A couple of years ago, the Station Theatre was contacted about participating in a community-wide celebration of all things lunar. The event was still a couple of years away, and the committee that decides the Station’s season each year didn’t yet know what the theatre company would be doing, but the idea was intriguing. Always looking for a way to show its support for local happenings (and to be a part of the local zeitgeist), the board of the theatre company decided that the Station would, when the time came, find a place for themselves in the crush of moon-themed events. Cut to last year, when the Station instituted the long-gestating idea of “Dark Night” readings—a series of free public readings of original scripts held on off-nights (usually Tuesdays) during regularly scheduled productions.
Synergy, as the corporate types call it, is a beautiful thing sometimes.
This Tuesday, October 15, the Station will open its doors on another Dark Night to showcase some previously unheard works by its company members. In keeping with the moon theme, they are calling the event Lunarcy; and, while the name is about as cute as a basket of baby chimps, the pieces to be performed may be anything but. I reached out to the local writers who penned the evening’s content, and they gave me some helpful information.
********
Thom Schnarre: This project was the brainchild of Joel Higgins, Shawna Smith, and myself as we contemplated what to offer for The Station’s portion of the MoonProject. It’s been a lot of fun taking traditional Halloween narratives and making them more relevant to a 2013 audience. In my pieces, falling in love and raising a child hold just as much potential horror as vampires and ghosts and things that go bump in the night.
I’ve written four pieces for Lunarcy: two scenes and two monologues which contain contemporary takes on classic horror stories and urban legends. Bloody Mary: the Group Encounter plays with summoning the demonic reflection in a secluded theatre on the full moon. 3:05 a.m. tells a ghost story from my adolescence that actually happened. It’s the most biographical and realistic of my entries. All About the Girl takes a skewed view of a common horror movie scene and focuses on the girl cowering in a car rather than the killer and victim fighting to the death in the moonlit woods outside. Blood Moon is a story of fucked-up teen love–their addiction to blood and each other.
********
Joel Higgins: My pieces are called Manboy, Mangirl, Introduction: or Manman, and Manboy Part 2. No descriptions pretty please.
********
Lindsey Gates-Markel: I’m reading an old story of mine. The story, called “Nightcrawler,” is about darkness and the world of children and how they can use their imagination to be cruel just as easily as to be kind.
********
In addition to Ms. Gates-Markel, who will read her own work, the actors participating in Lunarcy will include: Malia Andrus, William Antony-Sebastian Rose II, David Kierski, Mike Prosise, Aaron Clark, Shawna Smith, Laura Ann Welle, and Max Tomaszewski.
Lunarcy will begin at 8 p.m. at the Station Theatre. There is no cost to attend, and no reservations are necessary, but seating is first-come-first-served. Be sure to check out the Station’s new and improved website for information on upcoming productions and special events.