FIU Theatre Develops the Heat with Alternative Theatre Festival
FIU Theatre’s annual Alternative Theatre Festival is a chance for the community to experience sizzling hot theatre. Each Festival features a student directed piece, a faculty directed piece and one development piece.
This summer’s development piece is Kenny Finkle’s new play A Thousand Years, directed by Michael Yawney – FIU Theatre’s dramaturg. Developing a show means FIU Theatre is the first producing theater, and it is the inaugural opportunity for the playwright to see the work fully produced. Finkle will be attending rehearsals and will see his piece fully realized for the first time with a full production, off book, from July 25 – August 3 in the Black Box Theatre of the Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center.
Yawney spoke to us on the reasons to produce a development piece, and why it is important for FIU Theatre to be doing them:
“It is a laboratory situation where we get to work on things that may or may not pan out, we get to explore things that may or may not work. The other pieces in the Festival we know work, “Bachelorette” and “Reverse Psychology,” have previously been staged. What we’re looking for in the development piece is to take something new that is untested and to bring that to life. “A Thousand Years” is such a wild, loop-the-loop of a play that it is going to require more than just performing the script as written. For example – how do we put on our stage a tsunami, a stair case that takes ten years to climb, and a tunnel dug with a spork?
Our main effort this summer, as first producers, is simply to discover how to create something there is no model for. Our hope is that like last year’s “As the Globe Warms,” other theaters will use our production as the model for bringing the script to life.”
After being first staged and developed at last year’s Alternative Theatre Festival, Heather Woodbury’s “As the Globe Warms” went on to be performed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA as well as the Vortex Repertory Company in Austin, TX. Since the piece was developed here, FIU Theatre will always be listed as the first producers of the play. There is also development going on in the other plays this summer. An upcoming student directed piece is the way for Stephanie Sandoval (who graduated this May and will be attending graduate school in the fall) to step into the director role and oversee an entire show. Faculty director Marina Pareja is developing her directorial muscles and her talents outside her normal role here at FIU; she is the Costume Shop Head and Costume Designer of FIU Theatre. Pareja is also the producing manager for the entire Alternative Theatre Festival.
Come out to the Alternative Theatre Festival, where the stage gets hot!
Alternative Theatre Festival 2013
Summer of Alumni Giveback
Alumni Showcase* – June 20, 21, & 22 | 8:00 PM
Kick off the Summer of Alumni Giveback! FIU Theatre Alumni present different programs each evening
– including a staged reading of a new play, an evening of long form improv, and short one act plays.
Bachelorette – June 27, 28, 29 and July 4, 5, 6; Preview: June 26 | 8:00 PM
by Leslye Headland; directed by Stephanie Sandoval.
These women can party harder than you. But can they make they make it
to the wedding in one piece… and without a hangover?
Reverse Psychology – July 11, 12, 13 and July 18, 19, 20; Preview: July 10 | 8:00 PM
by Charles Ludlum; directed by Marina Pareja.
Dating a psychiatrist can drive you crazy.
Dating your boyfriend’s psychiatrist will drive you crazier.
A Thousand Years – July 25, 26, 27 and August 1, 2, 3; Preview July 24 | 8:00 PM
a new play by Kenny Finkle; directed by Michael Yawney.
Make one wrong turn and it might take a millennium to get back to the one you love.
A comedy about vast distances, tsunamis, and coffee.
Glengarry Glen Ross* – August 8, 9, 10 | 8:00 PM
by David Mamet; directed by Wayne E. Robinson, Jr.
Lie. Cheat. Steal. All In A Day’s Work.
– Special alumni reunion, with the entire original 2002 cast reprising their roles!*
Performances contain adult language and situations, not recommended for children.
Tickets*: $10 | Cash or Check only. Available at door. No advance sales.
*Alumni Showcase and Special Alumni Reunion Shows will be fundraisers
for FIU Theatre Student Scholarships, with a suggested $20 donation at the door.
Location: Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center, Black Box Theatre
Modesto A. Maidique Campus | 10910 SW 17th St., Miami, FL 33199
