The Rocket

Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Steve Reed Sophomore Travis Bell, left, and junior Neil Durco rehearse for a short play to be performed as part of the Brave New Plays. [Click to enlarge]

As part of the sixth annual Kaleidoscope Arts Festival, the theatre department's Brave New Plays will return to the main stage, as the collection of a new student written and directed plays are performed April 24 through 28 at Miller Auditorium.

Now a widely anticipated week of performances, the Brave New Plays began by chance 14 years ago by a small group of students taking a trial playwriting class taught by theatre department professor David Skeele.

"I had two or three students come up to me and say they were starting a 10-minute play festival showcasing the plays they had written," Skeele said. "So it's mostly been an entirely student-run project. I've just always served as a literary manager that's helped to monitor what got accepted and made sure the playwrights were going to rehearsals and communicating with the directors."

In past years, Brave New Plays only included 10-minute student plays and was just a one or two night event held in the small Sheeby Auditorium in Maltby Center. But three years ago, Skeele said they experimented with adding a night of solo plays, or dramatic monologues, which they called "Flying Solo." Skeele said it went so well that it had to become a permanent part of the festival.

Because the 10-minute plays became just a portion of the performances, Skeele said they had to change the name of the 10-minute plays to "Hanging Ten," while the entire festival of plays is collectively called Brave New Plays.

This year is slightly different though, Skeele said. In addition to producing and overseeing the Brave New Plays, he will also be contributing some of his own work, more so than in previous years.

"Since we started "Flying Solo," I have performed a short play each year," Skeele said. "But this year, I'm going to perform all three of the plays I have written and performed in the past, and I've written two new ones for my colleague Laura Smiley and senior Deanna Brookens to perform as well."

Continued...

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