Little Acts of Kindness

Synopsis of the Play

L ITTLE ACTS OF KINDNESS is a series of scenes, events, encounters, little acts, set in a city park about the little joys and great sorrows in the lives of the ordinary souls who pass through and inhabit this particular park.

From the sad and lonely old men and women who wander through the park to the young people on their way nowhere to the street preacher and Mr. C., the failed poet and caretaker of the park, to the lost and homeless to the ne’er-do-well rich man to the child abused by his mother, LITTLE ACTS OF KINDNESS is about the conflicts between the rich and the poor, the old and the young, the firm and the infirm; it is about loneliness and music.

Also in the park is a little street band that plays the blues and other kinds of music from time to time; the band reacts to, embellishes upon, interprets and sometimes predicts the action of the play; it functions the way The Chorus functioned in ancient Greek drama. The music is eclectic, both vocal and instrumental, and ranges from Villa-Lobos to two very old traditional twelve bar blues to Thelonious Monk to tunes composed originally for this play.

The play engages us in the pain and joy, the love and cruelty, the goofy delight of being human. In the end LITTLE ACTS OF KINDNESS makes a funny, sweet and quietly hopeful statement about the possibilities for acceptance and community in our lives.

LITTLE ACTS OF KINDNESS calls for an interracial, international cast at least half of which is non-white with a core ensemble of eight: four men, four women, four younger actors, four older actors, plus extras and a small, improvising street band to perform throughout the play, plus a blues singer.