Eight 10-minute dramas pack laughs and heart into Tucson theater's opener

"People don't think about woodpeckers and concussions, but they spend their whole day banging their head against the wall," explained Tucson playwright Alejandro Canelos, whose short work "Concussion, the Play" is about a woodpecker who suffers a concussion from all that banging.

Of course, woodpeckers don't actually suffer brain damage; their brains are super tiny and well-insulated to withstand the knock-knock-knocking.

"Woodpeckers have an incredible tongue that wraps around their skull and softens the blow," said Nogales, Arizona, native Canelos, who might have learned that tidbit when his younger self was studying biology at Harvard; he graduated in 1992.

"Concussion, the Play" is one of eight shorts in Canelos' "10-Minute Dramas" that Invisible Theatre will mount next weekend to open its 55th season. Performances run July 23-26.

The plays explore everything from the hilariously absurd — Is there a proper protocol when one wants to drop his drawers in a grocery store? — to the parent and child dynamic of teen angst, when the teen knows all and the parent comes off as clueless. Young love and all of its awkward uncertainty play into "Six Ways to Get Bit by a Rattlesnake" while "Concussion" invites us to hear what it sounds like should a woodpecker with a concussion be tap-tap-tapping holes in your house.

Each of the lightning-fast, inventive plays lasts no more than 10 minutes, with a cast of four actors — Josh Parra, Hannah Turner, Lori Hunt and Sean Hazen — taking on multiple roles. Invisible Theatre's longtime artistic director James Blair makes a guest appearance in one of the plays that has five characters.

"These plays were written to be easily produced," Canelos said. "That was part of my approach, because when you're doing eight 10-minute plays, you don't have time to be changing sets in between every play. Everything's got to be black box, bare bones."

Invisible Theatre Managing Artistic Director Betsy Kruse Craig and Carrie Cole, who teaches theater at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, will direct the plays.

Canelos, who never put his biology degree to full use outside of his writing, started writing full-time after leaving a 25-year career with his family's produce business in 2020.

In addition to "10-Minute Dramas," published in 2023, he has published "Hopscotch to Infinity," a series of short plays for children, and several short story collections, including last year's "Short Fiction for Alcoholics" and "The Chorus Chronicles," released in the spring. 

Canelos is editing his latest novel, which he hopes to release later this year.

Several of the works included in the Invisible Theatre production have been published as radio plays by Arizona Public Media, with Kruse Craig directing casts of local actors.

Performances of "10-Minute Dramas" will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, July 23-24, and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, July 25-26, at Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Ave.

Tickets are $35, $30 for seniors 65 and older for July 23-24, and $40, $35 for seniors July 25-26, which will feature a post-show barbecue. For reservations, call 520-882-9721 or check out invisibletheatre.com.