I’ve always
heard, “You get what you pay for.” So I suppose if you don’t pay anything, you
shouldn’t expect much. Not “much” was exactly what audiences got from their
free admission to the Third Annual Kalamazoo New Play Festival.
The festival
premiered Friday January 25th at the Epic Center located in the
Kalamazoo Mall with two one-act plays: “Cherries n’Cream” by Jason Lenz and
“Poet’s Departure” by Darrell Kellogg. The two plays could not have been more
different in tone or theatricality yet both possessed the talent to make me squirm
in my seat for forty-five minutes.
“Cherries n’
Cream,” a one-act aiming for Beckett-esque absurdity (and woefully missing),
dropped the audience into the apartment of two neurotic roommates: Dan, a
former psychologist with a Creamsicle obsession, and Ben, who kidnaps and
carves up ladies purses.The staging of
“Cherries” felt clumsy and perpetually confined to stage left with the
exception of confusing time jumps stage right.
Of course, each of
the men has an appropriately traumatic experience in their past motivating
their behaviors but their neuroses are so tiresome that the audience feels as
if they have gone mad for choosing to devote their Friday night to this.
After a brief
intermission, the lights went up on “Poet’s Departure” which follows a
sixty-something lothario referred to only as “Poet.” The event in this “The Day
Something Happened Play” is his imminent death. This plot point is revealed too
early, a mistake of the playwright who thus forfeits any sense of suspense or
forward.
The play was
filled with so many clichés, stock characters, and cheesy one-liners I was
hoping someone would put me out of my misery before Poet had a chance to be put
out of his.
If there was a saving grace in either
performance, it was the commitment of the actors trying to make the most out of
what they were given. In an effort to encourage the playwrights to make revisions
up to the last minute for, the actors performed on-script. Knowing
approximately how many pages were left in each play felt akin to watching
minutes tick by, slowly and painfully.
While showcasing
local writers and artists is important, the material they produce must be notable
for its content and not just its place of origin and as my sacrificial Friday
night proved, everything comes at a cost even when the price of admission is
free.
I think you make many valid, thought-out points. Your style is blunt, humorous, and engaging, and your analysis of the plays sounds knowledgeable. I also, however, think you need to consider the way New Play Fest is set up.
ReplyDeleteIt is professional theatres joining with local, yes, but for the most part unprofessional writers. Many of the playwrights had never been published and this was a way for them to improve their writing and explore what it's like to see your play come to life. The actors hold scripts because the playwrights are encouraged to change their plays, as you pointed out. But they are encouraged to change the plays because the experience is a learning process. It is a way for their plays to evolve and their technique to develop. There is a "talk-back" at the end where the audience has the opportunity to talk to the playwrights about what worked and didn't work in the plays.
Just as you would review "Sherlock Holmes: The Last Adventure" differently from a Broadway performance, the New Play Fest shows should also be reviewed differently. It is not only a show, but is also an experiment. It is an experiment where many people who do not know each other come together and volunteer their time to put up a show with not two, but five one-acts and five 10-minute plays in only three weeks. It is an experiment where you combine professionals with students with anyone in between and see what you can create together.
So catty BWorth! But in a funny way. You definitely panned this, but I was amused. I don't know much about the playwriting festival, so I can't comment on its aims, etc. But it does sound like it was maybe an event that didn't need an audience.
ReplyDeleteI like that you mention the writers reading on script while also using it as a chance to talk about watching the play tick by. It was a seamless way to drop in the detail without making it seem like you were doing an informational departure from the review.
Definitely snappy writing. I sped through the writing in a good way. It might have been nice to do one or two sentences about what the festival was in general, just for readers who aren't aware of how many days it lasts or what the format is/who the writers are.