The 2008 Baltimore Playwrights Festival enters its final phase with the arrival of two more world premieres by Maryland writers. Call the theaters indicated for show times and prices.

'Troy' just needs a bit more tinkering

Considered in politically correct terms, the ancient Greek playwrights qualify as the archetypal dead white men of western literature. This is the cultural backdrop for Rich Espey's comedy "Helena Troy," which may prompt you to brush up on your classics before heading to the Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre.

Espey is one of the most accomplished playwrights regularly represented at the annual Baltimore Playwrights Festival, and "Helena Troy" has its share of intellectually engaging and humorous observations. However, the play also suffers from a first act that's much too long. What should seem breezy instead is belabored.

Even though that 75-minute-long first act threatens to last longer than the Trojan war, it does set its premise into motion. "Helena Troy" is a play about theater. It takes place at a small theater in New York's Greenwich Village, Theatre Athena, whose specialized mission is to only produce work by those long-dead white male Greek playwrights.

The three totally devoted people who run this theater are Amy (Holly Gibbs); Amy's boyfriend, Ted (Stephen N. Bradford); and Peter (D. Grant Cloyd). They're in a financial crisis, and it seems unlikely that most progressive-minded philanthropic organizations would consider their theater for a grant.

Amy hatches a plan to write a play that they'll try to pass off as a newly discovered play by an ancient Greek female playwright, which seems like a ploy that'll catch the attention of the one grant-giving organization they're most ardently courting. The situation actually is a bit more complicated than that, and Espey adroitly works out the who-knows and who-doesn't-know aspects of this literary hoax.

Also making for theatrical infighting is that Theatre Athena's actors don't need a script in order to trade barbed lines. Carol Ann (Debra Tracey) still dresses in a punk-influenced wardrobe, but she's far enough into middle age that she may be too old to play roles such as Antigone. Rick (Maboud "E" Ebrahimzadeh) has a complicated personal history with Peter. And a young actor who turns up to audition, Clarissa (Lilly Hayes), has no qualms about going after roles that Carol Ann is accustomed to playing.

Although the plot complications go to extremes that might strike some of us as too silly, the play's knowing references to both ancient and modern theater help keep it grounded. It also helps that the cohesive cast really gets into the spirit of things.

If the playwright and director William Hauserman can tighten that first act, "Helena Troy" definitely has potential. A good place to start with the editing shears would be some of the bawdy jokes that get a laugh and then tend to be repeated to diminishing effect on the laugh meter.

Much of the stage time is taken up with Amy writing at her computer keyboard off to the side, as we simultaneously see her play fitfully taking shape on the stage next to her. Since rewriting and editing already are a part of the structure of Espey's play, it would be easy to have Amy ruthlessly trim the redundant passages. That would really bring the ancient script alive.

"Helena Troy" runs through Aug. 31 at the Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre, at 817 St. Paul Street in Baltimore. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.; there also is a performance Thursday, Aug. 21 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $18, $15 for seniors and students. Call 410-752-1225 or go to www.spotlighters.org.

'Salsa': The melting pot runneth over

A California dress shop is the setting for addressing ethnic issues in Miryam Madrigal's "Kosher with Salsa" at Fells Point Corner Theatre. The Mexican-American and Jewish-American characters have such animated discussions that this melting pot comedy seems like it may boil over.

This playwright's entry in the Baltimore Playwrights Festival never fully transcends its sitcom-level scripting and the cast's uneven acting, but it's a lively production that benefits from its specific references to those respective cultures.

The dress shop significantly includes a bridal dress on prominent display, because marriage between different ethnic groups is at the heart of the play. Jean Pierre (Timoth David Copney), who runs the shop, has such a self-dramatizing personality that his vamping threatens to take the show too far in a cartoonish direction. He's amusing, but it's also an early indication that director Jerry Gietka's production too often goes for easy laughs.

It doesn't take long for ethnic conflict to register. Mrs. Rubenstein (Nancy Swartz), who is a regular customer at the dress shop, worries that her unmarried 36-year-old daughter, Tanya (Ashleigh Haddad), will never get married. Although Mrs. Rubenstein is a Jewish mother out of central casting, there's obviously truth within the character type.

What makes the mother-daughter relationship interesting here is that it's the daughter who is the more tradition-minded of the two. Tanya has become more orthodox in her Judaism, which her mother worries will only complicate the search for a nice Jewish boy. When Tanya reveals that she finally has met the man of her dreams, Mrs. Rubenstein is absolutely thrilled.

Watching the joy spread across Ashleigh Haddad's face as Tanya describes Mr. Right is the highlight of this production; indeed, Haddad's sweetly intense performance carries the show.

Mr. Right's name is Michael or, to be more exact, Miguel Gonzalez (Ben Brunnschweiler). When Mrs. Rubenstein learns that Miguel is a Mexican-American Catholic who has converted to Judaism, it sets off all sorts of maternal alarms. Miguel's devoutly Catholic mother, Concepcion (Patti Restivo), is equally alarmed.

The playwright capably handles the revelations and subsequent developments, but the plot twists also have a slightly mechanical quality. Madrigal's characterizations could delve more deeply into these cultures and, for that matter, Haddad is the only cast member who's able to come up with a completely three-dimensional characterization.

One of the things hindering the production is that the crucial central relationship between Tanya and Miguel is unevenly acted. Brunnschweiler's flat performance conveys the lines, but not enough of the feeling in what should be a character who is a fascinating cultural hybrid. Also, neither Brunnschweiler nor Restivo seem particularly Mexican in appearance or inflection, which means their ethnic identity must be taken on, er, faith.

"Kosher with Salsa" runs through Aug. 30 at Fells Point Corner Theatre, at 251 S. Ann St., in Fells Point. Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 7 p.m. (no show Aug. 31). Tickets are $17, $15 for seniors and students. Call 410-276-7837 or go to www.fpct.org.

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