SoloFest 2025 brings four powerful one-person plays to Bridge Street Theatre
Jeffrey Borak
Jeffrey Borak is The Eagle’s theater critic.
Link to original article: https://www.berkshireeagle.com/arts_and_culture/arts-theater/bridge-street-theatre-solofest-2025/article_0347f3c6-f61d-11ef-b733-3f7e78e92d2f.html
CATSKILL, N.Y. — For an actor, performing a solo show is somewhat akin to performing on a highwire without a net.
“It’s just you out there onstage. You’re on your own,” Bridge Street Theatre Founding Associate Artist and dramaturg Steven Patterson said by phone from the Catskill home he shares with his partner in business and life, John Sowle, Bridge Street’s founding artistic and managing director.
Patterson knows what he’s talking about. He’s performed solo as, among others, Shylock, Frankenstein and French playwright and novelist Jean Genet. In the end, Patterson said, it’s a thoroughly rewarding experience, not only for the actor but also the audience, a guaranteed standing ovation.
“It’s satisfying for an audience to see an actor endure such a marathon on their own,” Patterson said. “People appreciate that you’ve gotten through it.”
Since 2023, Bridge Street Theatre has been celebrating the art and craft of going it alone onstage with what has become an annual SoloFest — four one-person shows over four successive weekends.
SoloFest 2025 begins with “Bent Compass,” March 7-9, co-written by Neil Brookshire — who will be performing the piece — and Colin Sesek, about a young man’s journey from raw recruit to experienced combat Army medic and his subsequent readjustment to civilian life.
SoloFest 2025 continues March 14-16 with “Help! I’m Trapped in a One-Woman Show,” written by Mark Hampton and performed by actor Kate Skinner; “O Time,” written and performed by David Zellnik, March 21-23; and wrapping up March 28 through 30 with “Ghost Dance: Picture of a Madman,” about romanticist American artist Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847-1919), written and performed by Erica Knight.
The four plays in SoloFest 2025 were culled from roughly 50 submissions.
“These shows are each very different from each other,” Patterson said.
SoloFest came as a post-COVID response to the pandemic. Audiences were reluctant to return to the theaters. To avoid the risk of spreading COVID-19, theaters were reluctant to produce ensemble plays. As a result, actors were creating solo pieces for themselves so they could keep working as a way around the restrictions.
“We were struggling to get audiences in here,” Patterson said. “We knew of so many who were developing solo plays.”
Solo plays have the added advantage of being self-contained and generally simple to produce.
“The actor comes in on a Tuesday, lives in an apartment we have above the theater, sets up, rehearses, gives three performances and then is on his or her way,” Patterson said.
“Bent Compass” builds on the success 10 years ago of Logan Black’s “Bond: The Story of a Soldier and his Dog,” which Black performed in Bridge Street’s lobby Speakeasy.
Patterson and Sowle consider “Bond …” among Bridge Street’s most successful and popular shows.
“We have a huge veterans community in the area,” Patterson said. “We think ‘Bent Compass’ will have special appeal for them.”
Brookshire credits William Shakespeare with providing the creative seed for “Bent Compass.”
An actor, writer and visual artist, Brookshire met Sesek in the summer of 2004, one year before Sesek enlisted in the U.S. Army. They remained in touch through Sesek’s deployments to the Middle East, Asia and Africa and his return to civilian life. It wasn’t until 2013 that the idea of collaborating on a play began forming.
“At the time,” Brookshire says in a news release, “I was fleshing out the background of Claudio in Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing.’ This was a character who, at the start of the play, was returning directly from combat. What challenges did this character face in his reacquaintance with civilian life? I thought, who better to talk to than Colin? He was incredibly generous and forthcoming with information and insight. Hearing his stories and perspective helped me anchor my performance, and it inspired me to continue exploring his story; his journey. And the more we talked, the more we wanted to explore creating a project based solely on his experiences.”
As Brookshire began transcribing more than six hours of weekly long distance telephone conversations between the two of them — Sesek from his home in Boise, Idaho; Brookshire from his home in northern Wisconsin — the notion began forming to create a solo play focusing on Sesek’s transformation from fresh recruit to seasoned veteran and how his combat experience shaped his world and life view.
The text is taken entirely from their phone conversations, edited only for flow and rhythm.
“We wanted it to be as honest as possible, to get at what it’s really like,” Brookshire says in the release. “The words in the play are Colin’s, so audiences are hearing his stories in the same way I initially heard them.”
Under the direction of actor Phil Darius Wallace, a friend of Brookshire with two decades worth of experience writing and performing solo shows, “Bent Compass” had a multi-camera recording in February 2021. Brookshire has since toured the show throughout the United States and Canada.
“The second we learned about Neil and Colin’s ‘Bent Compass,’ we knew we had to bring it here,” Sowle said in the news release, “
Performances
March 7-9: “Bent Compass.” Written by Neil Brookshire and Colin Sesek. Performed by Neil Brookshire.
March 14-16: “Help! I’m Trapped in a One-Woman Show.” Written by Mark Hampton. Lived and performed by Kate Skinner. Directed by Michael Edwards.
March 21-23: “O Time.” Written and performed by David Zellnik. Directed by Danilo Gambini.
March 28-30: “Ghost Dance – Picture of a Madman.” Written and performed by Erica Knight. Directed by John Ahlin.