David Bellantoni’s BIRTHDAY DUET has advanced to the semifinals of the Network One Act Festival
TBG Theatre
312 West 36th St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Through March 31
Tickets: $15
212-239-3198
www.thenetworknyc.com
A different kind of March Madness is going on at the Barrow Group Theater in Midtown, as more than forty twenty-minute plays have been whittled down to thirty for the semifinals, which began March 24, with each production getting an additional two performances prior to the finals. Of the plays that we’ve seen, three have made the finals: David Bellantoni’s “Birthday Duet” is scheduled for March 26 at 6:00, along with “The Gift,” “this Functional Family,” “Dream State,” and “Walter,” and March 28 at 6:00, with “this Functional Family” again, “Ouroboros,” “Beard Envy,” and “Mr. McDonald Has Wings of Fire”; Robert King’s “Halfrican-American” has one showing left, March 27 at noon, with “Mirage,” “BFF Soulmates,” “Beard Envy,” and “A Diner, a Shiner”; and “Mr. McDonald Has Wings of Fire” will also be part of the March 26 8:30 block. Each session features five twenty-minute one-act plays, with the audience voting for their favorites. Award categories include Best Play, Best Director, Best Writer, and Best Actor. Writer-director Bellantoni was also in the finals last year with “Foreplay,” a subway-set drama that was nominated for Best Director, Best Writer, and Best Show and won for Best Actor. This year it’s going to be tough for anyone to beat John Warren in the acting category for his frantic, riotous performance as the title character in Jeffrey Belanger’s “Mr. MacDonald Has Wings of Fire.”