If brevity is the soul of wit, then Anchorage audiences can expect some very witty moments at two separate, yet associated, theater events taking place this week.
Both feature new or recent work by (mostly) Alaska writers and offer material that is highly compact compared with the sprawling dramas of Sophocles or Shakespeare's history plays.
Today at Alaska Pacific University, the more compact of the two has its final presentation. "Don't Blink" consists of about 18 plays -- subject to change -- each of which fits, in its entirety, on a single page of paper.
"After previous times out, we clarified that we mean one side of an 8 1/2 by 11 (inch) sheet of paper, and that the font be no smaller than 10 (point)," said organizer Dawson Moore. "There was some painful reading last time."
Moore, who teaches theater at Prince William Sound Community College in Valdez and oversees the Last Frontier Theatre Conference there, is also responsible for bringing the "Alaska Overnighters" to town starting eight years ago. For that theatrical stunt, playwrights must write an entire one-act play from an assigned topic within 12 hours, after which cast, crew and directors have another 12 hours to present it live and off-book.
"I think of this program as being the Alaska Overnighters' little brother," Moore said. "In both cases, it's a journey toward understanding the process. With both projects, I think they create entertaining theater that also serves as an educational workshop for the participants."
Over the summer, Moore solicited plays, mostly from local writers. "We didn't want to end up with a national call (for submissions), because that might have buried us in scripts," he said. Seventy plays were sent in. Nine directors picked out the ones they wanted to present. In some cases, two directors picked the same play, with the result that a few of the 18 plays get done twice with different casts.
The plays, which opened last night and continue today, run as little as 30 seconds or as long as five minutes. "Some are sketches, some plays, some are essentially performance art," said Moore. "While there are some limitations that come from the format, that doesn't prevent playwrights from telling moving stories as well."
The subject matter is often humorous, "But our writers have also delved into dark personal history" and other grave issues.
Moore noted one special advantage to this format: "If you don't care for a particular piece? It'll be over shortly!"
Ever-changing stories
The other show, opening on Friday, also owes a debt to the "Alaska Overnighters," though its genesis occurred separately.
In 2004, Schatzie Schaefer's "Fourplay" was presented by Kokopelli Theatre Co. at Cyrano's. As the name suggests, it consisted of four short plays, not necessarily related except insofar as they were by the same playwright. One of those plays, "The TiVo Tribe" was presented at the Valdez theater conference and another, "Skid Marks," co-written by Moore, had productions in Seattle, San Francisco and New York.
In 2006, Schaefer reprised the format with the Three Wise Moose company for Out North. But she went with new material. "My writing had become riskier by then," she said. "Darker endings, edgier themes and subject matter."
Three of the new plays also wound up with additional productions. "'Snow in Galveston' remains one of my most popular plays," Schaefer said, noting that it has been produced at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and Impact Theatre of Brooklyn.
A third incarnation went up at Out North in 2007. By now Schaefer was using others to direct the pieces. "This was the biggest 'Fourplay' to date (with) 16 cast members, and although I had two other directors, it was a huge undertaking for me. I realized that producing four short plays is a lot harder than one long piece."
While "Fourplay III" sold out, Schaefer "took a sabbatical" afterward and focused on full-length works. When she prepared for the upcoming edition, she decided to include other writers -- Moore, Arlitia Jones and Steve Hunt. "(It) would not only get my friends' plays produced, it would lighten the workload for me as a producer."
One of the four, "The Bodice Rippers," by Jones came out of the "Alaska Overnighters." "I think it was my third 'Overnighter.' " she recalled. "They gave me my theme, 'anger,' and I had the play half written by the time I got home. Everything just clicked that day."
The play was inspired, she said, by an "oasis" of potted plants someone had assembled in one driveway in a row of otherwise bland condos.
The plot involves three women creating "their imagining of life." It was selected over another of her plays because it involves more visual activity. The other three plays are "quite static, blockingwise," Schaefer said.
But Jones noted that "Bodice Rippers" was unusual for her because "it's not too weighted down with props."
Hunt's play is even lighter. It's essentially a one-man monologue, originally read at the after hours "fringe" portion of the Valdez conference. "It's about a depression-era farm worker looking for a place to lay his head," Hunt explained. "Everyone tells him to go talk to the last remaining prostitute in town," hence the title, "Thanksgiving Dinner with the Last Whore in Calhoun County."
"She lets him stay, but she has a task for him to accomplish. I don't want to give away the ending."
The third play is by Moore. "Six Dead bodies Duct-Taped to a Merry-Go-Round," co-written with Lindsay Marianna Walker of Mississippi, involves a dispirited soldier who catches a ride with the wrong trucker.
And Schaefer herself contributes the final quarter of the pie, "A Wee Rembrandt," about museum guards tricked by an art thief.
Alaskans get a chance
The history of Alaskans writing plays is short. Announcer Ruben Gaines and Homer religious cult leader Krishna Venta wrote Alaska-themed plays in the 1950s. Anchorage filmmaker and director Frank Brink's outdoor historical drama "Cry of the Wild Ram" was a summer staple in Kodiak for years. But these were notable exceptions.
A home-grown play-writing swell began in the 1990s after readings of local scripts became a popular feature at the Valdez festival. But, though hundreds of (usually) short plays have been read there, getting them staged is tough.
"I throw so many great writers who have terrific scripts that don't have much of a chance of being produced," said Schaeffer.
"Fourplay" and "Don't Blink" attempt to rectify that.
Moore noted that 13 of the 18 plays in "Don't Blink" are by Alaskans, "including four who are having their first staging of a play."
Those four include Hunt, who's getting a double debut this week. He has a play in "Don't Blink" (as do Jones and Moore), and considers his "Fourplay" piece his first produced play in Anchorage.
That kind of recruitment effort caught the attention of Bill Cotton, the executive director of the city's oldest stage company, Anchorage Community Theatre. "Fourplay" will be presented at the ACT Studio Theatre following the company's current production of Agatha Christie's "Witness for the Prosecution." "Witness" will end a little after 9 p.m. and "Fourplay" will go on at 10.
"The idea of late-night shows has been percolating for a while," said Cotton. "I saw Schatzie's shows at Out North, participated in the Overnighters and heard many short plays read at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference that would be great for us to put on. I contacted Schatzie and Dawson Moore, and we agreed to partner to present these shows."
Of necessity, "Fourplay" will share the elaborate courtroom/drawing room set for the Christie classic. Should the Alaska plays get extended, they'll perform on the set of ACT's next show, the seasonal favorite "A Christmas Story."
Cotton hopes that such "dark night" or after-show shows will become an ongoing program for ACT. The company is also hosting the world premiere of "Way Off Broadway" by local playwright -- and another veteran of the Valdez conference -- Gail High on Wednesday night. That play, about an aging dancer caught up in a mystery set in an nursing home, will feature performers from the Anchorage Senior Center's Off Their Rockers Drama Troupe.
"This gives us a chance to better use our facility and possibly make a bit to help cover our overhead, a chance to allow local playwrights to present their work, and a great chance for us to expand our pool of actors, patrons and supporters," he said.
Moore is similarly optimistic about the future of "Don't Blink" (which Jones' called, "My favorite night of Anchorage theater.") He'd like to see it turn into an annual event.
And "Fourplay" will probably continue to materialize, too. It just won't be the same four plays. Shaefer said she might consider a quartet based on a Christmas theme -- especially if she winds up restaging these four to work around "A Christmas Story's" set. But she's generally cool to the idea of sameness.
"('Fourplay') is an ever-changing showcase of unrelated short plays," said Schaefer, "and I intend to keep it that way. The idea of a theme kind of bores me. A friend of mine in New York is producing an evening of short plays about cannibalism. Might be fun for marketing, but after watching two plays in a row about cannibalism, are you really going to look forward to the next one?
"Variety, after all, is the spice of life. Uh ... no pun intended."
Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.
By MIKE DUNHAM
mdunham@adn.com