Playwrights Project rings in holiday season with Ballot Box Blizzard

Thirty different holiday plays, featuring everything from a gun-toting Santa Claus to God paying a humorous house call, opened Thursday night at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, 107 W. Ninth St.\nThis year's Ballot Box Blizzard, which is an annual fundraiser for the BPP, is themed "Holidazed and Confused," and will entertain theatergoers with an eclectic mix of 30, three-minute long performances, according to a release. \nThemes for the short acts range from the boredom of Bedford wives to the commercialization of Christmas, and include comedies as well as more dramatic pieces.\nPrizes for the best plays will be awarded at the series' end, and placing will be determined by audience votes. Each ticket holder is entitled to one vote toward his or her favorite play of the night, but additional votes may be purchased for $1 each.\n"We have some new writers to the BPP, and some new actors also," Producer Rachael Himsel said in a statement. "I think that their enthusiasm for having a play produced for the first time, or for being onstage at the BPP for the first time, is contagious. Everyone working on the show is putting a lot of energy into making this a great night."\nOpening night came after about three weeks of rehearsal, which presented challenges to directors and cast members alike because of the variety and amount of plays being performed, said Annie Toft, who is directing nine of the plays amidst a busy class schedule. Directing nine short plays as opposed to one lengthy performance changes both casting and expectations when putting on a production, she said.\n"In one 90-minute play, if there are four different roles, you can cast them all specifically," Toft said. "When they are performing in several plays, which have so many different roles, you have to get people to do things that are different."\nActors often have to switch between characters and costumes in only two minutes, which can cause problems, she said.\n"You sometimes have someone slip and say a line from a different play while in character," Toft said.\nShe added her skilled cast, however, was more than ready for the job at hand.\n"Fortunately, a lot of these actors are very versatile, and you can cast them in a way that's unconventional," she said. "Three of the plays being performed were winners last year, and that's part of the adventure. It makes the show different and sometimes in ways the writer might not have even intended"