The new Playwrights' Center space was built into an existing building just off University and Raymond, coincidentally just across the street from my first "real job" after grad school, in the brick building right on the corner of University and Raymond. The office was on the top floor and it was a gorgeous space with high ceilings, skylights, and exposed brick walls. I don't know the history of these buildings in this part of St. Paul, but the PWC space also takes advantage of its historic beauty - the brick walls and exposed rafters - while adding a new glass paneled lobby that adds a modern feel and tons of light. The theater space is upstairs in a cool and modern space with slatted wood walls, and the center also has lots of space for creation. I look forward to spending time in this space, and becoming more familiar with it, for years and years to come. A note on parking: some street parking is available where signage allows, or in the pay (by QR code) lot on the corner of Myrtle and Raymond (which I believe is where I used to park when I worked there).
Below is a quick summary of each of the three plays included in the festival, each of which has two free in-person readings as well as virtual viewing opportunities. If October weren't the busiest month of the year, I'd absolutely see all three (another great thing about PWC, they always hire super talented local actors to read these plays, and they don't just read them, they give great performances, as well as top directors and design consultants). I saw the first play, a beautiful piece by #TCTheater artist JuCoby Johnson, directed by Christina Baldwin with design consultant Sarah Bahr. It's about a woman named Charleigh (Marisa B. Tejada) who rents an AirBnB in Northern Minnesota to take a break from her life as a wife and mom and dance teacher, and think. She's visited by a local, played by multiple ensemble members in turn (Adelin Phelps, Olivia Wilusz, Dustin Bronson, Marcela Michelle, Isabella Star LaBlanc, and Michael McKitt, with stage directions read by Ashe Jaafaru). Gary is more than he seems, and sort of like A Christmas Carol, "except all past and no present or future," Charleigh relives scenes from her past, with the ensemble embodying all these characters, and we find out the very real trauma that caused her to run to the woods. The play is funny, poignant, tragic, moving, and more than a little Minnesotan (including fun accents and plaid shirts and Edina jokes). I hope we get to see a full production someday. In the meantime, there's one more reading this Thursday, along with readings of the other two plays this weekend.
HELP! HELP! WANT. WANT. WANT.
by JuCoby Johnson
Affiliated Writer
"A woman escapes to the woods to be alone and is haunted by the ghosts of her past and present. Help! Help! Want. Want. Want. is a play about love, regret, and finding the will to live."
AUTOREFRACT
by Cristina Luzárraga
Core Writer
"The wives of President Bashar Al-Assad and Senator Rand Paul are trapped in an autorefractor (that machine you squint into when you get your eyes checked) and are trying to piece together how they wound up where they are and if there’s any escape. Do their husbands have something in common? Well, they were both mild-mannered eye doctors before they succumbed to the lure of power and followed in their fathers’ footsteps—but is that all? Are these two women caught in their husbands’ gravitational pull, or does a shared desire ensnare them? Autorefract is a dark-bordering-on-blind comedy about marital complicity."
STUPID LITTLE FIRE
by Yilong Liu
Affiliated Writer
"Two student leaders must decide whether to escape or stay as a protest in China turns dangerous. A cast in present-day America struggles to stage this very story. A playwright spirals as a talkback unravels. Stupid Little Fire is a shapeshifting, darkly funny, and surreal exploration of representation, power, and the act of art-making itself. With theatrical flair and playful forms, the play examines who gets to tell which stories, how we expect them to be told, and what burns when artists are asked to perform not just their work—but themselves."
