Festival will showcase student-playwrights’ work

By Heather Horton/entertainment editor

Georgia Phillips/The Collegian  SE student Josh Tran plays a bum who takes a nap on James Delk, who stars as Sofa in the play Sofa Love. The 10-minute play was written by student playwright Benjamin Galla and is told from the point of view of a couch.
Georgia Phillips/The Collegian SE student Josh Tran plays a bum who takes a nap on James Delk, who stars as Sofa in the play Sofa Love. The 10-minute play was written by student playwright Benjamin Galla and is told from the point of view of a couch.

The Festival of Plays will run on SE Campus Feb. 19-22, showcasing four TCC student playwrights.

As part of the Achieving the Dream initiative, students districtwide last semester submitted their work in hopes of being considered for production in the Festival of Plays.

Drama associate professor Angela Inman is responsible for directing two of the four 10-minute plays and helped in deciding who made the final cut.

“There are guidelines that people have to abide by to be considered,” she said. “The plays actually had to have a theme around Achieving the Dream.”

The contestants interpreted this theme in various ways. Some plays deal with achieving the dream of a relationship or, in one instance, achieving the dream of survival, Inman said.

“That is really kind of a broad theme, and it can be interpreted in a lot of different ways,” she said. “So what is fun is to see how people took that one idea and really ran with it.”

Inman said each is different.

“I think it will be really interesting for the audience to see the scope in which they took that one idea,” she said.

Continuing education instructor Megan Haratine is also directing two of the four plays — one comedy and one drama.

“The most important thing about this is how it’s student-written,” she said.

Haratine explained that her role as director is to take the raw script from her beginner playwrights and develop the piece into a work of art. She helps find the heartbeat behind the script, giving the story a stronger beginning, middle and end.

“Overall, I have been really pleased with the process,” she said. “I think in this project the process is kind of the most important and rewarding thing for everybody.”

Student playwright Benjamin Galla said it took a while to write his script, and it is still a work in progress.

“My play is about a couple’s relationship spiraling out of control,” he said.

Galla said the unique twist is that the play called Sofa Love is told from the point of view of their couch.

“The couch is its own persona,” he said.

Other titles include Walks of Life, Living the Dream and Winter’s Plea.

The Festival of Plays opens in the C.A. Roberson Theatre with two performances each night at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. with a 1:30 p.m. matinee Feb. 21. Tickets are free for TCC students, faculty and staff with ID, $6 for general admission and $3 for other students and seniors. Call the box office at 817-515-3599 for information and tickets.