The Tartan: Preparations for the 22nd annual Playground theater festival are well underway in Purnell. Playground is a student-created festival that started 22 years ago at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. Participation in the festival is not limited to drama students. The festival is open to people in the Pittsburgh area, regardless of whether they study theater or are a student at Carnegie Mellon.
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YAYYY!! Playground is going to be super exciting this year. This article (and Festival Manager Marion Mongello and Asst. Festival Producer Madeline Scotti) did a great job of summing up both the lasting spirit of Playground, and the emphasis/ theme of the festival this year. Obviously I am biased but Playground is such an important part of the culture of our school, and exploring a theme that connects us to Pittsburgh as a whole and the arts culture of the city is a great way to celebrate what this festival is, has been, and what it can grow to be in the future. And I love that the Tartan was open to this feature, because Playground is a really exciting project that takes place in this building and I love the idea of connecting to the campus as a whole –– both sharing the amazing things that come together during Playground with them, and inviting them in to participate.
I’m really excited about the upcoming playground. I feel fortunate that my proposal was approved, and it’s already shaping up to be a rewarding experience. I collaborated with Eva, an alum, to create a script for this short play. One of the most exciting aspects of this project is that it allows me to work closely with a designer I’ve been eager to collaborate with for a while. This playground gives us a unique opportunity to try out different roles within the production. It’s rare to experience such cross-discipline work, where we’re all able to step into unfamiliar roles, pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones. This cross-border experience makes the whole process even more enriching. In a way, it allows each person involved to take on the role of a producer, giving us the autonomy to manage and arrange our own projects. It’s an empowering approach that encourages creativity and collaboration at every level. I’m grateful to the school for providing us with this platform and for supporting us in bringing our creative visions to life.
Playground continues to be a great way for New Works to thrive in the building, especially when often we don’t get to work on student-led projects that inspire our creative thinking. I enjoy how the building becomes one large working creative machine during Playground, everyone works together to create New Works and explore their passion for making art through theatre. I think what the Playground committee is doing this year is really cool and will help us involve the surrounding community of Pittsburgh and CMU more and hopefully bring more creative ideas to the space. I can’t wait to see how the theme of pop art inspired by Andy Warhol will play a role in helping bring the building to life. When the list of accepted pieces came out, I was excited to see that there are many different artistic visions that will be explored and I can’t wait to see them or be a part of them this year. After 22 years of Playground, I hope that this is a tradition that continues to thrive in the School of Drama as it brings everyone in the building closer together and truly helps us remember why we love theatre.
This experience was so incredibly cool for me! I've never been interviewed for the newspaper, and talking about playground is my absolute favorite thing. in fact, I won't shut up about it ever! it was really awesome getting to dive deeper into what it means to be the manager of the festival, and think about the history of it as a whole. I think Courtney did an amazing job at capturing the essence of the festival in this article and reading through Scotti's interview, the Assistant Festival producer, was also really interesting to hear their take on it from a different lens. As the festival is approaching, we are deep in preparation for programming and scheduling the pieces, and establishing the flow of work. it has been the most fulfilling process getting to work on playground and I absolutely cannot wait for the festival to come!
I can’t wait to see the creativity that I am sure will come with this year’s Playground! There are many times in my life that I have felt the stress of time pressure, but I can’t wait to see how Playground brings people together and allows them to be as creative as possible. I hope to see as many of the projects that I can. I hope that I can get involved in Playground this year and learn from those that are in their element creatively and especially those who are pushed to create outside of their comfort zone.
I am SOOO pumped for Playground. Already being in School of Drama, I am forever grateful and blessed to be surrounded by such talented, passionate people. As a first year DP, I am super excited to see the work of everyone else! I am so excited to have a week where I can show off what I can do while also being able to challenge myself and try new things! I think this is one of those things that CMU offers that draws people in to apply here. When first applying here, I didn’t think much of Playground. However, after seeing Water for Elephants in late July, which is now my favorite musical, I am just so excited. Seeing how this school really sets people up for creative success is really motivating and I cannot wait for the future.
It’s always exciting to have another Playground come along. The amount of creativity and passion on display with the (by the end of the week exhausted) student body is always a really fulfilling experience. Especially this year, seeing the ins and outs of the technical side of Playground through being one of the new departmental heads of the technical areas, the amount of cogs it takes to keep the Playground machine turning is really fascinating and it’s incredible that the festival has been sustained and nurtured for as long as it has. It always feels like Purnell is almost ‘buzzing’ with energy when we actually reach Playground week and some of the shows that I’ve seen during Playground have been some of my favorite pieces of theater I’ve seen. I also really appreciate that it connects our community in ways that we don’t always interact, especially between disciplines. I’m excited to see how this year’s Playground goes.
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