On Saturday, Oct. 4, a collection of some of Eugene’s most promising playwrights and actors gathered at Tsunami Books to perform their own original 10-minute plays. The plays were hardly rehearsed, with most groups only practicing a couple of times beforehand. The actors were still holding their scripts onstage, props were sparse and the stage itself was small. The performances that followed, while not completely polished, served as a testament to the quality of stories that can be told onstage, even with a tight timetable and no budget.
“There’s something about it that feels extra real and authentic,” actor Ben Minnis said. “It’s like, somebody wrote some words and a couple friends are gonna spend some time trying to bring those words to life together and people are gonna come share this experience with us,” he said.
The event, entitled “A Slice of Life,” was hosted by Amy Weinkauf and Marla Norton. While Weinkauf helps run an annual festival of 10-minute plays at Oregon Contemporary Theatre, she wanted to encourage people to write more and even feature works that might not always find their way into festival rotations.
Weinkauf took the idea to Norton, a local playwright who directed a play for last year’s Northwest Ten Festival, and made it a reality.
“I said (to Norton), ‘Can’t we just get together and tell stories more than just once a year?’ We can ask questions (and) make it more opportune for the audience to participate a little bit more. That helps us be better playwrights, too.”
What followed was the beginning of what may continue to be a regularly hosted showcase of local talent. One such showcase was “Moonfarm,” a play about two dogs — one a grizzled veteran of space travel and the other a bright-eyed rookie — who are sent to space for a routine testing mission and decide to attempt a moon landing. While a unconventional idea at the surface, 10 minutes was enough time for writers Alex Ever and Aaron Michaelsmart to create a compelling, yet still comedic narrative.
Cam Houg, who played a cigarette-smoking space-canine, even came out of retirement to perform in the play. The quick turnaround of the whole process appealed to Houg.
“I think the spontaneity is a lot of fun,” Houg said. “That’s one of the things where I think having only one rehearsal honestly helped us. It’s very much in the moment which I think makes it easy to sort of play with.”
Another play that managed to cover a range of emotions was a work penned by Norton entitled “End of Life Sex.” The play, inspired by an ad posted in the Eugene Weekly some 30 years ago, depicted a man going to meet a terminally ill woman who posts the very same ad. The play seamlessly transitioned from funny to heartfelt to tragic and right back to funny again. Erica Towe, an actor in the play, was particularly impacted by the members of the audience present at Tsunami.
“I look around and see so many people who have influenced this area to make it possible for all of us to work,” Towe said. “I get goosebumps still because this is the heart of what we do. We collaborate and learn from each other and have discussions. It’s so important and I’m super grateful for this opportunity to do this work. It feels like such an honor,” she said.
After the plays concluded, Weinkauf stepped onstage to ask the audience two questions about each play: “What struck you?” and “What do you still have questions about?” The playwrights never answered any of these questions, instead opting to take note of what may have confused the audience and use it for future development of their work.
