Performance Review
Spectral Sisters Productions
2012 Ten-Minute-Play Festival
by Gumbeaux Arts
The play is the thing with Spectral Sisters Productions in Alexandria, but thankfully, it is not the only thing. Started in 2002 with a vision to produce original work from local playwrights, SSP introduces the uninitiated to the mystical craft of writing a play, and then involves the most unlikely in the magic of its production. I am always amazed, yet never surprised at the outcomes I witness during SSP’s annual Ten-Minute-Play Festivals—assorted theatrical vignettes that transform mild-mannered citizens into playwrights, actors, and crew, while transporting audiences through time and space and back again, in little more than 90 minutes.
You can do a number of things in 10 minutes. You can take a walk, boil an egg, change a diaper, water your houseplants, “bust your belly fat” (really), even perform a Google search to find lists of things you can do in 10 minutes…
Or, you can explore a minefield of adult child-parent relationships, chat with God about love at your local coffee shop, turn a prostitute’s prison cell into a prayer room, find the love of your life online… ohh, the possibilities are endless! And you could have done all of these and more in only one evening at the SSP Ten-Minute-Play Festival, held June 14–17.
This year’s crop of ten-minute plays might have been the best yet, featuring the winners of the SSP Play Writing Contest held earlier this year. The level of writing demonstrated that SSP’s formula for cultivating imaginative, thoughtful, and capable playwrights is actually working. None of this year’s winning writers might truly be considered a novice at this point in their craft, but all are veterans of the group’s free playwriting workshops held during the festival, and most had never written a play before becoming involved with Spectral Sisters. Now, they are writing plays that captivate, provoke, and outright entertain. The beauty is that, through Spectral Sisters, anyone of us can do it.
The play is the thing, and every play needs a cast, and every cast a director. This year’s casts were also strong and, with some exceptions, the actors were equal to their roles. It was as delightful to see veteran actors create magic moments onstage as it was to watch novices discover their own magic as they embodied characters on stage for the very first time. Equally, directors are most effective when they interpret playwrights’ stories and meld actors’ delivery and movements so seamlessly that their own efforts are virtually invisible. This feat is not easy, even for seasoned directors, and was achieved in many instances in the performances I saw on opening night, if not across the board.
Live theatre is risky business. That’s what makes it so dynamic and irresistible. Working with a mix of veterans and newbies, untested material, and volunteers who might never before have stepped behind a stage curtain, Spectral Sisters takes on more risks than most to bring us their annual Festival. And so do the writers, directors, actors, crewmembers and, of course, the audiences. Nothing could be more disheartening for any of us than a poor match between the strength of material and the capacity of talent to do it justice or vice-versa. In this year’s Festival, it was especially gratifying to see so many new works handled so well onstage.
I was excited most throughout this year’s presentations, not by exceptional production or effortless characterizations—though there were ample amounts of both; I was excited most by the heart and energy emanating from every person involved—the passion of the minds and souls onstage and backstage, in the booth and in the wings, creating and recreating reality after imagined reality, eight times in a row. Now, that is the thing!
The plays featured in the Spectral Sisters 2012 Ten-Minute Play Festival were:
Hell Broke Loose by Emilie Griffin (2nd Place Winner, 2012 Play Writing Contest), directed by Kristopher Prestridge
Soulmates by Michael Robertson, directed by Belle Rollins
Throwing Out Trash by David Holcombe, directed by Kendall From
Oh Say Can You See by David Sobel (1st Place Winner, 2012 Play Writing Contest), directed by Jef Goelz
Little Ease by William Griffin, directed by Joshua Goodnight
Church and State by Allen Rowlen, directed by Rae Swent
Life as A Chair by Jef Goelz (3rd Place Winner, 2012 Play Writing Contest), directed by Allen Rowlen
Coffee, Tea Or Me by Carol Conner, directed by Jillian Roland
Find out more about Spectral Sisters and their upcoming production, Beau Willimon’s Farrugut North, directed by Steve Barton, by visiting the website at www.spectralsisters.com, or contacting admin@spectralsisters.com.
Gumbeaux Arts’ heart has two beats: the arts and Louisiana. Reared in a New Orleans family whose artistic roots count at least four generations, Gumbeaux is always close to home when there is a stage to play on, an art form to play in, or a fellow artist to play with. Now residing in the heart of the state, Gumbeaux markets and advocates for community-based arts organizations and artists residing primarily in Louisiana—on a mission to spread the word about arts in Louisiana, a spicy cultural mixture with a flavor all its own! You can reach Gumbeaux at gumbeauxarts@suddenlink.net.
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