Theater fest serves up GOP fare

PHILADELPHIA — PHILADELPHIA A festival opening next week in Philadelphia is giving new meaning to the phrase "political theater."

Theater director and playwright Cara Blouin, frustrated with what she saw as a liberal bias in the performing arts, enters stage right:

"I went to a play … that was a satire of the right, and I was sitting there thinking, 'This isn't funny,' and I couldn't figure out why it was boring," she said. "Then I realized nothing was surprising me, I'd heard all these arguments and jokes so many times."

With that, the Republican Theater Festival, running Nov. 12-14 at Philadelphia's historic Plays and Players theater, was born.

Blouin sent out a call to the theater community in July for submissions of plays "that represent ideas related to social or fiscal conservatism, issues considered part of the Republican Party, Libertarian or 'tea party' platforms or concerns of people of faith."

More than a hundred plays were submitted, with 10 chosen for the three-day festival. They take aim at many of the right's biggest bugaboos: Occupy Wall Street, labor unions, abortion and the "war on religion."

"Most have to do with feeling like an outsider," said Blouin, 33, an independent from west Philadelphia. "Many are personal meditations on what it feels like when nobody appreciates your values."

Blouin, who raised funds for the festival online, said that starting fresh conversations in a realm that's philosophically homogeneous can only benefit artists and their audiences.

"Anything that encourages something new, something we haven't seen before, it's revitalizing," she said. "New blood means new audiences and better stuff."

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