BloomingPlays Festival presents its 2nd year

BloomingPlays Festival is back for its second year, this time with longer plays and more variety.

The plays will begin at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays from May 14 through 30 at the Bloomington Playwrights Project.

The festival features six short plays, including “Hearing” by Josie Gingrich, who works in student administration at IU. The play is about a young married couple going into the courtroom for their divorce hearing. The play, a BloomingShort, is a one-act, ten-minute show.

“It’s a sort of dissection of an unhappy relationship that I believe ultimately has a hopeful message about growing up and figuring yourself out,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich is a first-time playwright. In her spare time, she primarily writes books, but she thought the festival would be a good chance to gain experience in playwriting.

Gingrich said her first experience wasn’t disappointing.

“It has been an extremely instructive and interesting process, and it’s helped me grow significantly as a writer,” she said.

The festival also spotlights two one-act comedies and three “BloomingFeatures,” including “Colleen and Kudzo,” a full-length comic drama by retired professor Pat McGeever. “Colleen and Kudzo” features three characters: Colleen, who is diagnosed with a potentially fatal cancer, her boyfriend Dennis and the disease, Kudzo. The play was inspired by McGeever’s experience with his late wife’s cancer.

“I saw how a serious disease could take over a person’s life,” McGeever said. “I also saw how facing the disease honestly, without the usual lies and prevarications we tell one another, but with a sense of humor, can ennoble one’s life.”

McGeever taught political science at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis for 31 years.

McGeever said when he retired he wanted to re-invent himself with new challenges, so he became an exercise instructor and began writing plays. Several of the plays were produced in Indianapolis, but this will be McGeever’s first production in Bloomington.

Artistic Director Richard Perez and other company members created the festival last year because they thought it was time to nurture Indiana playwrights and bring them into focus, Perez said. The company has been working on the festivals for two years.

The first year featured six plays, and the company expanded the festival this year to include 11 pieces.

“So many talented Indiana writers are showcased,” Perez said. “You hear so much about the Indiana brain drain, and the festival shows off the talent right here.”

During the last three weeks before opening night, the casts and crews worked six- to seven-hour days, six to seven days a week. Perez said administrative work is also challenging, and it is difficult to find dates for workshops and other scheduling.

Although the festival has been a lot of hard work, Gingrich, McGeever and Perez are excited for the performances. Perez and McGeever agreed the plays are all stylistically different, and there is something in it for everyone.

“I think the BloomingPlays Festival is going to be a hoot – with all sizes, shapes and types of plays from Indiana writers,” McGeever said.