SCT presents the Missouri Solo Play Festival

January brings the Missouri Solo Play Festival to the Springfield Contemporary Theatre (SCT). The festival features three plays written and performed solo by up and coming playwrights, presented in repertory style from January 1 through 24.

The world premiere of Firing My Bass Teacher is a cautionary tale of an accidental career, told with songs, patter and approximately 18 musical instruments. An exploration of a lifetime of music teachers, including the good, the not so good and one in particular who nearly ruined everything.

The play is written and performed by Ned Wilkinson, and directed by Richard Dines. The play takes the SCT stage January 1, 2, 9 and 10 at 7:30 p.m., and January 3 at 2 p.m.

Everybody Dies is the latest in a series of one-man shows written and performed by Benjamin Franklin Carney III. What would you do if the Tea Party was trying to steal your identity? Well, Benjamin Franklin Carney III got mad as hell, and immediately had a stroke! Facing his own mortality, he went home to the Ozarks to reexamine his family history. His immigrant family came from Ireland in 1630, so his obsession also took him to Ireland where he found a Carney Chinese restaurant, a Carney Post Office, even a Carney Castle but no family except for some Neolithic burial mounds of really ancient ancestors. Everybody Dies explores Benjamin’s journey. 

Told with wit and heart, this personal history reveals a world full of tall tales, scandals, secrets, and lies. A theatre artist based in New York City, Ben Carney’s production of Homeland Insecurity played at the American Place Theatre. The former Associate Director of the Baltimore Theatre Project and Managing Director of the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre, Carney is a Professor at Bronx Community College. The SCT production is the show’s Midwest premiere.

Everybody Dies plays January 8 and 16 at 7:30 p.m., and January 9, 10 and 17 at 2 p.m.

Saving Rose O’Neill tells the story of renowned, flamboyant, bohemian American artist Rose O’Neill. O’Neill painted, illustrated, made sculptures and created the Kewpie doll from which she made millions. She wrote novels, short stories and poems. She first created popular comic characters called Kewpies. After the comic’s popularity soared, the characters were made into dolls in 1912 by a German toy company. According to Wikipedia, “They were wildly popular in the early twentieth century, and are considered to be one of the first mass-marketed toys in America.

The family lived in Pennsylvania, Nebraska and New York City. While living in New York, O’Neill’s father bought a tract of land in the Ozark’s Taney County that included a ‘dog-trot’ cabin. The property became known later as “Bonniebrook.”

In 1937, O'Neill returned to Bonniebrook permanently. By the 1940s, she had lost most of her money and her beautiful homes because of her extravagant nature and after fully supporting her family, her entourage of "artistic" hangers-on and her first husband. The Great Depression hurt O'Neill's fortune.

In the spring of 1940, she is at home at Bonniebrook. Friends and family depend on her financially and $26.76 remains in her bank account. Her artistic sources seemed to have dried up. What will save Rose O’Neill?

Saving Rose O’Neill is written and performed by Marcia Haseltine, and directed by Robert Bradley. Shows are January 15, 21-23 at 7:30 p.m., and January 16 and 24 at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $20 per play for adults, $18 for seniors and students, with a $10 Student Rush ticket for available seats before each performance. A three-show package is available for $45. Tickets are available online at www.SpringfieldContemporaryTheatre.org, by phone at (417) 831-8001, or in person at the SCT Center Stage at the corner of Pershing St. and Robberson Ave., in downtown Springfield.

The Gayly - 1/05/2016 @ 4:20 p.m. CST