Saturday, October 6, 7 p.m.
Village Theatre, 2113 East 11th Street, Davenport IA
Theatre fans who actively seek out new and original works can, on October 6, find four of them at the Village of East Davenport's Village Theatre, where New Ground Theatre will house the venue's latest evening of Sudden Theatre – a 7 p.m. presentation of short plays that literally didn't exist one day prior.
As New Ground's Artistic Director Chris Jansen explains, Sudden Theatre is exactly what its title suggests. “It all takes place within 24 hours,” says Jansen. “A number of playwrights are given a prompt, or some constraint to work with, Friday night at 7 p.m. They can write all night if they want, and their scripts are due to the theatre at 9 a.m. on Saturday. They then have an hour to work with their directors, and then at 10 a.m., their casts come in. They rehearse all day, and the plays go up at 7 p.m. on Saturday.”
Jansen estimates that New Ground has presented Sudden Theatre “three or four times” over the past decade, and adds, “What I'm always surprised about is how very well these plays develop and resolve. They may not have really surprising plots or amazing twists, but these minature, really well-made plays come out of this high-pressure, low-time-to-write situation. And I would say that about 91-percent of the time, the actors have the scripts memorized (by Saturday night). Once in a while, though, especially if they haven't had a lot of experience on-stage, they'll want that script. And that's okay. We don't want to terrify people.”
Although Jansen gave her playwrights prompts (“just something random and fun”) in previous iteratations of Sudden Theatre, she says, “This time we're doing it a little bit differently: I'm compiling a list of interested actors ahead of time, and instead of giving the playwrights prompts, I'm going to give them a cast. 'Here's how many actors you have and here are their demographics – go.'
“In the past,” she continues, “we've sometimes had problems in that we knew what actors were going to show up on Saturday morning, but they didn't always fit the parts in the scripts, so directors would be on the phone, and wasting valuable rehearsal time, trying to rustle up people who were correct for the parts. But this year, no matter what gets written, it'll fit the cast they have. And that way no actors are disappointed, because everybody gets a part written just for them.”
Jansen currently has four playwrights, four directors, and a number of actors scheduled for this year's Sudden Theatre, but adds that she's still seeking interested participants regardless of their previous stage experience or lack thereof.
“A friend of mine said, 'I think I'd want to act in that,'” says Jansen. “And I said, 'Great!' And she said, 'Well, I haven't acted since high school.' And I said, 'I don't think that matters.' And she said, 'Well, what if I'm bad?' And I said, 'I don't think that matters!'”
She laughs. “Sometimes I hear from playwrights that it greases the writing wheels and gets them back into writing. Everybody works better under a deadline. But really, it's just all about having fun, and having the experience together.”
Sudden Theatre will be staged at the Village Theatre on October 6 at 7 p.m., admission is $5, and a beer-and-wine cash bar is available. For more information on both the evening and available positions in this year's Sudden Theatre presentation, call (563)579-3520 or visit New Ground Theatre's Facebook page.
