Mon, 29/01/2018 - 11:42am

What is this Ubu Roi Bake-Off?

You may have heard people talking about Paula Vogel and the upcoming “Ubu Roi Bake-Off.” Many of you are likely familiar with the bake-off concept and with Ubu Roi, but so everyone is on the same page, here are the need-to-know details about this exciting event:

A bake-off is a quickly written exercise on an assigned theme with assigned elements that folks do within a 48 hour period of time.
Ubu Roi is “an inglorious slop-pail of a play” by Alfred Jarry, which opened (and closed) on December 10, 1896. Get a copy of the play here.
Paula Vogel has started a national grassroots movement to respond to our global crisis with a bake-off inspired by this play on Presidents Day 2018 (February 19). People will be writing plays and coming together to share them all over the country.
We encourage everyone, not just playwrights, to write a play. This is a great opportunity for community members to participate.
Paula will be at the Playwrights' Center during the bake-off, and we're gathering 8 heroic actors for a reading of 50 YES FIFTY 5-minute plays written during the previous 48 hours. These amazing actors who will essentially be doing 5 hours of cold reads include: Christian Bardin, Cristina Castro, Ben Cherry*, Sun Mee Chomet*, Peter Christian Hansen*, Katie Kaufmann, Jim Lichtscheidl*, Adia Morris*, and Eric Sharp*. (*Member of Actors' Equity).
If you want your play read at the Playwrights' Center February 19 sign up here by 2 p.m. on February 14. This page has detailed instructions for writers.
Whether or not you're writing, if you want to be in the audience, sign up here.
Or do your own thing! Host a reading in your living room. Take over a coffee shop or dorm common room or city park. Offer childcare or pizza to people who are organizing a gathering. Just make your voice heard!
After Presidents Day, if bakers want their plays shared publicly, Paula will upload them to her website. You can email them to playbakeoff@gmail.com and then there will be a downloadable link for each play.