Focus on New Works Project

Hee's a great story about Marshall's New Works Project from today's Herald-Dispatch:

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could tell the person writing a story or a movie or a play what they should have done and how they could make it better?

And then that artist actually being there with the audience listening and interacting as they’re trying to build a better play.

That interactivity of a live audience helping a playwright build a viable original piece of work for the stage is at the heart of the 5th annual New Works Project that is running at 7 nightly through Saturday at the Francis-Booth Experimental Theatre inside the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center on campus. All shows are free to the public but donations are highly encouraged.

Thursday's performance included five brand new short plays all written and directed by Marshall students including Marlboro Man by Chuck Herndon, A Last Supper by Erik Woods, In Progress by Ricky Scarbro and Burgle by Dylan Clark. The feature act is Marshall University Theatre Alumnus Jonathan Joy's new work, Count Your Blessings.

On Friday, enjoy a new play by Lisa Kron, a Tony Award-nominee, and on Saturday, get a peek at Clint McElroy’s historical music project, Collis P!, about railroad tycoon and Huntington founder, Collis P. Huntington.

MU theater professor and New Works founder Jack Cirillo calls New Works the “neo-natal unit for baby plays,” being birthed here in Huntington.

“It started out to fill a need for my students to have something to work on in the summer but as things tend to do it has taken on a life of its own that is exciting,” Cirillo said. “For a community our size we have a lot of theater going on but most of it is either musical or kind of traditional classics. Even if it is contemporary stuff it is classically-based. New Works is about as vital as it could possibly be... It really is a place where plays fresh off the page are explored with a director and some actors and an audience.”

Cirillo said the exchange of an audience hearing a play raw and responding is priceless feedback for writers as they’re seeing what works and what doesn’t in a work they are trying to get to stage.

Cirillo said one of the success stories of New Works has been Marshall University theater alum and prolific playwright, Jon Joy, who has had dozens of plays published, who has won national playwright contests and had one of his plays published in The New York Times.

Joy presented his new work, Count Your Blessings, as the headliner for Thursday night when four current Marshall University theater students presented works.

“Although we explore a lot of facets in our theater department we don’t have a playwrighting program and the work of a playwright is obviously important,” Cirillo said. “This allows us to give a nod to the playwrights and to allow that part of theater to be explored.”

Cirillo said although new work festivals occur around the country, it has been a relatively new thing for the Tri-State, and it is an exciting thing he would love to see more people take advantage of.

“We are at this point in our fifth season and we desperately need to grow and to get people to try us out,” Cirillo said. “What I like about this style of theater is that is completely participatory in terms of the audience. They get to say what is on their mind and how the play affects them and what works and what didn’t work. It’s almost like being in a book club. We sample the work and then have a chance to talk about it in a format that is organized and supportive.”

Local writer and radio personality Clint McElroy is presenting Collis P!, a musical about the life and times of the railroad tycoon Collis P. Huntington, who founded the city, and whose larger than life image was captured in a giant bronze statue that sits in downtown by famed artist Gutzon Borglum (who carved Mount Rushmore).

On Saturday, McElroy, who did a reading of Collis P! in its infancy several years ago, said Saturday night will have a cast of actors singing and acting out part of the play, which he would like to see produced in 2012 or early 2013.

McElroy, who wound up collaborating with well-known local writer and musician Danny Craig of Ashland, said Saturday night’s version will be about an hour long and will include about half the songs and scenes in the play.

He said without Cirillo and the push from New Works, Collis P! would have been left in the station.

“I think it is vital in the sense that you get feedback from the most important component in the theater and that is the audience,” McElroy said. “You get immediate feedback from them and it gives you a little guidance on which way to go. You’re not writing in a vacuum and they will tell you what they think of something. I honestly think Collis P! would have died on the vine a long time ago if not for New Works.”

McElroy, who has been involved in dozens of productions as an actor, director, producer and patron, said there’s nothing quite like the feeling for an author or playwright to see something they’ve created come alive.

“Both times that I sat down with the cast in the rehearsal process and it took shape and I could see the characters develop and that has been invaluable in shaping it,” McElroy said. “There are folks who are in it this time who have really taken these characters and put life into them and when you’re able to see characters that were basically words on a printed page and see them in the flesh. It really is an awesome experience.”

For ticket information contact Sam Kincaid at 304-696-ARTS (2787). The Marshall University New Works Project is sponsored by Marshall University's College of Fine Arts.