Some say you cannot reject a humble heart, but Athens cannot reject a humble
play.
The Humble Play: New Play Festival of Appalachian Ohio will return for a 6th year on the ARTS/West stage.
The festival has different plays submitted throughout the previous year. A panel judges the plays, and the judges’ picks are chosen to be performed at the
festival.
In light of the festival’s theme, “Before The Ink Is Dry,” the plays will be performed script in hand so the words can be the “focus of the event,” according to a news release on the Athens County Visitors Bureau website. Patrons can ask questions and give comments to the playwrights after each performance.
According to the ARTS/West blog, the festival’s mission is “to promote the art of playwriting while introducing the process of play development to an
audience.”
The 2011 festival will feature four plays by four different playwrights, including The Charity Fish Fry Tinkling Show by K. Biadaszkiewicz, What Ever Happened to Baby Abby by Merri Biechler, An Unlikely Hero by Lawrence Dukore, Death Squad by W.R. Smiddie and a special presentation of the school of theater’s weekly Midnight Madness.
This year, the festival is being dedicated to the playwright W.R. Smiddie, a local playwright and potter who was “instrumental in getting the festival started,” said Emily Prince, ARTS/West’s program coordinator.
Prince said Smiddie, who died in June, “believed in getting new work in front of an audience.” One of his plays, Death Squad, will be performed
posthumously.
Every year, the festival selects a mentor who serves as another set of eyes and ears to help the playwrights. Raymond Hardie, a 1968 alumnus of Queen’s University Belfast, is this year’s mentor. Hardie is an actor and playwright who has performed and has had his work performed internationally.
The festival is free and open to the public.
ks574510@ohiou.edu
