Press Releases

January 6, 2000
Southampton College Features One-Act Plays by East Enders

Off-Beat Stories Inspired by Famed Cartoonist Jules Feiffer

Contact:
Darren Johnson
(631) 287 8313
Fax: (631) 283 4081

Two young boys call a phone-sex service, a groom reveals an embarrassing shortcoming and a woman visits her own funeral. These are some of the quirky plots students of famed cartoonist Jules Feiffer penned for his class at Southampton College of Long Island University.

Now MFA in Writing students will get to hear their words live on stage as the Southampton Players present "Borrowed Times: New Student One Act Plays" Fridays and Saturdays, January 28-29 and February 4-5 in the Avram Theater at 8 p.m. Directed by Michael Disher and Paul Conroy, it's the writing program's first collaboration with the College's theatrical troupe. Tickets are $7. Call the box office at (631) 287-8088.

Most of the plays came out of Feiffer's MFA in Writing workshop last semester at Southampton College. He will draw the cover and write the notes for the "Borrowed Times" playbill. Also an award-winning playwright, Feiffer drew Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoons for The Village Voice from 1956-1997 and established his reputation as one of America's leading satirists. Students obviously were inspired by Feiffer's unique wit.

John Gannon, an MFA in Writing student from Westhampton who works as an air-traffic controller, wrote "A Small Joke," a tale of an engagement, a wedding, then the revealing of an embarrassing shortcoming of the groom.

Conroy, a traditional student at Southampton College, tells the story of two boys who call a sex hotline in "First Time." They find it's fun, but also leads to a lot of work.

Meryl Spiegel, an MFA in Writing student from Quogue, wrote "To Tell the Truth," the story of a woman who does something many of us have dreamed of: She attends her own funeral and finds out what people really think of her.

Other short plays include "Act Two," the story of a just-married couple with very different ideas on how they want to spend their wedding night; "Mouse on 77th Street," about two college students trying to get home in New York City during the holiday season; and "Arrivals and Departures," about an older couple that sets off to take a trip to visit their children, but they never get out of the airport.