What do 10 minutes, an umbrella and six boxes have in common? They are some of the innovative ideas being employed within a new, student-driven campus project being billed as SFUAD’s First Annual 10 Minute Theatre Play Festival. The idea for the 10 Minute Theatre Play began as the brainchild of two SFUAD students, Bissi Ademulegun and Zoe Baillargeon. According to the co-founders, the inspiration for “this shindig,” came from a playwriting class they took last semester. In the class, taught by Dale Dunn and Lynn Goodwin, students were given an assignment to come up with a 10-minute play.  Though they had not yet talked, both had the same reaction: “It’s kind of like Flash Fiction for the stage.” As the idea took hold, they thought, wouldn’t it be great to give other students, campus wide, a chance to to be able to present a 10-minute play of their own work too? “We feel that sometimes departments compartmentalize or students feel they aren’t perhaps given the space and opportunity to truly explore an idea they might have,” Baillargeon says. But with the 10 Minute Theatre, students will get the chance to witness their work go from the page to the stage. Ademulegun and Baillargeon also see this as a great opportunity for creative writers to come on board.  “[Creative Writing Department Co-Chair] Matt Donavan has been incredibly supportive in helping us get the word out, and encouraging writers to get involved and submit original works,” Ademulegun says. But it’s just not about writers. It’s about anyone wanting to work with a group to bring an idea to life. “Often times here on campus, the only chance you get to see work performed is through the Theatre Department….but we want students to know that what...

For the next two weekends, the dramatic story of Spring Awakening will grace the Greer Garson Theatre stage. Director Gail Springer has led a cast of more than 20 through months of rehearsals, which will soon culminate in five performances.

Dweezil Zappa, son of the legendary Frank Zappa, performed at the Greer Garson Theatre this Feb. 12 in front of a sold-out crowd.

It is opening night, the house is open, and the set is not even finished. The director is exasperated. His stage manager informs him that the set was not finished because they “ran out of money.” “You finally get used to one way of doing things and they up and change all of the rules on you,” he exclaims. His writer, who is pacing the stage with loud nervous high-heeled clicks, turns on him. “There are no rules in art!” she shrieks, sounding half-insulted and half-horrified. The two are interrupted by their stage manager, who is trying to delicately remove them from the stage so that their play can commence. “There shouldn’t be,” she says, “but those days are past.” She shoos them off stage, the house lights dim, and the play within the play Gun Shy is finally allowed to begin. Gun Shy is a comedy written and directed by Joey Chavez, and performed by high school theater students at the Santa Fe charter school New Mexico School for the Arts. The play breaks the third wall and brings up questions about what constitutes art, and what is or isn’t allowable in art, over and over again. The answers to these questions, however, are perhaps more apparent in the people behind the play than the script itself. Before their performance, the cast paced, stretched, and applied last minute make-up or costume touch-ups while practicing a few last line-throughs—reciting their lines in order without blocking or acting through the entire play. Their director and teacher Joey Chavez entered the room intermittently and watched them intently, without interrupting the focus coursing through his students. Cris Lannucci, an NMSA senior who plays the author of the play within the play, is eager to sit for an interview,...