For some people, the idea of attending a two hour play may seem boring, but directors and actors in “Paint Your Dragon,” presented by EMU Theatre Inc., are trying to give audiences a unique theater experience.
“Paint Your Dragon” is a 10-minute play festival written, directed and acted out by people local to Lawrence and surrounding areas.
“If you don’t like what you’re seeing now, you just wait 10 minutes and there’s a brand new thing that comes up next,” Matt Pelsma, a director and actor in the festival, said. “Comedy, drama, lighthearted things, weird things … it’ll be entertaining.”
Chris Ortiz, a Baker University art history major, wrote and directed one of the more dramatic plays in the festival.
Ortiz submitted his play for “Paint Your Dragon” after meeting others involved at EMU Theatre.
To choose which plays would be in the show, EMU first found out who was interested in participating in the festival and then had those people choose which plays they wanted to do.
Many of the plays include amateur writers and actors due to the shortness of the plays.
“Writing a full-length play and putting on a full-length play can be a pretty daunting task,” Jeff Sorrels, “Paint Your Dragon” production manager, said. “The 10-minute play offers a lot of people a lot of opportunity. There are less lines to learn, a little less rehearsal that goes into it and also it gives the writers the opportunity to really play with ideas that may not be stretched out to 90 minutes.”
Although not everyone in the festival has extensive experience in the theater, Ortiz said everyone involved is extremely gifted.
“We had a plethora of people audition this year. It was incredible to see all the talent that came in and came through,” Ortiz said.
The people on-stage and behind the scenes aren’t the only ones who enjoy the festival, though. Sorrels said aside from EMU’s zombie Halloween show, it is the most successful show put on by the theater.
“When you go to see a show, you go to see a particular show and you don’t get as much variety … a lot of audiences react really positive to (the change in plays) because (if) there’s one that they don’t like or one that they enjoy there can be something completely different up next,” Sorrels said. “There’s always something there that everybody can kind of latch on to.”
The show is recommended for those who are the age of 18 and over due to vulgarity and language in some of the plays.
“It is definitely geared more towards a (college-aged) audience,” Ortiz said.
The “Paint Your Dragon” festival opens tonight and will also show Saturday, as well as April 6-7. All showings begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire Street, and tickets are $6 at the door.
