An ensemble of short plays written by Connecticut residents — dubbed funny, quirky, tender, and thought-provoking — are set to hit the stage this summer.Playhouse 44, a not-for-profit theatre group, is debuting in August with a series of 10-minute plays at Avon High School called Nine Tens on 44. The plays are all written by Connecticut residents past and present — including New Yorker short story writer and cartoonist James Thurber, WTNH news anchor Dennis House, and mystery novelist and former Mintz + Hoke CEO Chris Knopf, according to a press release.The theatre group is the brainchild of journalist and author Joel Samberg, who moved to Avon back in 2010. When Samberg learned there was no community theater in the town, he soon thought an out-of-business cider mill in an old 1918 barn on Waterville Road, not far from his new house, would be the perfect place to form a new amateur, all-volunteer theater group. But he would soon find his hopes dashed until more recently, he said.“Well, before I actually put any plan in motion, the cider mill was razed, the Reggio Magnet School of the Arts was built in its place, and I put the community theater dream aside,” Samberg said in a press release. “Today, we may not have the barn, but we do have a theater group, a production planned, and a place to put it on.”“Many people told me that creating a not-for-profit theatre organization in these post-pandemic times would be incredibly difficult,” Samberg said. “Guess what. They were right. It was difficult. We had one roadblock and speed bump after another. But over the last two years a small group of enthusiastic, like-minded people persevered. We’re small, we’re grassroots, we’re shoestring, but we’re motivated, dedicated, and maybe even a little crazy from time to time. And we’ve put together what we believe will be a very enjoyable evening of live theater.”Nine Tens on 44 — with a diverse cast of 20 members ranging in age from preteen to mid-70s — will be performed on the Avon High School auditorium stage on Friday, Aug. 9, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 10, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 11, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students, and can be purchased online or at the box office just before each performance.The group is also planning a silent trivia night on Tuesday, June 25, from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at American Flatbread in Canton. Members of the public are encouraged to order pizza, fill out a silent trivia quiz and be entered to win one of three different prizes. All proceeds from the event will benefit the theatre company.Stephen Underwood can be reached at sunderwood@courant.com
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