The IRC - SPARK 2006 - Philadelphia Inquirer Feature

Philadelphia Inquirer
Friday, July 14, 2006

Pint-size productions
The Spark Showcase Festival offers a smorgasbord of short plays, showcasing the work of 20 small theaters.

By Gene D'Alessandro For The Inquirer

Ten minutes. Ten stinkin' minutes. That's how short these little guys are.
We're talking plays - short plays. Highfalutin art that takes just minutes to sample. Even folks with the shortest of attention spans can enjoy such sleek stagecraft.

Philadelphia's Spark Showcase Festival pays homage to this wildly popular form of theater. Now ablaze in Old City, "10 for 10: An Evening of Ten-Minute Plays" races through July 23, with 20 small theaters sporting their wares at the intimate Mum Puppettheatre. Week One plays through Sunday; Week Two runs Tuesday to July 23.

"Ten-minute-play festivals are a pretty big deal," said Lane Savadove, founder and artistic director of EgoPo, the New Orleans theater troupe displaced by Hurricane Katrina. "They're a place for theater artists to develop."

They're also just plain fun. Or weird. Or sexy.
Indicative of each company's mission for theatermaking, the signature works are performed together, one after the other, allowing audiences to sample many styles and moods.
"We're taking this thrilling ride together," said Karen Getz, co-artistic director of Tapestry Theatre, a troupe that focuses on female theater artists. Getz and partner Kelly Jennings will stage the second installment of their improvised action-adventure story Killer Pussy, about a feminist superhero with a French accent, tail and claws.

"Think Batman meets Kill Bill," Jennings said of the campy comedy that plays Week One.
Other first-week participants include B. Someday Productions' 3x3+1 - three, three-minute adaptations of classic works such as A Streetcar Named Desire and Moby-Dick. Twenty-three youngsters perform in The Cruel Sister, a musical ghost story staged by MacGuffin Theater & Film Co. Week One also features a 9-month-old baby, the onstage grilling of a steak, and a play by absurdist master Samuel Beckett.

Tina Brock felt Spark was the ideal outlet to introduce her new company, Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium. The group will stage Beckett's 1982 work, Catastrophe, a bleak political parody described as "a moving art installation."
Brock said the festival provides a nice representation of the city's small theater community.
"It's like when someone gives you a sample of new hair products and says try this, see if you like it."
In this teeming age of instant messages and Web surfing, the 10-minute play has become de rigueur in theater circles. Inspired by the 10-minute-play series at the renowned Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Spark Festival has become Philadelphia's premier outlet for shorter works.
"We're really trying to make Spark a promotional tool [for emerging companies]," said Spark producer Lisa Perine.

The Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia developed the local showcase in 2004 to assist companies with an annual operating budget of less than $200,000.
"These are the future theaters of Philadelphia," said Karen DiLossi, Theatre Alliance director of programs and services. "[Spark] is a step toward adulthood."
The alliance is an umbrella organization of 109 companies, while Spark is a program within the alliance, with a mission to promote and provide resources for the area's smaller troupes. Although 70 small theaters qualify as Spark theaters, only 34 have signed on.
Still, Spark 2006 is twice the size of last year's inaugural edition.
"There were a lot of doubters last year, said Gregory Campbell, outgoing Spark Committee chair. "I remember saying, 'We have 10 companies. If each company brings 50 people, that's 500 people. We'll have a sellout.' "

Campbell's projections proved accurate. All but one of last year's seven performances sold out. What's more, the inaugural festival made money - money shared by the companies and used to finance this year's edition.

The festival's second week will feature the Vagabond Acting Troupe's Super Duper, a comic book come to life with tights-clad heroes and flashlights. A pair of David Mamet-obsessed writers pitch their scatological drama in Luna Theater's gritty comedy, Yes, Mamet. BCKSEET Productions pierces the Rupert Murdoch myth with the satiric Lines Composed a Few Miles Above T/ntern Abbey, Part II or How We Got America's Most Wanted and the New York Post.

Remember, if you don't like what you see, don't panic. Something else will pop along in just 10 minutes.
"My hope is that at least one person per night goes away saying, 'Now there's one company I want to follow,' " DiLossi said.

Contact staff writer Gene D'Alessandro at 215-854-2889 or gdalessandro@phillynews.com.