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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us July 7, 2005 Maggie McClellan , top photo, organized this year’s Ashland 10 Minute Plays Festival, which showcases directing talents of (descending order of photos) Caroline Shaffer, G. Valmont Thomas and Bob McCracken, among others. Submitted photos Right after the Fourth of July, more fireworks explode during the Ashland 10 Minute Play Festival held at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Southern Oregon University’s Center Stage Theatre, just off Mountain Avenue. This year’s biannual event is being co-sponsored by the Ashland New Plays Festival in collaboration with the Department of Theatre Arts at Southern Oregon University. Maggie McClellan, Ashland New Plays Festival board member and associate professor of theatre in SOU’s theatre department, says, “The 10-minute play format challenges actors, writers and directors to develop characters and tell a story in the time it takes to walk your dog. This format makes for a fast-paced evening that offers a variety of human experience — it’s the ‘roller coaster’ of theater, blending the elements of improvisation with staged theatrical production.” The Ashland event has evolved into a national contest with playwrights from across the country now submitting entries. A committee of readers formed from the board of the Ashland New Plays Festival selected the final eight plays. McClellan went to work putting together the team of directors and actors and technicians that will bring them to life. “We’ve moved to a bigger venue and an extra performance because we’ve been selling out and turning people away the last couple of years,” says Tilly Gibbs, Ashland New Play Festival president. “And people have been begging for a matinee since the beginning. Plus, we’re thrilled to be working with SOU.” “These plays are creative in ways full-length plays can’t be,” said Debbie W. of Medford after attending last year’s production. “They jump right into the story — you know right away who the characters are — but with great surprises at the end. It’s immediate gratification. By the time you catch your breath, you’re on to the next one. It’s wonderful!” Another attendee, Molly Mayock, said, “They keep coming, tumbling one after another, so that by the end of two hours, you feel as if you have just seen an entire season of plays, yet you still want more!” Directors for the festival this year include G. Valmont Thomas, who directs “Lives of the Formerly French,” by Lauren D. Yee, an exploration of the up-side of re-incarnation, and “Skirmishes,” a peek into the world of warring ant factions engaged in a fateful fight for baked beans as told by Michael Cooper. Doug Rowe challenges Freud’s methodology and comes up with an alternative — and tasty — treatment in Gary L. Lark’s “The White Room.” Ashland New Play Festival’s long-standing staunch supporter Caroline Shaffer will direct Lisa Soland’s “The Same Thing,” a play that explores — for once — a totally perfect relationship! Bob McCracken will wrestle with the small print at the bottom of that original contract with God in “The First Negotiation,” by J. Boyer. Christine Menzies, OSF’s FAIR director, will direct “May Tag,” by Thomas W. Stephens, which asks the question: Is it possible to fix broken hearts and dreams as easily as washing machines? And a young director from the ranks of the acting company of OSF, Kyle Haden, is taking on both Robert Adams’ “The Waiting Room,” a sobering appointment with a destiny that none of us can predict, and Mark Harvey Levine’s “Ten Picnics,” which celebrates the enduring nature of love. “Audience members won’t see full productions, but rather ‘staged readings,’” says Shaffer. “They’re minimally directed. We’re trying to tell the story quickly. The whole point is to have a surprise, a transition, an epiphany, some kind of a pop.” McClellan has instituted another exciting switch in this year’s production by double– and sometimes even triple-casting some of the roles in order to take advantage of the terrific panoply of Ashland’s acting talent at the height of the busy summer theater season. Tickets are $10 general admission and $5 for students with any kind of student ID. Tickets are available through SOU’s box office and at Paddington Station downtown. For reservations and information, call 552-6348. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams