Method to the 'Madness'
By Melanie Barnes, Entertainment Writer
May 2, 2008 | 3 p.m.
“No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.” At least that is what Aristotle said. If this is true, then Ohio University’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) playwrights can claim a method for their “Madness.”
It is Madness. Craziness. Dementia. Derangement. Absurdity. Preposterousness. Foolishness. It is a regular Friday night at 11 p.m. in Kantner Hall’s Hahne Theater for OU’s MFA playwrights.
“Midnight Madness” is a series of five to seven minute plays written by MFA graduate students. But do not confuse “Madness” with “Saturday Night Live.” These students are creating entire plays, not just sketches or skits.
As part of the graduate course Playwrights Production, “Madness” was originally brought to OU by Charles Smith, head of the MFA Playwriting Program and playwright-in-residence at the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago.
“An essential part [of ‘Madness’] is learning how [the students’] work operates in performance in front of an audience,” Smith said. The students are given this opportunity for trial and error every Friday and then review what worked and what did not in class the following Monday.
Also on Mondays one MFA playwright becomes producer for the week, responsible for generating a theme or concept for that week’s “Madness.” Then, left to their own imagination and interpretation, the playwrights create a script to be cast, directed and performed on Friday.
The weekly themes are based on words, concepts, literal ideas and history. Themes can be restrictive or free, all left to the playwrights’ discretion. The playwrights have been given obituaries and told to create a story around that life. Other times, they are simply given one word, such as “carnival” or “dream.”
Reginald Edmund, a second-year MFA Playwright, describes "Madness" as relative to a Frankenstein creation. “It’s a science experiment,” he said. “Everybody is experimenting. A good artist will take what they know and push it.”
Casting takes place once the script is written. The actors, who are usually, but not limited to, theater majors and grad students, perform script-in-hand, having anywhere from a few days to a few hours to prepare.
Freshman Theater major Jess Kraus has been involved in "Madness’" from the beginning of fall quarter. “It’s a great opportunity to perform as a freshman,” she said.
Performances take place in Kantner Hall's Hahne Theater, seating roughly 50 people. Audience members should plan to arrive early, as the show has been known to begin in the lobby, starting with tickets, which are designed to tie in to that week’s theme. Sponges, condoms and quarantine masks have reportedly been a part of the "Madness" in the past.
At times there is a show before the show. Enter “Amusement Park Madness,” where the audience was greeted with a camera flash upon entering, and everybody was given their own photo as a ticket. Popcorn and cotton candy were passed out, and the audience was shown a movie of people on a rollercoaster.
Other times “Madness”-goers are simply handed a ticket.
“If there is one thing that I can absolutely guarantee will happen,” Smith said, “is that we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
During the show the plays are performed one after another, the only clear trigger being a brief dimming of the lights. No introductions or explanations are made once the show begins. Many times, the audience laughs. At times, the drama can nearly bring them to tears. The best plays do both.
“Every week I look at what they’ve done and say that was the best madness ever,” Smith said. “But every time I say that it only lasts a week or two. I’m really surprised at the quality of what they’re able to pull together with only a week.”
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Get "mad" at 11 p.m. every Friday in Kantner Hall, next to the RTV Building on College Street. Tickets are free, and doors open at 10:30 p.m.