Westmont’s production of The Future Is Short, a festival-style theatrical experience of six short plays in a variety of locations inside and around the Porter Theater, is a joyful celebration of new work, theatrical community, and artistic collaboration. The plays are performed by Westmont students, partially designed by alumni, and directed by students, alumni, and Theater Professor Mitchell Thomas.
The plays come from the legacy of partnership over the last decade between Westmont and graduate students in playwriting from a variety of associated MFA programs throughout the country. This sizable accumulation of 120 short works was written for Westmont’s annual Fringe Festival, and Thomas curated them into a book (published by Bloomsbury this fall) of 20 plays. He then chose six of these works to produce throughout the Westmont campus, including the Porter Theater, the campus art museum, and outdoor spaces in the theater courtyard.
The Future Is Short included stories about various topics, from aging to ecological conservation to the afterlife. Penny’s, or Whenever You Need Me (by Aniello Fontano) is a devastatingly sweet view of grief and friendship (with puppets and lovely, understated stage magic); Saturn Return (by Justin Halle) is a beautiful, unhinged view of the psychological effect of passing time; and Worm Play (by Catt Filippov) is a moving tribute to missing out on and buying into love and relationships.
The collection of plays in (the book) The Future Is Short features familiar names to the Santa Barbara theater community, including Luz Lorenzana Twigg, who contributed a play to the HIVE program as an MFA student, and was also an undergraduate theater student and performer at Westmont. For more new work, check out Westmont’s Fringe Festival this spring, or read a copy of The Future Is Short, edited by Mitchell Thomas.
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