click to enlarge - Complications Company
- Actor Cael Barkman last year in Complications Company's production of Making Babies.
Have you ever wanted to tell a story about your mom, without ensuring she'll write you out of her will? Or simply share a warm moment about her, without having to expose yourself? Well, a Burlington theater company has just the thing.
Laura Roald and Mary Beth McNulty of
Complications Company are seeking submissions from playwrights for "Other Mothers," a production cum competition that prompts scribes to quickly draft dramas about each other's mothers. Participants will have 24 hours to create a short show, after being assigned a mom at a launch event at
Butch & Babes on Friday, May 4. The lot will be staged on Sunday, May 6, at
Off Center for the Dramatic Arts in Burlington's Old North End.
So far, Roald says, the company has received four submissions through its website. She hopes to end up with 10 in total. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, May 2.
The questions on the submission form are a mix of multiple choice and essay that allow for tender, or not so tender, reflections on one's mother. For example, "If your mom were an animal, she would be a …" Or, "Advice from your mother you never followed." McNulty notes that they're not looking for solely sugar sweet reflections, citing the complexities of motherhood and parenting.
While Roald can't confirm which actors will be reading the finished scripts for the Sunday show, she says they're all relatively well known, locally. She and McNulty will serve as directors.
Roald and McNulty will meet with the actors on Sunday morning to run the scripts, and the plays will be staged that afternoon at 4 p.m. Complications Company is partnering with
BurlingtonVT Moms Blog for the event. Judges from that latter organization will crown one of the subjects "Mother of the Year" at the end of the show. May the best mom win!