Just got back from a reading of short stories by local writer and playwright Kathy Anderson. About a year ago, I talked about meeting a second Kathy Anderson (also a writer) and suggested a naming convention to distinguish the two. Since neither Kathy Anderson has objected to this idea, I will assume their tacit approval. This Kathy Anderson shall, from this point forward, be referred to as “Rocketship Anderson.”
The problem is compounded because she is no longer solely a playwright. The reading was, in fact, from a book of short stories that she recently had published called Bull and Other Stories. I picked up my copy today, so I can’t speak to the quality of the writing overall, but the excerpts that I heard were particularly engaging (at least, enough to make me buy the book to find out how they end).
Rocketship also had the good sense to engage the talents of several local actors to read the stories, and I was pleased to discover Felicia Leicht was there (Fel starred in my play, Exit Corpse, produced by Plays and Players Theatre).
Most curious of all was that the whole thing was performed under the auspices of Philadelphia Theatre Workshop, a company that has been inactive for four years and had, ten years ago, produced another of my plays, The Biggest Box of Crayons.
What does this mean? Is PTW back? Will we see more exciting plays from them? Will Rocketship Anderson finally conquer the world with her short stories? Time will tell!
Also, while I’m thinking of it, the Drake’s reading series continues tomorrow night with a play by Sarah Galante. Once again, I don’t know the playwright, but I’m looking forward to meeting her and seeing what she’s throwing down.
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