Emma Stanton shares her thoughts on the XYZ Festival of New Works.
For me, The XYZ Festival is an opportunity to speak to and connect with our theater community in a way that is both big and small. What initially drew me to About Face Theatre was a reading of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later in the Fall of 2009. While the piece itself was speaking to me on a very personal and intimate level, I knew that that it was also speaking to something much bigger than me. And knowing that this small story was being communicated around the world at the same time was profound for me. Because the theater gave this small story an incredible, resonating voice. This is the kind of theater experience I want to be a part of, the kind of theater I want ot make.
Since the XYZ Festival this year was opened up to the playwriting community on a national level, I was interested in developing a selection process that mirrored the submission process. Therefore, as submissions rolled into the office of About Face Theater, we worked on getting readers that were not only from Chicago but from across the country to participate in the reading of these plays.
This interest in reaching out on a personal and larger level does not end in the submission and selection process of the XYZ Festival. It is what I am looking for, as well, as I am reading possible contenders for the festival. I am asking myself: How does this play speak to me on an individual level? What is it about this play that makes the telling of the story specific and therefore new to me? and How does this play speak to the larger issues of our mission? Honestly, I imagine a string going between a small stone and a huge cloud. It is the tension in that string, the relationship between the big and small, that I am interested in.
Photo Credit: http://www.law.columbia.edu/ipimages/Information_technology/images/CheckMarkX.jpg
