Dean Poling | The Valdosta Daily TimesLola (played by Shaunya Evans) reacts to Angie (Cortlyn Mays) showing how her gingivitis healed in the 'What Lola Saw' segment of the Valdosta State University Theatre & Dance production of 'The Gorges Motel.' 

VALDOSTA – Seven plays. Six playwrights. One setting.

“The Gorges Motel.” 

The play takes place during a wedding weekend in Watkins Glen, N.Y. Lives cross paths and collide in mixtures of comedy and drama, all under the roof of an old-style motor lodge.

But there’s nothing old about the play presented this week by Valdosta State University Theatre & Dance.

“The Gorges Motel” premiered in 2016 at the New York Fringe Festival, said H. Duke Guthrie, show director. It features several short plays by playwrights James Hindman, Greg Pospisil, Isaac Himmelman, Lynne Halliday, Gretchen Cryer and Arlene Hutton.

“It’s a new play that kind of dramatizes things in a today way,” Guthrie said. “It’s something new keeping the art moving forward.”

He said the VSU production incorporates contemporary things into the subtext, finding instances to accentuate within the text of the play. These subtext themes range from the opioid crisis to a character’s cell phone always going off.

Guthrie said he read the play and liked it. “The Gorges Motel” should have an appeal to a younger audience, he said, referring to young adults. He warns the play has contemporary mature language and themes.

He decided to present a larger cast. The original Fringe cast featured 17 characters played by seven actors. Guthrie said the VSU cast has 13 actors as part of the department’s efforts to give more students stage time. He would have cast 17 students but many students are participating in the VSU production of Shakespeare’s “Othello” scheduled for November.

An Elizabethan tragedy and a contemporary play all within a couple of months of a new season. VSU Theatre develops seasons so its students are involved in a full range of stage experiences. 

Something old. Something new.

Also, something long and something short.

Shakespeare wrote plays for audiences with longer attention spans. “The Gorges Motel” even with its seven plays within a play by six playwrights is very much for a modern audience. The play’s running time: 75 minutes, with no intermission.

THE CAST: Savannah Kern, Destin Dawson, Bekah Ward, Jalen Spriggs, Magda Roub, Shaunya Evans, Cortlyn Mays, Vanessa Gabrielle Jones, J.T. Whipple, Mahogany Wesley, James Rowell, Lia Judit Perez, Caitlyn Palmer. 

DIRECTION, PRODUCTION: H. Duke Guthrie, director; Ruth A. Brandvik, scenic & lighting designer; Chalise Ludlow, costume design; Phillip Brulotte, sound design & technical direction; Jared Watson, hair & makeup design; Emma Marsico, stage manager.

SHOWTIME

Valdosta State University Theatre & Dance present “The Gorges Motel.”

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Sept. 19-21; 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22; 7:30 p.m., Sept. 23-24.

Where: Lab Theatre, VSU Fine Arts Building, corner of Oak and Brookwood.

More information: Call (229) 333-5973 or visit www.valdosta.edu/comarts.