‘Winter Shorts’ Airs Scenes From Life’s Emotional Crises

Watching New York’s Naked Angels race through eight original pieces in “Winter Shorts” at Actors’ Gang Theatre is almost as good as channel-surfing. These sketches may not offer the depth or complexity of longer narratives, but they’re a handsome showcase for the diverse talents of eight writers, eight directors and 20 actors from the prestigious theater collective.

Given the compressed format, each scene sets out to engineer a moment of crisis in the most economical way possible. With a simple “I found the letters,” for example, a woman (Ilana Levine) torpedoes her pompous yuppie boyfriend (Steven Weber) in Adrienne Shelly’s “Amusia,” a study in emotional baggage.

The scenarios are typically constructed to elicit more character revelation than the participants intend. In one of the best (“Bye-Bye Baby”), Geoffrey Nauffts makes an endearingly neurotic mess of his attempts to convince an adoption agency bureaucrat (Claudia Shear) he’d make a fit parent, even though he’s single--and gay. Even more pared-down is Nicole Burdette’s “Rome,” featuring Barry Del Sherman in a devastating telephone confessional.

More predictable scenes provoke confrontation between clear opposites, like the pragmatic tourist (William Ragsdale) and his spiritual girlfriend (Catherine Lloyd Burns) in Pippin Parker’s “Passion Play,” or the sparring couple (Annabelle Gurwitch and Tim Ransom) weighing the pros and cons of city life in Patrick Breen’s “It’s Almost Like a Favor That I Do.” A familiar game of one-upmanship between a struggling actor (Willie Garson) and an agent (Merrill Holtzman) takes an amusingly unexpected Zen turn in Theresa Rebeck’s “Contract.”

Simplicity works to great advantage in Kenneth Lonergan’s “You Can Count on Me,” a poignantly unfulfilled reunion between alienated adult siblings (Josh Hamilton and Kelly Wolf). Another drama about family ties, Craig Lucas’ “What I Meant Was,” proves the most ambitious of the set, as a surreal flashback has the combatants voicing their repressed thoughts in the sing-song patter of a ‘60s sitcom--picture the Cleavers clowning around on Freud’s couch and you’ve got the general idea.

* “Winter Shorts,” Actors’ Gang Theatre, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. Ends March 8. $15. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.