “Oliver, Or Three” was originally written for two men to perform, renaming a now lesbian sister something other than Art would make the gender switch less confusing.) The addition of some unscripted profanity into “Before I Go” weakens Locker’s words as written. Finally, I couldn’t help thinking the father-son conversation in “Us” would have taken place months if not years earlier than it does, but no biggie.

Produced by Hilary Bryant, Threads works both as a showcase for Locker’s gifts as a short-form playwright and as a chance for film-and-TV actors to experience the in-the-moment authenticity of no-bloopers-or-retakes allowed live theater. Equally importantly, it’s an opportunity for L.A. audiences and this reviewer to discover their work.

Anthony Meindl’s Actor Workshop, 905 Cole Ave., Hollywood.
www.anthonymeindl.com

–Steven Stanley
July 11, 2019
Photos 1, 3, 6, 9, 10: Alexis Dickey Photography

Tags: Anthony Meindl’s Actor Workshop, Jeff Locker, Los Angeles Theater Review