Thursday Night I’ll be heading out to catch my Animated Discussions co-conspirator, Melanie Larch, in a performance at the 4th annual “Briefs and Shorts” Program put on by Kanawha Players. Thursday Night’s performance will be at the Charleston Ballet at 822 Virginia Street, but they’re also presenting the three ten-minute plays Friday Evening at the Museum in the Community in Hurricane. Both performances start at 8 PM.

This is pretty interesting idea. The plays are new works by relatively unknown authors, and each play runs about ten minutes. Even if they turn out to be dreadful, at least you know they’ll be over soon! On the flipside, a really good play might end just as you get drawn into it, but heck, they can always be fleshed out to a longer form later. It’s a cool format. You get to see three plays and still make it home before 10 PM.

The batch of plays in this upcoming program are themed as Twisted Halloween, each one involving murder, mayhem and a little madness that shows man’s inhumanity to man. Happy stuff indeed—well, Halloween is quickly approaching. I’ve always had a taste for the macabre, so this evening looks to be very entertaining.

The plays are Rave Review by Bill Wine directed by Dave Miller; The Bed Time Story written, directed and performed by John Halstead; and Fear directed by Melody Ison. Melanie is in Rave Review, portraying a disgruntled actress hell-bent on revenge after a series of bad reviews. The role is quite a stretch for her. Brian Hatcher, who has an alter-ego in IWA East Coast, is in Fear.

KP is encouraging people to come in costume, which tends to annoy the heck out of me, but if it sells tickets, I guess it’s tolerable. I just hope I don’t get stuck behind somebody wearing a witch hat.