THEATER REVIEW:’Summer Shorts’ a mixed bag

One of the most admirable aspects of Orange Coast College’s theater program is its periodic original presentations. In these projects, students write and direct, as well as act, and often the results are pleasantly surprising.

OCC’s creative minds are at it again in “Summer Shorts,” a collection of four new plays ? all born at the college and ranging from the near miss to the inventive and nerve-touching ? with the college’s usual performance enthusiasm.

The cream of this summer’s crop is a lengthy one-act play entitled “Nobody Loves a Telemarketer” by OCC’s resident student playwright Sean Engard, whose acting chops recently were on display in “The Cage.” Engard, creator of a number of past OCC playlets, takes on a subject all too familiar to audiences and gives it a bittersweet twist.

The telemarketers involved are endeavoring (if not very energetically) to push season subscriptions for their theater company while devoting much more time and attention to their private loves and wars. Engard has created an eclectic mix of character types, and director Samantha Wellen amplifies their particular quirks.

Dan Barnard is terrific as Harry, a laid-back type itching to be fired so he can move on to a real job with a negative reference from this field. Adam Macias plays the fish out of water, Martin, who’s painfully shy and tentative both in character and performance.

Into their lives comes a beautiful novice (Courtney Chudleigh), who creates an instant stir both with her physical appeal and her success on her first cold call. Ryan P. Fialcowitz is a hoot as a nebbish telemarketer who blossoms only when on the phone, while Casey Moriarty is particularly strong as a violently dissatisfied customer, and the Asian lesbian duo of Linda Nguyen and Casey Chin ruffle a few feathers.

While the ensemble work could be tighter, the play’s individual performances are impressive, and Engard’s darkly comic creative contributions are crisply effective.

The opening segment, “An Exercise in Futility,” is pretty much that. Written and directed by Marie Farrell (and based on a dream she experienced), the play focuses on a futuristic society of haves and have-nots, neither of which demonstrates much compassion when a stranger (uncredited but probably Chudleigh) fervently seeks their help for an accident victim.

“Pee in a Bottle,” written and directed by longtime OCC instructor David Scaglione, has a great deal of depth, much of it coming from unexpected sources. Barnard and Moriarty comprise the cast as a pair of young drifters (think George and Lenny from “Of Mice and Men”) pondering the origin of a mysterious liquid.

Both actors generate strong portrayals, and Moriarty’s tough, self-assured youth contrasts splendidly with Barnard’s overgrown kid hiding a terrible secret.

There’s a lot of “Twilight Zone” in “The Mortal Menagerie,” an eerie and intense segment about a group of people holding off an apparent Nazi invasion. Written by Fialcowitz and Eric Stayberg, both of whom appear in the show, and directed by Fialcowitz, the play depicts the desperate lengths to which ordinary people go to save their own skin.

Also in the well-coordinated ensemble are Moriarty, Barnard, Farrell, Richard Thomas and Nakisa Aschtiani ? but assigning credit is difficult, if not impossible, since none of the characters is named.

OCC’s “Summer Shorts” celebrates the off-season with a quartet of brand-new offerings, of which Engard’s “Telemarketer” shows the most promise. The program concludes this weekend in the college’s Studio Theater.

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