A Plan: Ten Minute Play Mini-Festival
(I’m breaking my posting schedule with this, but I’d like to get this out today.)
This is my last show in my current location. Once this show is over, I’m moving away, either home or to wherever I’m going to grad school. There is a lot I’m going to miss about this place, but honestly, it’s just time for me to move on. However, I intend to go out with a bang.
I have an idea, and I’m hoping some of my friends will be willing to participate. The whole idea of this exercise is to improve ourselves as actors by getting criticism, suggestions and feedback from our peers, our faculty, and from random people who show up to the performance. In addition, this project will be huge brownie points in the eyes of the faculty, for anyone who participates.
I have a book of a collection of 10 minute plays. I’ve been reading through it, and I’ve found several plays that would be fairly easy to do, yet fun as well. The question is: will they be interested as well? Here’s my proposal.
Mission Statement: We intend to produce multiple 10-minute plays for free to anyone who wishes to attend, for the intents of A) having fun, B) becoming better actors and C) helping generate interest in the theatre.
The Plan:
1) Get three or four people together (actually, the more the merrier)
2) Assign parts
3) Either take turns directing or I’ll direct all the plays
4) Spend 2-3 weeks practicing (they’re 10 minute plays, so not a lot of practice required)
5) Perform them (for free) one afternoon in the black box studio
6) Ask the audience for their criticisms (either written or verbal). To increase participation of this aspect, anyone who participates gets a coke and cookie or something.
7) Have a Post-Mortem meeting with everyone involved, go over the criticisms and suggestions. 
Become better actors
The key here is to offer them for free (to encourage attendance and participation), and to GAIN MEANINGFUL FEEDBACK from others. One of the problems that I see in the department is a lack of feedback from our instructors. Very rarely are we told what could be done better (especially after a play is over with). Every other industry out there does something similar, and it helps them avoid making the same mistakes over and over. Since our instructors won’t give us feedback on their own, let’s do our own project and generate our own feedback.
Hopefully, I’ll get enough participants (only need three!) to get this off the ground and running. And hopefully, this will be such a success that it happens every semester, even after I’m gone. Perhaps, in the future, it will become a 10-minute play festival or something.
What do you think? Do you have better ideas, or perhaps some suggestions to improve this? I’d love to read your comments!
