The 2022 Ten-Minute Plays
Bake for Life
a play by Rainah Gregory
Directed by: Jazzy Pedroza-Watson
Silas: Antonyo Myers
Kara: Hayley Nelson
Jan: Mia Parker
Flo: Tia Greene
Coach Bateman: Timothy Skidmore
Host: Callyn May
Stage Directions read by George Barreto
Dramaturgical notes by Caroline Hull:
“Even though I am a victim, I do not and will not live my life as one. I am an Olympian.”
– Jordan Wieber (Larry Nassar Trial)
When people look to celebrities for guidance and inspiration, it is typically because of a subconscious and incorrect ideology that assumes those found in the spotlight are simply unbreakable. It can even seem unnatural to witness household names out of their expected environments - an Oscar-winning actress running to the grocery store, a Grammy-nominated artist playing with their dog. This concept that famous individuals, particularly athletes, are somehow immune to the trials and tribulations faced by so-called "normal people" is entirely false and utterly delusional. In Bake for Life, Rainah Gregory places an Olympic boxer on the set of a celebrity baking competition to actively show the audience that even those who appear made of iron are capable of uncertainty. Vulnerability is a quality so incredibly human that even those who throw professional punches are familiar with uncomfortable feelings of fragility.
Bake for Life also reveals another relevant and vital issue - sexual harassment and violence towards female athletes in professional and leisure sports. The trial of Larry Nassar, a former US Olympic Gymnastics Team Doctor, revealed that he had assaulted over 500 women and girls who competed in the sport. Hashtags, including #CoachDontTouchMe and #SportToo, spread on different forms of social media and brought attention to the horrifying fact that coaches are taking advantage of the trust and closeness given to them by aspiring athletes across the globe. Melody Posthuma-Vanderveen, one of Nassar's former patients, spoke out during the trial, pleading that "We need to call out the deeper issue at hand. We live in a society where action is not taken when it's most needed." Gregory's play shows the gravity of how abusive coach/athlete relationships can leave even the strongest feeling weak. However, it is our job to remember; this is not just a story. It is the story of hundreds, thousands of women who make up a mighty army. Not because they are celebrities, not because they are Olympians - but because they are survivors.
“I will not stop speaking until I am heard, until we are heard, until things are changed.”
- Amanda Smith (Larry Nassar Trial)
Going on Thirteen
a play by Abigail Coats
Directed by George Barreto
Max: Tyja Lynxx
Red: Shy'Tavian Jenkins
Stage Directions read by Antonyo Meyers
Dramaturgical notes by Jazmin Fletcher:
According to The National Center for Drug Abuse statistics, Children living in single-parent households are 47.6% more likely to live with an alcoholic father than an alcoholic mother. In Going on Thirteen, we learn that Max is a 17-year-old older sister to a 12-year-old brother named Red. Max is left with the heavy task of protecting her brother after their mother completely walks out of their life. Red is hurt by his mother’s absence and is looking for a way to cope. He sees his father’s coping mechanism is drinking. The play questions how habits and addictions are created. Are they hereditary? Are they learned behaviors?
Intoxicated adults are responsible for 150 child deaths every year. Many more children and young adults are harmed physically and emotionally from the neglect of alcoholic parents. In Going on Thirteen, Max has assumed a parental role out of twin necessities: her mother’s absence and her father’s alcoholism. She must weigh her maternal feelings towards Red with the normal rituals of young adulthood: how can she navigate graduation, moving away from home, or college? How can she confront her family’s harmful cycles? Are they destined to continue?
This household is damaged and hurt due to their mother's absence, who decided to get up and leave behind her family. Max is forced to grow up to soon and begins to take on a motherly role in the house, which has now caused her younger brother to cling to her, making decisions like going off to college ten times harder for a 17-year-old. Max seems to have lost hope in having a normal full family but the want is still there especially when she realizes it will take away from her leaving the toxic environment her father has created. We are told that their mother left because she was sad and “some people just are” this leads us to believe the mother was fighting some type of depression. An instead of taking her family with her on that hard journey she decided to bow out on her family all together. Max has a vague memory of her mother which tells us her mother left when she was young but after Max was born. Max was probably around Red’s current age when their mother left, you can see that her depression was more feasible then anything else. If it wasn’t, max would probably have more memories of their mother with Red.
The Moon Play; Or Luna Under Alabama Wood
a play by Daulton Causey
Directed by: Andrew Randolph
Luna: Miss Shugga Rosenbloom
Hal: Darris Hodges
Oberon: Caroline Hull
Dramaturgical notes by Domenika Moncayo:
Why do we find ourselves connected to myths and folktales? Why do we see ourselves in the cosmos? These are questions you might ask yourself as you watch A Moon Play; Or, Luna Under Alabama Wood. This play is a love story between a boy and the moon told through the mode of Surrealism.
Surrealism is an artistic movement that focuses on symbolic and dreamlike art. Working in response to Realism, Surrealists sought to better exemplify our real lives and human desires. Hal, our boy love interest, is a dreamer through and through. His dialogue is written in a specific manner, with our playwright, Dalton Causey, implementing poetic language in his play. There is a heavy importance on words, each one holding a significant weight to the storytelling process. This is a trait often seen in Surrealism by leading literary figures such as André Breton and Antonin Artaud.
Plays like this one explain parts of ourselves that we seldom discuss. When watching this play, we ask that you hear the words and try to connect to them. Think upon your own life and—if possible—look at the moon and stars. How were they created?
An Apology
a play by William Sippel
Directed by James Hodges
Ben: Skott Russell
Leigh: SarahGrace Triplett
Stage directions read by Rainah Gregory
Dramaturgical notes by Kimberlee K. Fernandez:
“Unlike 'real relationships', 'virtual relationships' are easy to enter and to exit. They look smart and clean, feel easy to use, when compared with the heavy, slow-moving, messy real stuff.” – Zygmunt Bauman (Polish sociologist and philosopher)
The virtual world offers new and unique ways for people to make connections and enables strangers a chance to acquaint themselves with people from all over the world. But the virtual world has its downfalls and challenges. A livestreaming video may suddenly stop streaming or a Zoom, Google Meet, or Discord meeting glitches due to a five second buffer, creating awkward moments between attendees and moderator. Over the past fifteen years, online gaming has experienced a steady increase in popularity. Most gamers use online streaming for game play because they truly enjoy the experience. But, what if, in the heat of the moment, a person says something during a livestreaming game that they cannot take back? Words matter.
In An Apology, playwright William Sippel addresses this type of conflict within a livestreaming gamer’s world and the effect it has on his female friend and manager. Sippel also directly addresses sexism women experience in the gaming industry and shines light into the dark video game culture. He gained inspiration from real-life events like the popular online gamer and YouTuber PewDiePie’s, “accidental” use of a racial slur during a live streaming game and his subsequent apology. He also draws attention to blatant sexism in gaming journalism by referencing the 2014 “Gamergate” controversy – a conservative, sexist video game subculture that specifically targeted women within the industry. This targeting led to (and continues to allow) a socio-virtual culture promoting the use of derogatory names, racial and sexist slurs, including “doxing” – the revealing of personal information with an intent to publicly shame, extort, or promote physical violence. However, An Apology does not advocate “Cancel Culture.” Instead, it asks audiences to consider the conflict resolution process, or if there is a possibility for one once a virtual action presents real consequences.
The stress on intrapersonal relationships throughout virtual reality have very real physical and psychological effects. An Apology highlights online celebrities’ relationships within the virtual and real world. By addressing these complex issues, in combination with the interplay between characters, the gray area between the two worlds emphasizes the severity of streamers’ mistakes and adds weight to public apologies. It is important to consider the moral and immoral ways online personas deal with the crisis of a conflict. Their response, or lack of response, influences their social reputation and their closest personal relationships.
This is Not a Date
a play by Tanaka Maria
Directed by Cameron Driggers
Vic: Caroline Hull
Alicia: Shari Lewis
Dramaturgical notes by Thérèse Weidenkopf:
Your hands are cold and sweaty, your head is throbbing, your heart is beating out of your chest, you feel as if you’re in a daze. You’re not having a heart attack, you’re about to tell your crush you like them. There is always the initial fear associated with telling someone you are interested in them romantically. The fear of rejection looms over the head of the confessor like a hurricane brewing in the heavens. The admission of romantic feelings can feel like a paradigm shift in what the previous relationship stood for. The initial expression of romantic feelings between a male and female relationship is stressful enough, even in a society where the boundaries of a heteronormative relationship are well established. How do queer persons navigate expressing romantic feelings for friends when their only possible example of relationships given by society is heteronormative?
Tanaka Maria dissects the navigation of romantic feelings for one’s friend in a queer relationship in their play This is Not a Date. In doing so, Maria opens a forum of discussion regarding the limits around intimacy in a friendship between two queer persons. Queer persons who have been socialized in a heterosexual society are presented with the heteronormative confines of romantic relationships, specifically the adage of “men and women cannot be just friends”. But how does this apply to a queer relationship, and how does one create their own boundaries in friendships that could turn romantic in queer relationships? For example, does being a lesbian and engaging in a lesbian friendship mean that ultimately the two must become lovers, or can the friendship between two queer same sexed persons? These are topics not-entirely discussed nor are the strict sexual boundaries for queer relationships outlined in a heteronormative society as clearly as they are for heterosexual relationships. Maria brings attention to queer people traversing the confines of a friendship that could turn to something more, and feeling out of place in a heteronormative society in This is Not a Date through their choice of setting. The play is set in an overly posh French restaurant surrounded by heterosexual couples, further demonstrates the unclear boundaries and lack of conformation queer couples have in a heterosexual society.
Maria takes the popular theme of expression of romantic feelings and applies it to the queer community in a way that promotes discussion about romantic boundaries and normalizes seeing queer couples on stage. While the two characters featured are both queer, which aids in the normalization of queer relationships on stage in This is Not a Date, the question that the characters and the audience grapple with is how the definitions and boundaries of intimate friendships and romantic relationships in the queer community differ from the ones prescribed and taught in our heteronormative society?
Don’t Feed Dead Roses Your Drinking Water
a play by Ozzy Wagner
Directed by Søren Klinger
Alice: Abigail Coats
Geo: John Barfield
Jasper: Jeremey Seaborough
Stage directions read by Sarah Grace Triplett
Dramaturgical notes by Caroline Hull:
“Sometimes letting go is simply allowing yourself to come to terms with the truth that you have been watering dead plants.”
- Steve Maraboli
One of the most significant elements of theatrical literature and performance is how playwrights and performers can harness the power of Symbolism. From lightness and darkness representing good and evil to hues of purple suggesting wealth and royalty, symbols have become a key ingredient when telling impactful stories with hidden depths inside the text. Ozzy Wagner uses this storytelling tool deftly in Don't Feed Dead Roses Your Drinking Water, creating a piece that displays how toxic masculinity can creep into even the earliest stages of relationships. Emotionally draining and neglectful partnerships have existed as long as human relationships have, and these unhealthy connections often lead to the subconscious internalization and acceptance of blatant abuse.
This play gives audiences a world where a vase is more than just a vase – it is an idealistic woman’s commitment to a broken relationship. A vase can be a manipulative man’s leverage over someone who merely wants to be loved in return. Water isn’t simply liquid; it is the physical representation of effort being poured into something unwilling and unable to reciprocate. Swallowing wilted rose petals becomes the act of internalizing one’s abuse and longing to be close to a partnership that no longer breathes. Through hauntingly beautiful imagery throughout Don’t Feed Dead Roses Your Drinking Water, Wagner assists audiences with identifying warning signs and encouraging women found in these dangerous situations to leave before they begin to lose sight of themselves and the truth of the relationship.
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“I don’t think people realize how much strength it takes to pull your own self out of a poisonous situation with someone you love deeply. |
