This is the fifth season for this showcase of directorial aspiration, featuring shoestring-budget stagings of classic and new works. Coordinated this year by Cecille Keenan, the four-week event offers the work of 48 directors (chosen from 60 applicants), most of whom you’ve never heard of before. In a brave effort to bring order to the affair, this year’s festival is organized along thematic lines. The first week (March 28 through 31) places special emphasis on Irish satirist George Bernard Shaw; he’s represented by some of his one-acts as well as by adaptations of his prose. Selections from works by Shaw’s contemporaries are also included in several programs. Upcoming weeks’ themes are “World Premieres and New Voices” (April 4 through 7), “American Voices” (April 11 through 14), and “A Different Point of View” (April 18 through 21). Bailiwick Repertory, Theatre Building, 1225 W. Belmont, 327-5252. Opens Sunday, March 28, 7:30 PM. Through April 21: Sundays-Wednesdays, 7:30 PM. $8 per program (each program consists of three one-acts). The first week’s schedule follows.
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Annajanska
The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God
Shaw’s letters to actress Stella Campbell are the basis for this epistolary comedy adapted by Jerome Kilty. Catherine Davis directs.
The final act of Shaw’s epic Back to Methuselah, directed by Linda Gates, explores the quest for immortality.
Lindsay Porter directs her version of D.H. Lawrence’s story about repression and sexuality (surprise!) in World War I England.
