What is PANTS? Well, it’s not a skirt, that’s for sure. PANTS stands for the Pantomime and Nontraditional Theatre Society, and our Lawrence chapter is performing 30 plays in 60 minutes on April 14 and 15 at 7:30PM.
The actors, who are also the writers, say that the audience is responsible for picking the order in which these very short plays are performed.
We talked with some of the performers to try to get an idea of what PANTS is all about.
Of the plays, Samaria said:
“Some of it’s done through humor, some of it’s done through music, some of it’s done through light. The plays are all in real time. These are all things that happen in that moment. In that space. These are not like, ‘oh, we’re going to do a skit about being in outer space.’ It’s all very present.” – Samaria Fleig
Landon elaborated on this idea of presence:
“Each individual performer is playing themselves within the show the whole time, so we’re never characters, we are ourselves on stage. Everything that is happening with the audience is to be done at that moment, on that day, at that time. It’s not a last minute thing, but it’s meant to be as close to the show date as possible. If I wrote a script about something that happened a year ago, it’s not relevant to me anymore, and it might not be relevant to the audience anymore. That’s why we are still writing them probably as we speak.” – Landon Noll
Lexey focused on the way the short play format allows the performers to access ideas:
“It’s a really cool way to get a group of people together and have a lot of ideas churn together in this great big collaboration. We talk about escapism. We talk about finding yourself. Some of the plays talk about how we deal with the pressures of modern social forms. Some of the other things we talk about include how you interpret information and how important it is to get a whole picture before you address a topic.” – Lexey Jost
When asked what the audience should look forward to in PANTS, Samaria said, “cuddling with Brandon.” Lexey tried to clarify, “The audience can look forward to potentially cuddling with one of our members.” “Cuddle puddle,” was Samaria’s conclusion.
To learn anything more about this phenomenon called PANTS, you’ll have to come see it for yourself.
Tickets are $10 general admission. The performance will take place in the Lawrence Arts Center Black Box.