For Joyce Stilson and her colleagues at Alleyway Theater, 13 is a lucky number for more than one reason.
"Ever since I was a little girl," said Stilson, a UB alumna of the theater department. "I remember 13 was always my favorite number. And, it just always seems to appear a lot."
For Alleyway, however, the number 13 signifies the commemoration of this year's "Buffalo Quickies," the theater's annual festival of new one-act plays.
It has been 13 years since Stilson first took notice of the large surplus of short scripts. Deciding that the untouched texts should not go to waste, she founded and became director of Buffalo's one-act festival tradition.
"I started because of all the new work we were getting. We cannot just get everyone here for just one little act so we needed to have an outlet for another kind of play," said Stilson. "Some ideas are only a one-act idea. You can't go any further with it."
This year's lucky number is not only the number of times the festival has been celebrated; it is the number of almost everything in the production. There are 13 lights, 13 props and 13 one-acts.
To whittle down the number of one-acts to 13, sorting through a mountain of scripts became routine for Stilson and those in charge of the festival. In order to narrow down the competition, Stilson and her colleagues rely on specific criteria.
Those scripts that rise above the company's standards of good writing and originality then have the chance to shine in the bright light of the stage and to greet the audience.
Because there are 13 one-acts for this year's performance, 12 of them found through playwright list-serves and call-outs, the final space is reserved for the winner of the 2003 Maxum Mazumdar New Play Competition, another annual Alleyway competition.
With 380 script entries in this year's competition, the first place prize went to Carl L. Williams for his play, "Accused of Comedy." The play is a burlesque comedy about a society challenging the people's right to laughter. The play will have its world premiere at the end of the first act.
"I always get a laugh when I'm naked," said Michael Starzynski, who plays a clown named Hooper in the 20-minute slapstick comedy.
Williams's sarcastic play-on-words style of humor is a powerful addition to the evening's diverse range of comedic approaches.
"It is hokey but fun. It is a style you don't get too often," said Stilson. "It's got a nice message. It's not going to set the world on fire but it has got good writing."
In addition to the witty and clever sketches performed in front of the simple black curtain are gypsies, singles, students and even religious figures like the Virgin Mary and Jesus.
There are more than just costume changes in store for the multi-talented cast of five. Adapting to each skit, the thespians transform themselves into more than 30 characters within the two-hour-long festival.
Successfully segueing from scene to scene, Stilson had reason in the placement of the 13 plays.
"It doesn't get old very fast. To do a full length play, it sometimes can be overwhelming," said Stilson. "We get to do all new works which is really a lot of fun."
Alleyway Theater's "Buffalo Quickies" currently runs through April 4.
