{"id":1606,"date":"2012-11-17T06:03:51","date_gmt":"2012-11-17T10:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=1606"},"modified":"2023-07-09T13:06:44","modified_gmt":"2023-07-09T16:06:44","slug":"premature-plays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=1606","title":{"rendered":"Premature Plays"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

kristin slaney<\/p>\n

Short plays (ten minutes and under) can be a difficult theatrical beast because they are so rarely given life outside of contests for teenagers and writing exercises for those seeking to build up to larger work. In According To Plan<\/em>, Once Upon a Theatre Collective<\/a> stages four short plays written by Kristin Slaney at the Neptune<\/a> Studio Theatre closing November 16th<\/sup>, 2012 and the collective encounters many of the typical challenges inherent to this forum.<\/p>\n

There are two types of short plays that can be really captivating and riveting for an audience to watch: an entirely well polished, tightly constructed play that lives and breathes with all the same arc, tension, stakes and theatrical elements that one comes to expect from a professionally written full-length play or a well polished, tightly constructed scene, again with all the same elements one comes to expect from the professional theatre, that suggests the possibility of it being fleshed out into a future larger work. Slaney\u2019s plays, many of which were written for (and already performed once) for Once Upon a Theatre Collective’s Short Play Night<\/em>, are not yet finessed to a point where they fit either category, but instead seem like the early draft of a kernel of an interesting idea, which doesn\u2019t warrant a $20.00 ticket price.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Proposal Game\u201d the concept of a couple who stage fake proposals for kicks is an interesting one but the real relationship between the two characters hasn\u2019t been fleshed out enough for me to care about it. Slaney has a penchant for writing endearing male characters, ones that showcase that side of both Glen Matthews and Griffin MacInnes here very sweetly, but her female characters are far more wishy-washy and while their rejection or exasperation with their male counterparts is obvious, the motivation of why they are making these decisions is less clear. I thought \u201cArthur and Amelia\u201d had the most potential for something that could become a longer play, but so much of Amelia in this incarnation was left a muddled blank- awkward on the surface but missing the substance underneath. I would also encourage Slaney to move away from formulaic sitcom story arcs, even in short play writing, and to allow herself to explore her own uniqueness as a writer.<\/p>\n

I know the circumstances of this particular show were limiting<\/a>, but I find Once Upon a Theatre Collective has a penchant for staging work that would benefit from more time in development (and relying on the gimmick of \u201cawkwardly thrown together at the last minute for your enjoyment!\u201d which has grown tired and clich\u00e9d) to reach its full potential. I would rather see one play after a year or more of development that showcases all the talents that I know this group of ambitious and passionate theatre artists are capable of than four that only give me brief glimmers of it.<\/p>\n

I am really looking forward to seeing Slaney\u2019s Poem For the Smallest Boy<\/em> in the Spring. I think often more time can make the magic!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

kristin slaney Short plays (ten minutes and under) can be<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4671],"tags":[5083,5465,5140,3447,5464],"class_list":["post-1606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-glen-matthews","tag-griffin-mcinnes","tag-kristin-slaney","tag-neptune-theatre-scotiabank-studio","tag-once-upon-a-theatre-collective"],"yoast_head":"\nPremature Plays - The Way I See It Theatre & Music Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=1606\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Premature Plays - 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