Mayor throws first pitch in playwrights’ PlayOffs

The Ike & Julie Arnove PlayOffs, sponsored by the Bloomington Playwrights Project, began Friday with a press conference announcing the PlayOffs where Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan threw out the first pitch — literally.

But first, Kruzan said he had to confess something.

“I’m not a huge basketball fan,” he said, with faux gasps coming from the audience. “I’m a Cubs fan. ... And if you’re a Cubs fan, you have to act.”

He took off his black zip-up jacket to reveal a Cubs long-sleeve T-shirt. Then he threw a ball with the PlayOffs’ theme, prop and dialogue on it to a catcher, who caught the ball, and the crowd of playwrights, directors and actors roared with cheers and applause.

The PlayOffs is a baseball themed BPP fundraiser in which nine teams compete to create the best original play in 24 hours. Proceeds support the theater’s mission of creating new American plays and toward its main stage plays. Performances of the PlayOffs continue at 8 p.m. Sunday, Friday and Saturday, and tickets cost $10.

Teams had to make a play with the theme “lost in translation” that included a baseball bat as a prop and the line “Failure is not an option” in the dialogue.

After Friday’s press conference, teams dispersed to work on their plays. Team Josie & The Holograms pulled up some chairs in the theater lobby, and the three actresses offered their talents.

“I know the first six digits of pi.”

“I have a good Russian accent.”

“I can sneeze on command.”

Playwright Josie Gingrich, pen to her upper lip, nodded her head and looking nowhere in particular asked if any of them had a baseball jersey. At least one did, and then they spouted off that they had Barbie dolls, stuffed animals, lots of shoes and even a rider’s crop they could use. The team brainstormed for about an hour before calling it a night.

“This is gonna be fun,” the team’s director Jen Alexander said. “I’m excited!”

Gingrich finished the first draft of her script at about midnight on Friday. She said she was feeling pretty good about it, and that meeting her actresses beforehand had been a big help in preparing the play. She said she had seen them all act before.

“I think they will do a great job with whatever they’re given,” she said.

The team rehearsed most of Saturday. Fifteen minutes before the first performances began, Gingrich and Alexander said they were excited for their play.

Gingrich said, unlike other playwrights, she didn’t stay up all night to finish writing the script. She was done by 2 a.m.

Actress Kathleen Boyd prefaced the event by leading the crowd in singing the national anthem. When she continued to sing the more unfamiliar second stanza, the crowd stopped. Singing alone, she started to look around, trailed off, feigned embarrassment and hurried offstage. Then the plays began.

The majority of them were comedies, including the one by Josie & The Holograms.

The play was titled “Common Ground” and told the story of three sisters trying to relate to one another. Gingrich incorporated several items that came from the discussion Friday night including goth clothes and makeup as well as a greek jersey and tattoos.

IU alumnus Chris Hartman, now living in Washington, had two friends involved in the PlayOffs. He said he came to the first night expecting mediocrity, knowing the teams only had one day to prepare. But he said the actors were solid and that the writing had a lot of thought put into it.

Hartman said his favorite performance was “The Love Translator,” which featured senior  Carly Cohen as a hippie-like relationship guru.

“The main actress stole the show,” Hartman said. “She got lucky and had a good character written for her, and she played it well.”