Center Stage to put on series of one-act plays
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on June 13, 2014 1:46 PM
Gods, aliens and sword fighting -- Center Stage Theatre's one-act plays have it all.
"A Night of One Acts" will be performed Saturday, June 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the Wayne County Museum. It will last two hours and 45 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission.
This year there will be 15 plays, half of them comedies and half of them dramas, according to director Gene McLendon.
"We've got an epic play about the age of the guardians," he said. "We've got gods and even a big fight scene with swords.
"Another play has aliens in it. Two guys end up fighting aliens in their bedroom. Then there's a Rumpelstiltskin play. And there are a lot of magical things going on in some of the plays."
McLendon said there are normally about nine or 10 plays and that allows for more musicals. But with 15 plays this year, some of those had to be cut out so there's just one musical play.
There are eight new playwrights this year and one repeat playwright. Some have more than one play being performed.
One writer is from Smithfield and the rest are from Goldsboro.
"I think all of the plays have their own merits," McLendon said. "A movie star wrote one. Bill Roberson was in 'Forest Gump' and he lives an hour or two away.
"And an actress from Smithfield is coming to take part on the plays."
Some of the plays use costumes.
"We don't get real elaborate in costuming or props," McLendon said. "We do it more the style of a school class program with minimal costuming and props. It's a step above the reader's theater where people write plays and other people sit around reading them. We took it a step more and took the books way from them and are making them watch the plays."
McLendon said all of the plays are family friendly.
Tickets are available at the door the night of the plays for a donation of whatever you can afford, McLendon said.