Producing an original play can be a lot of work. Try producing five.
Jill Connor / The Citizen
Playwrights from the Finger Lakes will see their work on the stage at the Auburn Players Second Stage's Original Short Play Festival.
Playwrights from the Finger Lakes will see their work on the stage at the Auburn Players Second Stage's Original Short Play Festival.
Bourke Kennedy and the Second Stage wing of the Auburn Players are taking on the task this weekend. Despite the challenges that can come with world premiere festivals, the rewards are worth the work, Kennedy said.
“We've been really lucky with the people who have turned up to be part of this festival,” Kennedy said. “And the actors get to be in more than one show, so we're almost like a little repertoire company.”
Starting Friday, Second Stage will perform five original plays for its second short play festival. The previously unpublished pieces, all 15 minutes or shorter, come from playwrights as near as Auburn and as far as Florida.
Last year, the company produced nine plays for the festival. Of the approximately 20 submissions, these were the scripts that evoked real responses from the organizing committee, said Kennedy, who is directing the show.
This is the first year the festival has received submissions from outside the state. The majority of the plays were written by Finger Lakes area residents, which Kennedy said is a goal of the festival. But it is nice to see work from diverse locations, she added.
“I was surprised when I looked at the return addresses,” Kennedy said. “It's good to know people actually read Web pages from other theater organizations across the country.”
The theater festival will feature a range of material and topics, with plays about family relationships, war, spirituality and grocery shopping. But one thing that ties the pieces together is the emotion behind the writing, Kennedy said.
There is often a strong emotional connection between young, emerging writers and their work, she continued. A playwright will often base his or her first plays on their own feelings and life experiences.
“They write from some place very personal,” Kennedy said. “They have to trust us enough to share those parts of their lives with total strangers.”
Despite those personal connections, the biggest challenge of directing the show has not involved the plays' content, she said. Producing five plays also means putting together five stage sets and finding costumes for more characters than a single play.
“It's the stuff the audience doesn't see that can be a little more time-consuming,” Kennedy said.
But at the same time, more plays give more exposure for emerging writers. The Auburn Players are meant to be a community theater group, Kennedy said. That means it should help community writers and actors by offering opportunities to shine, and five opportunities are better than one, she said.
“We're giving more playwrights a chance to have their work be seen,” Kennedy said.
Christopher Caskey
253-5311 ext. 282
christopher.caskey@lee.net
If you go.
What: Original Short Play Festival
When: 8 p.m. Fridays, Sept. 26 and Oct. 3; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, Sept. 27 and 28 and Oct. 4 and 5
Where: Auburn Public Theater, 108 Genesee St.
Cost: $10
Info: Call 258-8275 or visit www.auburnplayers.net
“We've been really lucky with the people who have turned up to be part of this festival,” Kennedy said. “And the actors get to be in more than one show, so we're almost like a little repertoire company.”
Starting Friday, Second Stage will perform five original plays for its second short play festival. The previously unpublished pieces, all 15 minutes or shorter, come from playwrights as near as Auburn and as far as Florida.
Last year, the company produced nine plays for the festival. Of the approximately 20 submissions, these were the scripts that evoked real responses from the organizing committee, said Kennedy, who is directing the show.
This is the first year the festival has received submissions from outside the state. The majority of the plays were written by Finger Lakes area residents, which Kennedy said is a goal of the festival. But it is nice to see work from diverse locations, she added.
“I was surprised when I looked at the return addresses,” Kennedy said. “It's good to know people actually read Web pages from other theater organizations across the country.”
The theater festival will feature a range of material and topics, with plays about family relationships, war, spirituality and grocery shopping. But one thing that ties the pieces together is the emotion behind the writing, Kennedy said.
There is often a strong emotional connection between young, emerging writers and their work, she continued. A playwright will often base his or her first plays on their own feelings and life experiences.
“They write from some place very personal,” Kennedy said. “They have to trust us enough to share those parts of their lives with total strangers.”
Despite those personal connections, the biggest challenge of directing the show has not involved the plays' content, she said. Producing five plays also means putting together five stage sets and finding costumes for more characters than a single play.
“It's the stuff the audience doesn't see that can be a little more time-consuming,” Kennedy said.
But at the same time, more plays give more exposure for emerging writers. The Auburn Players are meant to be a community theater group, Kennedy said. That means it should help community writers and actors by offering opportunities to shine, and five opportunities are better than one, she said.
“We're giving more playwrights a chance to have their work be seen,” Kennedy said.
Christopher Caskey
253-5311 ext. 282
christopher.caskey@lee.net
If you go.
What: Original Short Play Festival
When: 8 p.m. Fridays, Sept. 26 and Oct. 3; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, Sept. 27 and 28 and Oct. 4 and 5
Where: Auburn Public Theater, 108 Genesee St.
Cost: $10
Info: Call 258-8275 or visit www.auburnplayers.net
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