Puppy Love

High school is a paradoxical time in a person's life: While you're there, you feel so world-weary and mature; then a few years later, you realize how much of a baby you still were. I blame this weird time warp mainly on movies and TV shows about high school kids that featured fully adult Judd Nelsons and Gabrielle Carterises, and more recently, the oversexed, super independent kids on any WB show. They look so grown-up and adult, so you must be too. Right? Well, no. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. The inflated sense of adulthood is actually a ripe time for a person creatively -- it's an entirely odd perception of the world that makes for great drama. Writing output during this time usually contains large amounts of sarcasm, highly complex use of symbolism and vivid emotion and yet has an undercurrent of optimism that just isn't present later in adulthood. This is why I think PUP Fest 2008 is going to be so fascinating. The annual Junior Players and Kitchen Dog Theater "Playwrights Under Progress" production is a showcase for ninth- through 12th-grade playwrights and will feature six carefully selected and workshopped performances. The plays range from slapstick comedies to drama to horror, each summarily capturing a slice of that inherently paradoxical teenage experience. The MAC, 3120 McKinney Ave., will host two free performances of the plays at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday. Visit kitchendogtheater.org/pupfest for more information about the plays featured during this year's festival.
Sat., June 14, 1 & 4 p.m., 2008