5-Minute Plays Saturday, March 4

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The Middlebury College Department of Theater and The Vermont Coffee Company Playhouse will present an evening of 5-minute play readings commissioned by the Goethe Institut of Munich, Germany, on Saturday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m. at the Playhouse Theater located at 1197 Exchange Street, Middlebury.

The evening is free and open to the public. Reservations are not available and the seating is open so early arrival is recommended.

The concept of privacy has undergone radical change since the dawning of the internet. Millions today freely share personal information that would have been unthinkable 20 years ago. But is breaking down these walls therapeutic, scarring, empowering, naïve, or dangerous? What does the concept of privacy even mean anymore when a few keystrokes can bring up your picture, your family connections, and a map to your house? Are we freer by being more open, or have we given away our liberty by becoming too accessible?

The evening is a coproduction between the College and the Playhouse, with college students directing both fellow students and actors from the community. This mix of gown and town is also intergenerational, an integral key to exploring the topic. A brief question and answer period will follow the production.

The Goethe Institut, created by the West German government in 1951 to encourage international cultural exchange and relations, commissioned a wide range of European and American playwrights to create short staged readings addressing the question, “what does privacy mean to you in the digital age.” The result was P3M5: “The Plurality of Privacy Project in Five Minute Plays.”

Readings are currently being staged both in Europe and the U.S. For more information on the Institut and the P3M5 project, please go to Goethe Institut.