1970 Directors' Showcase 1

The Lady of Larkspur Lotion

By Tennessee Williams, directed by Brian P. Winfield.

Synopsis: Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore is a long-time tenant in a cockroach-infested boarding house – but she lives convinced that she owns a Brazillian rubber plantation. The landlady has always humored her, but when Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore can't make her rent the two women start to argue. Just then, a mysterious writer steps in on the side of fantasy.

For the Love of Michael

By Glenn Hughes, directed by Barbara Haraka.

The Indian Wants The Bronx

By Israel Horovitz, directed by Robert C. Bell.

Synopsis: An East Indian gets lost on his first day in New York as two teenage punks find him waiting at a lonely bus stop. He cannot understand English, and the boys have some fun with him—at least it starts out as fun. But little by little, as the minutes go by and the bus doesn't come, they get bored; then annoyed; then vicious. It is the very pointlessness of their brutality that makes the play—with its awful final image of the Indian jabbering into a dead phone—so disturbing. We are convinced that this is exactly what would happen at this particular bus stop on this particular night; we see, again, that violence in the big city is as much a child of ennui as of anger. And, as the nightmare spell of the play takes hold, and the boys torture their victim with increasing relish, we are brought to a shocking awareness of how thin the veneer of civilization can be—of how close beneath the surface of all men lurks the primitive impulse to hurt and humiliate those whose very helplessness and inability to communicate can only frustrate and enrage.

The Darkest Night

By Silvia Sherman Pitkin, directed by Donna W. Elwell.

Snowangel

By Lewis John Carlino, directed by Marie S. Fuller.

Synopsis: Tormented by the memories of a past love, John comes to Connie, a prostitute, to get her to reenact certain scenes that have etched themselves in his mind and that have become the symbol for all that was ethereal and beautiful in his life. He makes her wear certain clothing. He applies make-up to her face, trying to get her to resemble the girl he lost. He feverishly constructs a scene where he first met this girl, in a museum. The action builds until he almost feels the moment is being relived, that Connie is really the other girl. At this moment Connie shatters his illusion by screaming, "I'm not her! I'm me! I'm me!" Shocked, John starts to leave, saying he is sorry, that he only wanted to feel the affection of those lost moments. Connie, shaken, asks him if he wants affection, what does he give in return? Quietly, she tells John what she imagines in this dirty little room while strangers use her. She tells her tale simply. When she finishes speaking, John is ashamed and has learned a simple lesson: that he must give to get, that he cannot erase the identity of another human being to suit his own needs.