Long Story displays student shorts

From Russian Roulette to dinner parties and missing children, the 10-minute plays of six UNC seniors will debut tonight at the Long Story Shorts festival.

The playwrights are part of the University’s Writing for the Screen and Stage minor program. They have been paired with professional directors and producers to turn their scripts — which they began writing last fall — into a reality on the stage. Staff writer Gabriella Cirelli spoke with each of the six playwrights.

Kristen Chavez, “Missing”

DTH: What has the process been like translating what you wrote onto the stage?

KC: It’s refreshing to see it performed, and even if it’s not exactly what I had in mind, it still stayed true to what is on the script.

Having a physical person saying the words now makes it easier to expect how the characters are going to react when I’m doing a rewrite.

DTH: What advice would you give to aspiring playwrights?

KC: Just keep practicing and eventually it’ll come to you. It’ll take a while, and it’ll be stressful and you’ll probably hate it at times, but it is good. Once you finish it you get a relief and you do like it, it’s definitely something that if you work with it, you’ll like it and you’ll love it.

Hannah Floyd, “Knives Make it Personal”

DTH: What are you hoping viewers gain from your play and the overall the experience?

HF: I hope they find it amusing. I also hope the whole experience kind of conveys something about the processes that go into creating something like this.

DTH: How did you first become interested in this style of writing?

HF: To be completely honest, I’ve never been that interested in plays. I’m currently doing a minor in Writing for the Screen and Stage, so I’m really only interested in the screenwriting.

But we are required to do a short play for the minor — and it ended up being a lot more fun than I expected it to be.

Patrick Robinson, “Assassination of the Guard”

DTH: What was your inspiration for writing this play?

PR: I just thought it would be a good device for a play to have two people attempting to stay up all night on a front porch.
I kind of like to write plays that are contained in one time period and how can you create drama and a story.

DTH: What advice would you give to aspiring playwrights?

PR: Write a play less as a piece of literature and more as a blueprint for a live performance.

You have to get your friends to act in it, or act in it yourself because it is not done until there’s an audience there watching it live. So write with the live performance in mind.

Adam Roper, “The Sixth Chamber”

DTH: What is your play about?

AR: My play is basically about a game of Russian Roulette, and the basic gist or the deeper thing is a love story thrown in there.
It’s kind of depressing and not what I intended originally.

DTH: Why are you interested in play writing?

AR: I really wasn’t until … I took COMM 330, which is intro to screenwriting, with Professor (Stephen) Neigher. It was awesome … and it kind of just clicked.

I’ve always enjoyed writing, and people have always said, “You’re a good writer.” But I watch a lot of TV and movies as well so I was like, “I can write what I’m watching? That’s awesome.”

Rachel Shope, “Vinegar Syndrome”

DTH: What is your play about?

RS: My play is about a woman named Pim who works as a film restoration artist who is working on this old, very sappy and very cheesy 1940s romance film called “Virgil.”

DTH: What was your inspiration for writing this play?

RS: I know a lot of girls who are getting engaged and married … and they tend to get really caught up in the wedding aspect of it instead of marriage.

Joseph Megel, who is directing the play, put it into much better words: They get caught up in this one moment, as opposed to an actual future.

Katelyn Trela, “One Less”

DTH: What do you hope viewers gain from your play?

KT: I left some things out and wanted (the play) to be a universal experience. Everyone has had someone die, even if it wasn’t your best friend. Everyone deals with death differently, but everyone goes through the same turmoil.

DTH: Who are some of your playwright inspirations?

KT: Tina Fey … and Mindy Kaling — all I want to do is be those women. Not only are they strong women doing what they want to do and showing people who’s boss but they also have this really perfect connection to characters.