“An Evening of Shorts by David Ives,” November 18 through 21

Thursday, November 18, through Sunday, November 21

Scott Community College Student Life Center, 500 Belmont Road, Bettendorf IA

A Tony Award-nominated playwright described by the New York Times as “a maestro of the short form,” author David Ives and his unique stage gifts will be celebrated in Scott Community College's Student Life Center from November 18 through 21, with the college's theatrical talents uniting to treat audiences to three beguiling works in An Evening of Shorts by David Ives.

Composed of three one-acts, An Evening of Shorts by David Ives features the prolific playwright's signature blend of off-kilter comedy and unpredictable poignancy. In Sure Thing, two people meet in a café and find their way through a conversational minefield as an offstage bell interrupts their false starts, gaffes, and faux pas on the way to the characters falling in love. The Philadelphia presents audiences with a young man in a restaurant who has fallen into “a Philadelphia,” a Twilight Zone-like state in which he cannot get anything he asks for. And the production's third offering Mere Mortals eavesdrops on a lunch hour on a girder 50 stories over the street, with three construction workers sharing increasingly amazing secrets from their pasts. Taken together, An Evening of Shorts by David Ives delivers both delightful entertainment and insight into the mind of one of America's foremost stage talents – one who has written dramatic plays, narrative stories, and screenplays; has adapted French 17th and 18th-century classical comedies; and has adapted 33 musicals for New York City's Encores! series.

Directing An Evening of Shorts by David Ives for Scott Community College is SCC theatre instructor Kevin Babbitt, whose previous works for his department have included Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and The Laramie Project, and whose on-stage area-theatre appearances include roles in the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre's Outside Mullingar and The 39 Steps and the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's On Golden Pond and Tuesdays with Morrie. Dennis Jones serves as crew operator for the production, and all of the show's characters are collectively performed by Babbitt's cast of five: Sara Bolet, DeMario Rankin, Justin Ruefer, Anna Walraven, and Josh Wriedt.

An Evening of Shorts by David Ives will be presented in Scott Community College's Student Life Center – room 2300 through door five – from November 18 through 21, with performances on Thursday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Friday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Admission is free, and more information is available by calling (563)441-4339 or e-mailing director Kevin Babbitt at KDBabbitt@eicc.edu.