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Playwrights offer four "moving" stories

April 24, 2006

KALAMAZOO--"Wings for Wheels: The Car Plays" is a unique theatre experience, Friday through Sunday, April 28-30, during which four plays will be performed in what can only be characterized as an unusual setting--four separate moving automobiles. Performances begin each night at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m.

Audiences will meet the autos outside the Bernhard Center on the Western Michigan University campus, and will be seated in the back seats of the cars. Actors will be seated in the front. The plays incorporate scenes in which the cars are moving around the WMU campus as well as scenes in which the cars stop and the actors--not the audiences--get out of the cars.

Proceeds from "Wings for Wheels: The Car Plays," sponsored by the WMU Department of English, benefit the Michigan Playwrights Symposium. Seating is obviously very limited and reservations are required. Tickets are $15 per person and reservations may be made by writing Ron Riekki, WMU playwriting doctoral candidate, at ronriekki@hotmail.com.

The four plays

"Rock Hall" by Steve Feffer, WMU assistant professor of playwriting, is directed by Ryan Dolley and features Mike Todd and Feffer. "Rock Hall" is the story of an aging punk rocker, now teaching in an Iowa high school, who drives to the Rock Hall of Fame in Cleveland to rescue his estranged son, who has attempted to steal his father's "Please Destroy Me" tee shirt that was on exhibit in the museum as part of the 25th anniversary of punk rock.

"But If It Rage" by Deborah Ann Percy, principal at the Maple Street Magnet School for the Arts in Kalamazoo, and Arnie Johnston, chair of the English department at WMU, is directed by Katie Webb and features Allison Hendrix and Sean Wilson. "But If It Rage" tells the story of a women's long drive home from New York City during which she and her husband confront each other's possible infidelity.

"2 Mics" by Ron Riekki is directed by Melissa Pryor and features Seth Miller, Joel Gelman and Ghafir Akbar. "2 Mics" tells the story of two rappers that need a microphone so that they can record their debut basement tape album. The only problem is that they have to borrow a microphone from a local drug dealer.

"Inertia" by Justin Roberts, a WMU creative writing major, features George Frye and Roberts. In "Inertia" October and Teddy are fighting for titles and recognition in a gig neither understand. The deconstructive interference builds within the walls of their vehicular office and ruptures to reveal the electronically rendered innards of unspoken thoughts and emotion.

Send questions about "Wings for Wheels" on Ron Riekki at ronriekki@hotmail.com or Steve Feffer at steve.feffer@wmich.edu.

Media contact: Thom Myers, (269) 387-8400, thom.myers@wmich.edu

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