February 21, 2013

The Mantua Theater Project presents two performances of The Super Power Plays on Saturday, March 9th at 3 PM and 7 PM in the new Urban Center Annex Black Box Theater at 3401 Filbert St.  The show celebrates young students from the Mantua In Action after school program, sponsored by Drexel University, who have written six short plays about an Owl that wants to be spy, an apple named Candy who wants the bullies at school to leave her alone, and a Wolf who can’t wait to find winged rats because they taste like chicken.  The shows promise to be fun for adults and children and are presented free to the public. 

The Super Power Plays are part of the Mantua Theater Project’s “Playmaking” program, an official replication of New York’s 52nd Street Project run by Drexel Theater Professor Nick Anselmo.  In eight sessions, students are taught the basics of playwriting and are then paired with a professional playwright to write their own eight to ten page play.  Once the plays are complete, professional directors and actors are hired for a full production. The Super Power Plays features local professional directors David O’Connor, who has directed at the Arden Theater, and is the resident director at Philadelphia Young Playwrights; Damon Bonetti, a professional actor, Drexel adjunct and founding member of the Philadelphia Artist Collective; Adrienne Mackay, a Drexel adjunct and the artistic director of Swim Pony Productions; Shannon Cameron, a directing fellow at McCarter Theater in Princeton; and Nick Anselmo, Drexel Theater Program Director and former Artistic Associate at Passage Theater in Trenton, New Jersey.  Drexel students and alumni are part of every aspect of the show as actors, technical support, designers, and as playmaking class mentors.