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| Kim Fischer in Life from a Fishbowl. Photo by Kim Preher. |
2013 New
Voices Young Playwrights Festival at Actors Theatre
Reviewed
by Keith Waits.
Entire
contents copyright © 2013, Keith Waits, all rights reserved
These
short plays, the result of Actors Theatre’s program of playwright instruction with
students from the Jefferson County Public Schools, are characterized by the
young mind’s fancy and a taste for whimsy that might be the envy of many adult
writers. The development process seems rigorous enough to guarantee that the
results, whatever the variance in quality, are structured enough to be actual
“plays,” with a beginning, middle and end, and not extended scenes or sketches,
which is what often proves to be the case in many local short play collections.
Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it is encouraging to see that
this program has foundational principles that emphasize fundamentals.
Of
course, the impact is immeasurably aided by the professional grade production
values afforded by Actors Theatre as well as the high energy and easy skill of
the Acting Apprentice Company, for whom this serves as something of a
graduation from their strenuous yet rewarding season of service.
Some
of the more fantastical ideas result from academic exercises designed to fire
up the imagination. In Cameron the Mango,
by Chanze Castro, the titular fruit are anthropomorphized into a society that
takes heroic action to escape the jungle and their inevitable fate; while
Hannah Watkins’ Life in a Fishbowl, a
slight story, gains much through the tremendous charm of Kim Fischer and
Kimberley Weinkle as goldfish experiencing love at first sight.
Others
show the kind of stories that might preoccupy the mind of a teenager wired into
the popular culture: hallucinations resulting from avoiding the proper
medications (or are they the RESULT of improper medications) in Jennifer
Winstead’s Please; or exploding the
comforting clichés of childhood fairy tales in Christine Oser’s Strangely Ever After. A most vivid
human/zombie romance results in an errant finger run amuck in a restaurant in
Meghan “Bunny” Buckalew’s Postmortem
Proposal; and Clare Wolz’ Paper or
Plastic is informed by the common first job experience of a retail cashier.
The subjects may be drawn from recent experience, but the perspective is
surprisingly developed and free from the sort of self-absorption one might
expect to find in so young a writer.
The
educational aspect of the collaboration between student and teacher also
extends to many on the creative team, with design and education interns
involved in lighting, costuming and directing the material.
It
is kind of a shame that this program receives such a brief run, representing,
as it does, a program that reaches a total of 1,720 students in 35 schools. The
audience for the two evenings seemed filled with family and friends, but the
entertainment value is rich enough to offer as worthwhile an evening of theatre
that one might find on any stage this time of year.
2013 New
Voices Young Playwrights Festival at Actors Theatre
April
22-23, 2013
Actors
Theatre of Louisville
316
West Main Street
Louisville,
KY 40202
502-584-1205
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