Wega Arts hosts one-act play festival
Wega Arts will host a one-act play festival and contest Thursday through Sunday, June 21-24, at the Gerold Opera House.
The non-profit organization plans to make it an annual event, and the festival is made possible in part by a grant from the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.
The plays that will be performed and read are the winners of a national script contest that was advertised through Writer's Digest Magazine.
Entries were received from throughout the country and from as far away as France.
The winning playwrights range in age from 12 years old to senior citizens.
Several original works will be performed by local and Fox Valley actors, with the plays ranging in length from approximately 10 minutes to 30 minutes.
Performances are set for 8 p.m. Thursday, June 21 and Friday, June 22; 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, June 23; and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 24.
Tickets are $7, and one ticket is good for all shows.
Tickets are available at The Coffee Klatsch in Weyauwega, the Book Cellar in Waupaca and online at wegaarts.org.
Performances will be held in the historic Gerold Opera House, which is located on Main Street in Weyauwega.
Directors Ian Teal, Kathy Fehl and Carrie Gruman-Trinkner will be presenting some of their own work, as well as the winning entries.
Three plays will be selected for staged productions at the opera house, and three additional plays will also be chosen for staged readings.
Cash prizes will be awarded to all six selected plays. Their judges will select first, second and third-place awards for the top three plays, as well as awards for staged readings.
Selected plays for performance and reading include:
• "It's in the Bank" by George Freek. In this play, Alfred is celebrating his fifth anniversary as bank president and is happily awaiting the board of directors when a number of mishaps upsets that plan.
• "King of the Castle" by Kay Poiro. This one-act is about a misguided geneticist's attempt to create the perfect, "real" woman with unexpected results.
• "Waiting for Soso" by Bernard Besserglik. As the title indicates, the presiding spirit of "Waiting for Soso" is Samuel Beckett. The play imagines a meeting between Soso (the childhood nickname of Iosif Visarionovich Djugashvili, later known as Stalin) and Gogo, or Grigory Yefimovich, the monk known to the world as Rasputin.
• "Call It Torte, Call it Pie" by 12-year-old Zsanna Bodor, of Stevens Point. In this play, it is the Great Depression, and millions have become homeless and destitute. Adele Roberts, a wealthy woman living in 1930's Chicago, has nothing to worry about. She has a vast Victorian house, more money than she knows where to put and yet, she is living a lie.
• "Go Fish" by Don Orwald. This one act is about a book editor who uses her vivid imagination and finds creative ways to combine everyday life and fiction.
• "If You Call Her Harper, You Don't Know Jack," also by Orwald. The action in this one act takes place about 50 years ago in a restaurant in a small Southern and involves long-time friends Nelle Harper Lee and Truman Capote.
The non-profit organization plans to make it an annual event, and the festival is made possible in part by a grant from the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.
The plays that will be performed and read are the winners of a national script contest that was advertised through Writer's Digest Magazine.
Entries were received from throughout the country and from as far away as France.
The winning playwrights range in age from 12 years old to senior citizens.
Several original works will be performed by local and Fox Valley actors, with the plays ranging in length from approximately 10 minutes to 30 minutes.
Performances are set for 8 p.m. Thursday, June 21 and Friday, June 22; 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, June 23; and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 24.
Tickets are $7, and one ticket is good for all shows.
Tickets are available at The Coffee Klatsch in Weyauwega, the Book Cellar in Waupaca and online at wegaarts.org.
Performances will be held in the historic Gerold Opera House, which is located on Main Street in Weyauwega.
Directors Ian Teal, Kathy Fehl and Carrie Gruman-Trinkner will be presenting some of their own work, as well as the winning entries.
Three plays will be selected for staged productions at the opera house, and three additional plays will also be chosen for staged readings.
Cash prizes will be awarded to all six selected plays. Their judges will select first, second and third-place awards for the top three plays, as well as awards for staged readings.
Selected plays for performance and reading include:
• "It's in the Bank" by George Freek. In this play, Alfred is celebrating his fifth anniversary as bank president and is happily awaiting the board of directors when a number of mishaps upsets that plan.
• "King of the Castle" by Kay Poiro. This one-act is about a misguided geneticist's attempt to create the perfect, "real" woman with unexpected results.
• "Waiting for Soso" by Bernard Besserglik. As the title indicates, the presiding spirit of "Waiting for Soso" is Samuel Beckett. The play imagines a meeting between Soso (the childhood nickname of Iosif Visarionovich Djugashvili, later known as Stalin) and Gogo, or Grigory Yefimovich, the monk known to the world as Rasputin.
• "Call It Torte, Call it Pie" by 12-year-old Zsanna Bodor, of Stevens Point. In this play, it is the Great Depression, and millions have become homeless and destitute. Adele Roberts, a wealthy woman living in 1930's Chicago, has nothing to worry about. She has a vast Victorian house, more money than she knows where to put and yet, she is living a lie.
• "Go Fish" by Don Orwald. This one act is about a book editor who uses her vivid imagination and finds creative ways to combine everyday life and fiction.
• "If You Call Her Harper, You Don't Know Jack," also by Orwald. The action in this one act takes place about 50 years ago in a restaurant in a small Southern and involves long-time friends Nelle Harper Lee and Truman Capote.
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