’29 Paintings,’ one-minute plays based on famous artworks, on display at Warehouse 635
The upcoming show “29 Paintings,” a one-night-only theater event at Warehouse 635 in West Hartford on Saturday, will feature 29 plays, projections of 29 famous paintings and six actors portraying 35 characters, all in the space of an hour.
The curious show is conceived, scripted, directed and produced by playwright Roxanne Drolet, who recently moved to the area. The paintings that inspired her one-minute bursts of theatricality are by Whistler, Homer, Hopper, Rembrandt, Manet and many others.
The playlets each have from one to three actors in them and are each inspired by, but not about, a different painting.
“Most of the time, these are brand-new characters inspired by something I saw in the paintings,” Drolet said. “I took that as a starting point to find my beginning, middle and end. They tell me their secrets. It’s a little bit crazy.”
The one-minute format grew from social media and commercial advertisements. Drolet, who has a background in radio advertising, has “a lot of experience keeping things very short.”
“I wrote a couple of short plays in New York City, but most of my script writing was in advertising,” she said. “The most fun thing was writing creative characters.”
Drolet said “29 Paintings” started as an audio project.
“I left my audio marketing/podcasting day job in 2017. I started making these tiny audio pieces that I would play while a painting was on the screen,” she said. “I first called it ‘One Minute Audio Theater,’ and the format held. I used Instagram, where there is a one-minute limit, as a tool to get feedback, and the feedback was good: ‘These are so funny, so silly, please do more.’ They gained a small following.
“When I began thinking of ways for more people to experience them, I thought it would be cool to have it happen in a theater environment,” Drolet added.
She searched for a performance space with “big white walls” and found Warehouse 635. “The wall is great,” she said. “We can project the paintings on this huge white wall.”
For a cast, Drolet reached out through theater friends, including at the West Hartford Community Theater. “The cast is really good,” she said. “They’re from East Haddam, Middletown, Stamford. …”
The performers are Barbara Gallow, T. Marie, Deborah Mott, Shawn E. Murray, Fior Rodriguez and Patrick Spadaccino.
Drolet didn’t plan to direct the show herself.
“I looked for a director for like a year, but I don’t think people understood what I was after,” she said. “We’re showing appreciation for these paintings in a weird new way. It’s just a real fun time.”
“29 Paintings” by Roxanne Drolet has a single performance on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Warehouse 635, 635 New Park Ave., West Hartford. There are cocktail receptions before and after the performance. Tickets are $29. 29paintings.com/.
