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<p>KINGSTON &#8212; Pity the poor landlord, eagerly touting assets to a would-be tenant.</p><p>There&#8217;s a washer/dryer combo. Central heat. A nearby grocery.</p><p>But after he answers various insistent questions about smoke detectors, rugs versus hardwood, and what the neighbors might be able to see through the windows, the landlord becomes suspicious.</p><p>&#8220;God, what are you planning to do &#8212; or burn?&#8221;</p><p>Suffice it to say, the landlord D.J. Nat of Plains Township portrays in Emily Halbing&#8217;s one-act play &#8220;Open House&#8221; will not want the oddball played by Lee Thomas of Shavertown to rent this apartment. And if he knew what the audience knows, he probably wouldn&#8217;t want a woman played by Kimmie Leff of Olyphant to become his tenant either, no matter how seductively she drapes herself over the bed.</p><p>Welcome to &#8220;Playroom: Master Bedroom,&#8221; the fourth in a series of Gaslight Theatre productions that showcase one room in a house. Earlier incarnations were set in a kitchen, a bathroom and an attic.</p><p>This year, organizer Matthew S. Hinton chose &#8220;master bedroom&#8221; as the theme, and invited local playwrights Kait Burrier, Jennifer Hill, B. Garrett Rogan, Rachel Luann Strayer, Lukas Tomasacci and Halbing, who is a recent Misericordia University graduate, to join him in writing one-acts.</p><p>Watch the plays and you&#8217;ll see a bedroom become a place where people deal with everything from demonic possession to dementia, from death of a partner to the struggle of the creative spirit.</p><p>&#8220;To me, the kitchen represented nourishment, the bathroom was about privacy and secrets, the attic was a whole new set of secrets and the bedroom is intimacy,&#8221; Hinton said shortly after carrying a heavy vintage dresser into the rehearsal space with Dave Reynolds, who is one of the directors for Gaslight Theatre&#8217;s latest project, which opens the troupe&#8217;s 2015/2016 season.</p><p>&#8220;We started out (in 2003) as a company devoted to classical theater,&#8221; Reynolds said, &#8220;and now we&#8217;re bringing new theater into being, letting playwrights feel free to go as far as they want to go. We really enjoy being that kind of company.&#8221;</p><p>There are some adult themes in the show, Reynolds said, so parents shouldn&#8217;t bring their children.</p><p>&#8220;Playroom: Master Bedroom&#8221; opens July 30 and runs through Aug. 9 at the Gateway Shopping Center in Kingston, in a storefront between Biggie Burger and Cartridge World on Northampton Street.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">A character portrayed by Kimmie Leff of Olyphant behaves sympathetically toward a landlord portrayed by D.J. Nat of Plains Township. But is she just pretending to be friendly? </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_gaslight1_faa.jpg</photo0><caption0>A character portrayed by Kimmie Leff of Olyphant behaves sympathetically toward a landlord portrayed by D.J. Nat of Plains Township. But is she just pretending to be friendly? </caption0><photoCredit0>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_gaslight4_faa-1-.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Director Tom Taraszewski has some suggestions for the rest of &#8216;Open House,&#8217; a one-act play by Emily Halbing that will be part of Playroom: Master Bedroom,&#8221; an evening of one-act plays. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_gaslight4_faa-1-.jpg</photo1><caption1>Director Tom Taraszewski has some suggestions for the rest of &#8216;Open House,&#8217; a one-act play by Emily Halbing that will be part of Playroom: Master Bedroom,&#8221; an evening of one-act plays. </caption1><photoCredit1>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_gaslight2_faa-1-.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Lee Thomas of Shavertown portrays a would-be tenant during a rehearsal for Gaslight Theatre&#8217;s evening of one-acts. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_gaslight2_faa-1-.jpg</photo2><caption2>Lee Thomas of Shavertown portrays a would-be tenant during a rehearsal for Gaslight Theatre&#8217;s evening of one-acts. </caption2><photoCredit2>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What:</strong> Playroom: Master Bedroom, an evening of one-act plays</p><p><strong>Who:</strong> Presented by Gaslight Theatre</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> Gateway Shopping Center, in a storefront between Biggie Burger and Cartridge World, Northampton Street, Kingston</p><p><strong>When:</strong> 8 p.m. July 30 and Aug. 1; 8 p.m. Aug. 6, 7 and 8; and 2 p.m. Aug. 2 and Aug. 9</p><p><strong>Tickets:</strong> $15, $12 students and seniors. Mature audiences only</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Gaslight’s ‘Playroom’ series ventures into master bedroom