The Arts

Northeast Stage presents spooky play festival

Northeast Stage’s inaugural Playlets and Poetry Festival will feature an eclectic and engaging collection of plays. The festival runs Friday through Sunday, Oct. 18-20, in the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church Parish Hall (768 Main St., Greenport), and returns the following Thursday through Sunday at Jamesport Meeting House (1590 Main Road, Jamesport).

“I curated the festival because I wanted something different for the Halloween season,” said Northeast Stage director Nick Auletti. “It’s a smorgasbord of tricks and treats. You have contemporary comedy, contemporary drama. I think there’s almost anything supernatural, and I think all ghosts and ghouls are covered as well. They’ve got werewolves, Dracula, goblins — you name it.” The theatrical adventure began with an allegedly “stolen” library book called “13 Plays of the Supernatural,” which Mr. Auletti took from his alma mater, Lycoming College. The short, one-act format of the entries inspired him to write his own. He began with “Mozart and the Gray Steward,” a play about the great composer meeting death while writing his famously unfinished requiem mass.

The other offerings spring from various sources, ranging from the Victorian period to contemporary pieces like playwright Tara Meddaugh’s “When Marshmallows Burn,” about a mother trying to raise her werewolf son. There is even an original work by Mr. Auletti about a vampire couple struggling with life in contemporary New York.

“All of these plays mean something in today’s society. Even if it’s [set] back in the classical age, or in the Victorian era, I hope to bring them to a contemporary light [and that] my modernization makes an audience see that these are important pieces. These need to be represented. It’s important to have fun as well,” said Mr. Auletti.

Rather than choosing works that were straight drama or comedy, Mr. Auletti tried to strike a balance, weaving elements of each throughout. “I think there’s comedy and drama in every single story,” he said. “And if you can balance that, that’s where plays need to be. They need to make you laugh, and then bring you down to reality and bring you back up with the comedy. There’s always an ebb and flow. I never see a piece of theater as strictly dramatic or comedic.”

Mr. Auletti cites “The Muppet Show” as one source of inspiration and credits their zany antics and solid sense of community as his first example of what theater could be.

“I think seeing all these people go crazy, all these puppets go crazy, and then finally, having a community for them to present their work, I found so much charm in that,” he said. “Theater has always been that community away from home for me. And everybody is accepted, everybody is gracious and respectful to each other, most of the time. And so, I just fell in love with the idea that we can all do something communal, and it could be serving the community, and it also brings in the artistry, and the collaboration. I’ve always respected that about the theater.”

The actors themselves represent all walks of life, from mothers to retirees to professional actors. This mélange creates a synergy among the cast, their characters and works themselves. “I think that variety gives each piece a special kind of connection where you can throw random people into a blender and just be like, ‘Okay, get along.’ Sometimes that’s not easy, but I’m so grateful for the camaraderie, the chemistry within my cast and with the pieces themselves,” Mr. Auletti said.

He believes theater on the North Fork is seeing a meteoric rise, creating a gentle rivalry with the established South Fork scene. “I think the North Fork is really having a renaissance of sorts. [We are] matching the South Fork in theater. We have Northeast Stage, we have Corchaug Repertory Theatre, which is a new theater that’s really getting a lot of traction. You have the North Fork Community Theatre. You have the Riverhead Faculty and Community Theater. It makes me really happy.”

To purchase tickets to the Northeast Stage festival, visit northeaststage.org.