GORHAM, ME — Will they do it? Can a theatre ensemble possibly perform thirty plays in under an hour?! Join the USM Department of Theatre for the high-octane, interactive theatre experience that is Greg Allen’s 30 Neo-Futurist Plays from Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (30 Plays in 60 Minutes), one of Chicago’s longest-running theatre phenomena.

Each night audiences receive a menu of play titles that run the gamut between funny, serious, political, poignant, and abstract. Part theatre, part sporting event, each night is different as the audience determines the order and cheers on the cast to make it past the finish line before the buzzer sounds.

USM Theatre’s Associate Professor, Rachel Price Cooper, directs the USM Department of Theatre’s first-year cohort in this play that truly has something for everyone. “There is a lot of audience participation in that everyone receives a menu of all the plays on their way in and gets to yell out which ones they want to see”, she says. “It’s a kind of choose-your-own-adventure theatre experience. It’s a great one to take your friend to who thinks they don’t like live theatre. It is also great for those of us (myself included) who don’t have the longest attention span. This will keep you interested, start to finish. You’ll laugh, you’ll think, and can come back a second time and have another totally new experience.”

30 Neo-Futurist Plays from Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (30 plays in 60 minutes)

By Greg Allen

Directed by Rachel Price Cooper

December 5-8, 2024

Russell Hall, USM Gorham Campus

Performances

December 5th at 7pm

December 6th at 7pm

December 7th at 7pm

December 8th at 2pm

Location

Russell Hall Stage, USM Gorham Campus

Tickets

Online: https://usm.maine.edu/department-theatre/box-office-tickets Box Office: 207-780-5151

$18 for Adults

$14 for USM Faculty, Staff & Students

$12 for Seniors

$8 for Students/Youth

Pay-What-You-Can on Thursday, December 5th.

Content Advisory

This show contains the use of strobe and flashing lights; profanity, depictions of alcohol consumption, violence; brief references to suicide.

Appropriate for ages 14 and up.

Those needing special accommodations to participate fully in this program, contact Janice Gardner at (207)780-5289 or janice.gardner@maine.edu. Hearing impaired: call USM’s telex / TDD number (207)780-5646.

Students Jamie Henderson, Cece Flint, Ethan Mann in a recent rehearsal.  Photo by Kat Moraros Photography.