Festival of Shorts Co-Producer Diane Jamieson ~A Driftwood Players Profile

The Driftwood Players 2014 Festival of Shorts (FOS) is coming up this weekend and Artfully Edmonds was able to spend time with co-producer Diane Jamieson to discuss the popular theatre company’s Festival, aka “World Premier x 8”.

Here is a transcript of Artfully Edmonds (AE) exchange with Diane (DJ):

AE: Diane, the Festival of Shorts seems fast-paced – and – err – almost . . . wild! What are your feelings about this year’s Festival?

DJ: It’s one of my favorites since the 1st Annual Festival of Shorts (FOS). It’s hard to believe we are on our 5th annual production!

AE: How have you been involved in previous Driftwood Players (DWP) productions?

DJ: I stage-managed four of the eight productions during the 1st Annual FOS and that was my first time doing anything with Driftwood Players! Since then I have been a light board operator (three years); a reader of submitted scripts (three years); and for the last two years I moderated the groups of readers to help each group CHOOSE their favorites for production.

AE: That is a heavy commitment to Driftwood Players. How is this commitment hitting you right about now?

DJ: It is a real thrill to be co-producing this year!

AE: What is the process for a playwright’s work to make it into the Festival?

DJ: First, a call for “short” plays is put out on the web to various websites during [the preceding] January. We accepted play submissions until April. This year we received over 280 short plays. We had two groups of readers (four volunteers in each group). Each group read half of the plays.

In April, I met with each group of readers and through a fun group-process each group came to a consensus on their favorite 10 submissions.

The final groups of readers (Carissa Meisner Smit, myself, and our fabulous stage manager, Thomas Glass) each read these 20 plays and chose the best eight, based on our criteria:
1) How well they fit the theme (this year’s theme is Transitions)
2) The quality of the WRITING.

AE: And the result of that process will showcase which playwrights this year?

DJ: The eight plays that will premier in Driftwood Players 2014 Festival of Shorts include:

1) In Transition by Terry Riley from Sante Fe, NM
2) A Day in the Life of a Recovering Nine Year Old by Kim M. Baker from Warwick Rhode Island
3) A Swinging Christmas by Joe Starzyk from Troy New York
4) The Screens by Erik Champney from Haughton LA
5) A Place That Looks Like Davenport by Paul Lewis
6) LIFE ON THE LINE by Matthew Konkel
7) Winter Light by Christine Foster from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
8) Flowering by David Muschell from Milledgeville, GA

AE: Who can regular theatre-goers expect to see returning to the stage to perform this exciting variety of plays?

DJ: We have many returning actors this year – first off – Justin Tinsley who has been in 23 of the Driftwood Players productions over the last 15+ years!

“Shorts” is a favorite among our actors. In fact, we have several actors this year who were in our very first Festival of Shorts five years ago, such as Mary Kay Voss. She and I both started our involvement with Driftwood Players at the first “Shorts,” and have been involved ever since!

We have several new and exciting actors including Woody Lotts and Stephanie Spohrer, who are both cast in “A Swinging Christmas.” Then, we have several people who have been in both our Main Stage productions (four of our actors from Thugs) and our TIPS productions.

Ted Jaquith (who has directed two of the “Shorts” since the first year) is now an actor in Joe Starzyk’s “A Swinging Christmas.”

AE: Who is your co-producer, and under whose direction will the eight “Shorts” be managed?

DJ: Penny Morrison, to whom I am indebted, is co-producing with me.

Let me also mention that we have five different directors for the eight plays. This is our chance to give directors who are new to Driftwood Players a chance to see how we work (and vice versa) as well as a chance for past directors who have not had a chance recently to direct our other productions to step back into that role.

Our directors are: Nikki Fey Burgett, who is a new director to DWP – and brings with her 30 years of experience directing on the East Coast. Also directing are Chrystian Shepherd and Paul Fleming, who both directed in last year’s “Shorts”. Our returning directors from several prior years include Dave Morrison and Roy Arauz, who are each directing two of the “Shorts”.

AE: Diane, you have been so generous with your time during this busy pre-curtain-call week. Thank you for spending time with My Edmonds News – I know that the community is excitedly anticipating the 2014 “Festival of Shorts” aka “World Premier x 8”

You can buy tickets to the Festival of Shorts here.

See you from the audience. I’ll be there Saturday night!