Newest BPP show ready to shock audiences

For the Bloomington Playwrights Project, producing tales of morbidity and strangeness is a good way to get college students involved in theater. For years, the South Washington Street theater has produced shows that have entertained the Bloomington community, but lately the company has tried something new to please a larger crowd.\nThe Dark Alley series, which is a series of late-night plays shown at 11 p.m., is the BPP's invitation to a more adult world of entertainment. Often sexual, the Dark Alley series features plays written by experimental playwrights and targeted toward younger, more adventure-seeking audiences. \nBeginning today and running through April 17, the Dark Alley series will feature "Sex/Death II," a sequel in response to the overwhelming success of "Sex/Death."\n"The BPP has seven good reasons to stay up past your bedtime," boasts the theater's Web site. "The Dark Alley Series brings original plays, which are on the fringe, adult-themed and experimental to Indiana from playwrights all over the country." \n"Sex/Death II," which will be the fifth production in the year-long Dark Alley series, features six vignettes in various settings and featuring different casts. "Sex/Death" also featured six separate plays in one piece and shocked audiences with interesting and previously unexplored realms of theatrical possibility. Some of the play titles in "Sex/Death II" include "Pink Skin," "The Dance," "The Bachelor Party" and "Cyber Sex." \nProducer Gilana Alpert said "Sex/Death II" promises to be just as successful as the original, featuring several plays submitted by various writers to the BPP, compiled for this show because of their brave subject matter. \n"This show has become a personal thing, we're trying to make it better," Alpert said. "It's seductive, it's going to make you think and may even make you jump in your seat."\nAlpert, an IU senior, said the piece she directed titled "Cyber Sex," a story about what can happen online when "you take things too literally," is completely comical.\n"It's there for people just to have fun. We're just trying to make people laugh," she said. "The plays are so interesting because they are varied. We have two comical pieces, two dramatic, and pieces that are very avant-garde."\nThe BPP, which has been a cornerstone of Bloomington theater for numerous years, is popular with many theater students in the IU community.\n"I think (the BPP) is a great resource for theater majors," said Joyce Thompson, a freshman theater major. "They have a professional outlet, there's a reputable theater in Bloomington that's not related to IU. The Dark Alley series is such an awesome idea because it produces non-mainstream shows, and that's important."\nWhile sex, violence and drugs may be controversial subjects, the BPP uses the Dark Alley series to bring to life "tales of titillation and morbidity to amaze, astound, and give audiences plenty to talk about the next day."\n"The (Dark Alley) series is what experimental theater is all about," Thompson said. "You have to be controversial sometimes."\n-- Contact staff writer Olivia Morales at ormorale@indiana.edu.