Sketchbook

Description
In its eighth year, Sketchbook has its atmosphere down—live DJs, loud music, swirling lights, lots of video. It's theater in a club setting, meant to convince nontheater people that theater is cool. And it's worked, drawing in young crowds of irregular theatergoers. But if you're looking for a similar aesthetic unity in the 14 short plays Collaboraction has chosen to present, you won't find it. The plays illustrate the limitations of their brief form; most, good or bad, turn on a single gimmick or joke. Six of the 14 playwrights are repeats from last year's fest, suggesting that if this is theater as a party, Collaboraction's guest list is awfully small.—KV