10th Annual 10 Minute Play
Festival is previewed in Eureka
Times-Standard's Northern Lights,
Eureka Reporter, North Coast Journal,
Arcata Eye and online at HSU Now.
Production members are interviewed
on ArtWaves, Tuesday (Apr. 29) at
1:30 0n KHSU.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Heads Up
10th Annual 10 Minute Play
Festival is previewed in Eureka
Times-Standard's Northern Lights,
Eureka Reporter, North Coast Journal,
Arcata Eye and online at HSU Now.
Production members are interviewed
on ArtWaves, Tuesday (Apr. 29) at
1:30 0n KHSU.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
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Drama, comedy, fantasy and ten minutes later, another one! It's the 10th annual Ten Minute Play Festival at HSU, Thursdays through Saturdays, April 24-26 and May 1-3 at 7:30 PM in Gist Hall Theatre on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets $5 general $3 students and seniors from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. HSU students free limited seating.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
It's 10 for the 10!
It started in a classroom a decade ago, to become one of the most anticipated and popular events on the annual HSU performance schedule. Beginning April 24, the HSU Ten Minute Play festival celebrates its tenth birthday with this year’s slate of imaginative comedies, dramas and fantasies created and performed by HSU students.
“I’m really excited about it,” said Margaret Thomas Kelso, HSU professor in the Theatre, Film and Dance department and coordinator of the festival, who began it in 1998. “The whole festival grew out of an end-of-the-class presentation in the advanced playwriting course. It was very informal, with no sets or costumes. But it was successful, and each year we kept adding to it, and it’s grown and grown to the point where it is a major part of the season. It’s an event people look forward to.”
This year’s festival features eight new ten-minute plays running the gamut from intense drama (“Beneath the Gas,” set in a Nazi death camp, and “Daughters,” about the interrogation of a suspected terrorist) to high comedy (“Condition Blue,” in which a criminal coddles a depressed detective) and meaningful fantasy (“Mail Room Madness,” in which a contemporary Dilbert converses with his letter opener, and “To Womb It May Concern,” a dialogue between twins on the pros and cons of being born.)
This year’s festival features eight new ten-minute plays running the gamut from intense drama (“Beneath the Gas,” set in a Nazi death camp, and “Daughters,” about the interrogation of a suspected terrorist) to high comedy (“Condition Blue,” in which a criminal coddles a depressed detective) and meaningful fantasy (“Mail Room Madness,” in which a contemporary Dilbert converses with his letter opener, and “To Womb It May Concern,” a dialogue between twins on the pros and cons of being born.)
Subjects include a personal relationship in crisis (“A Day in the Park”) and the search for a meaningful life (“You Are Here.”) “There are three plays in this festival that relate to current political issues,” Kelso noted, “which is kind of unusual for us.” Besides the aforementioned “Beneath the Gas” and “Daughters,” the war in Iraq is examined by the ghosts of two friends and adversaries during the Crusades who meet on a contemporary battlefield in “The King’s Crusade.”
This year’s playwrights are Jonny Barrett, Joseph Castro, Clayton Cook, Alex Costello, Mackenzie Cox, Henry Echeverria, Alex Gradine and Kevin McCaffree.
This year’s playwrights are Jonny Barrett, Joseph Castro, Clayton Cook, Alex Costello, Mackenzie Cox, Henry Echeverria, Alex Gradine and Kevin McCaffree.
After that first presentation of ten minute plays in a classroom in 1998, this event moved from one small black-box theatre space to another. One year it also played in Eureka, at what was then the World Premiere Theatre of Playwrights in Progress. It was only in the last several years that the 10 Minute Play Festival in the Gist Hall Theatre became part of the official Theatre, Film and Dance season, ending the school year.
But it still doesn’t necessarily look like other productions on the schedule. There are costumes, but “we still keep the setting very simple,” Kelso said. “We use just a few black wood blocks because that helps to unify all the plays.”
But it still doesn’t necessarily look like other productions on the schedule. There are costumes, but “we still keep the setting very simple,” Kelso said. “We use just a few black wood blocks because that helps to unify all the plays.”
The festival is also still an outgrowth of the Play Development Workshop, an advanced playwriting class. “The focus in that class is on the collaborative development of plays,” Kelso said, “and the festival is a natural progression of that. Actors and designers and others in the class all get the play when it is fresh they give the playwright ideas and suggestions and feedback. But that’s where it ends in terms of the class.”
“Now students of that class submit scripts for the Festival. Other students can, too—this year we have scripts from the beginning playwriting class, and one from a fiction writer in the English department who has never written a play before.”
“We get about 35 plays a year now. A committee of faculty chooses somewhere between 7 and 10. Then each of those scripts gets a director, a cast of actors, plus some costume and design support. And the collaborations continue.”
“Now students of that class submit scripts for the Festival. Other students can, too—this year we have scripts from the beginning playwriting class, and one from a fiction writer in the English department who has never written a play before.”
“We get about 35 plays a year now. A committee of faculty chooses somewhere between 7 and 10. Then each of those scripts gets a director, a cast of actors, plus some costume and design support. And the collaborations continue.”
For the playwrights, the creative process doesn’t stop with the Festival production. “We really look at the audience response—what do they get and enjoy, what aren’t they getting? And playwrights rewrite after that. That’s an important part of the process.”
“While the audience is important in all play productions, it’s particularly important with new plays, because that’s how the playwrights know if what they are trying to communicate is getting across.”
“While the audience is important in all play productions, it’s particularly important with new plays, because that’s how the playwrights know if what they are trying to communicate is getting across.”
Why has the festival become so popular? “It’s exciting to see what the next generation of writers and theatre people are interested in,” Kelso said.
In terms of production values and polish, the Ten Minute Play Festival is still relatively modest. “But in terms of importance, and people really anticipating it,” Kelso said, “as well as students putting a lot of energy and effort into it, it’s become a big event each year.”
The 10th annual HSU Ten Minute Play Festival plays Thursdays through Saturdays, April 24-26 and May 1-3 at 7:30 PM in Gist Hall Theatre on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $5 general, $3 students and seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. HSU students free limited seating.
In terms of production values and polish, the Ten Minute Play Festival is still relatively modest. “But in terms of importance, and people really anticipating it,” Kelso said, “as well as students putting a lot of energy and effort into it, it’s become a big event each year.”
The 10th annual HSU Ten Minute Play Festival plays Thursdays through Saturdays, April 24-26 and May 1-3 at 7:30 PM in Gist Hall Theatre on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $5 general, $3 students and seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. HSU students free limited seating.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The Plays
From Beneath the Gas
by Alex Costello
Powerful drama about Nazi death camp prisoners who find an unexpected survivor, and must decide if her life is worth theirs.
Rosenthal- Mason Lev
Max- Gabriel Holman
Doctor Hoffman- Jonny Barrett
Herschal- Brian Pike
Girl- Mackenzie Cox
Mailroom Madness
by Henry Echeverria
Office satire about an interpretive dance major who can’t fit into his cubicle world—until his letter opener starts talking to him.
Steve- Brian Coker
Pete- Ian Santos
TJ- Chisana White
Jill- Kelly Whitaker
by Alex Costello
Powerful drama about Nazi death camp prisoners who find an unexpected survivor, and must decide if her life is worth theirs.
Rosenthal- Mason Lev
Max- Gabriel Holman
Doctor Hoffman- Jonny Barrett
Herschal- Brian Pike
Girl- Mackenzie Cox
Mailroom Madness
by Henry Echeverria
Office satire about an interpretive dance major who can’t fit into his cubicle world—until his letter opener starts talking to him.
Steve- Brian Coker
Pete- Ian Santos
TJ- Chisana White
Jill- Kelly Whitaker
The Plays
Condition Blue
by Alex Gradine
A fun comedy about a depressed detective and the criminal who coddles him.
Greg-Steven King
Ann-Rachel Brink
Mr. Badd-Alejandro Servin
Daughters
by Kevin McCaffree
Intense interaction between an FBI agent and a suspected terrorist, addressing the question, who do we really care about?
Michael Barnes, a police officer- Jeff Wilson
Joshua Peterson, a federal agent- Ethan Heinz
Terrorist- Chris Hegler
by Alex Gradine
A fun comedy about a depressed detective and the criminal who coddles him.
Greg-Steven King
Ann-Rachel Brink
Mr. Badd-Alejandro Servin
Daughters
by Kevin McCaffree
Intense interaction between an FBI agent and a suspected terrorist, addressing the question, who do we really care about?
Michael Barnes, a police officer- Jeff Wilson
Joshua Peterson, a federal agent- Ethan Heinz
Terrorist- Chris Hegler
The Plays
A Day in the Park
by Joseph Castro
The surreal journey of a young couple trying to survive and heal from a trauma in their lives.
Richard- Chris Werner
Marisela- Johanna Hembry
Richard’s Bum- Chris Scardina
Marisela’s Bum- Rebecca House
You Are Here
by Mackenzie Cox
She’s little girl Lost—literally—trying to find her way among other lost souls in a crowded train station.
Lost- Adrienne Lopez
Going in Circles- Krista Powell
Running Away- Ryan Hall
On My Way- Omari Howard
Fate- Ken Klima
by Joseph Castro
The surreal journey of a young couple trying to survive and heal from a trauma in their lives.
Richard- Chris Werner
Marisela- Johanna Hembry
Richard’s Bum- Chris Scardina
Marisela’s Bum- Rebecca House
You Are Here
by Mackenzie Cox
She’s little girl Lost—literally—trying to find her way among other lost souls in a crowded train station.
Lost- Adrienne Lopez
Going in Circles- Krista Powell
Running Away- Ryan Hall
On My Way- Omari Howard
Fate- Ken Klima
The Plays
To Womb It May Concern
by Jonny Barrett
A comedy with a serious edge about twins in utero, one eager and one reluctant to be born.
Infant- Kady Pomerleau
Baby- Kyle Ryan
Doctor- Danni Joy Ladimir
The Kings’ Crusade
by Clayton Cook
An encounter between King Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, both friends and adversaries in the Crusades, on a contemporary battlefield in Iraq.
King Richard the Lionheart- Alex Gradine
King Saladin- Ozrel Padilla
Uday- Kelly Whitaker
Gabir- Joe Castro
by Jonny Barrett
A comedy with a serious edge about twins in utero, one eager and one reluctant to be born.
Infant- Kady Pomerleau
Baby- Kyle Ryan
Doctor- Danni Joy Ladimir
The Kings’ Crusade
by Clayton Cook
An encounter between King Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, both friends and adversaries in the Crusades, on a contemporary battlefield in Iraq.
King Richard the Lionheart- Alex Gradine
King Saladin- Ozrel Padilla
Uday- Kelly Whitaker
Gabir- Joe Castro
Our Production
Coordinator: Margaret Thomas Kelso
Producer: Megan Hughes
Lighting Designer/Board Op: Rusty Gaidzik
Sound Designer/Board Op: Brendan O'Loughlin
Prop Designer: Calder Johnson
Costume Designer: Amy Echeverria
Stage Manager: Mychal Ducken
Assistant Stage Manager: Mattie Eckstrom
Producer: Megan Hughes
Lighting Designer/Board Op: Rusty Gaidzik
Sound Designer/Board Op: Brendan O'Loughlin
Prop Designer: Calder Johnson
Costume Designer: Amy Echeverria
Stage Manager: Mychal Ducken
Assistant Stage Manager: Mattie Eckstrom
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