First Play Fest allows unique opportunities

For the last three weeks, the Northwest theater department has been holding the first Play Fest. The Play Fest Company, composed of students and professors, produced seven staged readings of full-length plays.

The plays were “She Kills Monsters,” “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead,” “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche,” “The Bookstore,” “The Triangle Factory Fire Project,” “Selfie” and “Crush.” Everything was put together and directed by students.

Student directors chose these plays because of the opportunity to act in and direct something not normally performed. These plays would not be able to be produced as a main stage production.

Senior Grace Garrigan directed “The Triangle Factory Fire Project” and acted in several of the plays. Senior Sam De La Rosa acted in most of the plays, including “The Triangle Factory Fire Project” and “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche.” Senior Christina Short directed “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche” and acted in several of the plays and said it was interesting to explore con- cepts that would not be performed in normal theater.

“It’s really an opportunity for plays to be read and experienced by our department with student directors,” Garrigan said.

The plays were performed concert style, where the actors read from a script from a stationary position on stage. The stage directions were also read aloud by another member of the company.

The content within the plays includes many challenging concepts, such as death, suicide and homophobia. While most of the plays include humor, each touches on sensi- tive topics that would otherwise not be discussed on stage.

“There is going to be more challenging material,” Short said. “There were some dark themes in the one I directed. So they are emotionally draining.”

“The Triangle Factory Fire Project” was a historical tragedy where a fire started in a factory killing 146 immigrant women workers.

Researching was a big step of Garrigan’s production of the play. She said it’s important it was accurately portrayed because it’s a real event, and the script was made from court transcripts written by Christopher Piehler.