Rehearsed Readings - New Plays

By Sarah Liebowitz; A&E Editor

On December 2, 2016

Pin It

Rehearsed Readings - New Plays

Sarah Liebowitz

A&E Editor

svl1010@plymouth.edu

On Nov. 2, student playwrights and actors will present scenes from eight new plays. The Rehearsed Readings Series is an extension of the class Playwright’s Lab, taught by Paul Mroczka. The event is in the Silver Center’s Smith Recital Hall, and it is free and open to the public.

Mroczka said that there is a relatively large number of theater majors with a dramatic writing option this year. Usually there are one or two students a year, but this year there are nine people in the program.

This is the first time PSU has presented rehearsed readings in this way. In the past, PSU has performed more involved stage readings in the Playwright’s Showcase, which will return again in April 2017.

Friday night’s reading will consist of eight excerpts written by the playwrights in the class, each piece lasting about 10-12 minutes. The seven members of Playwright’s Lab Acting Company will read the scripts from music stands. “For these, the simpler the better,” said Mroczka.

Audiences will get a taste of Robbie Chubbuck’s play, “Apartment 24 on the Third Floor,” a comedic play about a couple who move into a new apartment after their townhouse is condemned. “I hope to see how an audience may react to the absurdity and comedy in the world of the play,” said Chubbuck.

Chubbuck is a sophomore theater arts major with a focus in dramatic writing. “The thing I love most about playwriting is the amazing feeling you get when seeing an original work of yours performed,” he said. “A whole world of theater came out of my head.”

Sharleigh Thomson’s play, “When The Tide Comes In” is about a group of people facing their mortality. “I'm hoping that I have written something that people will connect with and see themselves in,” she said.

Thomson, a sophomore, originally came to Plymouth State to study performance, but said she discovered a love of writing while she was here. “I love the opportunity to write things that inspire change and self-reflection.”

Katherine Pereira’s play, “Forced Sinners” is a new take on the Adam and Eve story. In her play, Adam and Eve decide they are better off as friends. This ruins God’s plan, which was dependent on the two procreating.

“Since the subject matter of the piece I'm showcasing has such a well-known history already, and there is such a wide spectrum of feelings already associated with it, I'm mostly hoping to come to terms with the fact that what may fly in a workshop of 15 may not with a larger, more diverse crowd,” said Pereira, “and that that could be fine. It could be a disaster. We'll see how it goes.”

Other scenes are from the plays, “Wearing the Same Dress to the Party” by Leo Curran, “Gap Year” by John Rumore, “Full Moon” by Alyssa Desautelle, “Hart to Hart” by B. Christopher Williams and “Burning in Hell 576 Years Later” by Shane Smith.

Playwright’s Lab, which meets Sunday evenings, allows playwrights to hear their work out loud. On Friday, “they’re going to have audience reaction, which is helpful,” said Mroczka. “It’s a way for the writers to get their work out, and have people react to it.”

“Play Lab has taught me that stories are important, and that the only way to find out if something works is to try it,” said Thompson. “It has taught me to take risks and dig deeper, and to really listen to the world around me.”

The rehearsed readings will take place on Dec. 2 at 6 p.m. in the Smith Recital Hall in PSU’s Silver Center for the Arts. For more information, visit http:// www. plymouth.edu/ silver-center.