PTG's New Playwright Fest offers students a chance to showcase acting, writing skills
Meredith Collier
Issue date: 12/5/08 Section: Focus
On Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 22 and 23, the Players' Theater Group presented the second-annual New Playwright's Festival in the Blackbox Theater. Organized this year by art director Gabe Geschke, the theatre was quickly taken over by Pokémon fanatics, illegal organ hustlers, desperate strippers, awkward opera goers, chocolate cake offenders, and a perfect, dreamlike suburbanite couple, all of these characters the creations of eight playwrights from the Case community.
According to Geschke, a second-year theater and philosophy double major, one of the most challenging tasks to organizing this show is simply convincing writers to submit their plays. "A lot [of the shows] came in the last day," he says, talking about the submission process, "but people seemed fairly interested." Once a one-act play is chosen from the pool of submitted plays, actors audition, and the process of adapting the show onstage begins. The production process was rushed this year, describes Geschke, so actors, directors, and stage managers only had one week to prepare the eight shows for staged readings. "Next year will be less hectic," says Geschke. He hopes to reach out to non-theater majors to submit some of their work, and thinks that the New Playwright's Festival will continue to grow into an even larger event.
Mike Suglio, a senior political science, psychology, and theater triple major, took on a triple role for the festival. He directed Christopher Kervick's "Law and Order: Second Episode," acted in several of the plays, including Michael Benning's brilliant and haunting "Odds.," and wrote the final play of Sunday evening, "Pokémon Strip Club," which Suglio says was inspired by a recent Model UN trip to New York City. "There was a Pokémon store, and down the street was a closed-up strip club," he laughs. Suglio's dark comedy followed Bryan, an aging Pokémon fanatic who convinces a poor yet beautiful librarian, Vivian, to work as a stripper in his new Pokémon-themed strip club. Of course, Bryan doesn't have the permission to use the Pokémon trademark, and hilarity ensued as Bryan (played by a wonderfully earnest Andrew Lund) insists that the Pokémon be referred to as "sex monsters."
Suglio's comedy also examined the darker side of Bryan's immature obsession as he ages and simply cannot come to terms with the realities of adulthood. "This was really version 3.2," he says, explaining that the original edition of "Pokémon Strip Club" was much cruder than the version performed Sunday night. Yet as Suglio went on to rewrite and rework his script, it developed into something much more somber. "It's interesting because I always write comedies," remarks Suglio, who realized how much angrier and darker "Pokémon Strip Club" had become after watching the audience's reactions to the show. Suglio explains his belief that the tone of the performance is ultimately determined by the perception of the audience. "I felt it was comedy, but it was actually a drama."
According to Geschke, a second-year theater and philosophy double major, one of the most challenging tasks to organizing this show is simply convincing writers to submit their plays. "A lot [of the shows] came in the last day," he says, talking about the submission process, "but people seemed fairly interested." Once a one-act play is chosen from the pool of submitted plays, actors audition, and the process of adapting the show onstage begins. The production process was rushed this year, describes Geschke, so actors, directors, and stage managers only had one week to prepare the eight shows for staged readings. "Next year will be less hectic," says Geschke. He hopes to reach out to non-theater majors to submit some of their work, and thinks that the New Playwright's Festival will continue to grow into an even larger event.
Mike Suglio, a senior political science, psychology, and theater triple major, took on a triple role for the festival. He directed Christopher Kervick's "Law and Order: Second Episode," acted in several of the plays, including Michael Benning's brilliant and haunting "Odds.," and wrote the final play of Sunday evening, "Pokémon Strip Club," which Suglio says was inspired by a recent Model UN trip to New York City. "There was a Pokémon store, and down the street was a closed-up strip club," he laughs. Suglio's dark comedy followed Bryan, an aging Pokémon fanatic who convinces a poor yet beautiful librarian, Vivian, to work as a stripper in his new Pokémon-themed strip club. Of course, Bryan doesn't have the permission to use the Pokémon trademark, and hilarity ensued as Bryan (played by a wonderfully earnest Andrew Lund) insists that the Pokémon be referred to as "sex monsters."
Suglio's comedy also examined the darker side of Bryan's immature obsession as he ages and simply cannot come to terms with the realities of adulthood. "This was really version 3.2," he says, explaining that the original edition of "Pokémon Strip Club" was much cruder than the version performed Sunday night. Yet as Suglio went on to rewrite and rework his script, it developed into something much more somber. "It's interesting because I always write comedies," remarks Suglio, who realized how much angrier and darker "Pokémon Strip Club" had become after watching the audience's reactions to the show. Suglio explains his belief that the tone of the performance is ultimately determined by the perception of the audience. "I felt it was comedy, but it was actually a drama."
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