Explore relationship during One Acts Festival at Geyer PAC

A weekend featuring original one-act plays that kicks off the New Year in style has become a tradition at Geyer Performing Arts Center in Scottdale.

Actors and Artists of Fayette County’s third annual “One Acts Festival” Jan. 10-12 will give theatergoers an opportunity to experience four new plays created by local playwrights.

David DeFazio of Harrison City, a board member with AAFC, is once again serving as coordinator for the production.

“This year our plays focus on relationships,” he said. “Each play has a unique take on relationships and explores dating, family and friendships.”

The plays to be presented include: “Uniquely Alike,” written by Dannielle A. Seanor of Belle Vernon and directed by Chris Schaffer; “Nancy McGeever: America’s Worst Door-To-Door Vacuum Salesman,” written by Jared Pascoe of Pittsburgh and directed by Jessie Glover; “Feelings are Weird,” written and directed by Jessica Zack of Uniontown; and “Destiny is a Careless Waiter,” written by Julie Zaffarano of Broomall and directed by Dani White.

‘Uniquely Alike’

A powerful message about forgiveness that hits home for a Charleroi family is the essence of “Uniquely Alike” by Dannielle A. Seanor. DeFazio said her play focuses on the issue of bullying and was written in honor of a student that took her own life in 2018.

The play debuted in June at CityReach Church in Charleroi, where the student’s father, Pastor Gregg Anders, portrayed the school principal in the cast as part of a benefit called #chooselove: Stop Bullying Now! He and his wife, Joyce, created the Samantha Anders Legacy Fund to support anti-bullying, suicide prevention and mental health awareness programs in local schools.

Pastor Anders said they have raised $50,000 through their fundraising efforts for programs that spread the message to “Choose Love,” and for a scholarship program, Sam’s Symphony of Love, that provides college scholarships to one Charleroi High School student per year that intends to major in art. Their daughter was a gifted artist and musician.

“Uniquely Alike” is the first play written by Seanor, who attended Colorado Mesa University as a musical theater major. She said she didn’t know Samantha but wanted to do something to help so she contacted her family about hosting a benefit show in her honor. Her play involves a positive intervention.

“The screenplay helps to bring awareness to the important issue of bullying,” the pastor said. “Oftentimes we think the way of solving this problem is by being tough on people. Here (in Seanor’s play) they found a way for forgiveness, not punishment.”

“Samantha’s family is resolute in getting Sam’s story out there to help prevent what happened to her from happening to someone else,” she said.

‘Feelings are Weird’

Jessica Zack’s play deals with Maya, who is in love with her friend, Melvin, and decides it’s time to tell him how she feels. Throughout the process, secrets are revealed, and Maya has to come to terms with what she’s learned, and what it is she really wants.

“I focused on the topic of feelings and navigating them as an adult because it is something that my friends and I talk about a lot,” she said. “You think that love and dating get easier as you get older, but feelings can be just as strange and hard to deal with as they are when you’re a teenager.”

She has written several plays, including a one-act, “Unconventional,” part of AAFC’s festival two years ago that was presented in a full-length version at the Geyer last March, and two 10-minute plays, “The Rescue” and “Nervous,” produced at Phoenix Arts Center in Uniontown. Zack is a graduate of Washington and Jefferson College.

‘Destiny is a Careless Waiter’

Julie Zaffarano’s play is about a major mix-up involving a proposal and a breakup.

Sean, who invites Emily to dinner to propose marriage, brings his grandmother’s engagement ring to the restaurant and instructs the server to place the ring in Emily’s dessert. Justin invites Bria to the same restaurant at the same time, planning to break up with her. When the engagement ring intended for Emily ends up in Bria’s dessert, the chaos begins.

Zaffarano is a nationally produced playwright whose other works include “The PlayMakers,” “Naughty Marietta Revised” and “Murder at the Sin City Rest Home.” She is a member of the PlayPenn Foundry, Dramatists Guild, Playwrights Center, Witherspoon Circle, and Philadelphia Dramatists Center.

In 2017, her play, “Destiny is a Careless Waiter,” won the Donna Award for Outstanding Production at the Pittsburgh New Works Festival.

Her bio on her website notes that “while her work spans multiple genres and forms, she is devoted to creating strong roles for women, with a special focus on women of a mature age.”

‘Nancy McGeever: America’s Worst Door-To-Door Vacuum Salesman’

This is Jared Pascoe’s second consecutive year at the Geyer. His play, “Harper Goes Rollerskating,” was featured in 2019’s one-act festival.

He said he wrote his latest play about a larger-than-life door-to-door saleswoman “that shows up unexpectedly at Lucy’s door to make the mother of all vacuum sales and to offer unsolicited advice” because “I love quirky characters like Nancy and I love bringing them to life because I feel that they oftentimes have the most heart.”

Pascoe has a degree in advertising and public relations from Point Park University and has studied play writing at The Second City and television writing through UCLA Extension’s writers program.