Three new plays, including two written by ASU students, will premiere at this year's Herberger Mainstage Theatre Festival of New Work, playing Thursday through Nov. 22.
According to Linda Essig, chair of the Department of Theatre and artistic director for the Mainstage Theatre season, the festival helps them showcase students' fresh ideas and creativity and is an important part of their overall season.
"It's one of the ways we follow our motto of moving the art of the theater to the future - by supporting the creation of new work," she said.
The themes are as eclectic as a Mexican immigrant's semi-autobiographical persona, a Chilean woman's life experiences in pursuit of Hollywood glamour and a family's personal conflicts ensconced in the backdrop of an imaginary war.
M.F.A. student Greg Farber said he conceived the idea for his play, "Taking Leave," when the United States got into the war in Iraq.
"There was talk about the draft and I was at the age when I would have been the first one to go," he said. "The fictional Levins family emerged as I started writing. The father had fought during Vietnam and the youngest two of four brothers grapple with the issue of the draft having been reinstated in a war against North Korea set in the future."
Ron May, artistic director for the Stray Cat Theatre, graduated from ASU in 2000 and is directing "Taking Leave." He said that the play does not focus its energy on making a political statement.
"It's about different family members having different opinions about war and what being loyal to your family and to your country means," he said.
"What I liked most about the script was that it was set in a not-too-far-off future with realities we fear today, like a possible draft," he said. "But it deals more with the interpersonal warfare people wage on each other at home when their opinions clash."
Another piece premiering at the festival, "We Lost It At The Movies," is a drama about a woman who comes to the United States from Santiago, Chile. It was written by Guillermo Reyes, a theater professor and head of ASU's playwriting program.
"Rosalinda is an immigrant in [Los Angeles] struggling to survive, but she was familiar with America through Hollywood and so she has a fantasy life," said Reyes, whose plays tend to deal with some aspect of the Latino immigrant experience.
He added that Rosalinda has some elements of his mother - who had also moved to Los Angeles from Chile - but the drama that ensues is fictionalized.
The play is also a top-10 finalist in the Repertorio Espanol 2005 playwriting competition.
M.F.A. student Carlos Manuel describes his play, "La Vida Loca," as "a very theatrical one-man show."
Directed by Herberger College Assistant Professor Antonio Ocampo-Guzman, Manuel will transform into 17 different characters while discovering his homosexuality and projecting the cultural clashes of being Mexican in the United States.
Both "Taking Leave" and "La Vida Loca" come with a caveat of mature themes.
Most of the actors for the three plays have been drawn from the M.F.A. theater program.
"Working with a small ensemble cast has been very exciting," said M.F.A. performance student Kane Anderson, who portrays the father in "Taking Leave," said. "You get to be more involved in the process with writers the way you wouldn't normally."
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks will also visit the campus on Saturday for a reading under the aegis of the Piper Center for Creative Writing. In addition to the plays, there will be a workshop production by playwriting student James Garcia, titled "Voices of Valor."
Reyes said the theater scene in the Valley is a great place for student actors. "Students in New York and L.A. have to fight for little parts somewhere. One thing they need is a lot of experience, which they can get by spending a few years in Phoenix."
Asked about what it's like to see his students' work on stage, Reyes said, "There's always great satisfaction in seeing a play on stage with actors in a professional setting."
Reyes said a playwright has to bring together what he knows and has perceived into the script. "Creative work is hard. But like any other craft, it can be learned. But you need to feel and be able to express emotions."
Reach the reporter at sonu.munshi@asu.edu.
