
DATE: Thursday, July 10, 1997               TAG: 9707100108

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ADAM BERNSTEIN, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   70 lines

GENERIC THEATER CHANGES FESTIVAL, ADOPTS FEWER PLAYS

AFTER A LITTER of mediocre reviews for its New Plays for Dog Days Summer Festival in past years, Norfolk's Generic Theater has learned to do some new tricks.

The changes come from the theater's new staff - managing director Lisa Murray and artistic director Steven Harders, who signed on last summer when the annual festival was already underway.

Their idea: Fewer shows mean better shows.

``There was a feeling it was too much to mount five shows during the summer and rehearse five plays at the same time,'' Harders said.

``One or two shows were pretty good, and the rest varied in strength.''

This year, the nine-member selection committee chose four plays to be performed one each week for four weeks.

The contest drew more than 100 submissions worldwide from as far away as Japan, thanks to a posting on a Web page for contest-conscious playwrights.

But the selection committee, which includes Harders and Murray, was not thrilled with the submissions.

So instead of compromising, the committee chose to only produce four.

``Some of the plays have an interesting concept but not a lot of plot development,'' said Murray, who assumed her post at Generic in December.

Harders and Murray also decided not to match new plays with new directors and new actors, as the theater had in the past three years.

This season will feature ``more-seasoned directors,'' including Harders, who worked for two years as a professional director in Colorado before earning his graduate degree last summer from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Here's a peek at the shows:

``Seven Strangers in a Circle,'' a drama about seven folks and their interactions with one another, by Eric C. Peterson of Kensington, Md.

``Paradise of Fools,'' an absurdist comedy about 17th-century con artists, by Michael E. Woolfsen of Hollywood, Calif.

``Oceancity,'' a drama-comedy about sex and friendship on the Maryland shore, by Jennifer W. Kiffmeyer of Carbondale, Ill.

``To Carry the Child,'' a sentimental drama about a family reunion, by Jonathan Courie of New York.

At the end of the month-long festival, a panel of judges will award prizes for Top Dog (for best overall production), and for Pick of the Litter, a kudo bestowed for script alone.

That week, all the shows will play again, followed by discussions with the actors.

Harders said the theater, which is almost forced financially to pride itself on producing shows with minimalist sets, is ``struggling'' with finding new funding avenues.

Murray said the theater is producing the four plays and paying its nearly 30 actors and crew with a budget of $7,000 to $8,000.

Part of the criteria for the contestants was that their plays had to be low-tech and have a cast no greater than eight, Harders said.

That is a tradition not likely to change in the near future.

As it is, there is no cash award for the winners, Harders said, before adding in an apologetic hush, ``I wish. I do wish.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

WANT TO GO?

What: New Plays for Dog Days Summer Festival

When: Today to Aug. 10 at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and

2 p.m. on Sundays

Where: Generic Theater, 912 W. 21st St., Norfolk

Tickets: $20 for all four shows; $7 for each show.

Shows: ``Seven Strangers in a Circle'' today through Sunday;

``Paradise of Fools'' July 17-20; ``Oceancity'' July 24-27; ``To