December is a rough time for struggling theatrical scripts in this town. This is the time of year when old, established scripts are called-in by production companies to fill the same foundations that they did last year. Woods’ Cudahy Caroler Christmas and Hanreddy/Morgan’s script for A Christmas Carol have had steady holiday work for several years now. It’s a good gig for any script and there are those that seem to be well on their way to steady holiday work. Some of Jarecki’s sketches have returned for another Christmas with The Show, this year on the stage with In Tandem. Already there is talk of Schmitz’s new script returning for another Christmas season at the Alchemist Theatre.
There are those of us in any theatre audience who would prefer to hang out with new scripts at the theatre than meet the same old ones every holiday season. In light of all of the usual fare that floods local stages this time of year, its nice to know that there’s a big theatre company in town staging a program of all-new works. December 18 -21, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre presents its 2008 Young Playwright’s Festival.
The festival showcases the work of high school playwrightspeople who are perhaps only beginning to listen to those voices whispering out of a blinking cursor . . . those who are only beginning to understand the possibilities of a blank field in the digital. It is these people whose work will be featured the weekend after next. Here’s a bit of what curious audiences can expect:
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Adult siblings gather for their mother’s funeral in Breathing Underwater by Anna Kraemer of Menomonee Falls High School.
Summer Days is a tale of young friends and war written by Gregory Lewinski, also of Menomonee Falls High School
And finally, Rufus King I.B. High School’s Joseph Gardner explores romantic relationships from the latest generation in the modern age with Love.com or Can’t Talk While Typing.
That last one sounds particularly interesting to me. As a part of a upcoming article, I was recently talking to a young actress about how theatre is going to change with the emerging technology. It occurs to me that I haven’t even seen a decent representation of two ends of a fully mobile cell phone conversation onstage, let alone anything that accurately represents the online world onstage. It’s difficult to bring the drama of the online onstage. This past Spring there was an interesting comic bit abut online romance in Pink Banana’s Next Big Thing this past Spring. Amanda Baker and Jessica Betts’ Virtual Cherry was an interesting attempt to capture the odd idiosyncrasies of that kind of connection, but it seemed to be missing something. It’ll be interesting to see what someone from the newest generation of playwrights is able to do with adapting the internet for stage.
And speaking of Pink Bananathere are those of us to whom high school was a distant memory toiling away on shorts submissions for THEIR next shorts programone devoted entirely to relationships of any kind. The Deadline is January 1st. The show will run in March a the Broadway Theatre Center Studio Theatre. Submissions can be sent to the company at: pinkbananatheatre@gmail.com
