Donna Fraissinet, Sheetal Sharma, and Hedi Molnar in Forgiveness. Photo by Vicki Cardona

(PLAINFIELD, NJ) -- Dragonfly Multicultural Arts Center, the nonprofit community theater, housed within the historic duCret Center of Art in Plainfield, presents its third annual one-act play festival from March 1-3, 2024. Set to showcase the vibrant talents of New Jersey playwrights, this year's festival will feature an eclectic line-up of five captivating productions, including four world premieres and one New Jersey premiere.

The festival promises to enchant audiences with its diverse array of storytelling. From poignant dramas to uproarious comedies, each play offers a unique and thought-provoking exploration of the human experience. The plays were chosen by a committee from over 100 plays that were submitted and have themes of love, death, and pirates.

The festival includes the comedy Dying is Easy by Charles Grayson of Morristown, directed by Catherine LaMoreaux. In the play, a movie star is visually breathing after his on-camera death. It ruins the shot, but the director doesn’t realize until after the movie wraps. What’s the crew to do?

Susan Cain McQuilkin of Moorestown has written Forgiveness, a ten-minute play about a widow and her friend on the way to a psychic to find out where the dead husband left the car registration. But the psychic reveals more than just the location of the registration. Forgiveness is directed by Jada Davis.

Josh Belmonte was seen last summer in Dragonfly’s production of Round and Round the Garden. This year, he’s written one of the one-acts, a ten-minute film noirish adaptation of the story of the spider and the fly. The play is directed by Jillana Kucey.

Lawrence Paone, whose full-length play Certifiably Yours premiered last spring at Dragonfly is back with a ten-minute play—Last Phone Call to Mom, about a young man on the brink of suicide. He calls his mother to say goodbye and can’t get a word in edgewise. Last Phone Call to Mom is directed by Mead Winters.

The final play, a ten-minute comedy, is Poetry, Prose…and Pirates by Ken Preuss. At a meeting of a writer’s group, an author realizes that all the other writers have written works that bear strange resemblances to her pirate story. Poetry, Prose is directed by Aidan O’Rourke with Catherine LaMoreaux.

Tim O’Connor and Annick Vasquez in Poetry, Prose... and Pirates, Photo by Xavier Stokely

Performances of the festival will take place Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2 at 8:00pm. Sunday, March 3 there will be a matinee at 3:00pm. Tickets are $10-15, available at the door or on Dragonfly’s website.

Dragonfly Multicultural Arts Center is a new kind of community theatre. They believe in quality productions, compensation for artists and craftspeope, and an organization that straddles--no, erases--the line between community and professional theatre.  They're here for pre- and post-Equity actors; for actors who were unable to pursue acting full-time; for audiences hungry for quality entertainment without having to go to New York; and for students and educators who see the performing arts as the best way to learn.

Dragonfly Multicultural Arts Center is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit cultural organization.