Interview: MUSEUM OF DYSFUNCTION PLAY FESTIVAL at Mildred's Umbrella

This week, Mildred's Umbrella Theater Company, one of Houston's most engaging theatre companies, opens its annual short play festival MUSEUM OF DYSFUNCTION (in collaboration with Wordsmyth Theatre). Over two weekends, the short play festival, MUSEUM OF DYSFUNCTION VIII, will present two different programs. The first group of nine plays will run June 23 through 25 and the second group of ten will run June 30 through July 2.

Broadway World asked Mildred's Umbrella Artistic Director Jennifer Decker to chime in a little on exactly what patrons who attend this unique event should expect.

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BWW: Is there a theme that unites all 19 plays?

Jennifer Decker: There isn't really a specific theme this year, but the plays are all between 2 and 10 minutes, and the festival in general focuses on dysfunction in relationships, so I guess that's always the theme, but it's fairly loose, because that's pretty much what all plays are about when you think about it. [Smiles]

BWW: How is it different each weekend?

Jennifer Decker: There are 19 different plays, by 18 different playwrights, and 7 different director. Each of them is rehearsed off site, without my interference until the week of the show, when they bring them all to the theatre. We add lights and sound and work out the logistics of the set changes. 9 of them are performed the first weekend and the other 10 are the second weekend. So it creates two completely different shows, with completely different scripts, directors and actors.

BWW: Why do you guys do this every year?

Jennifer Decker: I originally invented THE MUSEUM OF DYSFUNCTION in 2008 for a couple of reasons. First of all, we were small and we didn't have our own space yet, and I had all of these actors with not enough shows to keep them busy. Some of them had written little pieces themselves, and others were dying to perform scenes or monologues from specific plays. [So] I got a friend who owns a bar to let me use her space for a couple of nights, and put the actors in all the different areas of the bar (downstairs, upstairs, front patio, back patio) and we walked an audience around our performance museum to see each little piece. There were two original monologues, powerful scenes from a couple of plays, a short film, and a puppet show.

It was a huge success, and we couldn't contain it in that format because the audience was too big to walk around like that. So the next year when local playwrights started sending me stuff and asking us to do it again, I rented a theatre and gave my actors the scripts to perform. It has evolved into a showcase of playwrights from all over the world. We get over 200 submissions and we have to choose 20. So it's more of a platform for new writers and new work, and it acts as a much needed fundraiser for our season, because everyone is working on a volunteer basis for this one to help the theatre raise money.

BWW: What can I expect as an audience member?

Jennifer Decker: You can expect 9-10 different plays per night. Some are hilarious and others are touching. Some might fall flat since nobody's seen them yet. We never know! But one thing you can count on... if you don't like what you're seeing, you'll be seeing something different within 10 minutes.

BWW: Where is this all taking place?

Jennifer Decker: Our permanent theatre space is Studio 101, so we'll be performing it there- 1824 Spring Street. That is our space that we share with Stark Naked Theatre, and usually our only location these days.

BWW: How does the MUSEUM of DYSFUNCTION work within the Mildred's Umbrella mission statement?

Jennifer Decker: It works because part of our mission is to bring new work to Houston Audiences. The other part of our mission is to support the work of women in theatre, and the plays are generally heavy in female characters. More than half of the directors and crew are women, and more than half of the plays were written by women. Next year, we are opening the submissions to college and high school students. We don't exclude the men at all. We just insist on gender parity in this festival, and we lean more toward female heavy projects in our main-stage productions.

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MUSEUM of DYSFUNCTION VIII performances are 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 23 through Saturday, June 25 (Group I) and Thursday, June 30 through Saturday, July 2 (Group II) at Spring Street Studios Suite 101, 1824 Spring Street. For more information, call 832-463-0409 or visit mildredsumbrella.com.

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