If “7 Plays / 7 Days” sounds ambitious, that’s because it is.
This festival of 10-minute works – featuring seven different directors (including students, faculty and guest professionals) and 25 student performers – is being produced over the span of a week through an intensive collaboration organized by the Union College Department of Theater and Dance.
Performances in the Yulman Theater are set for Oct. 30-Nov. 2 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 3 at 2 p.m.
All seven plays will be presented each night.
“This is the kind of undertaking usually seen at large art conservatories, so to be able to stage it here is phenomenal,” said Brittney Belz, production manager and costume designer. “It’s going to be a whirlwind experience from day one, with playwrights, directors, designers and performers sharing their unique visions and viewpoints.”
The enterprise is made possible by the support of Alan Gnessin ’76, a retired attorney based in Fort Washington, Pa.
“The Theater Department and Mountebanks (a student drama club) had a profound effect on me during my time at Union,” Gnessin said. “I feel passionately that presenting a variety of works and voices on campus through the performing arts has a critical impact on the College and the local community.”
Hettie Barnhill, production director and visiting assistant professor, says the festival “mirrors the complexity of our society, where we are constantly navigating information from a wide range of sources.”
The guest playwrights and teaching artists involved will be in residence on campus for seven days through opening night.
They include Tanya Everett, a writer, actor and director for TV, film and theater who works in New York City and Los Angeles. She is writing a commissioned play that she will direct.
B. Kleymeyer and DJ Hills, a director/playwright duo whose work focuses on themes of gender and identity, will also present a play commissioned for the festival.
Desiré Graham of Harlem, who has worked with the American Repertory Theater, and Malia’Kekia Nicolini, a playwright and choreographer based in the Berkshires, will co-direct a piece with Union’s Gabriel Thom Pasculli, lecturer of performance/design. The piece is based on movement, singing and text.
“Theater-making is in-the-moment and on-your-feet,” said Pasculli. “When a play comes together for the first time in rehearsal, it’s electric. Working in this kind of short process demands the actors are present and grounded in their tasks.”
Also featured will be a commissioned piece by JC Pankratz, who has been recognized with prestigious Mark Twain and Paula Vogel playwriting awards. It will be directed by Jasmine Roth ’14, visiting assistant professor of theater.
“I am thrilled that we have been able to commission multiple plays by exciting living playwrights,” said Roth. “This not only supports contemporary theater voices and the creation of new stories, but it also gives students exposure to professional artists and a unique opportunity to collaborate with them during their creative process.”
Theater majors Jolita Brettler ’25 and Brian Rusk ’25 will direct new works by playwrights Jamie Olah and Gretchen Suárez-Peña.
Christian Thompson ’27, a double major in mechanical engineering and physics, is enjoying the challenges inherent in this year’s production.
“As actors, we are working with the playwrights and directors to slowly transform and evolve the show into a great experience for everyone,” Thompson said. “This new-to-Union method of creating theater is exciting.”
For Aaron Armstong ’28, marking their first campus theater production, the process of having limited time to pull everything together “requires flexibility and creativity, which has allowed us to dive deeper into acting methods and techniques.”
And for Maddy Pilkington ’27, an organizing theme major in archeoastronomy with a minor in theater, the short works festival “has pulled us out of our comfort zones as actors and is stretching us to be the best that we can be.”
Festival tickets are $15 general admission and $5 for senior citizens and those with a Union ID. They can be purchased at the Yulman Theater Box Office Monday through Friday, 1-1:50 p.m., or online at eventbrite.
For more information or accommodative seating arrangements, contact boxoffice@union.edu, or call (518) 388-6545.