December 6 @ 11:30 am – 11:30 pm
Playground
A Festival of Independent Student Work
DEC. 5–7, 2024
The School of Drama’s longstanding festival of independent student work encourages boundary-pushing creativity and produces eclectic and imaginative performances, installations, and interactive experiences.
Performances
ABOUT PLAYGROUND
PLAYGROUND began as an annual event in the Fall 2003 as a means to create a concentrated opportunity for students to engage in creative exploration outside of their regular curriculum or beyond their current areas of study. During a single week, classes within the School of Drama are set aside, and students are allowed the time, space, and resources to create their own works. Participation is completely voluntary, and grades are not given.
HOW PLAYGROUND WORKS
Students submit proposals to a committee comprised of students and faculty. Proposals range from live performances, short films, light shows, art installations, murals, and more. Students often collaborate with other CMU departments such as the School of Music, the Entertainment and Technology Center (ETC), and even students from other universities. Selected pieces rehearse and prepare over a period of four days, followed by the festival of showings that runs from Thursday through Saturday in and around the Purnell Center for the Arts.
PLAYGROUND’S CREATIVE BENEFITS
Students who participate in PLAYGROUND reap a number of rewards. It supports risk-taking, community engagement and belonging, and empowerment. The School of Drama supports and encourages the students’ diverse artistic interests and creative expansion. Student participation in PLAYGROUND continues to grow with between 65-80 proposals submitted each year. Countless students over the past 20 years have used their experiences in PLAYGROUND as seeds for future professional artistic endeavors.
Playground Gallery
A dance/art piece in the scene shop of Purnell as part of Playground.
Playground XIV
An art installation as part of Playground XIV in 2016 that encouraged participants to write a letter to a loved one, explaining something they wish that person could understand.
Playground XV
A student rock concert in the Chosky Theater as part of Playground XV in 2017.
Playground XI
“The Bubble Room” was an installation piece for Playground XI in 2014.
Playground XIV
A performance piece as part of Playground XIV in 2016.
Playground XXI
Students rehearsing for the 2023 Playground piece: “No Strings Attached: A Puppet Murder Mystery”
Playground XV
A lobby performance during Playground XV in 2017.
A dance/art piece in the scene shop of Purnell as part of Playground.
Playground XIV
An art installation as part of Playground XIV in 2016 that encouraged participants to write a letter to a loved one, explaining something they wish that person could understand.
Playground XV
A student rock concert in the Chosky Theater as part of Playground XV in 2017.
Playground XI
“The Bubble Room” was an installation piece for Playground XI in 2014.
Playground XIV
A performance piece as part of Playground XIV in 2016.
Playground XXI
Students rehearsing for the 2023 Playground piece: “No Strings Attached: A Puppet Murder Mystery”
Playground XV
A lobby performance during Playground XV in 2017.
PLAYGROUND SUCCESS STORIES
Many pieces that began at Playground have had continued lives beyond the School of Drama:
- Jon-Michael Reese’s solo show “By Myself,” created for Playground in 2009, has had a continued life as a cabaret in NYC at club cumming and Green Room 42.
- Lee Harrington’s piece “Jellybean” received numerous productions between 2015 and 2018 including FringeNYC and an Off-Off-Broadway run.
- Samora la Perdida’s piece “pato, pato, maricón!” was produced by Ars Nova’s ANT Fest in 2018.
- Will Reynolds wrote a musical for Playground as a music theater student, and since then has gone on to win the Fred Ebb Award for Musical Theatre Writing, the Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya Award, and the Dramatists Guild Fellowship for his compositions for new musicals.
- Matthew Gardiner, a directing alum, used Playground to explore new works, and is now Artistic Director of Signature Theatre – a company specializing in new works.
- SFBATCO just celebrated 10 years as a company, whose founding members first started working together as students in Playground.
- PigPen Theatre Co. formed as a band their freshman year at the School of Drama, creating and performing their unique brand of musical storytelling in Playground pieces, and now they are Broadway composers and lyricists (“Water for Elephants”).
PigPen’s Playground
PigPen Theatre Co. – the seven-member band of storytellers who met and formed at CMU School of Drama – remembers the “frienzied highs and lows of Playground week.”
“Working on our sophomore show as a company was an amazing experience that cemented our commitment to each other,” said bandmate Dan Weschler. “I’ll never forget hanging up a huge strip of canvas across one of our living rooms for a shadow screen, bathing the room in amber light and making shadow landscapes.”
2022 marked the 20th annual Playground Festival. Take a look back at its storied history.