Dramat festival to showcase one-act wonders

Walking down Elm Street past Old Campus on any given day, one sees at least three or four painted boards announcing auditions for the many plays that Yale students produce each year. While these provide ample opportunities for actors and directors, a casual inspection of the boards reveals that most are productions or reinterpretations of existing plays. Where, then, do Yale's playwrights turn to have their original plays produced?

The Dramat's One Act Festival provides this opportunity. The festival features staged readings of four original works written, directed, and performed by Yale students. Each single-act play is roughly 20 minutes long, and question-and-answer periods after the second and fourth readings afford the audience a chance to discuss the performance with the playwrights and directors.

This year's plays were chosen from a wide range of submissions by a committee of Dramat board members. According to Adam Chanzit, TD '03, special events coordinator for the Dramat and the main organizer of the festival, "The strength of the scripts was, of course, the first consideration, but on top of that, we also wanted to choose a diverse selection of plays that would go well together." Only one-act plays were accepted in order to accommodate more works in one sitting.

ERIN I.LEWIS

Music to Hear, written by Betty Wolf, BR '02, and directed by Andy Sandberg, JE '05, details the story of avant-garde composer Jerry, who regains his ability to write and rediscovers the roots of passion with the aid of a twisted psychiatrist, Dr. Peterson. Playwright Wolf believes that "people should come to see my play to have a good laugh. Maybe they'll even learn something about what makes them tick [or not tick] creatively . . .Oh, and there's sex. And sex. Lots of sex."

Taking It All In, written by Brian Crocker, DC '02, and directed by Nina Rastogi, BR '02, portrays a riveting argument between two twentysomethings who have just had sex with each other for the first time. The play explores popular culture and the lingering effects of the early-'90s mindset. In writing the play, first-time playwright Crocker drew upon his own approach to life.

See Jane Run, written by Laura Jacqmin, BK '04, and directed by Sarah Nelson Wright, TC '03, is actually an excerpt from a full-length, two- act play that Jacqmin wrote. In the play, a group of four friends gather after killing a mutual friend.

As they wait for the body to deteriorate, all of the characters turn on themselves and each other. Jacqmin promises that "you'll be shocked, you'll be disgusted, you'll be amused, and you'll definitely want to shower afterwards."

The Touch, The Feel, written by Liz Meriwether, TC '04, and directed by Timothy Cooper, BK '02, is about a girl trying to escape her teenage years and find maturity by running away. The only thing holding her back is Cotton, "The fabric of our lives." Featuring a girl and a fabric, this play will be "funny, quirky, and moving at the same time," according to Cooper.

The festival marks the beginning of a new Dramat tradition. Organizers and playwrights alike see a definite and positive value in having such a festival, and would like to see it grow into an annual event. "Most Yale directors instinctively shy away from new work because it's untested. This festival reminds people that every work was a new work at some time, and therefore that new plays are viable competitors for stage time," Wolf said.

In choosing directors by application and pairing them up with the playwrights, the Dramat hopes to foster director-playwright relationships that last beyond the festival. "The aim of this festival is to encourage student playwriting on campus and to provide a forum for bringing together playwrights and directors," Chanzit said.

Jacqmin hopes that after this festival, "a director in the Yale community will be interested in tackling the whole script [of the two-act play] and producing it fully."

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