Local playwright brings laughs to ACC stage

Many artists attribute their success to an inspiration or a muse.
Iolan Nicholas Olson has a fleet of inspiring people. His wife, parents and his mentor and Allen Community College theater director, Tony Piazza, are all on Olson’s side pushing him to fulfill his dream of being a playwright.
“I would not have written as much if it weren’t for Paige (wife), Tony and my parents,” Olson said. “They make me do something I enjoy.”
Five of Olson’s one-act plays will be performed and directed by ACC students and Piazza Feb. 28 through March 2, as part of the cleverly named production, “Nic at Night.” 
Olson, manager at Sterling Six Cinema, attended ACC from 2005 to 2007. He began putting his own experiences to paper and wrote his first one-act play in 2006.
“I like bringing life into my writing. It helps with perspective,” Olson said.
Though Olson brings personal experience to his writings, he also likes to add whimsical elements to make what he writes more entertaining.
“Everyone lives a normal life. I like to bring a little whimsy so the audience can enjoy someone else’s ridiculous life,” Olson said. “It gets people out of their boring life for a little bit and have a good time.”
The Nic at Night plays are “A Successful Robbery,” where two guys try to rob a bank and the bank teller is extremely unhelpful; “Grim Intervention,” where fairy tale characters, predominately female, have an intervention, which Olson wrote because he had never written a play with strong female characters; “Chat with Ralph,” based on his and Paige’s cat; “Predictable,” in which high school students meet a psychic; and followed by “So this One Time,” based on his time in Lawrence while Paige was going to college and he was working as a gas station attendant.
“It is exciting for me to have a local playwright,” Piazza said. “He has such a knack for play writing and an ear for dialogue.”
Piazza has taken on the role of Olson’s literary agent. They have sent out some of his work to publishing companies.
Olson received a rejection letter from one of the publishing companies, but it wasn’t anything that could keep Olson’s spirits down. The letter said Olson’s work, though good, was outside the company’s market.
The feedback made Olson smile because, “someone who doesn’t know me said they enjoyed it and I was doing a good job,” Olson said. “I just need to continue doing it, I have to keep at it.”
Olson, whose wife Paige recently had a baby boy, strives to find time for writing. He said the easiest way for him to fall asleep is by sitting at his computer at night, writing down his thoughts. Out of those thoughts have come some of the one-acts that will be performed at ACC.
“Here in the next couple of months I will probably have something written about being a dad and being a man during the pregnancy,” Olson said.
Olson said he is not one for writing stories too serious. He enjoys writing with humor, things that make people laugh.
On Feb. 28, a reception will be held where audience members can mingle and get to know Olson. The performances begin at 7:30 p.m.