Free '10-Minute Play Festival' this week

By Mallory Stiles
Editor in Chief

LCC’s Summer Stage Under the Stars series will offer a “10-Minute Play Festival” July 24 through 28, with each show beginning at 7 p.m., in the Downtown Campus Outdoor Amphitheater.

All scripts were written by LCC students enrolled a theatre introduction class taught by either Theatre Faculty Andrew Callis or Theatre Faculty Blake Bowen. All the plays are being directed by LCC alumni Samantha Hall-Leonhardt, Stefan Lee, Doak Bloss, Mak and Kallie Marrison, Molly Sullivan, and Iris Raine.

LCC Performing Arts Coordinator Paige Tufford-Dunckel said this event is intended to bring some much-deserved attention to the very special things being done in the theatre program.

“We wanted a way to showcase student work, so we decided to have a 10-minute play festival,” Tufford-Dunckel said. “It’s very different for a playwright to hear their script read by other students, as opposed to seeing it brought to life on stage in front of an audience.”

Tufford-Dunckel said the original 15 submissions were blind-read by faculty and only six of those submissions made it to stage. They are as follows:

• “The Egg,” by Ignatius Arleth
• “Delivery Dilemmas,” by Kylie Fowler
• “Gone West,” by Daisy McGuire
• “The Right Way,” by Leiana Mireles
• “Hot Sauce in Da Fridge,” by Chandler Donelson
• “Hidden Riches, Hidden Lies,” by Amelia West
  
  

Amelia West said she has always had a passion for theatre, but she also confessed that “Hidden Riches, Hidden Lies” was kind of a happy accident.

“To be frank, I just started writing and got carried away with getting to know my characters and advancing their stories,” West said. “I love making people laugh, so when the 10-minute play festival was announced, I submitted mine!

“When Andy told us mine was one of the ones picked, I was ecstatic that I would get the opportunity to see it on stage. It's truly an insane opportunity and I am so grateful for LCC's theatre program!”

Each show is free, and everyone is welcome.

Tufford-Dunckel advised each production is being approached like a “workshop production,” meaning minimal production and design elements will be incorporated, but full scripts and developed characters are promised.

“We want to encourage students in their creative endeavors,” Tufford-Dunckel said, “and show them possibilities.”