I hear Birmingham often accused of a lack of interesting things to do.  Sometimes, it’s right from my own mouth.  The entertainment diet of a great many people seems to consist mainly of church, kids, and football (though not necessarily in that order).

There’s nothing wrong with that, but I’m somehow cursed with a restlessness.  I’m always looking for more options.  Turning over rocks, flippin’ through used CDs, and keeping my ears open for hints of a new cult classic movie.  Maybe I’m just high maintenance.  Or special.  But I’m always on the lookout for the coolest stuff.

Your life is busy.  You don’t have time to check everything out looking for the cream of the crop.  You’ve got kids, church, and football to worry about.  And when you feel like going out to do something special, you read the Birmingham News (which may have the worst website on the internet) or the Black and White.

These outlets, though, are – to put it nicely – too egalitarian and equal opportunity.  Well, in reality, they’re just capitalist and tied to advertising money.  If you flip through ‘em, the space for advertising entertainment or cultural events far outpaces any space devoted to suggesting what might actually be good to go see.

Thems that pays the most earns the most space.  If you can’t afford advertising, there’s not much chance you’ll have them spend column inches talking about you.  So there are always splashy ads for overrated BJCC Broadway touring shows, but almost no space devoted to criminally underrated organizations like the UAB Theatre Department.

I’ll have you know that Birmingham Verse gets zero ad revenue.  And unlike many (barfing) mommy blogs, I get no kickbacks for product placement.  Rihanna didn’t pay me to cover Umbrella.  Clay Boyce didn’t pay me to cover his version of Taming of the Shrew.  No Artwalk painter paid me for a namedrop.  They’re covered here ’cause I think they’re cool.  It’s a badge of pride that the opinions here are as unsullied as Mary Poppins’ panties.

So I’m here to try and tell you about the best stuff happening in town and – no doubt – you’re missing out if you don’t already know about the Festival of Ten-Minute Plays done every fall by the UAB Theatre Department.  I think this is the eighth year and I’ve been for at least the last two years.  It’s a true highlight on my calendar and maybe one of the coolest things that happens in town all year.

For this, their first performance of each season, the students take a stab at writing ten-minute plays all loosely based around a central theme.  Eight of the plays are then cast with students and produced to run over a weekend.  Some students also get a shot at directing.

I say this every year, but it’s true every year.  As you’d expect from student performances, they can be hit or miss.  But the hits are always fueled with gleeful enthusiasm – and the misses only last about ten minutes.  Plus, this year it’s just THREE DOLLARS.  You paid more than that to see the last Indiana Jones movie, the Transformers sequel, and X-Men: Wolverine or whatever-the-heck that was – and you know they were all stinkers.  These should sell out.  Go ahead and get tickets.

My favorite of these ten-minute plays were Darcie written by Richard Taylor Campbell, Bag Boy by Daniel Martin, Gratefully Challenged by Kirsten Casella, and Nice Guy by Alex LaFosta.  In case you’re wondering, three of these were laugh-out-loud funny.  And the other was jaw-droppingly unexpected.  Don’t expect a full evening of theater-y death, famine, pestilence, and war.

Brenton Bellamy and Trista Baker are particularly fantastic in Darcie even before they say anything.  Smile-inducing on facial expressions alone.  I almost wished I could’ve experimented with pushing a “mute” button and re-watching it to see if it would’ve been just as hilarious.  The same is also true of Jereme Lewis in The Romantic Adventures of Harrison Jones.  Catie Cole brings a different and remarkably good energy as the consultant in Gratefully Challenged.  Brittney Michelle Williams and Bradley Foster stood out for me in Happy Birthday, Grandma, and the whole show might’ve been stolen by wide-eyed, enthusiastic, lisping Kirstie Crumly as the Katydid Scout in Bag Boy.

So why is this the coolest thing happening in Birmingham?  If this was music, it would be a battle of the bands.  Without cover bands.  It’s all originals.  Written fresh, probably within something like the last two weeks.  And then the authors get to see their work performed almost immediately, while the enthusiasm still percolates.  That almost never happens.  These are the world premieres of plays and performances by some pretty talented people.

I’m honestly not sure why they couldn’t or wouldn’t do this more than once a year.  It would be fun to provide young writers with a consistent venue and ask (or force) them to write new stuff that might stand a legitimate chance of being performed.  The writers would be grateful for the actors and the actors would probably be grateful for the writers.  The audience might be grateful to them both.  It would be fun to watch the talent, themes, and shows evolve over time.

Thanks to Melissa Christian and the rest of the UAB Theatre folks for putting on this show.