The University Daily Kansen
Thursday, January 18, 2001
Theater Section B • Page 3
Students exhibit playwriting talent
By Erinn R. Barcomb
jayplay @kanson.com
jayplay editor
The cast of the play "Bunnies" is one of three English Alternative Theatre groups participating in a festival today through Saturday at Johnson County Community College. Members are, from left, Jamie Weber, Ginger Bartoski, Will Averill and Christina Schafer. Contributed Photo
Three student playwrights will see their work come off the page and alive on stage today and Saturday in Overland Park at the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival.
The English Alternative Theatre will perform the students' pieces before judges who will decide if any of them will go on to be performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in April.
The students wrote the works in playwriting classes taught by Paul Stephen Lim, professor of English. The pieces range from "Whiteout," a full-length play by Alan Newton, Lawrence graduate student, about friends from high school who meet again during the course of the play, to a 10-minute play, "Big Envelopes," by Matthew Hubbard, Prairie Village junior.
"Bunnies," a one-act play by Michael O'Brien, looks at the life of Hugh Hefner prior to founding Playboy magazine.
Lim, who founded EAT in 1989, said the process allowed the playwrights to see their work come alive.
"What's the point of writing plays if they can never see them done?" he said.
Hubbard lived a live version of "Big Envelopes," the story of an
overachieving high school senior trying to get into college.
Hubbard himself was dead-set on a career in medicine after graduating from an Ivy League college. His hopes were dashed when he got four rejection letters on the same day.
"That was a personal experience," he said. "It was so long and painful."
The students' work will be judged not just on the original script, but also on the staging, including aspects such as sound, lighting and costuming. The
playwrights and EAT have to work together to see the play come alive.
"Not only do you have to explain what each line means, but how the character is saying it in your head," Hubbard said.
Edited by Megan Phelps
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