Pitt playwrights experiment during one-act play reading

Visiting associate professor Kelly Trumbull proved that writers can take inspiration from anywhere. For her one-act play, “Morning Reckoning,” Trumbull took inspiration from the period of her life where she was obsessed with the ‘90s boy band NSYNC.

“This is actually the first play that I’ve written. I took a playwriting class with Pittsburgh playwright Tammy Ryan, and we did an exercise where we mined our own lives for theatrical material,” Trumbull said. “When I was in eighth grade, my friends and I were obsessed with the band NSYNC, so that was my starting point for it.”

Pitt Stages hosted a staged reading Saturday night of two plays, “Morning Reckoning” and “Last Call,” at the Richard E. Rauh Studio Theatre. The annual staged reading series is meant to showcase plays that are not yet fully realized productions.

“Morning Reckoning,” directed by sixth-year Ph.D. student Andrea Gunoe, is a comedy that centers on a group of eighth grade girls in Wayne, New Jersey, who form a fan club in honor of boy band Morning Reckoning. Trumbull said she enjoyed writing about the trials and tribulations of eighth grade.

“I tried to capture the way that eighth grade girls behave in terms of how they speak to each other and how oftentimes they want to be really grown up,” Trumbull said. “I feel like eighth grade is such a fascinating time in an adolescent’s life because they have one foot in childhood and one foot in adulthood.”

According to Trumbull, students auditioned two months ago for the staged readings, but they only had Saturday to rehearse the script. Cast members read from their scripts during the performances of both plays.

Trumbull said she thought seeing “Morning Reckoning” as a staged reading was useful for her as a writer because she wants to continue editing the play.

“The process for the stage readings is really fun, because it’s all in one day. At 9 a.m. on Saturday, the companies for both plays will meet and they’ll rehearse all day until the show goes up at 7:30,” Trumbull said. “It’s been really fun, but ‘Morning Reckoning’ is still in process. I don’t think this is its finished form yet.”

Trumbull’s play consisted of six characters who were eighth grade girls, whose conflicting personalities created drama in the plot. Trumbull said seeing the performance live helped bring the distinct voice of each character to life.

“One of the challenges I had in the process of writing was trying to figure out how each character in the play has a different voice, what differentiates one character from another,” Trumbull said. “That’s something I’m still in the process of working through and I hope to be able to flesh out a little more with this reading.”

Pitt Stages also featured a staged reading of “Last Call,” a comedic play written by third-year Ph.D. student Liz Kurtzman and directed by sixth-year Ph.D. student Courtney Colligan.

The play told the story of three friends in their late twenties who experience a “Groundhog Day”-like time loop in which they are trapped in a dive bar. The friends discover that in order to escape the time loop, they must make some life changes to improve themselves.

Kurtzman said the play reflects on the period of her life in which she was figuring out how to transition into adulthood.

“This play is about a specific sort of thing that a lot of my friends and I went through in our late 20s, which is when the part of your life that’s been plotted out for you is over and you have to figure things out,” Kurtzman said. “It’s about having a really good time with your friends and not realizing that maybe you’re in a bad place.”

Throughout the play, when the characters try to exit the dive bar, they become dazed and wake up in the same booth, with the song “Hotel California” playing on a loop. Kurtzman said one of the most challenging parts about writing the play was knowing the right amount of repetition to include.

“There’s a certain amount of repetition that has to happen for you to understand what’s going on, and writing repetition kind of sucks because you’re like, ‘How much do I repeat before it’s boring?’” Kurtzman said. “But with a staged reading, I think maybe I could tweak it if I need to.”

Colligan, who is close friends with Kurtzman, said “Last Call” was the first play she has ever directed. She said she channeled her years of experience as an actress to lead the cast through a successful performance.

“With this being a staged reading, I think it was beneficial being an actor first and a director second because we only rehearsed today,” Cooligan said. “I was able to help with certain line deliveries or interpretations, whereas directors with rehearsals normally want to leave that up for the individual actor interpretation.”

Colligan said she is looking forward to seeing how Kurtzman adjusts “Last Call” following the reading, as the theme of repetition is common in many contemporary works such as the Netflix series “Russian Doll” and movie “Groundhog Day.”

“I really want to see how Liz continues with this. The idea of repetition is done often in contemporary works,” Colligan said. “[Liz] made those cultural references, but it’s not like a formula that we see other things do, but rather it’s inspired by a similar idea.”

Both Kurtzman and Trumbull plan on refining their plays following the staged reading. Trumbull said seeing “Morning Reckoning” onstage encouraged her to continue writing plays, and to try expanding the play into two acts.

“This experience definitely gave me the playwriting bug. It also helped me find my own voice as a playwright,” Trumbull said. “I think that this draft is still going to continue to evolve, but hearing it gave me some fresh ideas and infused some life into the play.”