STAGE One one-act play festival: The show goes on

Washington State University's student theatre group, STAGE will present the 14th annual one-act play festival "STAGE One" Friday and Saturday in Pullman.

STAGE One is a festival of four one-act plays written, directed and acted by students.

This year's event will include "a comedy about being in the friend-zone and how to get out of it; a drama about a lawyer and a reporter who both share their pasts through an interview; a love story between earth and sky as they journey through the seasons; and a sex farce about a twosome looking for a threesome that finds a foursome."

Nathaniel Patterson will direct "Perjury," a play written by John Rice, and is the writer of the sex farce, "Danish Modern Desk."

"It's not dirty, and it's not raunchy," Patterson, a senior political science major, said of his play. "I tried to write a lot of innuendo into it."

Patterson's play will be directed by Nick Fitzgerald.

The other plays are "Shot Through the Heart," written by Carrie Jewett and directed by Woody McAllister and "The Ballad of the Seasons," written by Bruce Bosley and directed by Kelsey Kinzer.

The idea of the festival is to be a showcase for new writers and to expose students to a wide variety of "jobs" in a theatrical production, Patterson said.

"Everybody in STAGE that is committed to the project learns every aspect," he said. "You learn how a real theatre operates."

With the disbanding of the WSU theatre department, this will be the first year the festival will be done without any assistance from faculty members. Ben Gonzales is the STAGE adviser, but he will offer his input "only if things are going drastically wrong," Patterson said.

The plays, which have been in rehearsal since the third week of September, all will be entered in the Kennedy Center's annual American College Theatre Festival, where WSU-written plays have had much success over the years. Patterson, who, along with fellow WSU student Jesse Shao won at the regional ACTF event last year for writing, said he would not be surprised if all four of this year's scripts were chosen to compete.

Unlike previous years, this year's STAGE One festival will take place on one weekend rather than two. Since the theatre department no longer exists, students now must rent the theater facilities on campus by the hour.

"We need as much community support as possible," Patterson said.

Despite the obstacles the group must overcome with the loss of the theatre department, Patterson said STAGE (which also includes the popular Nuthouse Improv shows) is confident in its future. STAGE One plans to present the play "Dog Sees God" in December, and plans are in place to have another one-act play festival in the spring called STAGE Two.

"We can pull off fall productions," Patterson said. "I'm really proud to be part of this first attempt."

The plays are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and there will also be a matinee performance at 2 p.m. Saturday. The house opens half an hour before the show starts. Tickets are $6 for WSU students, and $8 for general admission.

Alan Solan can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 235, or by email at asolan@dnews.com.

IF YOU GO

• WHAT: STAGE One Play Festival
• WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday
• WHERE: Wadleigh Theatre, Daggy Hall
• COST: $8 general admission, $6 WSU students