Ron Pullins and the chocolately goodness of theater

After hearing that Ron Pullins was going to the fudge festival, we thought, "Mmmmmm, fudge!" and started brainstorming ideas to weasel our way in for free. But it turns out the festival has nothing to do with actual chocolate. D'oh! Well, almost nothing. Turns out that ”fudge” is actually an acronym. Seriously. Stands for "friends united developing genuine entertainment." But upon further investigation, we discovered the sweet, sweet connection: When the company came together in Wakefield more than a decade ago, the organizers had lots of big ideas, but could not come up with a name to save their lives. Story goes that someone came into the room with a plate of freshly baked fudge. Delicious, melt-in-your-mouth fudge, presumably without nuts because that would ruin the whole fantasy. And she asked, sans acronym, “how about some fudge?” The bleary-eyed creative team jumped on it, then came up with the acronymic justification. A couple of years ago, the company launched a festival of short plays, and that’s where Port playwright Pullins comes in. They’ll be staging “Pico,” a 10-minute play that was actually a study for "Woman. Bicycle,” a Pullins production that had its first reading this month at the North Shore Readers Theater Collaborative. The title character is the sprite who shows up at a bar and … well, let’s just say it has almost nothing to do with fudge. It turns out to be a play within a play within a play — “not easy to do in 10 minutes,” says Pullins, who owns Focus Publishing, which specializes in classical Greek and Roman drama as well as textbooks. The play had its first reading earlier this year at the Small Theatre Alliance of Boston’s Open Mic for Playwrights, with Ian Thal, artistic director of Teatro Delle Maschere and a playwright specializing in commedia dell’arte, reading the Pico character. It will be directed by Dan Bourke. It will be staged May 2 and 3 at the New Rep in Watertown. Should be a treat. For more information, check out F.U.D.G.E. or Pullins online.