There’s no shortage of outlets for theater in our area, but now one of them, the Theater for the New South, is putting some new plans in the works. With the Fresh Squeezed Reading Series on April 28 to 30 and May 5 to 7, six local writers will have the opportunity to have their six new plays read at CreateHere, 55 E. Main Street.
These plays have been created during the last three months, and are a mixture of a collaboration of writers, actors, directors and theater enthusiasts. Michael Rudez, the founder of the Theater of the New South, learned this style of play creation during his years at New York University where he studied acting and directing.
A Chattanoogan growing up, Rudez decided to return to Chattanooga after his time in New York, and brought what he had learned from establishing his own small theater company there to our area. In New York, his company wrote its own plays and produced its own work, and Rudez says that’s what he wants the Theater for the New South to accomplish in producing work “by Chattanoogans, for Chattanoogans, that will get the word outside of Chattanooga so that people can see what is going on theatrically in the area.”
Although Rudez says he enjoys the high quality work of the theater scene in our area, the Fresh Squeezed Reading Series developed because Rudez wanted to see if he could shake up the scene with new work and a new outlet for playwrights to express themselves.
The Chattanooga Theatre Center’s contests for new playwrights inspired him as he saw hundreds of people auditioning, for parts in a new playwrights work, and the excitement that new plays generate in the area. Also, the desire to power up Chattanooga’s location as a southeast powerhouse of theater with the town’s proximity to Knoxville, Nashville, Atlanta and Birmingham was another reason Fresh Squeezed began.
Although 95 percent of the population has never been to a play reading, no one will feel out of place at this free event because it will be different from most play readings, Rudez says. Bringing the once a week meetings of the writers and collaborators to life in developing these six new plays, there will be actors in a storytelling role with little set work, light work, or anything of that nature. The Fresh Squeezed writers for the event include Lewis Oehmig, Madeleine Young, Jeremy Weber, Jennifer Manning, Hunter Rodgers and Dakota Brown.
“It’s bare bones theater, and it allows the audience to envision a script as what it is if it were fully produced,” Rudez says. “ The word I like to use is ‘not theater’ theater.”
Rudez’s ideal theatrical model is casual, and he hopes this series will make the idea of going to theater for fun, rather than obligation, more of a normal practice.
“It can be a casual experience, but still an artistically satisfying experience as a kind of marriage between the two concepts,” Rudez says. “How I want to do that is to make it as relaxed and accessible to a younger audience as possible.”
Although all ages are welcome, the young adult audience is highly encouraged to get involved with the series. Rudez himself is the oldest person working with the Theater for the New South at only 27-years-old.
The next project in the Theater for the New South’s vision is a survey of Chattanooga’s theatrical minds, both of professionals and working professionals, to figure out how they view Chattanooga theater and what they would like to see it become. Establishing events where writers, directors, producers and others can network are also part of Rudez’s plans for the group. These events can give theatrically inclined people the opportunity to find a niche for themselves and spread the theater scene to other cities, he says. By growing the theater scene here in hosting productions and readings from other cities, the work from our area can also be taken to their cities, Rudez says.
“With the location of Chattanooga, there’s really no reason why we shouldn’t be hosting things from Atlanta or Nashville and taking our stuff to them, because it’s too much of a wasted opportunity not to,” he says.
The opportunities are out there too, Rudez says, with at least six companies doing new work consistently that he can name off the top of his head. Rudez himself is willing to help whomever wants to get involved with theater, and offers the Fresh Squeezed Reading Series Facebook page as a great way to get in contact with him.
The Fresh Squeezed Reading Series at CreateHere will run April 28 to 30 and again on May 5 to 7 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Contact michael.v.rudez@gmail.com for more information.