Twenty-four years ago, the Department of Theatre and Music Studies at SUNY Brockport produced their first 10-minute play festival, Festival of Ten. Theatre practitioners of all stripes are itching to get back to work, but until that is determined to be a safe undertaking, they have turned to putting together all sorts of streamed, virtual events. While the Department of Theatre and Music Studies is gearing up to reveal Festival of Ten XII this coming May, several alumni have gotten together to take part in Festival of Ten: Revisited. This weekly series will feature some favorite plays that have appeared in several editions of the festival, which had its first appearance in 1999. The free series will be streamed on the department’s Facebook page (facebook.com/ brockporttheatredept) and on the Fine Arts Series’ Facebook page (facebook.com/Fine-Arts-Series-at-SUNY-Brockport-93222153543) with new plays uploaded each Friday through April 16.
Nearly everyone who graduated with a theatre degree in these last 25 years has been involved in the festival in one way or another. Professor Davida Bloom and Associate Professor Ruth Childs made overtures to alumni whom they thought might be good candidates to direct a former festival play of their choosing. Entries in Revisited span from editions III to X. According to Bloom, she and Childs “narrowed down the list of plays to those that had four or fewer characters, and we sent the list to the directors, and they picked the plays they wanted to direct. The directors had full reign to cast whomever they wanted in their plays.”
The 10-minute format is more difficult than it might appear. As with any play, the piece needs to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. With less time to develop characters, the playwright is automatically challenged, as are the actors and directors, who are trying to convey the playwright’s intention. Regardless of any inherent challenges, the Democrat and Chronicle has called the Festival of Ten “a titillating offering of sophisticated, diverse and fulfilling theatre.”
The folks who populate the Department of Theatre and Music Studies are hopeful, of course, that Festival of Ten: Revisited will whet people’s appetites for Festival of Ten XII when it premieres on May 7.
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