Growing up, playwright John Poling's garage was used as a polling place, sparking an interest in the democratic process from a very young age.
Poling's play, Honest Jake, is set to premiere in Nomad Theatre Company's latest production called The Polling Place. In other words, the former resident of the Poling polling place penned a play in a polling place for The Polling Place.
The collection of election-inspired new short plays runs Oct. 17-19 at the Normal Community Activity Center. The site-specific nonprofit theater had the timing in mind when recruiting 10-minute plays, but requested submissions not include the names of any real candidates.
“We wanted it to be nonpartisan,” said co-founder Connie Blick. “We wanted it to be an escape from the race, so to speak.”
It didn’t occur to Poling to include any real political figures when writing Honest Jake. The bite-sized play is about a naïve candidate who knows so little about the process that he tries canvassing for votes outside a polling place.
“It’s harder than ever to write what I would call political theater,” Poling said. “That being said, there’s a lot to satirize about politics. There’s a lot of material there, but in our polarized, tribalized times, it can be a bit of a sticky wicket.”
Nomad artistic directors Blick and Cristen Monson weighed submissions carefully in choosing nine plays for the evening. Three playwrights hail from Bloomington-Normal: Monson, Poling and Kathleen Kirk. Plays could have a point of view, but they steered away from scripts endorsing a particular political platform or candidate.
“My family’s very one-sided, on one side that is the opposite of what I am,” said Blick. “I’m thinking of my parents coming to watch this show. I don’t want them to feel like they’re watching a show with an agenda.”
“If you see my play, it clearly leans liberal,” Poling said. “But in terms of anything political, it’s not there.”
“That was important to us,” responded Blick. “We didn’t want it to be a soapbox for a playwright to tell us their opinions on politics. We wanted it to be a place where people could come see the plays and maybe think about a certain topic differently.”
Another challenge: Nomad typically leans on the setting to provide props and scenery for their productions. While Normal Community Activity Center will be an active polling place on Nov. 5, every other day, the community room is simply a big, blank, open space.
“The challenge for us was turning that into a polling place,” Blick said. “What do the booths look like? We need tables. We need check-in signs. We need voting signs. I think the most exciting part about it is that it is just this big empty space where a community gathers.”
Nomad Theatre's The Polling Place runs at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17-19 at the Normal Community Activity Center, 1110 N. Douglas St., Normal. Tickets are $15-$35 at nomadtheatre.org.
