MBTA inspires "The T Plays"

At 11:15 a.m. last Saturday, Ginger Lazarus boarded an Orange Line train at Oak Grove. While her fellow passengers were eager to reach their destinations - many of them appeared to be headed to the Red Sox game - Lazarus was hoping for a long ride. The clock was ticking: she had to write a short play, to be performed the following Wednesday, by the time she arrived at the end of the line at Forest Hills.

Across town, playwright Forrest Walter was getting on the Green Line at Lechmere with the same goal. Later in the day, three more playwrights would be boarding the T to participate in Mill 6 Collaborative's theatrical experiment, The T Plays. Over the next week, a total of ten local writers will take on the challenge of writing a short play, set on the MBTA, in the time it takes to get from end of the T to the other.

"It's really hard to do this with no planning at all," said Lazarus, who tried to keep her mind clear the night before, "but you're not keeping to the spirit of the exercise if you don't let the actual experience form the play.

"If it comes out bad, it's still a good experience!"

When I connected with Lazarus at Forest Hills, she was feeling a little dismayed that the ride only took about 35 minutes. "There's no ending yet," she laughed nervously. Fortunately, she had until 6 p.m. to work on the piece before sending it to Mill 6. Then the urgency would fall on director Barlow Adamson, who would begin rehearsing the play that night with two actors. Three nights later, the play was slated to go up before an audience at The Factory Theater.

Taking five plays from conception to opening night in less than 48 hours is no small task, but it's something of a party for Mill 6 Collaborative. The small theater company, now in its tenth year, wanted to celebrate its diamond anniversary with a bang.

"This is a great way to get many people involved," said John O'Brien, the company's Artistic Director, a few days later. "We've got ten writers, eight directors, and twenty-two actors. The whole marathon nature of it is an appealing workout for everyone. It's a gauntlet thrown down."

In its decade on Boston's fringe theater scene, Mill 6 has not been shy about picking up gauntlets. The company's first production, A Coarse Evening, involved four short plays with four different sets - all of which was crammed into the tiny performance space at the rear of The Piano Factory, then called The Beau Jest Theatre.

"I guess we still haven't learned to do shows by our size," O'Brien laughed. "But so far, so good. They're in tech rehearsal right now, and there haven't been any explosions."

The real test will begin Wednesday night, when the first five plays take the stage for a four-night run. Audiences will vote for their favorite plays, and after another cycle of five plays has been written and staged, The T Plays will conclude its third week with a run of the top-scoring audience favorites.

"We're tapping into the American Idol market," quipped O'Brien. "You just can't text your vote." Though the theatre's 49-seat capacity precludes an Idol level of success, O'Brien is hopeful that the experiment will be a well received as New York's the Atrainplays, a similar venture which has gone through 23 rounds of plays written on the A Train between Brooklyn and The Bronx.

"If this goes as well as it seems to be going," he continued, "it's something we'll continue to play with. Maybe it will become an annual or semiannual event. Every one will get a chance to write a play on the T!"

Riding the Orange Line with Lazarus, it was hard to tell if she was as hopeful about the idea's future. "I don't usually write on the T," she said pensively. "I ride it to work, so I'm usually preparing for class." The Boston native, whose work has been performed at many short play festivals, teaches play and screenwriting at UMass Boston.

But as she talked about the process, she became enthusiastic. "I'm a slow writer," she said. "So I feel a little crazy doing this. I like that it's specific, that it has to take place on the T. That makes a good play for me, when the setting is important. I actually incorporated things from my ride into the draft. That's part of the fun."

When I slipped off the train at Downtown Crossing, Lazarus was back at work, hastily scribbling in her composition book. The clock was still ticking.

The T Plays arrives at The Factory Theater, 791 Tremont St., at 8 p.m., Thursday-Saturday. Tickets $15. Info: 866.811.4111 or www.theatermania.com.