On Saturday afternoon, the Y-Arts Program hosts the debut 10-Minute Play Festival, which features five short-form works from several local playwrights.
The 10-Minute Play Festival presents the work of locally-based playwrights, including Marty Shea and Ian Bonner, whose film The Owner screened at the Y in January. Y Arts director Margaret Edwartowski also has a play in the festival as well. Acclaimed Michigan playwrights Kim Carney and David MacGregor, as well as local actor Stephen Blackwell, are also presenting their work.
The 10-Minute Play Festival is a chance for actors to hear their works read aloud by actors, see how audiences react, and hear feedback. There will be a talkback with the playwrights after the readings where audience members can talk with the playwrights and discuss their impressions of the work.
Y Arts coordinator Seth Amadei sifted through a little more than 30 submissions to come up with the five that will be presented at the festival. Both he and Margaret Edwartowski reached out to their connections in the Detroit theater community for submissions. “We have some really talented writers here in the city,” Seth says.
The format is challenging a real test of a writer’s talent; instead of two or three acts to engage an audience and tell a story, they have about the span of one-third of a sitcom. “It is a challenge for the playwright to fit an interesting and complete story into ten minutes,” he says.
The 10-Minute Play Festival starts at 3 p.m. on Saturday at the Marlene Boll Theater in the Boll Family YMCA. Admission is free.