‘MUSEUM OF DYSFUNCTION’ PUTS SHORT PLAYS ON DISPLAY
For 10 years, Mildred’s Umbrella Company has been running “Museum of Dysfunction,” a showcase of short plays that lets writers from all over the country have a chance to get short works before one of the most theaterliterate audiences in America. It’s consistently one of the company’s most successful ventures and, as a celebration of that legacy, this next one — subtitled “The Best of a Decade of Short Plays XI” — will be a “best of” that spans the group’s long history.
Festival director Leighza F. Walker took an interesting approach to curating the selection. Instead of asking people what their favorites was, she asked which one stood out the most in people’s minds. You have to be above and beyond to get noticed in a series that is famous for its quirk, and from that pool came what audiences will see beginning July 18.
“They’re all just a little wacky,” says Walker. “Maybe not even a little wacky. Maybe a lot wacky, hence the name dysfunction. It kind of gives to writers an opportunity to write whatever they want instead of trying to write towards a particular goal or write something that’s more family friendly or more mainstream. It’s been one of the most successful things that we’ve done.”
The plays are presented in a very stripped-down, punk-rock format. Some are just monologues, while others are fully formed character pieces. Staging is minimalist, usually just a chair or a couch, and they typically run about 10 minutes. It’s fast, jarring and exciting in a way you don’t often think of theater.
The plays offer a wide range of takes on the human condition. “Do You Take This Woman” by Lolly Ward tackles suicide within a marriage, offering a heartbreaking look at endings. Walker’s own play, “The Bullet,” is another that will move audiences.
“Open your mind,” says Walker. “There are some plays that are not all just wacky fun. “(The Bullet” is) about a woman who is in physically abusive relationship, and she woke up and found to have had a miscarriage. She was grateful, was so happy that this baby escaped.”
It’s not all gloom and doom, though. “Syllogistic Infantilism” was one of the most popular plays to be selected. Written by former University of Houston professor Abby Koenig, now
teaching at the University of Kentucky, it’s a funny tale about what babies might be thinking. Koenig wrote it shortly after her own children were born.
“It was really interesting to watch them interact and try to get my attention,” says Koenig. “I just kind of wondered what they’d be like if they had fully formed thoughts. Is there any logic in how they tried to get my attention? Plus, there’s something very memorable about a grown man as a baby.”
The festival covers two weekends, with each “act” taking about 90 minutes. Attendees are encouraged to attend both weekends to witness the full selection. It’s an often chaotic production where everything barely goes right, but it’s also the crucible for a great many up-and-coming talents, like Elizabeth A.M. Keel, who have gone on to be big names in theater. Museum of Dysfunction is something like New York’s legendary CBGBs or West Hollywood’s famed Whisky-a-GoGo for playwrights, a place where rules are lax and strange artists hone their crafts before stardom. If you want to be on the ground floor of someone’s career, there is no better place.
Says Walker, “You might see a play by a particular playwright who just started, and in 10 years they might have some hugely successful show, and you could think, ‘Oh my god, I saw them when they were first starting out.’ ”