September 9, 2008

• Free admission, no reservations

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Theatre UAB presents the 2008 annual Festival of Ten-Minute Plays, featuring eight original, short plays written by UAB students and faculty, Sept. 24-28 at the Alys Stephens Center's Odess Theatre, 1200 10th Ave. S. Birmingham.

Admission is free; seating is limited and reservations are not accepted so arrive early for a seat. Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 24-25 and Saturday, Sept. 27, and a matinee performance at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28. There will be no performance on Friday, Sept. 26. For mature audiences only.

This year's festival features eight intriguing and diverse plays, all written, directed and performed by UAB students and faculty. The student writers are all graduates of the scriptwriting classes taught by UAB assistant professor Lee Shackleford, festival producer. The plays are "Letting Go" by Julie Gafnea; "For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic" by Alex LaFosta; "Fascinations" by Emilie Soffe; "The Good Boys" by Alec James; "The McElroy Twins" by Stephen Webb; and "Karma" by Jordan Bohl. Lafosta and the playwriting class wrote "Fred Phelps is Coming to Town." The festival features one play by Shackleford, "Why I Love My Doctor." Student directors are Chuckie Fuoco, Jordan Reeves, Dustin Cañez, Emilie Soffe and Sarah Hereford.

"Writing these ultra-short plays is harder than it might seem," Shackleford said. "We did this for the first time in 2003 and each year since then we've tried something new. One year it was a play written by a group of playwrights. Another year a play included audience involvement. This year it's a ten-minute musical!"

For more about Theatre UAB's Ten-Minute Plays online, go to www.uab.edu/cas/theatre.