Topical Theatre

On a Friday evening, Sanctuary’s artistic directors, Tinamarie Ivey and Dan Stone, gathered seven playwrights, seven directors and enough actors to give each play at least three characters. All playwrights had until 9 a.m. Saturday to write a ten-page play on the same topic: one of four possibilities was drawn from a hat. The hat also randomly distributed the characters by gender. The theme turned out to be “destiny.” I drew a cast of two males, one female.

My head swirled with possibilities that resolved into two: I could write what amounted to a comedy sketch, or try something more complex and challenging — to me and to the director and actors. Since my opportunities to write for performance are rare these days, I went with the second idea. It was partly inspired by the Eureka Theater itself — before I left that night, I stood on the stage looking out at that very large set of seats, while an actor tested the resonant acoustics. In my play, that huge auditorium would be a gorge, and the characters would send out their feelings echoing into it.

I returned the next morning, sleepless in Eureka, where more drawings randomly matched each play with a director, and then with actors. I drew Joshua Koenig, and met him for the first time. With amazing speed, he grasped the play’s structure and dynamics, and where the laughs were. I heard the actors’ first readings, and they were starting to contribute. Rehearsals would go on all day.

After a fruitless attempt to sleep, I returned hours later to see participants bleary with fatigue and high on the process. There was another drawing for performance order before the plays were to meet the public as part of Eureka’s Arts Alive. My play became the opener, which gave me the rest of the evening to concentrate on the other plays, and that was the source of much of this event’s magic for me. The plays, performances and stagings were varied and inventive. The “talk back” session led by Jyl Hewston and James Floss that began in the theatre and ended upstairs with drinks and munchies revealed the intelligence, care and creativity brought to bear, the individuality and the warm collaborative atmosphere.

The other participating playwrights were Morgan Beck, Steven King, Craig Klapman, Alton San Giovanni, Ken Gray Scolari and JM Wilkerson. The other directors were Gretha Omey, Rhy Corral-Ribordy, Zachary Rouse, Dan Stone, Joshua Stanfield Switzer and Laurene Thorpe. There’s not space here to say any more but, cyberspace being infinite, please join me at stagematters.blogspot.com.

To extend the theatrical conversation and expand it beyond the North Coast,I’ve started a Stage Matters blog, at stagematters.blogspot.com . You can alsoe-mail me at stagematters@sbcglobal.net.

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