Festival celebrates young playwrights, actors

At 7 p.m. tonight the Bloomington Playwright's Project will kick off the third day of its 19th annual Mini-Play Festival, which challenges elementary through high school students to produce, stage, direct and star in short plays written by their peers. \n"Essentially, the festival is a culmination of an event that took place early in the fall," said Breshaun Joyner, the festival's director.\nLast fall BPP ran a playwriting competition for Monroe County students in grades 3 through 12. First, second and third place winners were chosen at the elementary, middle and high school levels by local playwrights and writers for The Herald-Times, which helped sponsor the contest. Students in theater workshops staged the nine prize-winning plays overseen by Joyner and a staff of IU theater majors.\nThis year's Mini-Play Festival Workshop focuses on giving participants a well-rounded view of the theater. During the workshop, students choose an area of main interest, but they also study the basics of all the disciplines that contribute to a show: writing, directing, acting, costuming and stagecraft. \n"If it wasn't for the stage crew there wouldn't be a play … they put so much effort into it," said 10- year-old Will Mahoney, who directed "It's Out There."\nEach student typically has the opportunity to work on several different aspects of production. 8-year-old Rose D'Eliso, the author of "It's Out There," entrusted the rehearsal process of her own play to Mahoney while she performed in a different work called "Sticking Together." \n"I like the acting part because it's fun to memorize the lines," she said. \nIn addition to rehearsing the plays, all students participate in sessions that concentrate on a new element of theater each week.\nAnother educational aspect of the Mini-Play workshop is its emphasis on cooperation, especially between children of different ages. One of the winning plays in the high school category, "The Witness Was a Lady," includes adult-themed content such as a marital breakup and the death of several characters. When directors were assigned, one session's production of "The Witness Was a Lady" was handed over to an elementary student who showed interest in the play. BPP staff said the pairing seems to work well. The parents of the director gave full consent for their child to manage the production.\n"The playwright's been able to see the director's work a couple of times … (and) I think (he's) fine with it," said Nicole Bruce, a sophomore theater major at IU who has been working alongside several of the student directors since January. \n"We do ask (the younger directors) a few more questions," explained Anne Nemer, another IU theater major who has worked closely with the students, "(but) we want to make sure that they're doing most of it themselves." \nThe students' main goal is to faithfully portray the playwrights' works. Each of the nine plays has its own purpose and a unique way of conveying its message to the audience. From plot-driven pieces like "The Witness Was a Lady" to spin-offs such as 12-year-old Sammi Rosenplot's "Rapunzel's Contest," which uses the well-known fairy tale as its point of departure, the casts and crew have made it their job to bring every script to life. By doing this they are fulfilling the BPP's dual objectives of inspiring children to put their originality on paper and then giving them the opportunity coveted by many older playwrights: the chance to see the results.\n"(The BPP has) always had a connection with theater education," Bruce said, adding that the purpose of the Mini-Play Festival is to give "kids who wanted to write ... somewhere to go with their creativity and imagination."\nMini-Play Festival performances will continue tonight at the BPP's Black Box Theater on 312 S. Washington St. and run through Thursday. All performances begin at 7 p.m. Tickets are $6 for adults and $3 for children. For more information or to make reservations contact the BPP at 334-1188.