Bert Goldstein, Director of Wharton Center’s Institute for Arts and Creativity introduces this collection, crediting all collaborators in this project, adapting theatre to COVID performance restrictions. The writing is insightful, and a little scary at times — some of it pretty dark - but engaging. Mine was one of the “lighter” ones, but still threw in a little war and death and all that fun stuff. Seriously, though, this is well worth your hour and seventeen minutes of attention. You may be haunted by a few of these afterward.
Kudos to all involved, especially the authors (Kiera Zager, Yasmine Yaworski, Joselyn Acevedo, Alexander Curry, Anthony Spidel, Nathaniel Myers, McKenna Emerson, Isabelle Terhune, Ryhan Batts, My’kiri Polk, Dakota Brown and Aurelio Delgado) Each gave a brief intro to the monologue they wrote.
It was interesting to “meet” these playwrights onscreen but I was struck by how “plain” their intros were, compared to the intense sincerity of the actors performing the monologues. I credit the difference to actors' talent and also the directors (Eloy F. Gomez Orfila, Derek Donaher, Cameron Micheal Chase) who helped pace, interpret and suggest locations/motivations/accessories to make the moments more real. The actors were excellent, and all the more impressive when some became entirely different people in different monologues: Ben Barber, Savanna Cowley, Jay Golden, Marshall Ross, Sydney Jo Schneider, Sarah Weitecha, - and me, Jane Zussman.
Hard to say if I joined the actors in “excellence” since it’s a little embarrassing to watch yourself… and it was not too far a stretch for me to play a grandma babbling on to her granddaughter on a Zoom call. I enjoyed working with Eloy — and it was a bucket-list experience for me to participate in one of the Lansing-area video-theatre responses to the COVID lockdown.
You do have to “reserve” a ticket, thereby agreeing to experience “adult content/language” - but the Young Playwright Monologues are FREE of charge and intriguing. Watch the monologues at any time from June 21-27, 2021. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/young-playwrights-festival-tickets-158499485227