Playwrights project: crafting the words behind the drama
Nontraditional student Mair Runge's award-winning, one-act play Promise, Magic and Soda Pop explores how people make, keep and break promises throughout their lives.
Runge, of Appleton, won the 10th-annual Playwriting Contest sponsored by the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh's Playwrights Project for her story about an ailing vaudevillian magician and his granddaughter. A public reading of the play took place in May at Fredric March Theatre's Experimental Theatre.
Runge's creative side and the play itself reflect her family upbringing - her grandfather was a former vaudeville performer and magician.
While the $100 prize was appreciated, Runge said the opportunity to have the play read on stage was invaluable.
"Until you get audience feedback, you can't tell if it works," she said.
Initiated in 1998 by assistant theatre professor Richard Kalinoski, the Playwrights Project has generated 14 readings, including one play that was chosen for a reading at the Kennedy Center.
An excerpt from Promise, Magic and Soda Pop:
CRISSY
It was the first Easter after Mom and Dad's divorce. I was kicking the table, or sulking, or something - and you told me if I straightened up, after lunch, you'd take me right down to the church parking lot and show me how you could ride a bicycle backwards.
HERB
Did I do it?
CRISSY (with exertion)
You started pedaling, faster and faster,and all of a sudden you let go of the handlebars, spun yourself around on the seat..
CRISSY (nonchalant)
... and kept on pedaling like it was the most natural thing in the world, backwards.
HERB (chuckles)
Monkeying around.
CRISSY (laughing)
It was magic. You made me a believer.You told me things could always turn around.And that was what I needed to hear. (pause) I wish I could do that for Kenny.