Chattanooga theater company takes offbeat approach

Lewis Oehmig, Andrew Shaughnessy, Jeremy Weber, Jennifer Manning, Michael Rudez, Eleanor Aiken, Dakota Brown and Madeleine Young, from left, are creating a series of performances for Theatre for the New South in Chattanooga.

Theatre for the New South, a Chattanooga-based company, is putting on a six-part theater series later this spring, but unlike conventional live performances, these shows take an unorthodox path.

"What we basically do is set the performance dates but we don't have the plays written," TNS Artistic Director and creator Michael Rudez explains of the event, titled "Fresh Squeezed."

"(The plays) are being written at these weekly writing labs on Monday night where all the writers get together with the actors that come in. They discuss and critique the process so far and guide them towards the completed play. Then what we do is (bring) directors in halfway through the process."

The end result: six entirely original works performed over the course of six days, stemming from three months' of piecing them together week by week.

Although the rehearsals and performances are scheduled at a Chattanooga venue, Rudez is extending invitations to any actors from Knoxville, Nashville, Atlanta and Birmingham who might be interested.

"The meetings are completely open to anybody who wants to come in," he says. "We always need people to read and give their opinion on the script."

Theatre for the New South was created in 2009 by Rudez with the goal of expanding theatrical performance in the Southeast. Rudez lived in New York City for seven years and studied acting at NYU. He believes that "the best theater in the country is done outside Broadway."

"I think it's done regionally," he says. "There's so much potential for great theater in the Southeast, and what we as artists need to do is get creativity out there. Just create. Then it opens up more opportunities."

As Rudez explains it, the Southeast suffers from a lack of LORT (League of Regional Theater) theaters. Although there are 76 in the U.S., there are only five in the Southeast (with Knoxville's Clarence Brown Theatre being one)."In terms of traditional theater, Tennessee is not very strong," Rudez says, which plays a role in his creation of TNS.

His vision, he says, is to "take these plays that are produced locally and take them to Knoxville, Nashville, or even to New York and Chicago.

"Chattanooga's a good place for work-shopping," he explains, given that it's in the center of several larger cities. Part of TNS's goal is to utilize Chattanooga as a city for regional actors and writers to workshop.

The "Fresh Squeezed" event is being held at Chattanooga's Create Here, on 55 E. Main Street downtown, April 28-30 and May 5-7. Each show runs 7 p.m. - 10 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

The writing labs are held every Monday night (until the scheduled performances) from 6-8 p.m. at Create Here. For information, call Theater for the New South, 423-503-0589.

Greg Wood is a freelance contributor to the News Sentinel.

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