15 minutes of playwriting Belfast Festival stages short, intense theater from winning artists

Harold Garde is best known for working out his ideas with bold colors. An abstract expressionist painter, the Belfast resident will make his debut as a playwright at the third annual 15Minute Festival in Belfast Aug. 20-28.

“There’s a time when you need words,” said Garde, whose work has been shown throughout the country as well as at the Farnsworth Museum of Art in Rockland. “I’m not happy with what’s happening in our world right now. It has me all churned up, and painting didn’t seem immediate enough.”

It doesn’t get more immediate than 15 minutes, which is the requirement for all plays entered in the juried theatrical event. Earlier this year, more than 200 playwrights from the United States, China, England, Japan and Bulgaria submitted scripts to the festival, co-founded by Larraine Brown, who studied at Actors Institute in New York City and is a theater educator in Belfast. This year’s theme is “unstill life,” a particularly compelling topic for a person whose life has been spent working in the visual arts.

Garde, compelled by social conscience and political anger, decided to submit “In the Rec Room,” about three people who forsake their urban lifestyles for a retreat in the country – in a place much like Maine. In the end, they learn about the impossibility of running away from the world. Garde won the competition, along with four other writers whose work will be showcased Aug. 27 and 28 at Strom Auditorium in Rockport. In the week leading up to the gala, the festival is also offering a series of one-person shows, a collaborative presentation with the Maine International Film Festival and a theater workshop (see sidebar).

In addition to the staged events, festival organizers have also invited leaders in the theater and funding field to attend the productions. Last year, a representative from the Los Angeles-based Hal Wallis Foundation saw a performance by Portland actor Tim Collins and awarded him a $15,000 grant. Collins has won an award each year at the festival. This year, Brown dubbed him an “honorary winner,” and his one-man show “The Power Play” will be performed during the gala weekend.

Mark O’Donnell, Tony Award-winning book writer for Broadway’s hit musical “Hairspray,” will also attend the events Aug. 26 and 27. O’Donnell, with Anita Stewart, artistic director of Portland Stage Company, and Doug Hughes, Tony-nominated director for “Frozen” on Broadway, helped with the judging. O’Donnell read 20 of the finalist scripts and characterized the writers as having “uninhibited imagination.”

Garde’s work caught O’Donnell’s eye because it captured exactly the quality that marks the painter’s work on canvas: abstract expression.

“‘In the Rec Room’ had touches of Harold Pinter and Joe Orton,” said O’Donnell, speaking from his home in Manhattan. “I could see that it was specifically for the stage. It’s not there to be understood. But I liked the fact that it was elusive. Most amateur writing is heavy-handed. This was gossamer.”

O’Donnell, who has written several books and is now collaborating on a Broadway adaptation of John Waters’ film “Crybaby” (Waters also wrote and directed the 1988 film version of “Hairspray”), will see a new work of his own premiered at the theater festival. “A Small Reception,” about a caterer who hits on a bride at her wedding reception, is a 15-minute musical O’Donnell wrote while at a songwriters and composers workshop. The Rockport production, with music by Arthur Yelton, will be the first public staging of the show.

O’Donnell had just returned from a two-year anniversary celebration with the cast of “Hairspray,” but he said he was looking forward to visiting Maine, where he has spent time over the years with his longtime friend singer-songwriter Paul Sullivan. (Sullivan also wrote the festival’s theme overture.)

“I’ve had plays produced in Seattle and Minneapolis and Oklahoma City,” said O’Donnell. “And I am happy for the success of ‘Hairspray’ on Broadway. But audiences are the same everywhere. Wherever an audience has laughed, wherever an audience has wept, that’s where gratification lies. And that can happen anywhere. It’s true love every time.”

The response of a theater audience will be a new experience for Garde, and he hopes his play gets people talking about politics and the future.

“I hope people will realize how difficult communication is,” said Garde, who is a regular theatergoer in his community. “I felt so many things that I didn’t know how to turn into a painting. I think we need the words.”

A full 15 minutes of them.

15Minute Festival Schedule

. One-Person Performances, 8 p.m. Aug. 20, Belfast Maskers Theater, $10.

. Staged Readings of runners-up and honorable-mention plays, 5-8 p.m. Aug. 21, Belfast Maskers Theater, donations accepted.

. Highlights from the Maine International Film Festival, 5, 7 and 9 p.m. Aug. 23-25, Colonial Theater, Belfast, $7.

. “Theater: Voice and Action” workshop, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Aug. 26, festival studio in the Belfast post office, 1 Franklin St., Belfast, $65-110.

. Gala showcase of festival winners, with special appearance by Tim Collins and world premiere of “A Small Reception” by Mark O’Donnell, 8 p.m. Aug. 27 and 28, Strom Auditorium, Rockport, $15.

For information about the festival and events, call 338-1615 or visit www.15minutefestival.com.