Short Seens

In Later Life, A.R. Gurney has fun embroidering on the sad story of a too-proper Bostonian. At the Kirkwood Theatre Guild, Kelly Schneider and Ken Lopinot each have fun turning themselves into a half-dozen characters in the man's story, and Jason Weissenburger has fun creating a handsome terrace setting along with a scale model of downtown Boston. Jan Meyer charms as the woman who might have liberated the gentleman, and Garrett Bergfeld embodies the Bostonian with perfect manners and admirable restraint.

Despite obvious contrivances, Larry Shue's farce The Nerd sets up some very funny scenes. Thanks to Terry L. Love's ingenuous bumbling in the title role, Matt Holtmann's offhanded wisecracking and the sturdy straight-man playing of Ed Cole and Deborah L. Sherman, the Theatre Guild of Webster Groves pulled off a fair number of those scenes in its recent production.

This year's Children's Theatre Connection has moved from the St. Louis Art Museum to the handsomely renovated theater in the New City School. It got off to a charming start last Saturday with Young Audiences' presentation of Scot Hanson's lively one-man version of Tom Sawyer. This Saturday, the Rep's Imaginary Theatre Company performs The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with Rip Van Winkle.