“Every year is different,” said Margaret Thomas Kelso, HSU professor in the Theatre, Film and Dance department and coordinator of the festival since she began it in 1998. “This year the emphasis is comedy, but different kinds of comedies, including some that incorporate drama.”
Students work all year writing and developing plays. A committee of faculty members chooses the final scripts, and the collaborative process of producing them begins.
Though the process begins in playwriting workshops, not all of the scripts are written by students whose main theatrical interest is playwriting. “A lot of these are by students in the department who’ve never written a script before,” Kelso said. “We believe that by going through the play development process as playwrights, they will be better designers, directors and actors.”
Writers often also work on other plays in the festival as actors and directors, gaining additional perspective on bringing a play from the page to the stage. “A lot of universities don’t teach these skills,” Kelso pointed out. “When our students go out into the world, they take these skills and this experience with them.”
Audiences complete the process. While the audience is important in all play productions,” Kelso said, “it’s particularly important with new plays, because that’s how the playwrights know if what they are trying to communicate is getting across.”
The plays this year are:
_Oatmeal Under the Elder Tree_ by Steven Robert King, directed by Kady Pomerleau, explores a mother-son relationship in comic terms.
_Double Sided_ by Jonathan Barrett, directed by Christina Focht, is a comedy about an office romance.
_Te East London Coffee Sop_ by Julius McGee and directed by Steven Robert King, follows the comic plans of two London patrons who dream up their own gang.
_Love Me, Love My Dog_ by Ali Beltramo, directed by Alex Gradine, is a dark comedy about a couple invaded by a burglar.
_The Show Must Go On_ by Craig Slayton Smith, directed by Megan Hughes, is a comedy-drama about two traveling theatre artists trying to make it to their next show.
_It’s a Hard Knocks Life_ by April Grenot, directed by Craig Slayton Smith, is another comedy-drama, about a woman who tries to help her impoverished school friend.
_JoJo_ by Joshua D. Nelson, directed by Richard Renteria, is a drama about a young man confronting his alter ego.
_Trick or…_ by Amy Echeverria, directed by Joshua Ruebl, is a comedy about three friends on Halloween confronting misunderstandings.
_Sweet Mother of God_ by Kristin Mack, directed by Emily Ruebl, is a comedy about a certain archangel visiting a modern woman.
_Untitled Fit #9_ by Emily Ruebl, directed by Clayton Cook, follows a neurotic man trying to leave his apartment.