CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

American Stage explores mental health issues in new play fest

The Herald-Tribune - 1/10/2021

Jan. 10—Like many theaters across the country, American Stage in St. Petersburg turned to digital and video productions during the pandemic to keep presenting new works to audience members while they're unable to attend in person.

The new formats have worked better in some productions than others, said Stephanie Gularte, the theater's producing artistic director, but they are perfectly well suited for the staged readings of four new plays planned over two weekends for the fifth "21st Century Voices: New Play Festival," which begins Friday.

"The production elements are stripped away. We don't have a fully realized set. We don't have actors move about the space," she said. "The staged reading is about hearing the story, hearing the words and experiencing the performances and interpreting what is happening. We can do that really effectively digitally."

The annual series is part of the theater's commitment to help playwrights develop new work that will hopefully find its way into future seasons at the St. Petersburg theater.

"That's an important part of the responsibility of professional regional theaters, not just to produce plays in their full form once completed but to work with the playwrights and help them get the new plays there," she said.

For the first time, the festival will focus on a specific theme, mental health, which is the subject of the four plays, the post-show discussions that will follow each reading and a series of wellness workshops and panel discussions addressing different aspects of the wide-ranging subject.

Gularte said the impact COVID-19 has had on mental health "has influenced the festival in every step along the way." She hopes the four plays provide an "opportunity to destigmatize the issues raised in the plays because there's so much more sensitivity to these issues."

The decision for the mental health theme came after American Stage had to cancel its summer production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical "Next to Normal," about a woman battling bipolar disorder.

"We had created some great community partnerships around that and we were looking forward to some discussions," Gularte said. "We started thinking about the new play festival and the 2020-21 season and decided to focus the submission process on plays with specific themes on mental health."

There was no shortage of contenders. The theater selected four plays from a pool of more than 200 submissions.

"One of the things I love about the theater is that playwrights are always writing about he things we want to start talking about," Gularte said. "That's why developing these works is so important. That's where it starts."

This year's festival was expanded from one weekend to two, running Jan. 15-17 and Jan. 22-24 "because we know it can be tough for people to spend too much time watching on the computer," she said.

The festival opens at 7:30 p.m. Friday with Amber Palmer's "In Search of the Mothman," about two sisters whose lives change after an unexpected tragedy in their hometown. It is described as a "a play about coming together and pulling away in tragedy."

At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, there will be a reading of Cris Eli Blak's "Sons of Liberty," about two brothers, one of whom is dealing with PTSD after suffering combat injuries, and the impact on their family and what it means to be a veteran.

Meghan Maugeri's "The Polar Bear Society" will be presented at 7:30 p.m.Jan. 22. It is about three teens who have been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder who form an online support group.

The final play "Gated" is by Arlene Hutton, who grew up in Manatee County and is the author of "Last Train to Nibroc" and two related plays in a trilogy that was most recently produced by Venice Theatre. It is set in a retirement community reminiscent of The Villages, and focuses on a woman trying to protect her husband, a veteran who is showing signs of early-onset Parkinson's and dementia, and the bureaucracy she must fight to get support.

Each reading will be followed by a discussion featuring the director, playwright and a mental health experts in the field related to the play's subject.

Runs and Jan. 22-24 online through American Stage. All-access festival passes, including the four play readings and post-show discussions are $55. One-weekend passes are $30. Individual readings are $15 and include access to workshops. Post-show discussion tickets are $10. Individual panels are free and open to the public. 727-823-7529; americanstage.org

___

(c)2021 Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla.

Visit Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla. at www.heraldtribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.