The Fremont Opera House will showcase some works of local playwrights next month.
The Playwriting Conference is scheduled for 1 to 5 p.m. June 5. Lee Meyer, executive director for the Opera House, discussed how the plays were selected.
“So we started back on March 15 and we asked amateurs to send in their plays that had not been published or produced in any form,” Meyer said. “We got several of those.”
Midland University Professor of English Henry Krusiewcz, Opera House board member Jack O’Connell and Meyer read all the submissions.
“We knocked it down to three plays that we thought were really outstanding,” Meyer said. “On June 5, we’re going to do table reads of each one of those plays.”
Professional playwright Beaufield Berry and Fremont native Ehren Parks, who is a writer and producer in the entertainment business, will listen to them and then provide feedback.
“Hopefully we will pick one of those plays and then they’ll have an option to produce that play in full at the Opera House,” Meyer said.
Parks earned his degree from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 2003. He has been working in the entertainment field ever since.
“I was in New York and L.A. (Los Angeles) from 2005 to 2018 working in the industry and going to graduate school writing my own stuff,” he said. “I moved back here a few years ago. I’m doing some teaching and I’m still working on documentaries. We shot a film here in 2019.”
Parks and fellow Nebraska natives Chad Bishoff and Erich Hover produced “La Flamme Rouge.” The film, directed by Falls City native Brent and Derek Maze, was filmed prior to the floods of two years ago.
The table reads on June 5 will begin at 1 p.m. with “Puzzle Pieces” by Midland student Emily Cunningham.
“It is a very kind of modern piece,” Meyer said.
At 2:30, “Of Pearls and Swine” will be read. Two adult cousins who live near Omaha wrote the play about the history of their family. At about 3:30, “Chains” by Midland student Christian Dames will be featured.
“It is a very serious play about the prison system,” Meyer said.
After each play is read by actors, Parks and Berry will discuss them and the audience will be able to hear the critiques.
“I think it’s going to be really interesting not only to hear the plays but hear the reaction of the professionals to those plays that we chose,” Meyer said.
Parks said there could be a diamond in the rough among the plays that are presented.
“That is what you’re always looking for, especially when you’re teaching,” he said. “You are looking for that raw talent.”
The admission cost for the event is $5.
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