Section A·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, March 15, 1999
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Audience members cast votes for their favorite English Alternative Theatre performance at Smith Hall Saturday. The top two productions, which were written by students in a beginning playclass last semester, were performed again last night. Photo by Erin McMelhill/KANSAN
Beginning playwrights take part in 'Final Four'
By Ezra Sykes
esykes@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
People spontaneously combusted this weekend at Room 100 in Smith Hall, and no one had to clean up the guts.
Friday night, about 65 audience members utilized their imagination to help envision Jan Chapman's one-act play "A Bomb in Gilead." The script calls for people to burst, leaving messy remains scattered about.
Chapman's piece was one of four one-act plays that premiered this weekend for the English Alternative Theatre's "Final Four."
Two plays were presented Friday and Saturday night at Smith Hall. Last night, the two winning plays, which were selected by audience ballot, were again performed.
Director Paul Lim selected the plays from a batch of 35, all written in last semester's beginning play-writing class.
Lim, who came to the University 10 years ago to develop its playwriting program, said that it was important to the creative process for the students to see their plays performed.
"It became evident that unlike the short story or the poem, beginning playwriters need to be able to see people moving around and saying their words," he said.
And to a certain degree, that's about all the audience sees, too.
The plays are presented after only three rehearsals. Actors read their lines straight from the script on stage. And scenery usually consists of only some basic furniture and a few changes in the lighting.
But the audience didn't seem to mind.
"Sometimes it is hard to tell what will work and what won't," Lim said, explaining that the minimal nature of the productions made some plays less feasible.
"A full production would have
been nice, but this allows the English department to put on a play that they didn't have the budget to do," said Toby Stoner. Lawrence resident.
Adam Miller, whose play "Kaleidoscopic" was presented on Friday, said that he was satisfied with the interpretation of his play.
"I was always proud of it on paper, and now I'm proud to see it come to life," he said. "The actors did really well."
Miller's play took the audience into a men's clothing store late at night, where three men discussed everything from a suicidal artist to the artist formerly known as Prince while pricing clothes and dressing mannequins.
Miller said he thought the "Final Four" provided a great opportunity for young playwrights, but he didn't like the competition side to the program.
Lim said he didn't think putting plays up against one another was harmful.
"I've been criticized in the past. Some have said that by promoting competition it hurts the learning process," Lim said after Friday's presentation.
Chris Nelson, Lawrence sophomore, filled out the comment sheet and ballot with the rest of the audience Friday night, knowing that his play would be evaluated the next evening.
"It's interesting to see how people interpret the things I write," Nelson said.
During the Friday night presentation of the "Final Four," Lim told the audience the final score of the KU first-round battle with Evansville in the NCAA basketball tournament.
Lim explained his reason for naming the English Alternative Theatre's production "Final Four," a popular term in the sports world.
"It's just our way of saying, 'we're here. too.'" he said.
— Edited by Aerica Veazey
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