Friday, March 27, 2009
With March Madness underway, a group of student playwrights will compete in their own Final Four this weekend.
English Alternative Theatre is bringing back its Final Four competition of one-act plays after a more than five-year absence. The student plays will be performed Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Black Box theater at the Lawrence Arts Center.
“It’s always interesting to me to see what students are writing about,” Paul Stephen Lim, professor of English, said.
breakbox
Final Four Competition of One-Act Plays
What: English Alternative Theatre’s competition of four student plays When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday Where: The black box theater in the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire St. How much: Free
The following student plays will be competing: Friday night: “Cheeseburger Nation” by Brian Highberger “The Importance of Conversation in a Monologue” by Joe Scott
Saturday night: “The Tragedy of Empty Streets” by AJ Mathews “Eli Touched, Whitney Ginned” by Brett Runyon
The winning plays from each night will compete on Sunday.
Lim, the founder of English Alternative Theatre, organized the event. He chose four student plays — two comedies and two serious plays — from his Introductory Playwriting class to be performed in the Final Four competition.
The comedies are “Cheeseburger Nation” by Brian Highberger, Garnett junior, and “The Importance of Conversation in a Monologue” by Joe Scott, Wichita senior. The serious plays are “The Tragedy of Empty Streets” by A.J. Mathews, Overland Park senior, and “Eli Touched, Whitney Ginned” by Brett Runyon, who graduated in December.
The comedies will be performed on Friday night and the serious plays will be on Saturday night. The audience votes on the plays each night, and the two winning plays will compete again on Sunday afternoon. The winners from each night will receive cash prizes.
“The plays are in progress and the audience writes down feedback notes so that the playwrights will benefit from viewer feedback,” Lim said.
Faculty, staff and students will act in the plays and have been rehearsing all week.
All four student playwrights have only recently begun playwriting, and this is the first time for each of them to have one of their plays produced.
“What makes it so scary is having another person portray a character you created,” Mathews said. “It’s nerve-wracking.”
The students’ inspiration for the plays ranged from history classes to family members to the HBO series “Deadwood.”
“I took a lot of language for my play from that series,” Runyon said.
Lim founded English Alternative Theatre, the department of English’s producing organization, in 1989 to help develop new scripts by KU students and to nurture local talent. Lim said that throughout the years, nearly 30 student plays and programs had received awards from around the country.
He said the competition would give the audience a chance to enjoy local talent from students.
“It’s terrific to be able to contribute to the process because something that the audience says by way of feedback is going to be considered seriously by the playwrights,” Lim said. “The audience will be able to shape and make the plays better.”
Award named after English professor
Paul Stephen Lim is also a playwright and the award will honor ...
Who’s Who: Paul Lim
English professor and playwright runs club for students to write and perform ...
Paul Lim’s last act: playwriting in retirement
Playwriting professor and founder of English Alternative Theatre has decided to focus ...
EAT performs play in a “new way”
The English Alternative Theatre offers students a unique performance of “August: Osage ...
Dramas portray parents’ first meetings
The English Alternative Theater’s one-acts performance and writing competition takes place today, ...
Festival chooses three KU female playwrights
Ketchup makes everything better, even maggot-riddled World War II rations, says one ...
Theater group to stage final performance
The nationally recognized English Alternative Theater will close its curtains after founder, ...
Rumors are wrong; ‘Jocasta’ clothes stay on
Junior Whitney Rowland competes in playwright competition ...
Rowland’s plays have been performed in Lawrence.
KU play looks at disappearance
A KU graduate student's play about a Linwood high school senior who ...
University Theatre to feature undergraduate plays
Two student productions kick off this weekend in University Theatre’s unique undergraduate ...
Play review
Twelfth night
Play illustrates sisters' complex relationship
The University Theatre's play, "The Maids," portrayed the relationship between sisters, which ...
Student’s script comes to life
Adam Burnett’s two-act play “The Death of Romance” is scheduled to hit ...
Shakespearean theater to open spring 2009
New theater will give students the opportunity to get involved on stage ...
Play offers relevant themes for students’ today
On Wednesday the English Alternative Theater began performances of Sophocles’ tragic play ...
Aboriginal playwright visits University theater classes
David Milroy’s work examines the Australian Aboriginal experience from both a historical ...
French play highlights couples’ troubles
Show written in 1907 relies on timing, physical activity and relevant relationship ...
Updated opera has Kansas roots
Opera opens on campus
The production premiered on Thursday and will continue until Feb. 2.
University student named as Rhodes scholar
Kelsey Murrell became the University's 26th Rhodes scholar after a year-long application ...
Donald Glover enamors students
The talented comedian from the show “Community” covers several topics.
Wanda Sykes cancels homecoming week performance
Comedian Wanda Sykes will not be performing at The University of Kansas ...
Buran Theatre Company to perform final show ...
“Enormous Weight,” by Carlo Matos, will be the final production in Lawrence ...
Five freshmen earn perfect ACT scores
In-state students receive scholarships worth more than $15,000 per year for a ...
Students compete in lax poetry contest
An open forum at the Kansas Union provides poets the opportunity to ...
Local bands compete at Farmer’s Ball
KJHK’s Farmer’s Ball gives local bands the chance to perform and compete ...
Year-ending opera to open Friday
On Campus
Q and A with Ryan Dolan
White: Nothing comedic about costs
From bloated parking ticket fines to expensive textbooks, college doesn't come cheap. ...
Student strives to be on stage
Shipley, a fan of acting and stand-up comedy for years, discusses her ...
Movie Review: "Fright Night"
Hollywood hits, indie flicks and everything in between.
Acting group presents immigration issues
Troupe from Cornell University performed “Desiertos,” a play that highlights Mexican-American border ...
Radio Free Lawrence
How KJHK 90.7 drives the local music scene and fits into the ...
This weekend: Double-feature of student theater
Because those CSI marathons are getting old.
Professor says call to stage was call ...
Dennis Christilles, a professor in the department of theatre and film, says ...
Wescoe wit
Fun with eavesdropping
Soccer or Futbol? Women’s soccer team travels ...
The Kansas women’s soccer team completed a nine-day tour of Brazil on ...
Students to compete in trivia contest
Teams will test their trivia knowledge in the Quiz Bowl on Friday ...
Kansas Jayhawk fans hold aloft a reproduction of ...
2 comments
Erin Saupe, a Ph.D. student from St. Cloud, ...
1 comment
0 comments
Armed robbers continue to threaten.
3 comments
Lecture from Greg Mortenson, co-author of New York ...
0 comments
KUnited presidential candidate Libby Johnson and vice presidential ...
1 comment
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID