Tragedy strikes, religion ruptures, politicians and their wives teach suburban culture, and all in one great event — UCSD’s Baldwin New Play Festival 2004. For those who have an eye for theater or even those who want to give the university’s top talents a chance to shine their little theatrical tushies away, this will be a doozy of a festival. And no, there will be no gratuitous sex and no tumultuous violence — well who knows? Perhaps there will.
Written, directed, performed and created by UCSD’s very own students in the masters of fine arts program, BNPF shows possibly some of the nation’s newest, most innovative theatrical talents of American theater.
Never heard of the festival before? It’s a showcase of second- and third-year MFA students’ full-length plays, along with some first-year one-act plays. This year BNPF presents the additional treat of a staged reading by a Faculty Fellow. You’ll see the work of playwright veterans Rachel Axler, Barry Levey, Mat Smart and Ken Weitzman; in addition, two newcomers, Tim Lord and Ruth McKee, also hop on board with their one-act plays “Better Homes and Homelands” and “Cargo.”
The amazing thing is that all playwrights get produced — even down to the youngest or oldest, most experienced or most amateur. Nothing like equality and opportunity. “It’s nice to have the opportunity to see a play written by students,” Lords said of BNPF. Also, there aren’t any restrictions on what the playwrights write (well very few restrictions anyway), and so the festival gets a greatly eclectic medley of productions.
It’s been a number of years since every playwright has gotten the chance at guaranteed production. A big high-five goes to supporters and money donators Ken and Ginger Baldwin — hence the name of the festival.
Now all the students are guaranteed production no matter what. “The great thing is we’re not competing. We’re all working in collaboration,” McKee said of the production guarantee. The result? Top-notch, quality plays.
BNPF has much to show its audience, not only through raw talent and ingenuity, but also through the time and effort spent toward development. And as the story goes, over 12 months of writing, editing, submitting, casting, re-writing, decorating, more writing, tweaking, un-tweaking and rehearsing have been put forth to produce the final products that you will see at BNPF. Plus, it is the MFA students’ “project of the year” and with the measureless amounts of effort and time put in, you can only expect production of the highest caliber.
These UCSD plays are produced nationwide, and many are eventually showcased in big theater-savvy cities such as New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Each year, reputable guests and professionals from all over the nation view the BNPF productions. This effort isn’t made to produce a walloping “wow” from us normal people, but so that the playwrights can “make contacts and let them meet all of our work,” Lord said. Art can be quite a practical business as well.
In layman’s terms: It’s theater and it’s entertainment, so with some spare time, why not check out what BNPF is all about. You may be surprised at what talents UCSD has to offer in its theatrical department.
“I promise none of the plays are boring. We’re in our 20s, we’re writing things that people on campus can relate to,” McKee said.
