POP-UP PLAYS Set for Tonight at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater

Six playwrights choose some actors, stay up all night writing, and deliver a ten-minute script before breakfast the next morning. Six directors then take over, rehearsing with the actors for a single day.

Twenty-four hours since the start of the process, six brand-new ten-minute plays are presented to the world.

The event is called Pop-Up Plays, and will debut at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury VT.

No one has any idea what the shows will be. "We could end up with a comedy about three hit-men, or a romance between singing waiters or it could be about Vladimir Putin's dog...or all of the above. It's all up for grabs," says Haley Rice, producer. "The short time period is an in-your-face deadline that fires up the imagination and provokes creative action. It should feel a little like watching NASCAR, but funnier."

Pop-Up Plays will feature some fine writers, including Jessie Raymond, columnist from the Addison Independent; Kevin Commins, a screenwriter from Los Angeles; and Susan Weiss, a novelist based in Burlington. Also featured are three funny Vermont playwrights: Chris Caswell, Macarthur Stine and Marianne DiMascio.

The Pop-Up directors have a long list of credits. Doug Anderson is executive director of Town Hall Theater and artistic director of Opera Company of Middlebury; Melissa Lourie, artistic director of Middlebury Actors Workshop; Susan Palmer, who will be directing at Vermont Stage this spring; Wendi Stein, founder, producer and co-director of Theatre Kavanah, New York & Vermont actor and director Cyrus Moore, and Lindsay Pontius, formerly with Shakespeare and Company who is now Town Hall Theater's esteemed education director.

"Haley Rice is new to THT and she brings a lot of fresh ideas," says Anderson. "We're all wondering what we've gotten ourselves into, but given the talent that Haley's lined up I have a feeling this will be a terrific evening in the theater."

Pop-Up Plays will be presented tonight, April 12th, 7:30 pm, at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater. Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at www.townhalltheater.org, 802 382-9222, at the THT Box Office (Mon-Sat, Noon-5 pm) and at the door.

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