ESU senior playwright premieres first full-length comedy

For Sarah Pottorf, a senior theater major from Wichita, the ideas for the plays she writes either flow easily or they don’t.

“Once I get an idea for a play, if I don’t have anything written in a week, I move on,” she said.

ESU Theatre will perform Pottorf’s first full length play “A Fool and His Fortune” Dec. 3-6. She said the 90 page script took her four days to write and contains characters that run the gamut of social class and manners.

“Before I start writing, I know the first thing that happens, the last thing that happens and one major point in the middle,” said Pottorf. “The rest is almost like taking dictation.”

The comedy follows the lives of two couples who view wealth from entirely different perspectives and explore its connection to love and friendship. The characters do not represent any single person Pottorf knows, but are instead drawn from hundreds of characteristics she has observed in people.

Pottorf calls herself a “theater purist” with a straightforward approach to writing. “I am not fond of experimental styles. You have to ask yourself who you’re pleasing with your play -- the audience, or a few scholars and critics.”

Pottorf has had several 10-minute plays produced at ESU over the past four years. Her first won an award at the Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival regional competition.

“Ten minute plays can sometimes be harder than full-length plays because playwrights tend to have a lot to say, and it’s challenging to condense all those ideas into ten minutes,” she said.

Pottorf has twice been invited to attend playwriting workshops at the Kennedy Center, where she has gotten tips on how to network with professional playhouses to get new works read and performed.

After its performance at ESU, “A Fool and His Fortune” will be performed as a participating entry at the upcoming ACFT regional competition.

Meanwhile, Pottorf plans to attend graduate school next year in the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville’s playwriting program.

Last Updated July 2, 2007>