Experimental play puts audience in performance at Ragazzi Arte Cafe

The Bloomington Playwrights Project is doing something a little more unusual with its newest performance – its putting the audience in it.\nThe newest show, “Alone in the Light ‘08,” will be performed by the Bloomington Playwrights Project’s Ensemble of Artists today, Friday and Saturday. The show will include nine separate monologues that all take place inside of a diner. But the audience will not be sitting watching a performance on a stage; they will be in the midst of the show.\n“There will not be one particular point of focus for this show,” said Gabe Gloden, managing director of the Project. “The actors will be mixed in with the crowd.”\nGloden, who will portray a disgruntled waiter, said this particular type of show is the first of its kind the Ensemble of Actors has performed.\n“This is sort of an experiment, but we hope to do more shows like this in the future,” Gloden said.\nThe Bloomington Playwrights Project is a mix of IU students and Bloomington residents who are all passionate about acting. Many of the students, like senior April Smallwood, became involved through the University.\n“This is my first season with the Ensemble of Actors,” Smallwood said. “I first got involved through acting, but I moved on to writing short plays, or monologues for this particular piece.” \nAnother one of the actors, senior Erin Sullivan, said she thoroughly enjoys this particular play, despite the fact that she plays a risqué character.\n“My character is a ‘lot lizard,’ which means that she keeps the truckers company in the parking lot of the diner,” Sullivan said.\nSullivan said that she is not embarrassed by playing a \nracy character. \n“We all know each other really well, and I think we’re all OK with the more outlandish plays,” she said.\nAll nine monologues from different characters will take place in the diner, and each character will be tied to every other character in some way, whether they are employed by the diner, work the parking lot or are just passing through.\n“All the characters are costumers or employees, and we did this to basically give our playwrights a chance to write monologues in cooperation with each other,” Gloden said.\nThe show will be performed at 7:30 p.m. today at the Ragazzi Arte Café, 212 S. Rogers St., as well as at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, 107 W. Ninth St.\nGloden, who has worked for the Bloomington Playwrights Project since graduating from graduate school at IU, has high expectations for the show and hopes this “experiment” goes as well as planned.\n“With this type of performance, the show begins the second you walk in the door,” he said. “It’s going to be hilarious.”