Triple Plays

• By ROBIN MILLER
• Arts writer
• Published: Aug 24, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Oh, this just isn’t going to do.

Sharing one stage? Juggling schedules?

Marie Brigitte simply won’t be happy. And everyone knows if Marie Brigitte isn’t happy, chaos reigns.

Well, everyone on Baker Little Theatre’s stage at this moment is aware of Marie Brigitte’s disposition. They also know her secret, along with that of her hand-picked photographer Jean Claude, but no one is telling.

And no one outside of this rehearsal will know the truth behind Larry Gray’s comedy farce Got the Picture? until it opens Thursday, Aug. 28. Which is also closing night, because Gray’s play is the second of three featured in Baker Little Theatre’s first Spotlight Series.

The series spotlights original plays written by Louisiana playwrights. Well, this time around, anyway.

“We had two playwrights from New York turn in entries,” Kelly Lee said.

Lee is the little theater’s executive director. She’s also co-director of Got the Picture? And she has taken on the role of Marie Brigitte.
Hold on now, this isn’t a revelation of Marie Brigitte’s secrets. Lee’s name is in the actor’s credits, after all, so everyone will know this fact coming into the play. Which will be performed only once, by the way, as will the other plays in this series.

So again, opening night also will be closing night, not only for Gray’s play but also Johnny Worsham’s A Simple Twist of Fate on Wednesday, Aug. 27, and Pamela Porterfield’s The Heart of Christmas on Friday, Aug. 29.

These were works chosen from Baker Little Theatre’s call for original plays in March. Playwrights from throughout Louisiana answered the call, as did the two from New York.

Worsham and Porterfield live in the Baton Rouge area, Gray in Hammond.

“Community theaters in this area have done a great job in highlighting local acting and directing talent, as well as the talent of those who work backstage,” Lee said. “But we — and I include Baker Little Theatre in this — haven’t been as good in highlighting the people who write the words.”

One of Lee’s goals when stepping into the executive director’s position in 2007 was to stage a project that would premier new plays.
“And we have a wealth of talent here,” she said.