Bringing original content from local playwrights, Scene One Theatre is premiering its first evening of the "Not-So-Short Attention Span Theatre."
Mark Wegman, president and artistic director, said the new show spawned from its popular "Short Attention Span Theatre," which featured an evening of original 10-minute plays. Wegman said there's many local playwrights writing short plays that were a bit too long to fit in to that genre, but the theater wanted to be able to showcase the local talent and their work.
"It's just another venue we created so that these talented writers have more opportunity," he said. "It's something that makes Scene One truly unique in town. The plays that (the audience) will see are being performed for the very first time and they are actually written by people who live here."
He noted, at Scene One, there is a group of writers called the Rough Writers, giving more opportunity to local residents who want to take on the challenge of writing plays.
The show will include five plays by four different local playwrights, featuring 16 actors playing 19 different characters. Plays include:
"Dirty Socks: The Clean Ones Just Don't Taste As Good" written and directed by JM Green and starring Tracy Wegman and Blakelee Sutton;
"Two Snazzy Gals" written and directed by Lucia Erikson Kincheloe and starring Megan Sappington, Megan Wadley, Gina Connor, Shellie Howser and Steven Houser;
"Reconciliation" written and directed by Mary Jo LaCorte and starring Jon Schwartz, Erin Matteson and Mark Miles;
"The Perfect Crime" written and directed by Keenan McMahon and starring Terry Schoonover, Matt Connor and Ben Stumpe; and
"The 9th In Line" written by Keenan McMahon, directed by McMahon and Mark Wegman, and starring Curtis Sudduth, Brian Harper, Mark Miles, Terry Schoonover, Kelsie Slaughter and Tracy Wegman.
Wegman said JM Green and Lucia Erikson Kincheloe are making their playwright debuts with this show, while Curtis Sudduth and Steven Houser are making their Scene One acting debuts.
"It's a wide variety of material," Wegman said of the plays being presented. "It's mostly comedy, cause that's what people like the most, but there's always a drama or two."
The first two plays are about 25 minutes long, he said, while the rest are closer to 15-20 minutes. Wegman noted some of the humor involved is adult, meaning children really shouldn't attend, but older teens and adults should enjoy the show.
"They're all very good, very well thought out stories," Wegman said. "Everybody seems to like a good story."
Performances are set for 7:30 p.m. tonight through Saturday and July 25-27. Tickets are available for $10 each. To reserve seats, email [email protected] or call 573-635-6713. Shrunken Head Tropic Lounge will also serve drinks during the show.
As long as everything goes well with this show, Wegman said it's likely the "Not-So-Short Attention Span Theatre" will return.