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Back to the... '80s! With the Bloomington Playwrights Project

The Bloomington Playwrights Project presents 80s Shorts, a group of short plays about life in the eighties directed by BPP veteran Holly Holbrook. She and playwright Chris White spoke with George Walker at WFIU.

Highlights From The Interview



"Frankly, when our Artistic Director, Chad Rabinovitz, approached me with the idea, I had reservations," Holbrook says. "The eighties were my high school years…my 'spent youth' if you will. I wasn't sure that I wanted to go back there. But, as I started to study, read, and Google, it got more and more interesting. I found myself on U-Tube looking at performances, drawn to things like commercials and even whole web sites devoted to the period.... [When] we got six really neat plays, it got to be even more fun."

Chris White is a professor of English and Women's Studies at DePauw University who teaches writing and drama. Her play Marty and Doc Go to the Movies is one of the featured shorts commissioned by Rabinovitz. "I was really happy to have the opportunity to get involved with a group that I'd been hearing about since I moved to the area," she says.

On her artistic process, she elaborates: "One of the suggestions that [Chad] gave was to look into movies. Now, I'm a real film fan, so I needed little urging. My... two main characters are the familiar figures from the Back to the Future films. In my story, they and their soy-fueled Prius are the victims of hijackers. In their escape, they find themselves on the set of the production of the film The Shining. I think I'll just leave you there."

Featured Plays



1981 by Steve Timm: Underneath the stars in a rural town, friends discuss living as warriors in the world of Reagan. With love and humor they can get through it all together.

Hands by Jim Poyser: For some, Hands Across America was a fun way to spread charity and goodwill. For others, it was a great opportunity to find a cheap date.

Cinematicus Americanus by Doug Bedwell: Imagine if the decade was just one big Hollywood film you could fast forward or rewind? Doug Bedwell creates a unique vision of the 1980s in this cinematic piece.

Marty and Doc Go to the Movies by Chris White: Marty and Doc from Back to the Future unwittingly disrupt the 80s Celluloid Space Time Continuum with hilarious results!

Sister Christian by Rachael Himsel: The Sound of Music meets the 80s Top 40. The hills are alive with the sounds of Axel Rose, the B52's and many more!

Welfare Queen by Eric R. Pfeffinger: How do you defeat a greedy soulless welfare queen? You enter her absurd fantasy world incognito.

Performances



80's Shorts is performed April 2 - 3 & 8 - 10 at 8pm and April 4 at 2pm.

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