Playoffs test speed, talent

Nine teams comprised of a writer, director and one to three actors will continue to compete this weekend in the 4th annual Bloomington Playwrights Project Playoffs. \nThe Playoffs offer the chance for amateurs and veterans of the stage to come together to write, produce and perform nine new plays within 24 hours -- a breakneck pace compared to the months spent rehearsing already-scripted, full-length projects.\nThe rules are simple: Each of the nine teams has 24 hours to create its own 10 minute play from scratch. The writers are assigned a common line, prop and theme which they must incorporate however they want into their works. This year, the prop was a Polaroid camera, the theme was "transformation" and the line was "this is going to hurt me more than it will hurt you."\nThe teams were assigned Friday night. Each team's writer spent until 6 a.m. Saturday composing roughly 10 pages of dialogue. Then the actors and director got together Saturday to run through lines before their initial performance that evening. Actors honed their skills for three additional runs, one of which occurred last Sunday, with two more this weekend. \nDifferent teams employed their own methods to ensure an efficient production. \nNicole Bruce wrote this year's entry "Zoo Memories" about a bickering couple, played by Colin Jorgensen and Rachel Crouch, whose awkward trip to the zoo is pushed beyond the boundaries of sanity by Derrick Krober, who plays a crazed cameraman.\nBruce and the director, Tracy Bee, met with their three actors Friday night. Bruce fired off a list of questions to the actors in order to gauge what type of characters they like to play. She asked questions like "What is your favorite movie?" and "What is something that annoys you?" \nThe question "What would be your dream role?" evoked some character-revealing responses. \n"McMurphy," Krober said, referring to the lead character in Ken Kesey's novel, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."\n"Something from 'Ragtime,'or something by (Stephen) Sondheim," Crouch said. "Everybody wants to do Sondheim."\n"Medea," Jorgensen said, referring to titular female role of Euripides' tragedy.\nJorgensen's answer raised some skepticism.\n"You'd like to play Medea?" Bee asked.\n"Or some version thereof," Jorgensen answered. \nBruce also used the time as a brainstorming session to figure out how she would utilize the line, the theme of transformation and the Polaroid camera. \n"It's an illicit thing," Crouch said, referring to the Polaroid camera. "You can take the picture and run. You're the only person who has to see it."\nJorgenson also added his own lines.\n"I like how you guys are in the dark," he said. "Like, way in the dark and I'm, like, family vacation!"\nBruce said one of the things she liked about the Playoffs was the opportunity for the writer to get a feel for the actors ahead of time. \n"I love that that's even out there as an option, to use the people and their characters," she said.\nBee agreed with Bruce and added a personal angle to her statement.\n"(I want) to write to their strengths, write to their type," added Bee. \nBruce and Bee have each been with the Playoffs since its inception in 2002. Bruce acted during the first year and directed the second year. Bee, an academic adviser at IU, wrote the first year and directed last year. \nBruce, an acting student in the IU Department of Theatre and Drama, said she had little experience writing plays, which made her a bit apprehensive about her skills as a dramatist.\n"The plays I have written are not very good. I'm primarily a writer of poetry," she said. \nBee said one of the joys of the Playoffs is watching how such strict limitations such as length and time can force people into a state of creativity. Another joy is watching the performances go awry. \n"It's common for the first performance to be very rough," said Bee. "You'll watch people struggle and try to remember their lines." \nDespite the restrictions, each short play addresses drastically different subjects. \n"Black Jesus Gonna Save Us All" deals with how the sudden appearance of a baby tests the bonds of a lesbian couple already at the fringes of their relationship. \n"American Wife" shows a soldier's wife trying to show her support by sending nude pictures of herself overseas. An old woman, played by Rachel Waldrip, agrees to photograph the woman, against her better judgment. \n"Womanhood" addresses the pains of growing up as two young girls dream of what it's like to be women. When the Spirit of Womanhood arrives -- in the form of a wiry, mustachioed I. James Torry in pink and purple tie-dye -- they decide being a woman is worth the wait. \nThe BPP Playoffs will hold two more showings this weekend at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday night at the BPP building, located at 312 S. Washington St.