GUILFORD \u2014 Guilford Center Stage is stepping into new, brief, territory this spring with “Shorts,” an evening of eight plays directed by six directors and performed by a cast of 17, an unusually large ensemble for the intimate Broad Brook Community Center stage.<\/p>\n
The program marks a departure from the company\u2019s usual full\u2011length productions, and it began with something far smaller: a forgotten college script from 1964.<\/p>\n
When GCS co-founder Don McLean went digging through old college papers last year, he didn\u2019t expect to find the seed for Guilford Center Stage\u2019s newest experiment.<\/p>\n
Buried in the stack was a a dark, esoteric skit he wrote in 1964 and performed once at Boston University and never again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t ever been done since,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s no reason that it should have been.\u201d<\/p>\n
While sorting through decades of files, McLean found the original script for “Cows and Other Esoterica,” the piece he wrote as a student for Boston University\u2019s annual \u201cStunt Night,\u201d during which each undergraduate college submitted a student\u2011written performance. McLean\u2019s small school, the Division of General Education, decided to break from the usual broad comedy.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of doing the kind of skit the other schools typically did, we would do something sort of dark and esoteric,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it probably baffled people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, decades later, he wondered whether it might have a second life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked our board and I gave them copies of it, and they all said sure, let\u2019s do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But one 14\u2011minute play wasn\u2019t enough to anchor a full evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody said, yeah, but we have to have something to go with it,\u201d\u00a0McLean recalled.<\/p>\n
That suggestion opened the door to a larger idea: build an entire program of short plays around it.<\/p>\n
A board member coined the title “Shorts,” and the concept clicked immediately.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2015 as the resident theater company of the Broad Brook Grange, Guilford Center Stage has built a decade\u2011long identity around place\u2011based storytelling rooted in Vermont\u2019s history and creative community. The company typically mounts two productions a year and has balanced new works by regional playwrights with revivals of rarely seen Vermont plays, including “A Battle of Wits” (1916), staged with original scenic curtains painted in 1900.<\/p>\n
Its repertoire has ranged from classics like “Our Town” to thematic programs such as “Haunts of the Season,” which mixed original short works with pieces by Poe, Frost, Dickinson, and Shakespeare.<\/p>\n
In 2025, the group marked its 10th anniversary season with an Agatha Christie double\u2011bill featuring “Yellow Iris” and “The Thumb Mark of St. Peter.” Guilford Center Stage has also revived community favorites like Verandah Porche\u2019s “Broad Brook Anthology,” a \u201cplay for voices\u201d built from local oral histories.<\/p>\n
The audacity behind “Shorts” is visible long before opening night, with each of the eight plays needing its own setting, a choice that required the company to stretch the limits of its small stage and its historic scenic resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re overusing the resources of our small stage,\u201d McLean said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
The production will use all three of the hand\u2011painted scenic curtains created around 1900 by Guilford artist Charles Henry, each depicting a different rural landscape.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach one has a kind of rural scene,\u201d McLeanDon said. \u201cWe\u2019re using all three of the drop curtains … and then black drapes for another play.\u201d<\/p>\n
One play, set poolside in Miami, required new scenic painting. Volunteers Nancy Detra and Rose Watson created palm trees and a blue backdrop to distinguish it from the more New England\u2011rooted settings.<\/p>\n
Coordinating eight plays, six directors, and 17 actors has created a rehearsal schedule unlike anything the company has attempted, said McLean.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust coordinating all these different directors and casts … that\u2019s been one of the big challenges,\u201d he said. Some directors have been rehearsing off\u2011site, at Tiny Theater on Route 30, in Wardsboro, or in borrowed spaces, before requesting time on the actual stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe squeeze them in,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The plays themselves range from under five minutes to about 15. Most are contemporary, though McLean\u2019s 1964 piece is the outlier, performed exactly as originally written.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of it\u2019s a little bit dated,\u201d he said, \u201cbut that\u2019s part of the fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program includes works by local playwrights Sue Kelly, Rebecca Saunders, and Susan O\u2019Hara, as well as writers from New York City, Portland, Maine, Northampton, and Maryland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put the word out and we got much more in the way of submissions than we could have imagined,\u201d\u00a0McLean said.<\/p>\n
The result is a mix of tones and themes: humorous pieces, more serious conversations, and everything in between.<\/p>\n
One play, “Meeting Fingerman,” follows a young Jewish man seeking out an elderly scholar; another features two women walking their dogs on a park bench.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some really funny ones, and a couple more serious ones,\u201d\u00a0McLean said. \u201cThe overall balance is in the favor of humor and comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Performances take place at the Broad Brook Community Center, 3940 Guilford Center Road in Guilford, on Thursday, April 30, at 7:30 p.m., Friday, May 1, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, May 2, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 3, at 2 p.m,<\/p>\n
General admission is $16 per person, for purchase at the door. Payment accepted by cash, check payable to Guilford Center Stage, Venmo, or PayPal.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.reformer.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GUILFORD \u2014 Guilford Center Stage is stepping into new, brief, territory this spring with “Shorts,” an evening of eight plays directed by six directors and performed by a cast of 17, an unusually large ensemble for the intimate Broad Brook Community Center stage. The program marks a departure from the company\u2019s usual full\u2011length productions, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2374718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21741,356250],"class_list":["post-2374717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ovation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Guilford-Center-Stage-to-host-a-night-of-short-plays.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2374717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2374719,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374717\/revisions\/2374719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2374718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2374717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2374717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2374717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}