LAB! Theatre experiments with another interactive performance at UNC

It's shows served in double time. 

LAB! Theatre, the oldest and largest student performing company in Chapel Hill, is putting on 30 Plays in 60 Minutes tonight at the UNC Center for Dramatic Art.

There will be 30, two-minute(ish) plays, brought to you by the LAB! Theatre's collaboration with the Modern Shakespeare Society — which ironically has nothing to do with any of Shakespeare’s works.

Natalie Cabo, a member of the society and a producer on the LAB! executive board, said she writes and performs with the troupe.

“We write from our experiences and emotions,” she said. “Plays are not hard to write when you are passionate about something, and not all of them require speaking or huge dialogue — a lot of them contain movement and props to convey messages.”

Cabo said she is excited to perform in her third production of 30 Plays in 60 Minutes.

“Anything can happen during our shows,” she said.

And she’s right.

For this type of performance, guests choose which play they want to see first out of a menu of options. Members of the crowd yell out which one they want to see, and the company performs it. Then the show continues on.

“The audience is really part of the journey,” first-year Adair Tompkins said.

Tompkins said she is performing in four of the 30 plays. This is her first time performing this type of show with LAB! Theatre, but she has been in similar performances at Durham School of the Arts and the Governor’s School in Theater. 

She said her favorite play is about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

“I think that one has a good message, and it’s good sometimes to get out of your own head — because of course you are drawing on personal experience, but also on what’s going on in the world and affecting everyone,” Tompkins said.

She and Cabo both said the performance is a wild time.

“It is the most hype and emotional whirlwind of them all,” Cabo said. “The show can drag, or go by fast — it depends what is going on in the moment. We feed off of the audience a lot, so that's a huge determining factor as to how a show will end up.”

First-year Samantha Yancey said she is going to this event with an open mind. She said she's worked with the company in the past, so she's seen the range of works it produces. 

“There's no illusions, no costumes, just honest performances happening at­ ­lightning speed,” she said.

Tompkins said these performances focus on the truth, where the audience members play their true selves. The collaboration process of writing and casting comes together to make a show where every player has an equal role.

“They really are an incredible theatre company, and I try my best to support all their events,” Yancey said. “All their events are free, so there really is no excuse not to go.”

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