March 13, 2015
Students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison will present three original plays at the 24th annual Marcia Légère Student Play Festival at the Wisconsin Union Theater on Friday March 21 and Saturday March 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Fredric March Play Circle downtown Madison, Wisconsin.
The annual weekend-long event showcases creativity and artistic talent through acting, writing and directing. Every fall students submit one-act plays that are under 40 minutes long. The entire production is scheduled to last for a little bit over an hour.
The winning play and playwright lineup includes “The Black Spot” written and directed by Emma Wathen, “Live and Let Pie” written by Emily Gromowski and directed by Jennie Zelenko and “All Nighter” written and directed by Johanna Krukowski and Erin McDermott, according to a press release from the Wisconsin Union.
The festival serves as an opportunity for students to submit plays; three of which are chosen by members of the Madison theater community to be produced, and presented at the Wisconsin Union Theater. The winning plays and playwrights for the 2014 festival were “Little Big Women” by Nakila Robinson, “Wiggins Discount Outlet” by Matt Buchholz and “Crimes Against Humanity” SNL by Jacob Guzior and Maxwell Courtwright.
The Marcia Légère Student Play Festival is made possible by a generous endowment from the University of Wisconsin alum herself. Légère attended the university in the early 1940s and won the first Wisconsin Playwrights Contest with her play, The Glory of Children. The play, initially a written assignment for her drama class, was later part of the Wisconsin Union Theater season in 1945 after her professor secretly submitted her work.
After completing her degree in comparative literature, Légère pursued a successful writing career working for CBS in New York and later wrote scripts for a television documentary in San Francisco. After hearing that the Wisconsin Playwrights Contest that was once a major benchmark in her life closed, Légère made it her priority to reinvest.
In summation of her generosity, Légère provides the university’s students with an opportunity similar to the one she experienced in college. According to the press release, the Wisconsin Union Theater’s Performing Arts Committee presents the productions. Its support comes from: a partial grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board, funds from the state of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The festival is free, un-ticketed and open to the public. There will be a post-show reception and refreshments in the Fredric March Play Circle lobby following the Saturday night performance.
