WE WANT YOU! to join us for the annual Festival of Ten Minute Plays
at HSU! Missy Hopper in "Mother Courageous"

Student Newspaper Review

Today's Lumberjack, the Humboldt State University student newspaper, features a review of this year's Festival of Ten Minute Plays by Melissa Wozniak.

She quotes an audience member who liked "My Best Recipe" and wished it had been longer. Of "The Unauthorized and Untrue Autobiography of a Sasquatch," she writes, "Physical comedy and great costuming dominate these 10 minutes of hilarity."

She concludes: "So it turns out that 10 minutes is enough time to put on a show with multiple characters, complex stories, and sometimes, songs."

"Stage Matters" in last week's North Coast Journal considers the process of taking a 10 minute play from the page to the stage as a year-long effort in the Dramatic Writing Program of HSU's Department of Theatre, Film & Dance.

Opening Night!

The eighth annual Festival of Ten Minute Plays at HSU opened last night to a full house in the Gist Hall Theatre. Now the playwrights have a better idea where the laughs are, and where the audience oohs and ahs at revelations and dramatic moments.

Tonight, tomorrow and next weekend they'll get more chances to learn more, as audiences enjoy plays that compress the playwrights' observations, stories, experiments, energy and voice into just ten minutes, with the enthusiasm and skills of the actors and everyone involved in production . Get there early to get a seat, and enjoy!

Rachael Voss, Joshua Stanfield Switzer and Missy Hopper in
"Mother Courageous," in the HSU Festival of Ten Minute Plays.
Photo credit: HSU Graphic Services.

Ten minute plays can be comic, dramatic, realistic or fantastic and any combination of mood and attitude. For this year’s Festival, audiences will be treated to nine original theatre pieces by HSU students that range from a family dramas ( Brian Carroll’s Beethoven’s Song) and a struggle for identity (Kate Herr’s Ana and Me), to different approaches to romantic relationships ( Larry Mitchell’s Finding Star and Renee Carey’s Throwing Vinegar at the Moon ) and the flat-out comedy of Russell Zook’s The Unauthorized and Untrue Autobiography of a Sasquatch.

Carter Howard, Ashley Mackin and Haley Becksted in
"Finding Stars"

Two of the plays are linked to well-known writers. Emily McPeck’s Impulse adapts a story by Conrad Aiken, and Mother Courageous by Kato Buss satirizes Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage” (which was produced at HSU this year, with Buss playing a major role.)

Two plays deal with the topical concerns of war: My Best Recipe by Wendy Williams and the aforementioned “Mother Courageous.” Not That Simple by Justin Takata explores friendship with the help of magic realism.

Rachael Voss and Missy Hopper

“A good ten minute play captures a peak moment,” said Margaret Thomas Kelso, HSU Assistant Professor of Theatre who heads the dramatic writing program, and coordinates the annual Festival of Ten Minute Plays. “It’s highly intensified and very focused. It’s usually the moment of change in a story-- the climax.”

Haley Becksted, Carter Howard and Ashley Mackin

In presentation as well as the process of bringing these new works to the stage, the play’s the thing. “We don’t have elaborate sets or costumes. Everyone involved understands that the directors and actors serve the script. The script is primary,” Kelso said. “This is the heart of the process, and why it is so important. These are the essential skills that are needed to keep theatre alive. We need theatre that is still growing and reflecting our lives.”

The Ten Minute playwrights: (back row) Renee Carney,
Justin Takata, Russell Zook; (middle) Emily McPeck,
Brian Carroll, Kate Herr, Wendy Williams; (front)
Larry Mitchell, Kato Bus.

For student playwrights, The Festival of Ten Minute Plays is the culmination of a process that began in the fall. For directors and actors, it’s a production they’ve worked towards all semester. Now it’s time for the final contributors to take their seats: the audience.

The playwrights' Evil Twins (see photo above for names.)

The process usually begins with two courses in the fall: the play development workshop for upper class undergraduates and graduate students, and the introductory dramatic writing class. “During that time, students write and rewrite their scripts many times,” Margaret Kelso explained. “Around Thanksgiving, a team of three faculty members, including me, read and select plays for the Festival. Then we solicit directors who read the scripts and make their choices, and we match playwrights and directors.”

Rachael Voss, Josh Switzer and Missy Hopper in
"Mother Courageous."

“On the second day of spring semester, we have auditions for actors, and together with the playwrights and directors, we cast the plays. The playwrights continue to work on their scripts, and around the middle of the semester the directors start having rehearsals with the actors.” The development process for the playwrights continues, with the actors as active participants. As much as possible, Kelso stated, the process adheres to professional standards of play development. “A lot of universities don’t teach these skills,” she pointed out. “When our students go out into the world, they take these skills and this experience with them.”

The process: Carter Howard and Ashley Mackin confer
with coordinator and dramatic writing teacher,
Margaret Kelso.

But the process is not complete until the play meets an audience. Besides becoming participants in the development of these plays, audiences at the Festival in Gist Theatre will be the first to experience the fresh new work of today’s new voices, in the quick, surprising, compressed form of ten minute plays.

Rachael Voss, Josh Switzer, Miss Hopper and Greagori Brown in "Mother Courageous" 

Festival: The Plays

Here’s a brief rundown of the 2006 Festival of Ten Minute Plays (in alphabetical order, by title):

Ana and Me
by Kate Herr

A young girl struggles with her anorexic alter ego.

Directed by Pete DeQuincy, featuring:
Emily Blanche (Ana)
Katie Pratt (Cara)
Larry Mitchell (Dad)

Beethoven’s Song
by Brian Carroll

Forced together in a hospital ward, an estranged uncle and nephew confront family issues.

Directed by Larry Mitchell, featuring:
Arnold D. Waddell (Sam)
Stephen Godwin (Corey)
Jasmine Barnes (Tina)


Not That Simple
by Justin Takata

A magical bump on the read allows two friends to discover more about each other than they ever imagined.

Directed by Saqib Keval, featuring: Ryan Hall
Brendan O’Loughlin

Finding Stars
by Larry Mitchell

A playful drama about awkwardness for a couple at the end of a date that’s compounded when one of them doesn't know the rules.

Directed by Erica Davie, featuring:
Carter Howard (Alex)
Ashley Mackin (Beatrice)
Haley Becksted (Jennifer)
Esme Williams (Miranda)

Impulse
by Emily McPeck

From a story by Conrad Aiken: a man mired in routine is tempted to act impulsively, despite the danger.

Directed by Joe Castro, featuring:
Sarah Daum [C]
Camden Hill-Rocha (A)
Alex Gradine (Michael)
Leslie Hundley (B)

Ashley Mackin

Mother Courageous
by Kato Buss

A satiric homage to Brecht, using music and humor to illuminate the hardships of war.

Directed by Renee Carney, featuring:
Missy Hopper (mother)
Larry Mitchell (father)
Rachael Voss (daughter)
Greagori Brown (recruiter)

My Best Recipe
by Wendy Williams

In a dramatic confrontation with moments of comedy, two mothers from opposite political perspectives face off in the Texas dust.

Directed by Kalindi Rogers, featuring:
Rachael Brink (Shelly)
Missy Hopper (Gloria)

Throwing Vinegar at the Moon
by Renee Carney

A touch of romantic comedy, as quirky characters turn a routine lunch into a matchmaking session.

Directed by Kato Buss, featuring:
Viva Soffian (Matilda)
Greta Welsh (Chelsea)
Erica Davie (Kristen)

The Unauthorized and Untrue Autobiography of a Sasquatch
by Russell Zook

Comedy about the confrontation of a reporter and Bigfoot meeting in the redwood forest.

Directed by Emily McPeck, featuring:
James Gibbons (Rod Dirk)
John Welsh (Sasquatch)


Festival Coordinator: Margaret Thomas Kelso
Producer: Russell Zook
Stage Manager: Sydney Carlisle

COMING SOON!

Humboldt State University's annual Festival of Ten Minute Plays presents drama, comedy, dramedy, satire, magical realism and more, in the best of this year's ten minute plays written, directed and performed by HSU students. April 27-29 and May 4-6, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8 pm., at the Gist Hall Theatre on the HSU campus. Admission is free to all at the door, but seating is limited. Coordinated by Margaret Kelso, produced by the HSU Department of Theatre, Film & Dance.

More information coming soon!