'7th Inning Stretch' Show Scores Big

It was yet another home run on Saturday for Mile Square Theatre's eighth annual production of "7th Inning Stretch," a collection of short plays about baseball.

DeBaun auditorium had filled up quickly for the show, which consisted of seven 10-minute plays about baseball, commissioned solely for the production by artistic director Chris O'Connor.

"Thanks for coming out on this beautiful evening," said O'Connor to the crowd, while outside heavy rain and wind pounded the city.

Mayor Dawn Zimmer and Human Services Director Leo Pellegrini threw the ceremonial "first pitch" before the proverbial curtain was raised for the show.

The first short play was an excerpt from "Rounding Third," a full-length comedy by Richard Dresser about a little league team that the Mile Square Theatre will be presenting in April. The scene starred Matthew Lawler (soon to be premiering in the film Night and Day) and Liam Joynt (also debuting in the film Salt).

In the play, Lawler and Joynt star as Michael and Don, two men coaching a little league team with very different styles. Michael is a bumbling man who accidentally breaks Don's windshield and begs to pay for the damages, all while shouting at the children playing that they "are all winners!"

The plays that followed were a mix of comedy and drama, all tackling different subjects while sticking to the main broad theme of baseball. For instance, "The Designated Hitter," by Academy Award nominee David Magee, was about two old friends in a bar, reminiscing about a former teammate who had died. Their talk soon turns deeply personal and a rift between the two is created, using baseball's "designated hitter rule" as a metaphor.

Lisa Huberman's  debut script for "High and Uptight" was another play that dealt with very real dramatic themes. In it, Carrie Watt stars as a daughter packing up her life to move to college, and Chris O'Connor as a father more interested in a Cleveland Indians game to know what is really going on. Eventually the daughter spills a painful secret, and the two try to grapple with the reality together.

Comedy was still abundant throughout the show, as in Andrew Dolan's "04: A Muse of Fire" and O'Connor's "The Mascots."

In Dolan's piece, a Boston Red Sox fanatic, Drew, is visiting with his divorce lawyer, Marvin, to hash out the details of his doomed marriage to a Yankees fan. With sharp wit, the tale shows how the 2004 Red Sox season has affected Drew's personal life and relationship with his children – who have been conditioned by his wife to root for the Yanks.

O'Connor's play, "The Mascots," takes place in a casting call for team mascots. John McAdams stars as Charles, who has made a career for himself portraying mascots for different teams. Stephen Ellis makes a hilarious turn as Arthur Pendafleur, a hyper and overeager young man outfitted in a giant chicken costume who dreams of one day having what Charles has.

The short plays of the evening also touched on the universal subjects of life, death and love in very creative ways. Constance Congdon's "Home is an Irregular Pentagon," about a man on his deathbed looking back on his life as a professional ball player, took artistic liberties in its approach to telling a story on stage. Ethel, the man's sister, plays some of the different characters in his head.

Itmar Moses' "Bottom of the Ninth" seemed fairly straightforward – two men, one young, one old, work together in the announcer's booth during the baseball game. But it is their perspectives on marriage and careers – how one may trump the other in regards to true passion – that ultimately showed their generational differences.

After the last play, all of the actors bowed onstage to rousing applause from the crowd.

"(The production) has definitely grown a lot, I'm amazed at how full it is," said Daniel Coles, 46, of New York, who had been coming to the first few "7th Inning Stretch" shows in its infancy.

"I really enjoyed 'Bottom of the Ninth,'" said Lena Hayes, 41, of New York. "It really showed how different generations view their life path."

"I really liked the way they intertwined baseball into different relationships," said Thomas LoBue, 44, of Hoboken, who mentioned "High and Uptight" and "04: The Muse of Fire" as some of his favorite shorts of the night.

LoBue's wife Gila, 44, enjoyed the production and laughed, "I'm not even big on baseball."