BPP series targets IU audience

Sex. Violence. Profanity. Nudity. These are the kinds of things that attract the attention of college students says Joel Pierson, this season's producer of the "Dark Alley Late Night" series at the Bloomington Playwrights Project.\nThe series, which has been an annual attraction for the past two years, focuses on shorter plays that are more adult-themed than the theater group's regular "Mainstage" productions. It kicks off this week with "Platinum Travel Club," by Canadian playwright Franca Miraglia, and has IU students locked in as the target audience.\n"I think the one element that runs through them all is that they are all racy," Pierson said. "They appeal to something primal in you. If a Mainstage play is a big, juicy steak, a Dark Alley is that greasy hamburger that you just crave."\n"Platinum Travel Club," which is co-directed by Pierson and sophomore Rachel Simons, opens tomorrow. It will run Thursday through Saturday-and Oct. 2-4 after the Mainstage show each night, starting at 10:30 p.m. The show is expected to last about an hour and 15 minutes. Admission is $6.\nPierson said the reason these shows are performed so late is because the directors are looking for a specific kind of audience.\n"We're looking for adventure seekers for the Dark Alley audiences," Pierson said. "The kind that would rather tune into Comedy Central than PBS."\n"Platinum Travel Club," is an erotic thriller with a "fresh" story, Simons said, about a young woman's unfortunate family history and the extremes she will go to in hopes of finding real and intimate interpersonal contact.\n"The script is so powerful," Simons said. "People will leave the show thinking about it for days to come. This play feels new, like it hasn't been sitting around for years."\nThis is the fifth play at the BPP for Simons, who is a theater major at IU. She said the BPP is just as, if not more, effective in preparing in a career in the future because, as an independent theater company, it has more flexibly in what shows it puts on and who it casts.\n"They're both very well done," she said. "At IU, the scripts are more restricted as to what message they can send to the audience. They are getting riskier with their script choices, but I feel the BPP is a much more relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere that really allows the students to challenge themselves with parts and with ways that just aren't feasible at IU."\nBoth directors said they hope the more risqué elements of "Platinum Travel Club" will help to catch the audience members off-guard and open them up to the plot and feeling of the play.\n"There's going to be some shock," Pierson said. "And I'm hoping it will be shock tempered with satisfied respect for the story. But no doubt there will be some shocking moments."\nPierson said none of the more provocative elements of the play are without purpose or "just for the sake of it." \nEach of these elements is used in the story to paint a clearer picture and make a deeper impact on the audience.\n"It's one thing to see violence or sexuality on TV, but it's another thing to see it right in front of you," cast member and freshman Jorie Slodki said. "Even though it's an erotic thriller, it's a lot more than just cheap violence or cheap sex. It's for the people who can put it into context, and I think IU students are mature enough to put it into the context of the story."\nSlodki and sophomore Shelley Engel are the only two students in the cast of the show. \n"Only 'Sex and Death II' is going to be racier (than 'Platinum Travel Club,')" Pierson said. "This show pushes the envelope a little more than any other show this season. That's why it's our lead show"