I posted this over at A Motley Vision, so I thought I would post it here as well:

For those who want a taste of the Mormon Theater scene, this weekend is the last weekend for performances from two Utah based theater groups’ most recent offerings.

The first is from the New Play Project, a group I’ve been working with closely lately. This weekend they are performing a group of short plays called accumulatively called Eccentricities (Feb 29 @ 7:30pm; Mar 1 @ 3:30 & 7:30pm; Provo Theater Company 105 E 100 N in Provo; Admission: $5). One of the co-founders of the group, James Goldberg, had this to say about Eccentricities:
“Numerous playwrights submitted short works for NPP’s 13th themed short-play festival. The seven selected plays respond to the overall theme in a variety of ways, taking both mostly comic and occasionally dramatic looks at how individuals’ eccentricities affect the relationships around them. At the conclusion of each performance, audience members will cast votes for their favorite show: the cumulative winner over the three performances will be awarded a cash prize and announced on our website!”

Donations will be also accepted at the show to help fund production of two full-length plays which will be added to our season in the coming months, including my own Swallow the Sun, which chronicles C.S. Lewis‘ conversion to Christianity, and Little Happy Secrets, a new play by Mel Leilani Larsen.

I’ve been impressed with this dedicated non-profit group of thespians, not only for their commitment to original work, but also for some of the excellent writing that comes from this relatively young group. They’ve chiefly focused on festivls of short works until now, but are now also branching out into full lengths.

New Play Project can be found on the web at: www.newplayproject.org

Another notable group of short plays is also closing this weekend at Provo, Utah’s, Covey Center for the Arts. Anthology of Love (performed in the Center’s Little Theatre at 7:30 p.m.; $10 admission; closing this weekend) is a “collection of six short romantic or comedic plays that have to do with love.” I’ve already seen this show, and I’ll say that it is a good little group of plays. Especially effecting is veteran Mormon playwright Eric Samuelsen’s superb “Rachel’s Sister,” a treatment on the Leah/Rachel/ Jacob story from the Old Testament.

Of special note is that Scott Bronson is taking over as the Artistic Director for the Covey Center’s “Little Theater.” To say that the theater is “intimate” is an understatement (it’s basically a big room), but Scott Bronson has been doing miracles with what little the Center is giving him and has more in store. I’m especially looking forward to their productions of Bronson’s Stones, Tim Slover’s Joyful Noise, an adaptation of Henry James’ Turn of the Screw (perhaps my favorite ghost story) and Wedlocked, a musical by Marvin Payne and Steven Kapp Perry.

So, choose a show (or preferably both!), for Anthology of Love and the Eccentricities are both highly recommended!

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Upon the stage of a theater can be represented in character, evil and its consequences, good and its happy results and rewards; the weakness and the follies of man, the magnamity of virtue and the greatness of truth. The stage can be made to aid the pulpit in impressing upon the minds of a community an enlightened sense of a virtuous life, also a proper horror of the enormity of sin and a just dread of its consequences. The path of sin with its thorns and pitfalls, its gins and snares can be revealed, and how to sun it (Discourses of Brigham Young, p.243; Bookcraft, 199

You'll see me. I can't escape the place!

Not since The Nauvoo Theatrical Society have I been as excited about Mormon theater. Last weekend the Provo Theatre Company and the new Covey Center for the Arts made venues available to the New Play Project with new plays and an anthology of plays about love that are not-as-new. I am relatively new to the short play, but am acquiring a taste. These two groups of short plays, Eccentricities and Anthology of Love, were varied and highly entertaining: they moved well and the acting was good. The plays were mostly humorous and satirical, but a couple were more serious. Scott Bronson will do a great job as artistic director at the Covey Center for the Arts. It was fun to see him act with Amanda Bakly, someone I loved working with at the Hale Center Theater in Orem. I liked Eric Samuelsen's well written Rachel's Sister and enjoyed seeing Marianne Hales Harding's sensitive Hold Me. Thom Duncan was wonderful acting in Anton Chekhov's The Proposal. I like Chekhov and Dustin Condren's translation was excellent. The Chekhov plays I have seen were not this funny. It was just delightful. I would love to have stayed to discuss the NPP plays after the performance, but the theater was bitterly cold and I couldn't wait to get out of there and warm up. As I left the theater I told one of the old codgers that after plan A had failed, I was waiting for him to ask for his two dollars back. Being a codger, I know about these things. James Goldberg and others are doing such a fine job with the New Play Project. I am impressed with their progress in such a short time. I look forward to their sponsorship of two particular full length plays this Spring/Summer: Mahonri Steward's Swallow the Sun, relating the early life and conversion of C.S. Lewis and Melissa Leilani Larson's Little Happy Secrets about "a young woman's struggles with the complicated lines crossing friendship, attraction, and love". Thanks to everyone involved for a delightful weekend of Mo-theater.

I'm a believer in The New Play Project and the most recent festival of short plays Lost & Found confirmed my belief. I saw the talent and creativity, experienced the thinking and the feeling, and I so want this project to find the success it deserves. I always enjoy Mel Larson's plays and I was blown away by James Goldberg's play Prodigal Son. The plays are much better when then come at you unaware. I am glad I didn't read them in advance. I have an idea to promote these short plays. There are hundreds of book chubs in the area. I feel sure that once a year or so these clubs would enjoy having a readers theater night using two or three of these plays. It would be a delightful treat and I know the members would agree to pay to see the plays. If Scott Bronson can do plays in his back yard as a fund raiser, couldn't some of the NPP members take these plays on the road? I know students are very busy, but if you spread it around and organize it well, I think it could work. If the students are too busy, couldn't the playwrights give permission for local actors to do the theater? Word of mouth is a powerful promotional tool and most everyone I know belongs to one or two book clubs. Please FIND it in your hearts to give this some thought, before you tell me I have LOST my mind.