Summer theater: festivals

'The Stubborn Illusion of Time,' part of The Film Festival: A Theater Festival

Has your boss left you in New York with a stack of work while he spends a week in the Hamptons? Fortunately, once you've cleared your desk, there's plenty to do in town to make him envious. To wit: Theater festivals showcase work for any and every taste imaginable—that's literally hundreds of plays and musicals! Whether you prefer high-budget extravaganzas or avant-garde DIY pieces with $5 budgets, you'll find a festival that'll scratch that itch. Here's what caught our eye.

The Film Festival: A Theater Festival
May 30–June 29
The Brick Theater kicks off the summer season Brooklyn-style: by mashing two festivals together for Film Festival: A Theater Festival. Plays and movies meet in “Walkouts... Henry IV: BAM,” a short film about a notorious 2003 run of Shakespeare's play that prompted mass walkouts; Ryan Holsopple stationed himself in the lobby to catch their comments on camera.

Other enticing titles include an absurdist film noir called “Kill Me Like You Mean It” (June 5 and 8), “A Paranoid's Guide to History (June 13 and 28), “The Stubborn Illusion of Time” (June 21, 22 and 28), and  “Death at Film Forum,” an indie-film contest that ends in murder (June 7, 8, 19 and 28).

Summerworks 2008
June 4–28
Young playwrights are seen way too rarely on New York's regular-season stages, but canny companies like Clubbed Thumb pick up the slack. Every year, this nervy group stages their Summerworks Festival at the Ohio Theater. All the plays look tempting, especially Sigrid Gilmer's “Slavey” (June 22–28), a social satire about a big promotion that comes with strange perks. Rising talent Ann Marie Healy kicks the fete off with “Gentleman Caller” (June 8–14), a downtown drama about dating in the Age of Terrorism.

SPF
July 1–28
Since its inauguration in 2004, the Summer Play Festival (or SPF) has become one of the hottest insider events in town. They've revamped their format for their fifth anniversary, cutting the number of productions in half (down to eight) while enlarging the budgets, and they've moved to the Public Theater on Lafayette. But as long as they've got a lounge to schmooze in, the old magic will still be there.

In the past, the high number of plays at SPF has made audiences giddy with exhaustion, which was reinforced by the producers' taste for surrealism. This year's selections look more down-to-earth, except for Jennifer Haley's “Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom” (July 8–13), in which a hypnotic video game blurs the lines between virtual reality and actual events.


Other fests to watch for...

But maybe those three big-name fetes didn't quite have what you were looking for. Well, there's a festival for every taste in New York City. Check out the fusion of Hip-Hop and drama at the Downtown Urban Theater Festival (June 18–29). Hispanic companies from all over the world gather for TeatroStageFest (June 2–15), with plays in both English and Spanish. Fans of sketch comedy can attend SketchFestNYC08 (June 12–14), while cabaret divas sing out at Catch a Cabaret (June 2–7).

Or just wait a month. Half of the festivals, in the lazy spirit of the summer season, haven't even announced their lineups yet. But we always look forward to the cool experiments at the Ice Factory (July 9–Aug. 24). Then the city explodes during the world-famous New York City Fringe Festival (Aug. 8–24), with infamously high-concept ideas married to low-budget work. After a quick breather, there's the New York Musical Theater Festival (Sept. 15–Oct. 5).

Check back after Independence Day for more..


Photo: Bone Orchard