Preparations for the 22nd annual Playground theater festival are well underway in Purnell. Playground is a student-created festival that started 22 years ago at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. Participation in the festival is not limited to drama students. The festival is open to people in the Pittsburgh area, regardless of whether they study theater or are a student at Carnegie Mellon.
Marion Mongello, a junior stage and production manager at Carnegie Mellon, serves as the festival manager this year on the PG XXII committee.
“As the manager, myself, and Carly, my assistant, are in charge of scheduling every aspect of the festival from behind the scenes, committee meetings, releases, proposal deadlines, all the way to when pieces are going to be rehearsing, when they’re going to be loading in, their tech time, and curating what the festival looks like,” she said.
Mongello said that overall, “Our main goal is to make this the most fulfilling experience for as many people as possible.” One of Mongello’s favorite things about the Playground Festival is watching the building come alive with a completely new energy. “There’s a complete shift. Everyone is in there, from dusk till dawn, working together, helping each other, using the resources that they have available, truly giving all of themselves to the art they’re making.”
Madeline Scotti, a sophomore director at Carnegie Mellon, serves as the assistant festival producer with this year’s festival producer, Daniel Bamdad, on the PG XXII committee. Scotti spoke on the diversity of the pieces as a thing that excited them most about Playground. “We’ve had everything from an escape room, to a puppet murder mystery, to musicals about the Cheesecake Factory, to plays about mannequins.”
In the festival’s 22 years there have been many Playground projects that go on to be successful outside of the walls of Purnell. One of these success stories is PigPen Theatre Co., a seven-member band that formed and performed during Playground week in 2007. PigPen Theatre Co. would go on to eventually become the composers and lyricists for the 2024 Broadway musical “Water for Elephants.”
Each year the Playground festival has a different theme. Mongello spoke on this year’s theme — pop art — “which is inspired by the cultural impact of Andy Warhol’s art on Pittsburgh… we’re hoping to integrate a lot of 60s and Pittsburgh influences into our theme this year.”
Scotti expanded on this by saying “We are the home of Andy Warhol. The idea of creating something bold and colorful and so true to where we are geographically, that is something that I’m really excited about.”
One of the goals of Playground this year is to branch out to both the greater Carnegie Mellon campus as well as the Greater Pittsburgh area. Scotti let us know that “proposals were already due, but in the coming months, people are going to reach out in search of actors, in search of technicians, in search of singers and such. If you can think it, we probably need it.”
Details for how to become involved in the festival will be coming out through point people attached to their project proposals as the festival approaches, and updates can be found on the Playground festival instagram account @playgroundcmu. “We’re going to have mixer events where you can meet creatives, and if you want to design for them, if you want to act for them, sing for them, you’ll be able to get in touch with those people.”
Mongello spoke on the importance of the Playground festival as a venue of creative exploration and expression, “I think playground is absolutely essential to where we are right now with art, because it’s reminding us that we’re doing this because we love it, and some things don’t have to be that serious. I think that if more art was made like it is during Playground, then there would be a lot of really cool art.”
This year the Playground festival will tentatively take place from Dec. 5 through Dec. 7, the week before finals begin. Marion encourages “anybody outside of the School of Drama to come and attend the festival. Coming to attend is the best way to be a part of it, because you’re able to meet people and get a better understanding of what it looks like.”
The complete Playground festival schedule will be posted, as well as ways to become involved, when Playground proposals are selected and announced by the committee.
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