Love Festival 2025

Love Festival 2025

Polaris North 245 W 29th St. 4th Fl. New York, NY 10001

on Friday Feb. 7th at 7PM and Saturday Feb. 8th at 2PM

Celebrating Valentine’s Day!

Directed by Valerie Adami-Juhlin and Peter Burford

with Andreas Casso, Kelly Jean Clair*, Leedy Corbin, Dan DeCarlo*,

Timothy Paul Jobe, Kristi Kirk, Dori Levit*, Valerie Mitchell, Mark Peters*,

Susan Richard*, Justen Scott, Eve Sorel*, and Miki Tran

* Member of Actor’s Equity Association

CAN WE TALK

by Steven Doloff

BIO: Steven Doloff’s plays have been staged, streamed and radio broadcast in over a dozen of The United States, in Canada, and in Australia.

Directed by Peter Burford

SYNOPSIS: Pat and Jo, two young adults, attempt to have a serious face-to-face conversation, but they find that their cellphones’ rings, dings, alerts and other audio notifications make it all but impossible.

WAITING FOR EDITH

By Frank Shima

BIO: Frank Shima has written four novels, VENCIL, DEAD LETTER, PLUM CREEK, and LYING IN THE WEEDS, available on Amazon. A member of Playwrights’ Center, his plays have been performed in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Long Island, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York City, North Carolina, and Ohio, and in England and Wales.

Directed by Peter Burford

SYNOPSIS: When Edith dies, heaven is not what she expected. She will have to choose between her two husbands who have died before her and have been waiting a lifetime for her.

THE SHORT CUT

By Nelson Sheeley

Directed by Peter Burford

Synopsis : A husband and wife find themselves in a troublesome situation.

THE SNOW WALTZES OF APRIL AND AUGUST

By John Kelly

BIO: John Kelly, an emeritus professor of theatre from Elmira College, is a playwright whose works have been published, anthologized, and performed by theatres across the country (including New York, Chicago, D.C., etc.) and around the world (Canada, England, Germany, the Netherlands.) Proud member of the Dramatists’ Guild.

Directed by Valerie Adami-Juhlin

SYNOPSIS: An elderly woman recalls her first and only love and their first dance.

TEN MINUTES TIL CHRISTMAS

By Brian Vinero

BIO: Brian Vinero is a playwright, lyricist and translator whose rhymed-verse translations of the works of Euripides, Rostand and Molière are published by Broadway Play Publishing and have been featured in the literary journals Asymptote and The Mercurian. Other theatrical works include a modernization of Vanity Fair, a new translation of The Threepenny Opera and musicals based on Rostand’s Chantecler and Booth Tarkington’s The Magnificent Ambersons.

Directed by Valerie Adami-Juhlin

SYNOPSIS: Why spend two hours and slog through dozens of perfume and jewelry commercials when one can get that romantic Yuletide story fix that is a “hallmark” of the season in a mere ten minutes?

DIAGNOSIS: FLIRTER

By Eileen Mitchell

BIO: Eileen Mitchell is an award-winning playwright and essayist with recognition from The Robert
Benchley Society, Thurber House, and the Will Rogers Writers’ Workshop. Her work has been
staged throughout the country including San Diego, Chicago and New York.

Directed by Valerie Adami-Juhlin

SYNOPSIS: What chance has romance in a post-covid world? Will Richard and Florence find love in the waiting room of a doctor’s office? At least they can flirt with the possibility.

MIXED DOUBLES

By Matt and Ariel Aliza Sanders

BIO: Matt Sanders and Ariel Aliza Sanders live and write in Brooklyn, NY. Their short plays have been produced in New York City and in venues in such places as New Orleans, Chicago, London, and Australia.

Directed by Valerie Adami-Juhlin

SYNOPSIS: Newlyweds Addies and Harry meet Addie’s best friend and her boyfriend at the trendiest new restaurant for dinner- what could go wrong? Almost everything, as they all discover hidden connections in their pasts.

TOUGH COOKIES

By Brett Hursey

BIO: Brett Hursey’s plays have appeared in over two hundred and fifty theaters across the country including venues in Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hollywood, as well as internationally in England, Belgium, Luxembourg, Romania, Australia, South Korea and Canada. He’s also had over sixty off/off-off Broadway productions in Manhattan.

Directed by Peter Burford

SYNOPSIS: Fortune cookies foretell a first date goes comically wrong.