Something for Everyone (Highview Arts Center)

Quick Quills Play Festival Directed and Written by various local theater artists and playwrights

A review by Kate Barry

Entire contents are copyright © 2025 Kate Barry. All rights reserved.

It is nice to see a local playwright festival. A series of short plays of about 10 minutes or so offers a sampling of talent in the area as well as perspective and curiosity. Many companies have produced play festivals in the past and they are met with delight by audiences and artists alike. Yours truly has had work in short play festivals as well. Highview Arts Center has offered their short play festival in the form of Quick Quills for three seasons now. The seven plays currently on display offer a wide range of entertainment and genre for patrons of all kinds.

Act one opens with Cooking Class written by Jazmin Smith and directed by Ke’Lab Beauchamp. Best described as a romantic comedy, the play sees exes on dates who run into each other at a night of pasta making. Clara Burton and Brandon Saylor are awkward and relatable as the exes, giving each other side glances and destined for each other. Their reunion is sweet and satisfying, especially after we see the interactions with their current flames. Dante Novario gains laughs as the uptight geek on a date with Burton’s Jill. His pompous exasperation at box wine is a well played bit and fits nicely with the tone of the show.

Allison Fradkin’s Lady Balls, directed by Anna Meade, is a fast talker with zippy one liners that dissolves into a deep discussion of love between two queer female baseball players. Rachel Bischoff and Rosemary Sims play well off each other with even chemistry. Bischoff does well to display insecurity of being in the closet in war time America while Sims provides plenty of support and comfort as the charm school girl who loves her no matter what.

Dontcha Know written by Tom Morton with direction by Kaitlin Fortwengler is a slow burn take on how things are not always as they seem. Mary Anne Matthew is a sweet seemingly harmless old lady with a short stride, pink slippers and strong Northern accent. And yet Dante Novario and Seth Hinkle’s so-called-bank examiner scam artists are no match for what she bakes up. The twist at the end is very satisfying and deserved much applause.

First act ends with The Nutcracker by Leslie Spitznagel and directed by Timber Rosencrantz. Think Anora with a talking dog and puppets. Ev Davis’ Sage lures a willing patron into her private room for a dance and maybe a tickle fight. Some comedic bits needed some tweaks in terms of delivery and timing and a setting of an exotic dance club could have used some music. The overall joke of the piece landed in the final moment of the act as the exoctic dancer helps her talking dog with an elaborate revenge scheme.

Act two provides some drama and more laughs. An Aged Man by Frank Farmer and directed by Morgan Schussler-Williams is a heavy story about family and growing old. This offering is a seemingly simple story in which a family’s patriarch played by Tom Morton examines his age as his wife takes to a nursing home. The final moments though play large and nearly excessively tragic.

Wed, Bed and Behead  by Zoe Peterson and directed by Rachel Allen takes a dive into what it means to choose. When Riley’s (played with existential dread by Rachel Bischoff) friends run off for a tryst in a gas station bathroom, she is met by her fairy godmother (in another delight turn by Matthew) and Ghost of Christmas Future played with ample energy by Shelby Fluhr. Here, silly hypothetical games of choice are cleverly compared with choices to re-live a moment in your life for the better.

Bryce Woodard’s The Bread Play directed by Marc McHone closes the evening. Partially a comedic sketch with a Network vibe, this play asks “what would happen if we stopped making bread?” The results are ludicrous and hilarious. Emily Schroering is an exasperated anchor who breaks the news to the world that bread will no longer be made. Additionally, she can barely keep the report going as her fellow anchors (comically played with desperation and urgency by Dante Novario and Brandon Saylor) quickly fall into states of panic and despair.  

The Quick Quills Play Festival has something for everyone. With comedy and drama, the festival at Highview Art Center shows the wide variety of talent in the local theater community. And Quick Quills is a celebration of that talent.

Quick Quills Play Festival Highview Arts Center

March 13-23 2025

7406 Fegenbush Lane Louisville, KY40228 www.highviewartscenter.com