Guster is Easy and Wonderful at Lincoln Park Zoo

Please welcome Scott Johnson, my husband, who is guest-blogging about Guster at Lincoln Park Zoo, a concert we attended last Friday night. I told him I would go with him if he blogged about the concert for me, and so he did. Scott's an excellent writer and I think you'll enjoy his Guster musings. I confess I am now a Guster convert, based both on Scott's enthusiasm and one heck of a concert.


I'll be upfront about this: I lost my musical mojo around 1984. In the MTV era my LPs warped in their orange crate and my turntable froze solid from inactivity. My car rides were purposefully noiseless, broken up only occasionally by the chatter of public radio or sportstalk (when the Sox were winning). My knowledge of current acts came mostly from SNL and Letterman. So how did a 50-something whose last musical crush was Steely Dan end up jumping with both feet on the bandwagon of a quirky, onetime acoustic, now mostly alt-rock quartet from Boston?

Well, the iPod. And the ability to buy some of my favorite songs in a fourth (and final) format. And the Internet. And the ability to quickly find and try out new music. And Pandora. And Wikipedia. So I followed an odd path that bounced around slowly from Death Cab to the Shins to Weezer to Jonathan Colton and finally to Guster. And within a few minutes of listening to their music, I was hooked.

Hooks are a big part of the pop music experience. Guster writes melodic hooks in spades, adds superb musicianship, sweet harmonies, and intelligent lyrics, and rolls the whole mess into, so I had read, a great stage show. All by a band that promotes greenness. What was not to like? Checking out "Guster on Ice," the band's combined DVD/CD of a live performance in Portland, Maine, in 2003, I was inspired to do something I had not done in a generation – buy tickets to a concert.

Friday night's event took place on the grounds of Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago on a grassy knoll full of blankets – just like the old days at Ravinia or Alpine Valley, but much more intimate. By my guess, about 1500 to 2000 Guster fans packed the small area. My fears of being the oldest dude in the crowd were quickly laid aside. Although most of the concertgoers were in their late 20s or early 30s, there were plenty of middle-aged rockers as well, including the couple next to us, who had also traveled from Bloomington-Normal to lie under the stars on a perfect evening. One welcome difference from the 70s: the almost total absence of smoke of any sort, save a few hints of pot coming from back and the left. The only other smells were bug spray, the apple-scented hand sanitizer from the Port-a-Potty, and an occasional whiff of rotting flesh, which I can only hope was coming from the nearby lion exhibit.

Guster responded to the comfortable setting with a energetic set of 20 songs. The front-stage vocal trio of Ryan Miller, Adam Gardner, and Joe Pisapia displayed their instrumental versatility by swapping between lead, rhythm, bass, and keyboards on practically every number. Adam even threw in a few toots on a trumpet late in the evening. At the back of the stage, stealing the show on occasion, was Brian Rosenworcel's frenetic, mostly stickless percussion. He was accompanied on several songs by a conventional drummer introduced only as Scooter, "rescued from Haiti."

While Guster's new album, Easy Wonderful, is due out in October, by my count the band played only three songs from it: the already released single "Do You Love Me?", "This Could All Be Yours Someday," and a third song whose title I'll have to wait to decode. The rest of the evening the band stayed close to its playlist of fan favorites, leading off with "The Captain", with echoes of the country rock of yore, to the insistent anthem of self-indulgence "Center of Attention," to the group's most recent (2006) single, the dreamy, wistful "Satellite" (which has a hypnotic video). In the shortened format (the zoo had us out and on the road home by 10:30), Guster didn't have any time for the antics that are part of some of their shows, instead strumming and drumming out crowd-pleasers such as "Careful" (the song that hooked me), "Barrel of a Gun," and "Happier," featuring Adam and Ryan's soulful counter-melodies. Only on "Airport Song," an indictment of religious cults, did the group stray very far from the recorded version, adding Darth Vader-like effects to Ryan's malevolent invocation.

I was only a little disappointed that Guster omitted their two biggest hits: "Amsterdam" and "Fa Fa." No doubt they need to give those a rest once in a while.

I've seen Guster categorized as "geek rock", but that's way off base as far as I'm concerned. There's nothing overtly geeky about the music or their act – not striving to be funny like They Might Be Giants, not defiantly against convention like Weezer, not over the top like Devo, for Pete's sake. Yes, this was a crowd I think my fellow programmers would have felt comfortable in 25 years ago. But the songs touch on broad themes anyone can relate to, and almost always with a cheerful hook and chiming guitar riff.

So why isn’t Guster a household name? Good question. They're fun, accessible, and hard-working (up to 250 dates a year). But then Guster at Assembly Hall or the Peoria Civic Center wouldn't be nearly as much of a treat as watching them play on a smooth summer evening, under the trees, with a cool breeze off Lake Michigan.

If you'd like to see what I'm talking about, use your Netflix to check out "Guster on Ice." Or watch the first three songs of the Friday's concert here, here, and here.

Thanks to Jenn Winter for the use of the concert photo. Check out her blog at jennwinter.com.

And thanks to Scott for the review!

Chicago's Neo-Futurists & Their Neo-Obama Portrait-O-Rama

Chicago's Neo-Futurists, the troupe responsible for the long-running "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind," have announced that they're looking for portraits of President Barack Obama (or one portrait, at any rate) to add to their "Hall of Presidents."

They've got a piece of art for each and every U.S. president so far, ranging from a tiny bust of George Washington placed next to a tiny set of false teeth to a collage of pitted cherries on paper representing Zachary Taylor. You can see Herbert Hoover and Warren G. Harding looking a bit more like themselves in the picture of the entire display above, but beware Eisenhower, who looks kind of zombiefied, and W, who has an oil well spouting out the top of his head.

Here's John Quincy Adams, looking a bit like Bob Hope, as portrayed by artist Steve Musgrave.

If you can create the winning Obama (submissions due September 24th), you could win $250 from the Neo-Futurists, and your portrait will hang alongside all the others in their Hall of Shame. Er, Fame.

Judges include Miss Mia, the host of "Chic-A-Go-Go," several gallery owners, a member of the Neo-Futurists ensemble and Oli Watt, faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, whose own art appears in the Hall of Presidents in the form of George W. Bush and his oil wells.

For all the details, visit the Neo-Futurists and be sure to take a look at all the presidents already on display. They're wacky! They're scary! They're funny! They're inspiring! They're depressing!

Note that nobody has done Peeps or macaroni portraits yet, so the field is wide open.

The Zombies Are Coming! The Zombies Are Coming!

I had a chance to ask Jesse Petersen, the author of MARRIED WITH ZOMBIES, the first book in a terrific new series from Orbit, a few questions about the book and her writing life in general. I think you'll enjoy hearing what Jesse (pictured at right) had to say.

Julie Kistler: First off, let's talk a little about your career. I seem to remember that your college degree is in psychology. How did you go from that to a career in writing? Was writing something you always wanted to do?

Jesse Petesen: I always dreamed of being a writer. I actually won a Young Authors award when I was a kid. But I figured it wasn't something I could really do. I needed a back up. I really enjoyed studying psychology and had every intention of becoming a marriage counselor but the more I did field work, the less happy I was. Writing really kept calling to me and finally my husband said I should just do that. So I was very lucky to have a supportive partner who believed in my dream even when I sometimes didn't.

JK: You've had a how-to website for prospective writers called Passionate Pen for some time. How did that get started? Do you think that helped you along your own journey to selling the first book?

JP: Yes, I've done The Passionate Pen for eleven years now. I really just put together a site full of resources I wanted as an aspiring author and figured might be useful to other people. Over the years, it grew to include even more resources, including my diary toward and beyond publication. I think it definitely made me more aware of the publishing industry, which helped while I was unpublished. Plus, once I sold my first book I definitely had potential readers who already knew who I was.

JK: When did you sell your first book? Tell us about that.

JP: In 2004 I had a new agent and a historical romance that I wanted to sell (it was my tenth historical manuscript). She pitched the book around and called me one day in September to tell me Avon had made an offer on two historical romances. My first, SCANDALOUS, came out in 2005 and my 14th and 15th books with them will come out this year and next. So it's been a very nice ride.

JK: Given all the historical romances, MARRIED WITH ZOMBIES is quite a departure for you. Can you tell us where you got the idea and what prompted this zombie invasion?

JP: I always say I didn't mean to write a zombie book! It just happened. My husband and I had gone to "Zombieland" with some friends. I really loved the movie and the next night I found a scene coming to me. The opening scene of MARRIED WITH ZOMBIES where David and Sarah realize their marriage counselor is now a zombie and they have to kill her. Once I started writing, the book just flowed from me. I was so excited to write it and now I'm equally excited for everyone to read it.

JK: You start off the book with a very unhelpful marital counselor. Is that a callback to your past studying psychology?

JP: Everyone keeps asking me that. I probably wouldn't want to know what a real psychologist would say about me killing the thing I once thought I'd be. I'm sure it means something. But honestly, I just had such a strong image of David and Sarah's story starting with their marriage counselor that I just had to do it.

JK: The fact that Sarah and David have not been getting along as a married couple really gives the book a different twist from other zombie books, and you've incorporated that into little helpful hints at the beginning of each chapter, like my favorite: "Balance the workload in the relationship. No one person should be responsible for killing all the zombies." Where did the idea of combining marital discord and zombies come from?

JP: Really just from that first image in my head. And the idea that Sarah and Dave would use their dead counselor's advice to escape the apocalypse. That made each chapter header very easy to write and the story flow pretty naturally from that concept.

JK: I know you grew up in Idaho, but lived in Seattle, just like Sarah and David in the book. And now you're in Illinois. Where do you feel is really home at this point? Why did you decide to set MWZ in Seattle? What makes it more zombie-riffiic?

JP: Well, we've lived in Illinois for almost 9 years so it's home, at least for now. I'm not really like Sarah in that wherever my husband is, that's where I'm home (though Sarah certainly learns some lessons by the end of the book). As for why Seattle, I wanted to set the story in a large, urban environment and I'm still most familiar with Seattle. Plus, it's Seattle. By definition it's cool! And beautiful (except for those pesky zombies).

JK: I'm used to your angsty historical romances, and this is ultra-contemporary, irreverent and hilarious. If I didn't know you better, I would say MWZ was totally your real voice as a writer. It sounds SO you. Or maybe you're just multi-voiced? What do you think?

JP: I think they're both my real voice. I've tried writing lighter historicals and it just never worked. My natural voice in historicals is dark and sensual. But with the zombies, they just came out so funny and so irreverent. So I guess multi-voiced is the way I am.

JK: What can we expect from books 2 and 3 in this series? Same characters? The continuation of Zombiebusters Extermination, Inc? And when will are those books scheduled to be out?

JP: Yup! Same characters throughout the series. In the second book Dave and Sarah have created Zombiebusters Exterminators, Inc and are working full-time as zombie exterminators. But then there's a mad scientist and a potential cure and all kinds of hijinks. And I'm writing the third now, but let's just think zombie benefits without the zombie side-effects and stalkerazzi reporters and washed up rock and roll stars. I'm having such fun working on it. FLIP THIS ZOMBIE is the second and is scheduled for January 2011. THE ZOMBIE WHISPERER is due out in June 2011.

JK: Anything else you'd like to tell readers about MARRIED WITH ZOMBIES or the Jesse Petersen Writing Experience?

JP: Well, if they like irreverent, sarcastic, slightly gory comedy involving death, divorce and raving zombies, I hope they'll pick up a copy of MARRIED WITH ZOMBIES and enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Thanks, Jesse!




You can pre-order MARRIED WITH ZOMBIES at Amazon or Barnes & Noble right now or look for it in your friendly neighborhood bookstore in September.

Ayckbourn's "Comic Potential" Pays Off at Peninsula Players

If I could choose to suddenly write like somebody other than me, I’d probably pick British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. I’m not into farces at all, and that’s what most people think of when they think of Ayckbourn, so that may seem odd. But the reality is, he really isn’t that farcical. He’s funny. He writes about real, sad, silly people under the laughs, but he never apologizes for the laughs, and he happens to think that comedy is just as important as – or maybe even more important than – tragedy.

Among his plays, “Comic Potential,” a charming boy-meets-girl where the boy is human but the girl is an android, stands out as a perfect illustration of that point. Ayckbourn writes that “Comic Potential” was written “to answer all those people who keep asking me why I didn't write a serious play. I'm very happy to be privileged enough to write comedy. It doesn't mean seriousness has to go out of the window."

And in “Comic Potential,” which is packed full of gags from the classic comedy playbook, including double and triple takes and even a pie in the face, there is definitely some seriousness going on. As he looks into what might happen if an android (in this case, a soap opera actor or actoid named JC-F31-333) began to exhibit a surprising sense of humor, Ayckbourn finds ways to talk about love, connection, life, death and the very nature of comedy.

“Comic Potential,” is, as he puts it, a comedy master class.

The play is set in the foreseeable future, when actors have been replaced by actoids, and a once-famous director named Chandler Tate is stuck in the hinterlands directing a flea-bitten soap opera called “Hospital Hearts.” Writer Adam Trainsmith, a big fan of Buster Keaton and other Golden Age comedians, arrives, hoping to learn something at the great man’s knee. But Tate is too far round the bend to have any interest in mentoring a bright-eyed newcomer like Adam.

The master class part comes when Adam notices that JC-F31-333, or Jacie Triplethree, starts laughing when a fellow actoid screws up his lines. But actoids can’t laugh unless they’re programmed to. So what in the world is wrong with Jacie Triplethree?

Adam sees her sense of humor as comic potential, and he begins to teach her the ways of comedy on the side, hoping to create a career for her and himself, and rejuvenate Chandler Tate’s directorial prowess. Adam also begins to fall in love a little, and Jacie’s internal soundtrack (music that comes soaring out of her chest at emotional moments) indicates she just might be feeling the same way.

The plot is complicated by a battle-ax of a superior named Carla Pepperbloom, who thinks JC/Jacie is malfunctioning and annoying and ought to be melted down. So Adam takes Jacie on the run to save his android lady love, the movie he wants to make, and his hope for the future of comedy.

As directed by Peter Amster for Peninsula Players in Door County, Wisconsin, “Comic Potential” is quite adorable. Amster’s directorial mission is aided immensely by Erica Elam, who plays Jacie with energy, enthusiasm and loads of charm. She’s believable as a robot – sort of – and yet also appealing enough for us to understand why Adam (winningly played by Sean Fortunato) would run off with her. Whether she’s dressed in a garment bag or boogying down like she got stuck inside Dance, Dance Revolution, Elam’s Jacie is sympathetic and genuine, a heroine you can root for.

Tim Monsion is just the right degree of scruffy and cynical for Chandler Tate, the washed-up director who used to be somebody, and Carmen Roman was made for snappy roles like Carla Pepperbloom, the exec who eats underlings for breakfast. Linda Fortunato (who also choreographed Jacie’s bravura dance performance), Neil Friedman, Andrew Keltz, Kevin McKillip and Karen Jane Woditsch are all good in multiple roles as soap opera actoids and assorted nuts and bolts Adam and Jacie meet on their travels.

Rachel Laritz’s costumes are fine (I especially liked the tall white wedgies on our girl Jacie when she was acting as a nurse), but I wasn’t crazy about Jack Magaw’s set design. Pieces moved on and off swiftly, always a bonus, but the TV set looked too much like a barn for my taste, and some of the smaller pieces, like the bed from a seedy flophouse, weren’t really trashy or flashy enough.

My only quibble otherwise involves timing. At 2:20, it’s about 20 minutes too long. I’d have trimmed the clothes-trying-on and Bible-reading scenes myself, plus the indelicate part where Adam has to duck under the table to empty Jacie’s, er, waste bin, is funnier than I expected, but a bit too long, as well. I saw Peninsula Players’ “Comic Potential” on opening night, and it may be that they'll work out some of the comic timing kinks as they move on through the run. Hope so. It’s already a cute, sweet, funny show. It just needs a bit more speed to reach its full... Comic potential.

“Comic Potential” continues at Peninsula Players through September 5th. If you’re planning a trip to Door County, take some time out and discover this show. (Peninsula Players has kindly offered a video preview.) The actors and the material are terrific, and the setting at Peninsula Players is pretty terrific, too.

If you aren’t going to Wisconsin, but you’d still like to see some Ayckbourn, our very own Heartland Theatre offers “Woman in Mind,” opening September 16th.

"A Little Night Music" Finishes Its Weekend in the Country

When I last saw "A Little Night Music," the charming and captivating musical based on the Swedish film “Smiles of a Summer Night,” I was in New York and Desirée Armfeldt, the one who gets to sing “Send in the Clowns,” was being played by international film star Catherine Zeta-Jones. I say “being played” with more meaning than one. Ms. Zeta-Jones was flinty and tough and not at all right for Desirée (see my review here) but she somehow managed to make enough of an impact on (or completely bamboozle) the Tony Awards voters to nab an award for the role. Did she deserve it? Not in the least. What did they see that I didn’t? I have no idea.

In any event, this time, deep in the wilds of Wisconsin at a theater called Peninsula Players, a veteran Chicago actress named Carmen Roman played the enchanting Desirée. She couldn’t be more different from the glamorous Catherine Zeta-Jones if she tried, and “A Little Night Music” was all the better for it. Neither one is your typical Desirée, if there is such a thing, but Roman, who is tall and thin and not a drop-dead beauty like Zeta-Jones, made me believe that she was an actress touring in the provinces, that she had once loved and lost Fredrik Egerman, and that she did indeed rue the mess that her life had become. Instead of the softer, curvier Glynis Johns/Jean Simmons/Elizabeth Taylor type, Roman reminded me more of the mature Audrey Hepburn, with a wry wisdom that worked very well for Desirée.

I love Stephen Sondheim’s score and Hugh Wheeler’s book for “A Little Night Music,” where at least three mismatched pairs twirl onto the stage, waltzing through a series of misadventures caused by their own poor choices, eventually twirling off again with better results. There’s Desirée, who wants to rescue her old love Fredrik from his immature wife, Anne, and also dump her current lover, Count Carl-Magnus, a dragoon and a buffoon. Carl-Magnus treats his wife Charlotte terribly, while Anne continues to rebuff her husband’s efforts to consummate their marriage, even as she teases her stepson, gloomy Henrik, who is closer to her own age. Toss in Desirée’s daughter Fredrika (you can guess where she gets her name), Desirée’s mother, the formidable Madame Armfeldt, and frisky servant girl Petra, plus a quintet of singers who stroll into view every so often with cynical observations about the nature of love and memory and a sun that never sets, and you have the full tableau.

This is not a neat or tidy show, but the lush score and romantic darkness around the edges makes it a sardonic, intoxicating experience nonetheless. For Peninsula Players, located near Fish Creek in Door County, Wisconsin, Artistic Director Greg Vinkler directed “A Little Night Music” in a sort of straight-ahead, no-nonsense manner. He was aided by a terrific cast, featuring wonderful voices for the most part, as well as strong acting skills and good comic timing.

Along with Carmen Roman’s lovely Desirée, James Rank showed off a gorgeous singing voice, even if he was also the best-looking and least stuffy Fredrik I’ve seen, and Sean Fortunato sounded great and found all the right comedic moments as puffed-up soldier Carl-Magnus. I also enjoyed Jessie Mueller’s take on Anne, who has a tendency to come off like a simpering (and annoying) ninny. Here, Mueller made her young and a bit giddy, but also appealing and understandable. That’s no easy feat.

The masterful Peggy Roeder created a delicious Madame Armfeldt, the one with a past full of “Liaisons” who explains that the night will be smiling three times; Cassie Wooley’s servant girl Petra was jolly and robust, a little different from most but actually better this way; Karen Jane Woditsch’s acerbic Charlotte was right on target; and Andrew Keltz made for a somewhat sloppy but sweet Henrik.

All five of the Liebeslieders (Neil Friedman, Harmony France, Kathleen Gibson, Ian Toohill and McKinley Carter) had excellent voices and made an impact as a cynical counterpoint to the main action. I have to admit, I don’t usually notice the Liebeslieders, but they were quite present and quite good in this production.

I also enjoyed the sparkling white turn-of-the-century costumes created by Karin Simonson Kopischke, although Carl-Magnus could’ve looked more military and Desirée could’ve looked less bridal when they got to the country.

Among the musical numbers, “Now/Later/Soon” and “You Must Meet My Wife” stood out in the first half, with “It Would Have Been Wonderful,” a snarly sort of duet between the two rivals, Fredrick and Carl-Magnus, coming to life beautifully in Act II.

All in all, seeing “A Little Night Music” against a backdrop of birch trees and towering pines was a pleasure. Peninsula Players can be proud of pulling off a complicated, delicate show with good humor, amazing music and just enough romance to tug at the heartstrings long after the elusive sun has finally set. I worry about Anne and Henrik and how they're going to survive, I don't think Charlotte gets a very happy ending, and I already miss Madame Armfeldt, but still... A pleasure.

Fall (or Crumble) into the New Semester of IWU Theatre

Illinois Wesleyan’s School of Theatre Arts has announced its 2010-11 schedule, with “Crumble (lay me down Justin Timberlake)” kicking off the season in September at McPherson Theatre (seen below).



The full schedule includes:

Crumble (lay me down Justin Timberlake) by Sheila Callaghan
Directed by Dani Snyder-Young
September 21-25 at 8 pm, September 26 at 2 pm
McPherson Theatre
When it played at the Cleveland Public Theater, “Crumble” was described as a “quirky comedy about an old house and Janice, a twelve year old girl whose Christmas wish list includes bleach, paraffin and other bomb-making materials. It's been a year since the untimely death of Janice's father, and to deal with it all, she holds spiteful conversations with her dolls and dreams of Justin Timberlake, while her mother fantasizes about Harrison Ford and relies on her superior baking skills to hold herself together. Throw in an apartment that starts to plot murder and you're left with a wild and crazy ride to redemption and healing.”

Attempts on Her Life by Martin Crimp
Directed by Ally Moravec
October 28-30 at 8 pm
E. Melba Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre
Subtitled “17 Scenarios for the Theatre,” “Attempts on Her Life” is a bit of a mystery wrapped in an enigma, as some number of actors discuss what may or may not be attempts on the life of an unseen “Her” who may be named Ann, Annie, Anushka or Anya and may be a young woman who committed suicide, a porn actress, an artist, a terrorist or a new kind of car. Or none of the above. Experimental, non-linear... Definitely different.

Once Upon a Mattress, with music by Mary Rodgers and lyrics by Marshall Barer, and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller and Marshall Barer
Directed and choreographed by Scott Susong
November 17-20 at 8 pm, November 20-21 at 2 pm
McPherson Theatre
“Once Upon a Mattress,” a musical adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale The Princess and the Pea, opened on Broadway in 1959 with Carol Burnett as Princess Winnifred, a noisy, gawky sort of girl who swims across the moat to get to the castle to woo Prince Dauntless. She is tested (with the old pea under the mattress trick) to see if she’s the right girl for the prince. Fun, fizzy musical hijinks ensure.

The Trojan Women by Euripides
Directed by Tom Quinn
February 15-19 at 8 pm, February 20 at 2 pm
McPherson Theatre
Fresh off the movie he was filming around Bloomington-Normal, Tom Quinn directs this classical tragedy about what happens to the women of Troy in the aftermath of a terrible war. Their city lies in ruins, their husbands have been killed, and everyone left behind will be enslaved as spoils of war. Modern versions have been done (I saw one set in 1950s Eastern Europe ten or fifteen years ago, with the Trojan wives in Donna Reed dresses, beating out their sorrows on fetching little train cases instead of drums), illustrating the notion that war and its destructive power never go out of style.

Spitfire Grill, with music, lyrics and book by James Valeq and Fred Alley
Directed by Nick Reinhart
May 20-21 at 8 pm, May 22 at 2 pm
E. Melba Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre
Based on the 1996 film starring Alison Elliott and Ellen Burstyn, “Spitfire Grill” tells a story about a young woman released from prison who tries to make a fresh start working at a restaurant in a small Maine town called Gilead. (The name of the town is not the only thing with religious or Biblical significance in the story.) Our young ex-con is a catalyst for change in the town and its citizens in this story of human connection, sacrifice and redemption. The musical version came to New York’s Playwrights Horizons in 2001, adding songs and a happier ending to the original material.

One more show will be added later, to be directed by Nancy Loitz in March at the E. Melba Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre. Once IWU’s semester begins, you can reach the box office at 556-3232.

For Anyone Who Thinks Writing a New Play Should Be Simple...

As part of its mission to recognize and support new plays and playwrights, Heartland Theatre Company has announced the theme and details for its 2011 "New Plays from the Heartland" playwriting competition. Heartland is looking for short one-act plays from playwrights in eight Midwestern states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin) on the theme of "I thought it would be simple."

Performances will be in the form of staged readings on Friday, May 13 and Saturday, May 14, 2011 at 7:30 pm. Heartland's Managing Artistic Director Mike Dobbins will cast and direct the plays.

Here's how Heartland defines its theme:

"It seems like a no-brainer. Putting a bike together. Finishing your novel. Asking her to marry you. Telling him to move out. Staging a coup to take over the garden club. But just when it’s looking like a walk in the park, things have a way of getting complicated.

It should be a piece of cake to write us a one-act, on any subject you like, as long as it includes the line I thought it would be simple.

At the beginning. In the middle. At the very end. I thought it would be simple.

Whispered. Shouted. Written on the blackboard. Carved into the side of the baby bed that was supposed to go together in three easy steps.

I thought it would be simple.

Did you? Did you really?"

Entries are due January 1, 2011, and those in by December 1, 2010, may be offered revisions if the judging committee feels it would enhance their chances of qualifying for the competition. For more information on all the rules and regulations (and to make sure that your entry is right on target) visit Heartland’s website.