SBCT will feature seven local playwrights this month

SBCT will feature seven local playwrights this month

24-Hour Play Fest ($5 tickets) June 20; “Livin’ and Comin’ Back June 12-14

The South Baldwin Community Theater is going full local this month, with “Livin’ and Comin’ Back,’’ an original script from playwright-in-residence, Laura Pfizenmayer, and SBCT’s Annual 24 Hour Play Festival, which features six plays crafted by local playwrights in a 24 hour period.
“Livin’ and Comin’ Back continues June 12-14, with the Friday and Saturday shows starting at 7:30 p.m. and the Sunday matinee at 2:30 p.m. The 24 Hour Play Fest is June 20 at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are only $5 at the door. The theater is located at 2022 West 2nd St. in Gulf Shores. For more info, visit sbct.biz.
“Livin’ and Comin’ Back” is a family ‘dramedy’ and the first of the five plays in Pfizenmayer’s Whitfield Family Saga. She first presented it at SBCT in 2010. The play, set in a Southern mill town, is a Vietnam-era coming-of-age Southern family story. It all happens over the course of one day with some of the era’s best music as a backdrop.
Pfizenmayer has written over 100 plays and estimates around 10 of them have been produced at SBCT. “Livin’ and Comin’ Back” was also produced at the Last Frontier Theater Convention in Alaska and the Great Plains Theater Convention in Nebraska.
“I am very fortunate and blessed that this theater community has given me a creative outlet to for my plays,’’ Pfizenmayere said.
The 24 Hour Play Festival is billed as controlled chaos. The theatrical experiment challenges a playwright, director and actors with the task of crafting a brand-new 10–20 minute play based on random props or themes assigned to the playwrights at the start.
Auditions are on June 19 at the theater at 6:30 p.m. (Hint: If you show up, you will be randomly assigned to one of the six playwright/director/actors groups).
Actors receive the finished scripts early Saturday morning, spend the day rehearsing and then return to the theater to perform the world premieres of those plays in the evening.
“This is truly the most fun theater weekend of the year,’’ said SBCT President Steve Henry about the 24 Hour Play Fest. “Whether you’re a stage vet or an absolute first-timer newbie, this is the weekend to experience the life-changing magic of live theater on our stage. It is spontaneous, exciting, wildly creative, and always full of surprises.’’
Pictured: The Original Cast of “Livin’ and Comin’ Back” from 2015: (l to r) – Savannah Madden, Mel Middlebrooks, Meg Beaman, Liz Reed, Nick Shabel, Alayna Merchant Baumann, Lauren Ross, Laura Pfizenmayer, and Chase Morrisette.
“Theatre has a beautiful way of carrying stories from one generation of performers to the next, and this photo is a sweet reminder that every curtain call becomes part of SBCT’s history,’’ Henry said.