"Short Pieces"
by Gretchen Suárez-Peña
Playbill
Aug 6th -8th 2021
Act OneI Want this Forevermore – Alyssa (song)
Love Letters – Faith and Anita The Wind is Me – Alyssa and Chad Checkmate - Alyssa and Arius I’m George Bailey – Arius (monologue) Pictures of Egypt - Anita (monologue) Shadowed Arrangement – Arius and Chad |
Act TwoI Love Men – Faith (song)
Watchwomen – Alyssa, Faith, and Anita El Malecon - Faith and Chad Split me in Two – Chad (monologue) Tea Town – Chad, Faith, Arius, and Anita The Child Groom – Anita, Alyssa, Faith and Arius Wishes – Alyssa (song) |
There will be a 10-minute intermission
Meet the Cast
Anita Kollinger currently teaches first grade at Knights Elementary School. She enjoys singing at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and performing with LCT and Just Write Lakeland. Anita’s favorite roles include: Sonia (Vanya, Sonia, Masha, and Spike), Sherry (Conversations in Bed), Bird woman and Ms. Andrews (Mary Poppins), and Frau Blücher (Young Frankenstein). Upcoming role: Fraulein Schneider with Carrollwood Players. Anita wishes to thank Gretchen and Just Write Lakeland for the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful weekend of stage readings. Gretchen’s works are always a highlight of Anita’s theatre experiences.
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Arius West graduated from the University of Central Florida with his bachelor’s in Theatre and Education with a concentration in Stage Combat. He is a teaching artist and performer with The Orlando Repertory Theatre. Arius is also a coach for a high school step team, he serves as a lead & assistant teaching artist for Michelee Puppets & ArtReach Orlando, respectively, that integrate the arts within school curriculum, and he joined The Orlando Magic’s coed Hip Hop Dance team, The 407. Considering the impact of Covid-19 on all of this, Arius now spends a lot of his free time virtually connecting & collaborating with other artists, acting in, and directing virtual productions & performances, and more! He is slowly, but surely dipping his toe back into society and being involved with in-person productions and activities.
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Alyssa Yates has performed in many productions throughout her life, but her personal favorite credits include: Melina (Mara), Jekyll and Hyde (Emma), Parade (Lucille Frank), and The Wizard of Oz (Dorothy). Alyssa is also a children's music and theatre teacher and loves every second of it! Additionally, Alyssa works as a writer for the theatre website StageAgent.com! You can see more of Alyssa at alyssayates.com!
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Chad Sell is an elementary music teacher. He is a graduate of Southeastern University and holds two bachelor's degrees in Music Education and Cello Performance. Favorite show credits include: Mama Mia, Beauty and the Beast, Melina, The Sound of Music, Music Man, and The Drowsy Chaperone. In addition to acting, he enjoys social outings with friends, performing cello, novel writing, and video editing. He was awarded Teacher of the Year for 2019-2020 as a second-year teacher.
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Faith Janicki is a vocalist and entertainer based out of Orlando, Florida. She first met Gretchen once upon a time in a production of Sound of Music (in Kansas of all places), and is so happy that the theatre world, in its funny little way, brought her to Orlando where she'd see Gretchen again and have the honor of performing some of her works. Faith has appeared in shows like Urinetown the Musical (Little Sally), South Pacific (Nellie Forbush) and Clybourne Park (Betsy/Lindsay), among many others. After a shortage of art, the past year, she is glad to finally hit the stage again and hopes you enjoy the works tonight as much as she does. Faith sends all her thanks and love to (as always) Mom and Dad, her insanely supportive boyfriend Richard, and-- of course, to Gretchen!
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Gretchen Suárez-Peña is a long-time playwright, actor, director, singer, and lover of the theatre. Her musical, Melina, was an official selection of the 2020 Atlanta Musical Theatre Festival. Other successes include winning the writer's grant and best play in the Table Read Category at the Inaugural Be Original Festival 2019 in Orlando, Florida for her play Trafficked. Also, winning best full-length play at the 2018 Tampa Bay Theatre Festival for her show Conversations in the Car and first prize for her piece Dry Spell at the 30 by Ninety Theatre’s Night of One Acts Competition in 2018. Her short play, The Arithmetic of Memory, was produced in New York, Illinois, Florida and was published in the Stonecoast Review (University of Southern Maine). A portion of her work is available to be read on the New Play Exchange and she is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild. Check her out at gretchensuarezpena.com and Plays By Gretchen on Facebook.
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