FRIDAYS

7/11, 7/18, 7/25

BINGO PURGATORY by KT Bugenstein & Gina Clepper

8 MINUTES by Koryn Naylor

TRINKETS by Kinsey Cantrell

BREAKING THE WALL by Emily Cipriani

ANARCHY! by Alex Lacey


SATURDAYS

7/12, 7/19, 7/26

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS by Gyasi Hall

SUE ELLEN FINDS A HOBBY by Hannah Woods

LATE FLIGHT HOME by Amelia Koontz
CLOTHESLINES by William Lekan

FRESH FOLD DETERGENT by Tova Seltzer

227 North 3rd Street | Columbus, OH 43215 | 614.221.5418

MadLab will present The Young Writers Short Play Festival, a collection of ten short plays written by Columbus area high school students. MadLab is a non-profit organization that provides an artistic haven for the creation and experience of original works. Part of that effort involves giving young people the opportunity to create original works. This festival was born from that goal. MadLab sought out submissions from area high schools and chose the best plays to produce. Student playwrights will work with experienced local playwrights to help them with their plays.

July 11th-26th, 2014

Fridays & Saturdays

all shows at 8pm


$12 regular admission

$10 students/seniors

$8 MadLab Members

Buy Tickets Here!

BINGO PURGATORY by KT Bugenstein & Gina Clepper

The Second Life Bingo Hall is the intermediate stage between life and death. Here, people who die come and play bingo.  Holding the winning card allows them to pass through the black door into the great unknown. Nat arrives in the bingo hall after an accident on the subway and befriends a group of oddballs. As they chat, Nat unintentionally helps them with their problems, and one by one they leave through the black door to the mysterious white light.


CAST AND CREW

Will Haynes as Death

Becky Horseman as Woman

Randi Morgan as Florence

Chad Hewitt as Max

Catherine Quamme as Harriet

MaryBeth Griffith as Lee

RJ Shuman as Nat

Greg McGill as Hatchett

directed by Julia Ferreri


8 MINUTES by Koryn Naylor

Two people who have no history meet on a park bench. The male figure is quite mysterious and states that he can get to know anyone in merely minutes, the female disagrees. The whole play focuses on the fact that if the sun were to stop shining, it would take 8 minutes for people on earth to know before they were to live in complete darkness. The question is posed of what would the woman’s 8 minutes be. As the woman declares her eight minutes, the male starts to get to know her better, and the lighting would dim throughout the play signifying that these are actually their last few minutes. The final Scene would be blacked out completely, revealing that they were experiencing their actual last 8 minutes before the sun goes out.


CAST AND CREW

Austin Andrioff as Connor

Hannah Woods as Casey

directed by Angela Cutrell


TRINKETS by Kinsey Cantrell

While fighting over their dying mother’s antique suitcase, two siblings come to terms with the impact their mother has had on their relationship and their lives.


CAST AND CREW

Julie Azelvandre as Adelaide

Stephen Woosley as William

RJ Shuman as Nelson

directed by Becky Horseman


BREAKING THE WALL by Emily Cipriani

Aden is reunited with an old friend, but the more time he spends with Evelyn, the more he distances himself from reality. After discovering the real reason behind their unusual reunion, Evelyn must convince Aden to accept her for what she really is, not what he wants her to be.


CAST AND CREW

Emily Cipriani as Evelyn

Chad Hewitt as Aden

directed by Audrey Rush


ANARCHY! by Alex Lacey

While reading the newspaper, a man is interrupted by an angry mob of anarchists breaking into his home. They are planning on overthrowing the government.


CAST AND CREW

Peter Graybeal as Guy

MaryBeth Griffith as George

Austin Andrioff as John

Greg McGill as Thomas

Casey May as James

Colleen Dunne as Benjamin

directed by Stephen Woosley

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS by Gyasi Hall

Ryan, a video store clerk, begins to question the importance of his life and everything he’s done when he is struck by a surreal event: His friend and co-work Chloe comes to work dressed up as a Ghost in a Bed sheet, claiming she has recently passed away, and no longer exists.


CAST AND CREW

Joe Liles as Ryan

Em Hammett as Chloe

directed by Stephen Woosley


SUE ELLEN FINDS A HOBBY by Hannah Woods

Sue Ellen Finds a Hobby is a dark comedy about a teenage girl who has an inappropriate recreational outlet, murder. She goes proceeds with her diabolical ways until her best friend and accomplice, Linda, starts to question their motives. Another girl wants to get in on the action by finding the killer lurking in her neighborhood. Will Sue Ellen be able to execute one final victim, or will Linda's conscience get in way? 


CAST AND CREW

Colleen Dunne as Sue Ellen

Kyle Jepson as Linda

Chad Hewitt as Carl

Frankie Diederich as Josephine

directed by Amanda Bauer


LATE FLIGHT HOME by Amelia Koontz

When two apparent strangers run into each other in an airport terminal, both heading to the same destination, they are forced to confront the past that they thought was far behind them. Do they want their paths to converge again?


CAST AND CREW

Blane Furey as Nora

RJ Shuman as Michael

directed by Stephen Woosley


CLOTHESLINES by William Lekan

“Clotheslines” chronicles the relationship of Carter and Sarah using five different sweatshirts from five different moments in their lives, as they go from childhood friends to middle school lovers to high school friends again. When the circumstances between them get more complicated, they will have to determine where they stand, where they are heading, and what they really feel about each other.


CAST AND CREW

Chad Hewitt as Carter

Lexy Weixel as Sarah

directed by Michelle Batt


FRESH FOLD DETERGENT by Tova Seltzer

Filming for a laundry detergent commercial is complicated when the lead actress reveals herself to be a conspiracy theorist and makes repeated attempts to hijack the script to serve her agenda of truth, gradually converting her coworkers and causing increasing stress to the project's director.


CAST AND CREW

Julie Azelvandre as Patricia

Stephen Woosley as Director

Katharine Pilcher as Angelique

Chris Wharton as Cameraman

RJ Shuman as Man 1/Brad

Sean Reid as Man 2

directed by Mary-Aileen St. Cyr

Theatre is dead.  Advances in technology have made live performance nothing more than a quaint afterthought, an archaic artistic endeavor that has outlived its usefulness.  As an art form, as a means to express the concerns and obsessions of today’s youth, it has been surpassed, supplanted, and buried six feet under.  Young people today have no need for Theatre, don’t care about Theatre, and are, at best, only vaguely aware even of the existence of Theatre. 

Stick a fork in it.  It’s done.

At least that’s what I heard when I graduated from High School in 1986.  My Professors in College had heard it, too, in the 60s and 70s.  Their mentors were mourners at the funeral back in the 40s.  In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the death knell for Theatre as an art form was being sounded mere seconds after Sophocles took his last breath.  It’s an old song and dance routine, a persistent meme, an obituary written centuries ago that insists on being republished to this day.  Take a second to google some variation on “Is Theatre Dead?” and you’ll see what I mean.

And I completely understand the urge behind such pronouncements.  There’s an alluring comfort in that cynical worldview.  Like a tattered baby blanket, it’s easy to wrap yourself in that mindset, stick your thumb in your mouth, and cry about how much better things used to be.  The Sirens that call to us all as we grow older aren’t really beautiful maidens tempting us to wreck our ships on distant shores; they’re old curmudgeons who have seen the world progress in what seems a blink of the eye, and want us to join them on the porch, yelling at those darn kids who keep stepping on our lawns.  Those kids born into a technological culture that still seems vaguely new and mysterious to us who grew up with corded landlines and rabbit ears.  Why, they’d rather text than talk to the person standing right next to them, right?  What possible use could they have for live performance, which depends on active, present participation by all involved?

When MadLab started the Young Writers Short Play Festival three years ago, I have to admit that all of this crossed my mind.  Perhaps even set up shop in my mind.  Okay, dragged an old lawn chair from the basement, plopped it down forcefully, and refused to move from my mind.  I wasn’t exactly optimistic about the response we would receive from these strange teenage creatures we were reaching out to, to say the least.  After all, Theatre is dead, right?  At least dead to the younger generation.

I’ve never been happier to have been proven wrong in my life.

Right from the beginning, we received scripts that were bold, daring, and perfect for the stage.  These were scripts that demanded to be performed live, that depended on that one thing that makes Theatre unique from every other art form: Immediacy.  What makes Theatre special, at least to me, is that it does the one thing that nothing else can.  It brings the performer and the audience together, in a space of suspended disbelief and interaction.  Unlike a novel, there are no descriptions of surroundings or unspoken thoughts.  Unlike a movie, there are no quick cuts and camera angles to direct your eye to what is important.  What you see before you on the stage is happening now, in real time, and what you see is what you get.  Talented Directors, Actors, and Scenic Designers (set, costumes, light, sound) can take an audience to a different world, all while being there, living and breathing, right in front of them.  It’s powerful stuff, Theatre, and it all begins and ends with the script. Seems nobody told these kids not to bother trying to write for the stage, it being kaput and all, because for three years we’ve all been blown away.

“Oh, but plays written by teenagers”, I hear the more curmudgeonly of you say, “what could those possibly be about?  First dates and adolescent angst?” 

To all of you thinking such thoughts, I have two things to say.  First: Wow, condescend much in your old age, grandpa?  And Second: These plays are about Life, Death, Love, Society, Truth.  What all great plays are about.

No spoilers, but here’s what we’ve got for audiences this year:

Fridays beginning July 11:  Bingo Purgatory by KT Bugenstein and Gina Clepper is a wildly funny piece about theology, forgiveness and what it may take for our souls to truly be at rest.  8 Minutes by Koryn Naylor tackles human connections in the face of time’s rapid pace.  Kinsey Cantrell’s Trinkets examines how our families can divide us while at the same time uniting us.  Breaking the Wall by Emily Cipriani uses theatrical convention expertly to explore how memory and loss are inextricably linked, and Alex Lacey gives one of the funniest Government 101 lessons I’ve ever read with Anarchy!

Saturdays beginning July 12:  Instructions for an Existential Crisis by Gyasi Hall is a blueprint escape plan for those who feel trapped in the meaningless daily rut.  Sue Ellen Finds a Hobby by Hannah Woods takes a darkly humorous look at privilege and murder.  Amelia Koontz’ Late Flight Home brings an estranged father and daughter together far from home, with no easy answers.  Clotheslines by William Lekan takes us on a journey of connection that spans years, as close as your own backyard, and Tova Seltzer skewers the world of Advertising, Paranoia, and Conspiracy Theories with the joyfully ridiculous Fresh Fold Laundry.

Pretty impressive, I’d say.  In fact, I’d go so far to say that I’d be proud to include any of these scripts in MadLab’s regular season, that these scripts deserve to be given full productions, that we should throw ourselves into producing them just like we do any other scripts this year.  Oh wait.  That’s exactly what we’re doing.  The Young Writers Short Play Festival isn’t just a nice thing we’re doing “for the kids”.  No, it’s an essential reason MadLab exists, it’s an integral part of who are and what we do: Find New Plays by New Voices, and give them the due they deserve.

So, Theatre is dead, huh?  Well, for a corpse it’s looking pretty good to me.  Sometimes all it takes to change a perspective is to let the kids play on your lawn.


-Jim Azelvandre

MadLab Producing Director