Student writers join to play at the Play Ground

What happens when two young couples — one gay and one heterosexual — are separated by the Atlantic Ocean?

“Sex, drugs and everything else that goes into being 21 and confused,” said School for the Arts sophomore Jordan Seavey.

Currently directing a full-length production in the Play Ground Festival, Seavey is among the many involved with the production who share a love for theater in the annual event held for aspiring playwrights at Boston University’s School for the Arts. The Festival began more than 10 years ago as an avenue for students with mounting theologian ambitions.

“Although it is usually difficult to get things off the ground, we have a forum in which we give students space, time and very good faculty advising,” Seavey said. “[The Festival] struggles sometimes because everyone in the theater department is doing so much work all of the time.”

The plays in the Festival are entirely student written, directed and acted with the help of movement teacher Judith Chaffe. She serves as the faculty advisor for the Festival, which will put on one 10-minute play, two one-act plays and a full-length feature.

Liz Gorman is the brainchild behind the two one-act plays titled “The Visit” and “The Boy Next Door.” They will be preformed March 21-23 at the School for the Arts, alongside a 10-minute play from Shanon Walker.

“The Long Distance,” the full-length production from Seavey, will run from March 23-26 in room 104 in the School for the Arts.

“My play is about youth,” said Seavey, who will try to follow in the footsteps of past award winning collegiate playwrights such as BU’s Daria Polatin and Greg Mozgala. Their plays from last spring have each moved on to be performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., while Mozgala’s “Game Legs” received an invitation to the American College Film Festival. Polatin and Mozgala’s work will be published soon, and Seavey said, “They are changing the face of theater.”

“It’s about a bunch of 21- year-olds and what happens when one-half of two couples goes away to London,” Seavey said. “It is a total comedy that is trying to say something serious. It’s farcical in a way.”

Pieces by Alice Curley and Joseph Leo Courdriet IV will not be part of the Festival this year as originally scheduled, though performances of these works are being slated for the future.

Courtney Rodland, an SFA sophomore and a member of the theater board, stressed the overarching fact that the Play Ground Festival is a celebration of theatrical genius and should be shared by everyone through the University.

“I like the fact that it is open to the entire school,” Rodland said. “People can act, direct or do anything in theater if they want, but not many people know it is so open to non-SFA students. It’s good to have all different kinds of people interacting in a play, and it creates an amazing experience.”

Rodland gave high praise to the ideal that it is almost entirely student organized and produced. “It’s all us, our vision, and how we want to change theater. [The Festival] is just a seed for what we want to do in the future. That’s how change occurs.”

“It’s a place where we get together and put on plays,” Rodland added. “It’s fun, and much like our very own playground.”