By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
GREENWICH VILLAGE — Unrequited love, a late night conversation in a Waffle House and a talking penis are featured in the 13th Street Repertory Company’s new short play festival opening Thursday.
The festival showcases eight plays created from the prompt, “There's an elephant in the room.” Many of the writers are in their early 20s and all are participants in a summer internship program operated by the 13th Street Repertory Company and the Merit Theater and Film Group.
“I try to write from what I’m going through,” said Toby Scales, a 34-year-old East Village resident, who wrote one of the plays and also served as literary manager of the festival. “I started by asking myself the question, 'what is the elephant in my room?'”
He explored the fallout from his own recent breakup and wrote “The Penis Play,” in which a blind date is twice interrupted. First, his lead character’s ex-girlfriend appears as a figment of his imagination. Then, his penis "shows up and takes over the play,” said Scales, describing it as “a mix between a vaudeville performer and a carnival barker.”
For the other interns, who came from New York University, the New School and elsewhere, the unpaid internship was an opportunity to learn about each phase of creating a stage production, as well as the challenges of writing a short play.
“With a longer play, you can have a lot more conversations about themes and motifs,” said Kate Shapiro, a 20-year-old NYU junior living in the East Village.
A short play, by contrast, is about “action, action, action,” Shapiro said. Her piece, “F-Scale,” is an exploration of teen angst set at 4 a.m. in a Waffle House.
The internship has been a struggle for many students given the tough economic times, according to Sandra Nordgren, the festival’s producing artistic director and creator of the program that began in 2003.
This year, 11 of 30 interns dropped out.
“I feel so bad,” said Nordgren. “Most of them leave with such sadness.”
Still, those who stay feel rewarded.
“From the moment you step in, you feel like it’s home,” said Crystal Simon, 20, an associate producer and stage manager from Queens. “I just want all the patrons to feel that.”
“The Elephant in the Room” short play festival runs through August 14 at 50 West 13th Street.
