01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, August 11, 2005

BY KATHERINE IMBRIE
Journal Staff Writer

A little controversy is always good for putting bodies into theater seats -- but too much of it apparently can jeopardize the seats themselves.

In the past couple of weeks, The Studio Repertory -- a homegrown theater company run by Shannon McLoud of Cranston -- has had to move its production of 15 original short works twice. The show, called Insert Title Here: A New Short Play Festival, might merit a new title -- something like Insert Venue Here.

On the weekend of July 28 to 30, the show was set to be performed at Cranston's Oaklawn Grange. McLoud said she'd sold close to 40 tickets for the weekend performances when she heard from the management of the Grange that the production had to go.

"Our plays are a little controversial," said McLoud. "One scene takes place in a Bosnian rape room, and the F word is used. A play of mine is called W's Wet Dream and it's about how our civil liberties are being taken away.

"But we had told the people who'd bought tickets not to bring children. And we feel we're putting on a good, important piece of theater. We try not to shy from things that are out-of-the-box."

According to McLoud, a manager at Oaklawn who had seen the plays performed at a free press night thought them inappropriate for the Grange and told the Studio Repertory to leave. (No one at Oaklawn Grange responded to requests for comment.)

Scrambling to find another venue for her plays, McLoud was glad to find a suitable space for that weekend at Newport's Salve Regina University.

But after three performances there -- for audiences of 14, 10, and 20 people on the three evenings -- the university told Studio Repertory it couldn't have the space for the following weekend. A spokesman for the Roman Catholic school, Matt Boxler, said that its president, Sister M. Therese Antone, had learned that the play production was to be used as a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island, a group that, among other things, espouses birth control.

"As a Catholic institution, we weren't comfortable having a Planned Parenthood fundraiser at Salve Regina," said Boxler. (Sister Antone was on vacation and unavailable for comment.)

McLoud said that indeed she had invited Planned Parenthood to buy a block of tickets at a discount price and then sell them to their members at full price as a fundraiser. And, at least while the plays were to be performed at Oaklawn Grange, she had agreed that representatives of Planned Parenthood could have a booth there offering literature about their organization and giving away free condoms.

"WE TRY TO reach out to groups like Planned Parenthood to get them to come, because eventually we do need to get grants to survive. And to get the grants, we need to show that so many members of our audiences make less than so much money a year," explained McLoud.

She said that, after the play festival was moved to Salve Regina, she sent an e-mail to Planned Parenthood, informing them that at the new venue, they could not distribute literature or condoms.

Booted from Salve, McLoud has located a third venue for her play festival. It is to be shown this weekend at Providence's Perishable Theater, 95 Empire St. Insert Title Here: A New Short Play Festival is scheduled for Friday through Sunday at 7 each night. Tickets cost $10; students and seniors, $8.

For information, call (401) 996-9794 or visit www.studiorep.com.