Naughty Readings 2008

Fundraiser goes a little blue with Naughty Readings
By KEVIN HAKANSSON Correspondent

LOWELL, Mass. – There's a good ol' fashioned story telling coming to Lowell's Old Court Pub on Saturday, Nov. 15. Come one, come all – well, on second thought, don't bring the kids.

Lowell's Image Theater presents its fourth annual "Keep Your Kids At Home" Naughty Readings, a party and fundraiser that is the Image's lone annual fundraiser.

• The annual night of plays that are, to say the least, fairly blue was conceived by Image founders Jerry Bisantz and Ann Garvin in 2005, the same year as the theater's founding.

"Ann and I came up with this idea," said Bisantz, the Image's artistic director. "We had a few plays that were a little bit blue, and we though 'Gee, wouldn't it be fun to put a whole night of these together, for an adult night out?' "

• Bisantz and company put each short play with the same cast of actors, many of whom have performed for the Image Theater before.

The evening is pretty well blocked out, with eight short plays and two original songs, "Stimulus Package" and "The Gay Cowboy's Lament," split up by an intermission.

• As in previous incarnations of the Naughty Readings, this year's event features plays that were selected from numerous entries from all over the country. This year, Image received around 70 submissions, eventually whittled down to eight 10-minute plays.

• For those who have qualms regarding what they'll be getting into by attending something referred to as "Naughty Readings," fear not. While each play surely presses the envelope, Bisantz specifies that they're by no means repulsive.

"The hard part is finding plays that are funny and not filthy," he clarified. "There were some (submissions) that we received where we were like, 'Ach, no.' They have to be clever and fun and just a little bit blue."

• Based on the descriptions of a few of the plays, attendees should be in for a few eyebrow raises and belly laughs. There's Michael Kimball's "I Wrestle an Old Friend," in which a married couple on the golf course is approached by a life-size version of the husband's, er, anatomy.

• Cambridge's Rachel Kelsey offers "Aspirations of a Young Puppeteer," a tale of a young woman who discovers her true calling: prostitution.

Meanwhile, Matthew Hanf's "Santa vs. The Tooth Fairy" shows Santa and his bride drinking in a bar, when suddenly Mrs. Claus finds herself flirting with a certain pixy.

Bisantz and Garvin started the Image Theater as an outlet for up-and-coming playwrights to get their work noticed, and have done so, producing 42 new plays to date.

"There a specific focus on local writers, and we've gotten terrific scripts," Bisantz boasted, adding that the theater has no shortage of scripts coming in.

• Indeed, the Image Theater seems to have achieved its goal to promote new playwrights.

This year's Naughty Readings should be just the latest of the Image's successful productions, and you can witness it first hand.