Again, there are no programs, and I couldn’t write down/remember/keep track of actors’ names I didn’t know in advance, but applause for all. Blood by Jenny Crakes of East Lansing explored issues of identity in the quest of a sperm-donor daughter for her “real” father. The actress playing the young-child version of the searching daughter was very endearing with her real/unreal dad, Eddie Heldt.
The second two featured a wonderful younger older actress pairing; wish I had their names as both did a great and different job in each play. Appointment with Destiny by Beth Novak of NYC was a wonderful knot of a character study between a frustrated guidance counselor and her challenging student. In the next, A Valentine for Ellie, Mom was still grieving in her daughter’s messy room, a year after she’d been lost to the Stoneman Douglas School shooting. The same actress who’d been such a tough, sassy mess in the previous play, was now the encouraging spirit of the departed daughter, back to help mom move on.
The longer play tonight was Dear Donald/Dear Hillary by Elaine Liner, Dallas, TX - imagining the two starting as pen pals as children and chronicling their progress — or regress?— though their eventful lives in a long series of letters. It was a fun, sometimes far-fetched but entertaining, and intertwined with reality - well done by Jesse Frawley and Ellie Weise.
Get ready for WEEK TWO OF RENEGADE 8/15-17 — the WINNER shows and PARTY time: The three Winning New Scripts - 10 minute, one-act, and full length categories will all three be repeated each night Thursday through Saturday, starting at 7pm at URBAN BEAT on Turner Street in Old Town — with food and drink available for purchase.
Saturday only — the RENEGADE RUCKUS result of the 24-hour playwriting/rehearsing/producing experiment will perform their series of newborn 10 minute plays at approximately 10:30, also at Urban Beat.
(Remember, Saturday only, you can see Curtainless Theatre’s “The Play’s the Thing” Shakespeare presentation playing at Riverwalk Theatre at 7 - and still make it to the Ruckus afterward.)
For more info on RENEGADE — check out the current CITY PULSE https://www.lansingcitypulse.com