LSU Theatre is challenging the boundaries of sexuality with a festival featuring plays with themes such as gay penguins coming out to parents and homosexual couples wanting families – to name a few.
Outworks, a new play festival produced in conjunction with the LSU Theatre Studio Season, is designed to showcase new plays with gay themes. Throughout this week, Outworks will offer productions and stage readings of seven new plays directed by University faculty and students.
“I think it’s an important festival to have in Louisiana and especially on a college campus,” said Chris Krejci, theater Ph.D. candidate and director of “Down Baby Down,” one of the plays showcased in Outworks. “It exposes people to a type of art they are unfamiliar with and expands their ideas on what people are like.”
Krejci came up with the idea of Outworks during his first year at the University.
“My first semester here, I talked to the department head and put in a proposal,” he said. “Then I began acting on it.”
Krejci released a request for original plays featuring gay and related themes. After receiving more than 250 submissions from playwrights all over the country and a few international submissions, Krejci narrowed the selection down to seven plays, including one from a playwright on campus.
While the plays deal with lifestyles that differ from those of most students, Vastine Stabler, director of marketing for LSU Theatre, said the themes of the plays are universal.
“These plays deal with alienation, wants, desires and needs,” Stabler said. “Everyone has experienced these feelings and can relate to the characters through these experiences.”
Kristin Hanson, theater Ph.D. candidate and director of two Outworks plays, “Ark Types” and “The Beautiful Beautiful Chandelier,” said her plays will be entertaining for all audiences.
“They are really funny and absurd pieces,” Hanson said. “People relate to them because they are fun. The characters deal with wanting to live their life the way that they want to, and everyone feels that way.”
Derrick Denicola, theater senior and an actor in three of the plays, said the plays feature gay characters who do not necessarily match the stereotypes known today in society.
“It’s important to show gay people who don’t have limp wrists or talk with lisps,” Denicola said. “There are scientists and doctors who are gay and important even though they do not fit those stereotypes.”
Denicola said the Outworks play festival is important to the community.
“It sends out a message that sexuality is liberal, and it can be explored,” he said.
Daniel Leblanc, theater junior who is in two plays, said he is glad Outworks will expose audiences to characters they are not familiar with.
“It’s important to put out interesting and real views of gay people on stage,” Leblanc said. “I am glad that we are putting something different out there. It’s great to be a part of such a contemporary play.”
Andrea Graugnard, theater senior who is acting in three plays, said she was challenged by her role in the play, “In a Perfect World.” The play involves a young girl who is coming out to her parents as a heterosexual in a world where homosexuality is the norm.
“It really questions the standard,” Graugnard said. “I had no idea how to play the part of someone coming out to my parents. These plays all have characters who have to fight for something that straight people take for granted.”
Leblanc said he is unsure of how audiences will take the plays at Outworks.
“There’s such a wide range of plays and a mix between safe and dangerous,” Leblanc said. “There are some things audiences may find offensive. Two men kissing onstage may be off-putting to some people, but it is important we show it.”
Graugnard said this is the first time she will perform a play with the playwright present.
“Five of the playwrights are going to be at Outworks, which is completely different for me,” she said. “It makes me nervous to think if they are going to like how we act out their plays or not.”
Stabler said although the plays are short and yet to be widely recognized, the merit of the plays cannot be measured by the shows’ lengths or successes.
“You go on a journey with new plays like these,” Stabler said. “Some won’t succeed and some will, but what you are going to get out of this is great theater.”
Hanson agreed with Stabler, as she said small festivals like this feature plays that aim to be creative rather than successful.
“The plays are not concerned with being commercially viable, which makes them more energetic and fun,” Hanson said. “The people who see these plays will be the first ones to see them, and their feedback makes them an important part of the play.”
The Outworks play festival will take place in Hatcher Hall Theatre from May 2 through May 7. Performances are every night at 7:30 with one matinee Sunday at 2 p.m.
 
Contact Kelly Caulk at [email protected]