Port playwrights Pullins-Powell crazy busy

Don't worry, you're not going crazy. If it seems like Ron Pullins and Leslie Powell are staging something or having one of their shows put up at some festival somewhere or winning some award for one of their shows every time you turn around, well, that’s because they are. It's not your mind, they are everywhere: Even when you don't count their efforts with local groups like the North Shore Readers Theater Collaborative, a monthly play development series at the Tannery. Or Random Acts, an insane write-and-stage-an-original-play-in-an-day blowout at the Firehouse. Or with groups like “Writers and Actors, Ink,” a collaboration of writers and actors dedicated to the development of new plays.

Yeah, they've made a cottage industry of this whole playwriting thing over the past several years. They’re not making any money or getting especially famous from it. Who does? But they are getting noticed and produced and, in theater, this side of Tom Stoppard — probably the only playwright in the world who could make household names (in some households, anyhow) out of the Plastic People of the Universe — that’s pretty good.


But the past year has been especially busy for the husband-and-wife team. The short list finds Powell's play "Soldier Boy" being selected for the Boston Theatre Marathon, their collaboration on the hilarious "Movie Mogul in His Mama's Muumuu" grabbing a spot at the New England Fringe Festival, Boston (and, later, in a local debut at the Actors Studio) and, another collaboration, "Mrs. McAlaster's Plot," getting a spin off Broadway at the American Globe Turnip Festival, which is a pretty big deal despite its very silly name. And the early reviews point to another very productive year: Pullins' "The Science of Love" got a reading at the Fort Point Theatre Channel in February, and his short play "The List" found a spot at the Brockport Short Play Festival a couple of weeks after that. The production, which won the Producers' Award at Brockport, will be featured in this year's Playwrights' Platform Festival of New Plays, June 18 to 20 at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. 949 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston. It is one of nine plays on the bill — and second up, so don't be late.
This new production will star actress Zillah Glory, pictured above in character, looking lovely — a lot lovelier than Mr. Pullins, whose picture we probably should have used — if slightly (okay, completely) unhinged. She most recently played the starring role of Eurydice at the New Rep theater in Watertown. The director is Meg Taintor from Whistler in the Dark productions in Boston.

"The List," in case you were wondering, is a monologue from a compulsive list-maker who has committed a terrible crime. Her latest list gives her strength and helps her steel her nerves so she can emerge from this moment of horror. Curtain is at 8:00 PM. Tickets are $17, and $14 for seniors, students. For tickets, call 866-811-4111 or go to http://www.bu.edu/bpt.