It is late Thursday night and the campus has nestled into a relatively calm state. Students, for the most part, have retreated to their dorms to study, watch television or perhaps even steal a few hours of sleep. The majority of the school's buildings have long since been locked and abandoned for the night. Emanating out from the Arts Building, however, is a slight, mysterious murmur, which merely hints at the lively exhibition taking place within the basement walls. "Welcome to Outlaws!" Rob Campbell (senior-theatre) shouts to an eager crowd of 40 or 50 students. "Outlaws is an all-original, primarily undergraduate, uncensored, often experimental, late-night, black box theatre event." The audience applauds on cue.

The aforementioned "event" is designed to showcase the talents of aspiring Penn State writers, directors, actors, technicians, musicians and stagehands. Essentially, the producers of Outlaws Playwright's Workshop (students Kevin Flinn, Jason Schroeder, Verity Van Tassel, and Campbell) select one original student script a week to be performed at 11:15 p.m. each Thursday night somewhere in or around the Arts Building. After the performance, the playwrights have the opportunity to receive feedback from their peers on both the positive and negative aspects of their one-act vignettes.

Though Outlaws gives a chance for young thespians and directors to hone their craft as well, its primary focus is to encourage and challenge writers. After all, Outlaws owes its genesis to a group of student writers who first organized the "unofficially official" club 12 years ago so that they could workshop their scripts. Flinn (junior-theatre), who has written several Outlaws productions apart from his duties as a producer, calls this process a "priceless" experience, which "helps so much with developing the final product."

Producer/stage manager Van Tassel (junior-theatre) considers Outlaws "a gift to a playwright every week." The producers invite anyone on campus who is interested, regardless of past experience or major, to drop off a copy of his or her original script (with name, e-mail, address, and phone number on it) to a mailbox across from room 103 in the Arts Building. Each week, the producers undergo a process by which they read and evaluate the scripts received and select one to be performed. The team then enlists a director, cast and crew as appropriate and amazingly produces a play after only four nights of rehearsal.

On Thursday, Outlaws presents Come on, People! Work with Me, written by Matthew Byrd (senior-political science) and directed by Nick Leavens. The comic piece revolves around a playwright struggling to maintain control of the fictional characters dominating his script. Senior producer/director Schroeder (senior-theatre) maintains that the play mixes "elements of Dudley Do-Right with a certain melodramatic quality."

Other shows that promise to be memorable this year include Outlaws" annual Halloween special, which will showcase a top-secret Flinn script, along with the Outlaws' Christmas special, a recreation of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

The performances usually run between 10 and 40 minutes long and are often preceded by an opening act that can plausibly range from a live band to a comedian to a team of jugglers. More information on specific shows and schedules can be found on the Outlaws Web site (www.outlawstheatre.com).

The producing team praises Outlaws for giving experience to undergraduate students who might otherwise have a difficult time getting involved with student theater. With all the theater on campus, Campbell insists there are still "never enough roles for the amount of people who want them."

Outlaws gives students a rare opportunity to feel comfortable honing their craft and keeps an audience thoroughly entertained at the same time.