This weekend, two local productions prove that theater doesn’t have to be long to belong.

Axial Theater presents its second-annual “Ten-Minute Play Festivalâ€? called “Tunneling Through: Glimpses from the In Between.â€? It includes six new plays that last about 10 minutes each – although no one’s holding a stopwatch to them. I dropped by a rehearsal of one of the plays, “The Tunnel,â€? and watched Robert Kya-Hill, as the older man, showing the ropes to the younger man, Michael Pennacchio. (That’s Ricky Flores’ neat photo, right.) The play, by Ryan Mallon of Carmel, has a lot to say about how we deal with critical moments in our lives — and it says it in just about 10 minutes. The show — and the five others in the 10-minute play festival — runs this weekend and next at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Pleasantville.

“Tunneling Through: Glimpes from the In Between�
What: Axial Theatre’s second annual Ten-Minute Play Festival.
Where: St. John’s Episcopal Church, 8 Sunnyside Ave., Pleasantville.
When: Through Feb. 2; Jan. 25, 26, 31, Feb. 1, 2 at 8 p.m.; Jan. 26 and Feb. 2 at 3 p.m.
Tickets: $25 suggested donation.
Call: 914-286-7680.
Web: www.axialtheatre.org
With: Doug Darwin, Patrick Davin, Jess Erick, Margie Ferris, Dale Furnia, Gail Greenstein, Mark Gorham, Robert Kya-Hill, Stephen Palgon, Michael Pennacchio, Cyndi Sciacca, Matt Walton.

MEANWHILE, THIS WEEKEND ONLY, you can catch “Image and Script,â€? at Peekskill’s Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art — but only if you’re lucky and act fast. The show is an ingenious marriage of art and theater. Mara Mills and Tom Kramer (no relation) asked playwrights to come to the museum and take in the exhibit “Size Matters: XXL,â€? which features oversized works of art. Big art. Epic art. (That’s Mara and Tom in a great photo by Seth Harrison of The Journal News.) Then they asked the playwrights to be inspired by what they saw. What they wrote will be presented in the museum – with these oversized paintings as backdrops. Since the art is big, and screwed to the wall, the audience moves from painting to painting, settling in on the floor for each of the six short plays. It’s amazing how much you can say in 10 minutes. “Image and Scriptâ€? — which is a collaboration with the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center — will have two shows on Sunday — at 3 and 5 p.m. — and the audience is strictly limited to 30. Are you feeling lucky?

“Image and Script”
When: 8 p.m., Jan. 24; 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., Jan. 27.
Where: Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, 1701 Main St., Peekskill.
Tickets: Thursday, $16 for HVCCA & Hudson Valley Writers Center members, $20 for non-members; Sunday, $12 HVCCA & Hudson Valley Writers’ Center members, $15 non-members.
Call: 914-788-0100.