The Words Afire Festival is bringing all walks of life from UNM's theater program together.
The festival has entered into its second week and shows no signs of letting up, putting 10 more plays up on three stages in the UNM area. The work is inspired and fresh with student directors working alongside student playwrights and a cast of primarily student actors.
Reiko Yazzie, a master's theater student, directs Jason Witter's children's play "Mimi and the Ghosts" which will show next week at Rodey Theatre. She said the festival is beneficial for the students and community.
"It's a wild crazy time that somehow works," she said. "I enjoyed working with a wonderful group of actors and a great playwright."
"Mimi and the Ghosts" is about a young girl who goes to live with her stern aunt Ferty and slow-moving uncle Asimov after her parents die in a car accident. Mimi argues with her aunt until a pair of screwball ghosts, Buffy and Gosset, kidnap and take them to Ghostland where they must escape the powers of the nasty King Musky Toothengrave.
In Ghostland, she finds her aunt Ferty has been made silly by King Musky, and meets her mother who teaches her how to keep her love in her memory.
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"'Mimi and the Ghosts' is a wonderful story about love and how to conquer fear by realizing the strength within," Yazzie said.
Since there were so many acting roles to fill, UNM theater alumni and other non-student actors were cast this year, he said.
"Amu" opened last night in Theatre X and features a conglomeration of students, alumni and other actors. "Amu" promises a variety of talent. The cast had to learn a new language spoken in Espria, the land imagined by "Amu's" playwright David Landry.
Alison Terry, a master's student in theater, directs Eric Whitmore's full-length play "In the Wind." Terry said she likes the collaboration of actors and writers.
"Words Afire is a holistic view of theater as opposed to a director's view," she said.
This is Terry's third year directing plays, but Words Afire is the first experience she's had where the writer of the play was really involved in the process of putting it together.
"This way is more fun because of the collaboration and how interesting it is to have many people involved in creating one piece," she said.
"In the Wind" is a play about a future in which terror and war run rampant. Audiences will meet a family living in this ravaged environment and witness its survival mechanisms. The play explores what happens when the family's son, who is part of the resistance movement, returns home.
"It's an experimental piece that deals with uniting time and place within an era of post apocalypse," she said. "The play is very real and not that far removed from what could happen."
Words Afire
Dates: Tonight through Sunday
Price: $7 General Admission, $5 Student
"An Evening of Short Plays"
Tricklock Performance Space at 118 Washington Blvd. SE.
Call 254-8393 for more information.
The following short plays will run Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m.
"Silent Night" by Tyler Kent
"Ten Till Dead" by Don Garcia
"Wake Up" by Pam Herrington
"One for the Money" by Tyrrell Cummings
"Vertabra" by Jeremy Percotte
"Little Guy" by Dusty McGowan
"How to Pick Up Chicks" by Rusty Rutherford
"Amu" by David Landry
Theatre X at 7:30
The full-length play will run tonight through Saturday.
Call 277-4569 for more information.
"Miserable Miranda Milvenschlarger" by Casy Mraz
Rodey Theatre
This children's play will be performed today and tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.
and Saturday at 2 p.m.
Call 925-5858 for more information.
