Arts Listings

Brookside Repertory’s Holiday Shorts IV, their annual anthology of short holiday-themed plays by Bay Area playwrights, directed by Robert Hamm in staged readings, will be performed this Sunday afternoon at the Ballroom of the Claremont Resort and Spa. 

“The holidays affect us in many ways, and these plays help set the mood for what we’re about to experience personally as the year draws to a close,” said Mae Ziglin Meidav, founder and artistic director of Brookside Rep. 

Six new plays by local playwrights are joined by two past favorites of Brookside Rep audiences: Tamales on Christmas Eve, by Stephen D. Gutierrez, director of the Cal State-East Bay Creative Writing Dept., and Mae Ziglin Meidav’s Chanukah Is Not the Jewish Christmas. 

The six new plays are Missing Mistletoe by Thomas H. Bryan, New Year’s Eve by Risa Nye, Invitation by Donna LaFlamme (a Berkeley chiropractor who’s taught high school drama in Oakland), Baby New Year by Hillary K. Hann, More Fun than the Battle of Hastings by Nancy Cooper Frank and Apples and Spice by Pam Gutman.  

In More Fun than the Battle of Hastings, set in the year 2007, a century-old bottle of pinot noir has the chance to ignite the forgotten pleasures of the early 21st century in a futuristic couple. Its playwright has been involved with Playwrights’ Cafe at the Gaia Center. 

Mae Ziglin Meidav’s Franz/KAFKA, which Subterranean Shakespeare produced at LaVal’s on the Northside in 1997, will be shown in a revised form this May at the Berkeley City Club. 

Robert Hamm, who directs the afternoon plays, is a well-known East Bay actor, director and playwright, lately artistic director of Alameda’s Altarena Theatre. He has appeared in productions by the Aurora, Wilde Irish and Virago, which has also produced Hamm’s dramatic work. 

The show is coproduced by The Club at the Claremont and has a buffet luncheon from noon-1:30 p.m., with the show from 1:45-4 p.m. Tickets are $75 with buffet (Theatre Bay Area and Club members $65); $30 for show only, validated parking included.  

For reservations, contact Katy Yong at 549-8512; for information e-mail mmeidav@brookside-art.org.