LOVE & WAR Performance

We had quite a large number of groups sign up for this theatre scramble!  If everyone who signed up turns out a play for the performance, this will be our biggest performance yet!  You really don’t want to miss this.  The theme for this scramble is Love and War.  We added in a fun challenge and randomly assigned titles for each group’s play.  Some of the titles include Capt. Strangelove, Cupid’s Machete, Private Moments in Corporal Punishment, and The Sweaty Battlefield.

November 19 will be the one-year anniversary of Theatre Scramble Mobile.  November 19, 2010, saw our first theatre scramble performance at the Mobile Museum of Art.  Almost one year later, we’ve had four theatre scrambles at three locations.  Please make plans to join us at the Crescent Theater on November 12, 2011, at 11 PM for our fifth scramble performance!  It promises to be a great night of love, battles, and flash theatre performed by some of Mobile’s talented actors, writers, and directors.  We hope to see you there!

Sign up for the next scramble at Serda’s

The Next Theatre Scramble Sign-Up Meeting

Join us on Wednesday, October 26, 2011, at Serda’s Coffee Company at 7 PM to sign up for the next theatre scramble! Invite all the writers, actors, directors, and propmasters you know to create short, original plays featuring local talent. The Crescent Theater will be hosting us again for our performance on Saturday, November 12, 2011, at 11 PM. We hope to see you all there for another amazing show!

A Terrific (Late) Nite

Late Nite Theatre was a tremendous amount of fun!  Thank you to everyone who came out and spent the night with us, and a huge thank you to the Crescent Theater and Max Morey and Will Fawcett for hosting us.  Thank you also to Jerry Bates for helping with set construction.

We filmed the plays from the balcony of the Crescent Theater and have posted some of the footage (with permission of the playwrights) on YouTube.  We hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Beans Beans-by Trey Lane and Timothy Dixon with Lillian McKinney and Brian Boyle

They Walk Among Us-by Stefanie Bencsath with Ryan Jetten and Brendon Cooke

The Man Who Would Be Pissed-by Gavin Whiteside with Alan Hardy Jr. and Will Carney

email us at theatrescramblemobile@gmail.com.

Late Nite Theatre: Live Performance on Saturday

This Saturday, July 30, the Crescent Theater will be hosting the live performances for Late Nite Theatre.  Join us at 11 PM to see several plays from area writers and actors all themed “late night.”  In addition to the live performances, we’ll also be showing the plays from Fairy Tale Theatre on the big screen!  Get there early to get a good seat!

Late Nite Theatre Rules

For those of you who missed the meeting on Friday night, here are the rules.  You can still come to the second meeting on Saturday, July 16, at Rollin’s Downtown Deli at 7 PM to sign up.

You will have one week to craft a Treatment for a short play (7 minutes or less).

A second meeting will be held at Rollin’s Downtown Deli on Saturday July 16 at 7 PM to process the Treatments and receive final instructions, leaving you one week to create a play based on a Treatment.

The performance will be held at the Crescent Theater on Saturday July 30 at 11 PM.  We will have very limited space for props to be used and stored.  Please keep this in mind when considering how to stage the play and also consider props that will not cause damage to the Crescent Theater.  Everyone will have a chance to see the staging area prior to the performance.

What is a treatment?

There are different kinds of treatments, but for this scramble we will be writing a One Page Pitch.

A one page pitch should read like a short story and should be written in the present tense.  It should present the entire story, including the ending.  A treatment generally does not contain dialogue.  A one page pitch may be anywhere from a single paragraph to a full page.  Please keep in mind the play should run only 7 minutes or less.

How to write a treatment

Outline your story, highlighting the most crucial elements.  Introduce the main characters, plot, climax, and conclusion.  Do not leave out the ending, as the reader will need to know the entire story.

Write your first draft of this outline in first or third-person.  At this point, worry more about explaining the story than about word count or length.  You can whittle it down later.  However, do try to keep it at a manageable level.

Edit the first draft by removing any unnecessary sentences, flowery language, adjectives, adverbs, etc.  If it isn’t pertinent to the progress of explaining the story to the reader, remove it.

Why a treatment?

Writing a treatment is a fast way to test out an idea before committing to writing a script.  If it isn’t terrific, you know you can move on.

If the basic story is not something someone would want to see, no amount of rewriting can fix it.

How should my story be laid out?

Front page:

1. Working title
2. The writer’s name and contact info
3. A Log Line (AKA Hook Line; a one-sentence summary of your story.  It’s the short blurb in TV Guide that tells you what a movie is about and helps you decide if you’re interested in seeing it.  It’s the grabber that excites your interest.)

Second page:

1. Treatment, which
2. Introduces key characters
3. Tells who, what, when, where, and why.
4. Sets the scene, dramatizes the main conflicts, how the conflicts lead to a crisis, and the resolution.

Length: Treatments usually play out where 1 page of treatment translates to 10 minutes of script.  Remember that the play duration should be no longer than 7 minutes.

A treatment states how the audience will experience the play.  It’s important to write treatments in an active voice and avoid the use of hyperbole.  You will want to write in the present tense and provide an overview of the characters, locations, and details.  You can write your treatment creatively.  The purpose of a treatment is to allow your audience to smell, taste, and experience your environment.  Reading a treatment (second only to reading a script) is the closest written equivalent to actually experiencing a play.  It’s important to leave out technical information.  Try to avoid passive words such as: should, will, might, and maybe.

Now write a play about whatever you want.

The theme for this scramble is Late Nite Theatre.  You may want to consider what falls under late night theatre (horror, slashers, mysteries, exploitation, cult classics, cabaret, erotica) and look at what plays other theatres around the country host for their late night theatre slots.  Or you may choose to write about whatever you like.

You’ve written your treatment?  Some things to consider:

Is the conflict in the play clearly established at the beginning?

Does the dialogue effectively contrast the differences between the characters?

Are all scenes included important to the outcome or resolution of the conflict?

Are the scene descriptions adequate for a set designer and director?

Do the stage directions give adequate instructions to the director and actors?

Does the play end at the right place?

Late Nite Theatre at the Crescent Theater

 

 

 

We’re very excited to have the next theatre scramble hosted by the Crescent Theater!  The performance will be July 30th at 11 PM at the Crescent Theater, located downtown on Dauphin Street.  Show up early to get a spot as seating will be limited.

For those of you interested in participating in the scramble, the kickoff meeting will be this Friday, July 8, at 7 PM at Rollin’s Downtown Deli, located right across from the Crescent Theater.  Come at 7 to sign up and receive details about the scramble, including the theme, rules, and other instructions, as well as to meet and exchange information with other participants.  We hope to see you there!

And They All Lived Happily Ever After

The third and latest Theatre Scramble Mobile was a resounding success. Our heartfelt thanks to all who participated, spectated and facilitated.

With the help of Jolt Productions, we hope to have the plays online soonly for your enjoyment.

Enjoy some pics of the event, courtesy of the always-amazing Allison Schaub

 

April Hopkins and ZachDePolo’s The Emerald City

 

Brennan Gibson & Trey Lane’s Snow White and the WTF Just Happened?

Stefanie Bencsath’s Sleeping Hussy

 

Scotty White’s Kill Bear ,Vol. One

 

 

“When’s the next Theater Scramble?!”

Watch This Space!

Only two more days…

…until the Fairy Tale Theatre Scramble performances, that is.  We’re terribly excited about this performance!  Al.com showed us some love last week by reprinting an article from ModMobilian.com about the scramble.  We’re hoping this means even more people will come out this Saturday!

Fairy Tale Theatre will feature plays from Scotty White, Eric Gallichant, Zach DePolo, Timothy Dixon, Brendon Cooke, Trey Lane, and Stefanie Bencsath (hey, that’s me!).  Zach DePolo’s take on The Wizard of Oz will be unlike any you’ve seen before, and Scotty White’s version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears may leave you questioning what you really know about those bears.

So come out this Saturday, March 12, to Space 301.  Doors open at 6 PM and the plays will start soon after.  We’ll also have light refreshments and a cash bar!  Ages 18 and up.  Have we mentioned that this is the perfect Saturday night date?  (Trust us, it’ll make you look super artsy and smart, and that will impress any date.)

Feb 20 2011 Update

Today was the Crescent Theater Screening of the First Theatre Scramble Mobile and we also began sign-ups for the 2nd Theatre Scramble Mobile Event.

The theme for this project is Fairy Tale Theatre and if you’d like to participate, please contact us at TheatreScrambleMobile at g mail dotcom and/or visit the event’s facebook page

Post-mortem and the birth of twins

 

The first theatre scramble was a great success!  The Mobile Museum of Art approached us about collaborating with them on a new series of events called Museum Nights, where guests can come to the museum for free, wander the galleries, enjoy free refreshments and a cash bar, and have some live entertainment.  For this first Museum Night, the theatre scramble was the live entertainment.  We had close to two hundred people in attendance.  Seven teams performed their short plays, including Colin Dacy, Stefanie Bencsath (that’s me!), Scotty White, David Lyons, Kim Tooks, Timothy Dixon, and Brendon Cooke.  Jolt Productions also came out and filmed all of the plays for us.

The videos from the first theatre scramble will be shown on February 19th at the Crescent Theater on Dauphin Street.  The video will be shown at noon, and afterward, we’ll have the sign-up for our next theatre scramble, which is going to be hosted at Space 301!  Space 301 is located on Conti Street in downtown Mobile, right behind Cathedral Square.  If you haven’t checked out this modern art gallery, you should.  Your next chance to do so is on February 11th during ArtWalk.

We also have another theatre scramble coming up with the Mobile Museum of Art.  The museum is hosting a family friendly Mardi Gras event on February 26th and our theatre scramble will take place at 1:oo.  The plays will all incorporate the Mardi Gras theme in some way and will be family friendly.  If you are interested in writing or acting for this Mardi Gras theatre scramble, please contact Stefanie Bencsath at sbencsath@gmail.com or Trey Lane at vocabularian@gmail.com.