EAST MADISON -- Athens playwright Anna Freeman, also a director and actress, has written two plays that will be performed at 7:30 tonight, Friday and Saturday at the East Madison Square Garden community center.

"Nobody's Fault" demonstrates perspectives of a younger and an older woman, played by Sarah Bussell MacMichael and Valerie Huebner, who are infatuated with the same young man. The two women act out their conflicting sides of events that took place during a week in Hawaii.

"I try to show that love can flare up at any time in life, and that ageism can be cruel and goes both ways," Freeman said. 

In "Pretending," veteran actor Cheryl Seamans deals with the issue of decreased potency and desire, as men and women age and libidos decline. She retells a conversation she had the night before with her husband. It's obvious that they love each other, but she thinks that maybe it's time to give it a rest. Whether her husband can or not is another thing.

"I don't think it's a secret, but men and women alike find aging difficult in one way or another," said Freeman, writer and director of the two short plays, which she said are sensitive to issues having to do with ageism.

"I'm thrilled to have so many actors in the cast with whom I'm so well-acquainted," said Freeman.

Both Huebner and Seamans performed in Freeman's play "Generic Women," which was performed on the Waterville stage several years ago.

Bussell took stage directions from Freeman when she was in the seventh grade at Athens Elementary School and Freeman acted with her assistant director, Vaughn LeBlanc, with the Cornville Players in the early 1970s.

The two plays will be performed as a benefit for the nonprofit East Madison Square Garden that has been home to events for 15 years, including plays and concerts, video and movie viewings, yoga and life-drawing classes, birthday parties, wedding receptions and wakes, as well as serving as a summer workshop/studio for The In Spite of Life theater group.

Through planning and community donations, improvements have been made to the interior of the community center already.

"The Garden has taken a great leap forward with the Sheetrock installation," said the Garden's treasurer, Lisa Savage. "You can really see the design of the building now, and the acoustics are even better than before." Future plans include frescoes to be painted on the dome portion of the ceiling.

Freeman said the structure still needs proper audience seating, a more functional light board and stage lighting, a shed to store supplies, improvements to the outside structure, and the final application of mud on the walls so that the building is tight and well-insulated.



Darla L. Pickett -- 474-9534, Ext. 341

dpickett@centralmaine.com