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<p>WILKES-BARRE TWP. &#8212; What happens out on the back porch?</p><p>If you attend Gaslight Theatre&#8217;s evening of one-act plays this weekend or next, you&#8217;ll see that a porch can be the place where two neighbors discuss why one has been sneaking over to swim in the other&#8217;s pool.</p><p>It can be the place where a charming, would-be hobo wishes he could swipe a pie, if only a pie was cooling on the window sill.</p><p>It could be the scene of two potential brothers-in-law bonding as one of them tries to organize a Civil War re-enactment and the other tries to get past his penchant for sarcasm.</p><p>Come to &#8220;Playroom: Back Porch&#8221; &#8212; sixth in Gaslight Theatre&#8217;s summer-time series for which local playwrights previously set stories in a kitchen, a bathroom, an attic, a garage and a master bedroom &#8212; and you&#8217;ll see seven one-acts. They include &#8220;Brothers in Arms&#8221; by Dane Bower, &#8220;Patres Familias&#8221; by Matthew S. Hinton, &#8220;Backyard Family Challenge&#8221; by B. Garret Rogan, &#8220;The Lady and the Tramp&#8221; by Michael Pavese, &#8220;Safe As Houses&#8221; by Rachel Luann Strayer, &#8220;Swim&#8221; by Emily Halbing&#8221; and &#8220;We Don&#8217;t Live Here Anymore&#8221; by Lori M. Myers.</p><p>&#8220;We are super proud as a company that we give local playwrights this platform,&#8221; said Dave Reynolds, who is directing two of the plays.</p><p>During a recent rehearsal for &#8220;We Don&#8217;t Live Here Anymore,&#8221; two of the four actors were missing, so Reynolds read the lines for Todd, who is one half of a couple shopping for a new home; and for Elaina, a long-time Jersey City resident who&#8217;s resisting gentrification.</p><p>Though Elaina describes her old neighborhood as a place where mothers used to live near their daughters and babysit their grandkids, and her house as a place her grandfather had built, she seems more angry than sentimental.</p><p>She&#8217;s so bitter, in fact, that Mollie Dooley, of Kingston, who portrays a Realtor, and Jay Whymark, also of Kingston, who portrays Todd&#8217;s husband, were backing away and stumbling off the porch during rehearsal, trying to get away from an Elaina who, at the moment, was represented onstage only by Reynolds&#8217; disembodied voice.</p><p>&#8220;Elaina is very menacing,&#8221; Whymark said afterward.</p><p>Still, his character doesn&#8217;t leave the porch without showing her some compassion.</p><p>You&#8217;ll find more threads of human kindness &#8212; and, no doubt, lots of laughs &#8212; in the rest of the bill of fare, too, notably in Bower&#8217;s &#8220;Brothers in Arms.&#8221; That one-act introduces a Civil War re-enactor who seems to wish he lived in the 1860s, though he does keep a cell phone turned on in his pocket. He doesn&#8217;t ask how you&#8217;re doing. He asks &#8220;How does the day find you?&#8221;</p><p>As the action progresses, that character finds himself surrounded by more and more people who seem to be on a different page of their respective history books. If they&#8217;ve ever read a history book.</p><p>Another one-act, &#8220;Backyard Family Challenge,&#8221; uses so much improvisation it has seemed like a new production during every rehearsal, Reynolds said.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s terrifying yet exhilarating&#8221; to go with about 80 percent new material each time, he said.</p><p>To catch all of the constantly evolving dialogue, he added, &#8220;people should come to our show eight times.&#8221;</p><p><ins>For other Life Section stories, <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/category/features" target="_blank">click here</a>.</ins></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Jonathan Vojtko and Kimmie Leff rehearse a scene from &#8216;Swim,&#8217; a play by Emily Halbing. Leff&#8217;s character admits to Vojtko&#8217;s character that she wears water wings as a kind of security blanket. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_backporch4.jpg</photo0><caption0>Jonathan Vojtko and Kimmie Leff rehearse a scene from &#8216;Swim,&#8217; a play by Emily Halbing. Leff&#8217;s character admits to Vojtko&#8217;s character that she wears water wings as a kind of security blanket. </caption0><photoCredit0>Amanda Hrycyna | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_backporch8.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Jay Whymark, in his role as Francis, looks over the porch of a home he might purchase from its current owner, who is resisting the gentrification of her neighborhood in the play &#8216;We Don&#8217;t Live Here Anymore.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_backporch8.jpg</photo1><caption1>Jay Whymark, in his role as Francis, looks over the porch of a home he might purchase from its current owner, who is resisting the gentrification of her neighborhood in the play &#8216;We Don&#8217;t Live Here Anymore.&#8217; </caption1><photoCredit1>Amanda Hrycyna | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_backporch9.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Mollie Dooley portrays a Realtor who advises a long-time neighborhood resident to give in and sell her home in the one-act play &#8216;We Don&#8217;t Live Here Anymore.&#8217; That one-act, and six others, all take place on the setting of a back porch. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_backporch9.jpg</photo2><caption2>Mollie Dooley portrays a Realtor who advises a long-time neighborhood resident to give in and sell her home in the one-act play &#8216;We Don&#8217;t Live Here Anymore.&#8217; That one-act, and six others, all take place on the setting of a back porch. </caption2><photoCredit2>Amanda Hrycyna | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Wilkes-Barre Township company continues series</subheadMeta></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> &#8216;Playroom: Back Porch&#8217;</p><p><strong>When:</strong> 8 p.m. July 20 to 22 and 2 p.m. July 23; 8 p.m. July 27 to 29 and 2 p.m. July 30.</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> Gaslight Theatre, 200 East End Centre, Heinz Road, Wilkes-Barre Township</p><p><strong>Tickets:</strong> $15 for adults and $12 for students/seniors. On sale at ticketfly.com or at the door. Advance purchases highly recommended.</p><p><strong>Note:</strong> Due to occasional strong language, plays are recommended for mature audiences.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Gaslight Theatre presents one-acts that all take place on a back porch