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This year, Oconomowoc High School’s Drama program applied to The American High School Theatre Festival to produce a play at next year’s acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Of the roughly 2200 high school programs that applied, Oconomowoc was one of only forty programs selected. Next Summer, Oconomowoc High School Director of Theatre Thomas Klubertanz will be taking 35 high school actors over to Edunburgh to perform.
The group needed to raise funding for the trip. They’re doing a production of Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour’s White Rabbit, Red Rabbit to raise funds. It’s a series of allegories in which the playwright lists some 17 different ways of committing suicide. Very dark, deep philosophical stuff.
I’ll let Thomas Klubertanz set-up the format of the play:
“Here is how the production works: The script is given to a new actor every night in a sealed envelope. There is no director, no rehearsal period, no elaborate set or lights...only the play, the actor, and the audience. The actor unseals the envelope in front of the audience, and then proceeds to "perform" the play...which is basically like a "reading" as the actor reads from the script they are given. Thus the actor and audience experience the author's words simultaneously as the actor performs the piece. Each night a new actor takes on the challenge of performing the play, so it really changes every time it is performed based on the actor and audience's responses.
