 reprint or license
 Print
 E-Mail
|
|
tool nameclose
tool goes here
|
Midway to host festival of 10-minute plays
Midway hosts an inaugural festival of 10-minute playsBy Rich Copley rcopley@herald-leader.com
Thoroughbred Theatre manager Jim McDaniel, left, worked with Midway Festival of Plays organizers Jim Betts and Bob Singleton, and 517 Playwrights co-founder Bill McCann to present seven 10-minute plays. The festival received more than 100 scripts.
Aubin Munn is Laura and Joanna Jerome is Julia in Crish Barth's "Hill Cattle." The Midway Festival of Plays features seven 10-minute plays selected from an international competition presented by 517 Playwrights and the Kentucky Playwrights Workshop Oct. 9-11 at the Thoroughbred Theatre in Midway, Ky. Photo by Rich Copley | staff.
IF YOU GO
Midway Festival of Plays
When: 8 p.m. Oct. 9, 10; 3 p.m. Oct. 11.
Where: Thoroughbred Theatre, 127 E. Main St., Midway.
Tickets: $10; for reservations, call (859) 846-9827 or go to www.thoroughbredtheater.com.
THE PLAYS
The program of seven 10-minute plays will be:
Hill Cattle by Crish Barth of Orinda, Calif.: A sick woman appears to have been duped by a con artist. Or has she?
The Day Brando Died by Lawrence DuKore of New York: Mourning Marlon Brando and remembering an unrequited conquest trumps a tennis match between old-timers.
Last Church of Lost Souls by Kay Rhoads of Ankeny, Iowa: A woman searches for her past in one of the fest's quirkier offerings. Rhoads will attend the festival.
Almost Connect ... by Thomas Pierce of Seattle: The two characters don't quite get together, and their inner voices have something to say.
The Weight by Steven Schutzman of Baltimore: Yes, the title refers to the song by The Band, and the story is about a girl who runs away to visit a musician she admires.
More Pasta by Leon Kaye of Hyde Park, N.Y.: A little family drama at the dinner table.
Enigmatic Lucidity by Len Cuthbert of Mount Brydges, Ontario: A man keeps waking up to the question: Is the woman he loves trying to kill him?
MIDWAY — The 10-minute play has Kentucky roots: The form was popularized, if not invented, by the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville.
But beyond Louisville in the spring, there aren't that many stages in the Bluegrass State that present 600-second fare. Midway's Thoroughbred Theatre is going to take a shot at it this weekend, with the inaugural Midway Festival of Plays, which organizers hope will become an annual event.
"It seemed like an interesting, fresh, unique thing to do," Thoroughbred Theatre manager Jim McDaniel said before a rehearsal of the show a week and half ago, the first time all seven shows had come together under one roof.
That brought the kind of who's who of Central Kentucky stage talent — actors usually seen at events like SummerFest in the Arboretum — to Main Street Midway.
The festival is the result of a com petition presented by 517 Playwrights, a relatively new area playwrighting group, and the Kentucky Playwrights Workshop.
Because it was a new contest, 517 Playwrights co-founder Bill McCann said, he wondered whether there would be any submissions.
No problem: There were more than 100 scripts from across the United States and several countries, including Ireland and Israel.
Once the contest judges narrowed the field down to the winners, "We needed a stage to present them on," McCann says.
That's where the Thoroughbred Theatre came in. The theater, part of Midway's active Main Street scene, offered to host the production.
McDaniel and co-organizer Jim Betts talk about possibly making next year either an all-Kentucky event or an international festival. This year's plays include quirky fare as well as bits that echo popular playwrights, including Neil Simon.
"The format does have an element of short-attention-span theater," says Betts, who was inspired to get involved in the festival after taking a playwrighting course from University of Kentucky playwrighting professor and Midway resident Herman Farrell. "The thing is, with such a limited amount of time, you have to be really targeted in what you do. The plays are really focused."
For the audience, the festival can be much like Kentucky weather: If you don't like the play, wait a few minutes, and it will change.
@Nyx.replyAnswerText@