The Halloween spirit is on full display as Northern Arizona Playwriting Showcase (NAPS), a collaboration between Northern Arizona University and Theatrikos Theatre Company, hosts its third annual Fright Night production. The event includes staged readings of Halloween-themed plays by local writers performed as a series of “micro plays” that capture the spookiness and silliness of Halloween. The one-night-only production begins 7:30 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Theatrikos’ Doris Harper White Community Theater in downtown Flagstaff.
A collective effort between NAU, Theatrikos and the Flagstaff community, NAPS involves students, alumni, faculty and staff from disciplines across campus taking on a variety of roles in the production. This year’s NAU participants of students and faculty include: Mark Alvarez, Angelé Anderfuren, Gavin Buckley, Will Cordeirdo, Ann Cummins, Margarita Cruz, Eric Dovigi, Andie Francis, Richard Gaughan, Lawrence Lenhart, Tom Marcinko, John Propster, Weldon Ryckman, Shaniya Smith and Levi Stallings. Actors Linda Sutera and Virginia Brown will narrate the show.
Cummins, an NAU English professor, was an original founding member of NAPS in 2007 along with two creative writing students. The group proposed a collaboration with Theatrikos Theatre Company to host an annual 10-minute play contest with the mission of encouraging new plays by novice and seasoned playwrights, providing acting and directing opportunities for new and experienced dramatists and celebrating new work at the Doris Harper White Community Theater. Eleven years later, NAPS is still bringing the community together under the direction of Sutera and Lenhart, another NAU professor of English.
Tickets for Fright Night are $10 for adults and $5 for students with valid ID and will be sold at the door (cash only). The Theatrikos Doris Harper-White Community Theater is located at 11 W. Cherry Ave.