The theatre department kicked off its series of student-produced one-act plays on April 12-13.
One Acts
For the next three weeks, the department will present a rotating set of plays written and directed by students in the department that will only be performed twice, each day during the weekend the play runs.
The first week included plays directed by Kylie Parker, Russell McKinley and Serena Berkes.
Equinox
Kylie Parker directed the first play, Equinox, written by Jonathan Graham. Starring Sarah Harmer as Evelyn, the supposed victim of a sexual crime, and Rachel Bullard as Christine, Evelyn’s psychologist; the two attempt to strike a balance between our assumptions and the cold truth.
Taking place in 1997, Equinox takes audiences to a psychologist’s office where Evelyn is being examined by Christine. Initially, Christine sounds sympathetic towards Evelyn as she has had trouble sleeping ever since her family moved away from the city and into a rural setting, but it becomes clear that Christine is actually attempting to get Evelyn to incriminate Reggie, an 18-year-old boy who purportedly committed a sexual crime against Evelyn.
The only problem is that Reggie and Evelyn are friends, meaning that the way that Christine perceives the incident is completely different than how Evelyn views it. To Evelyn, it’s very clear that Reggie does not deserve to be punished, as he did nothing wrong.
Christine the psychologist serves as a not-so-subtle metaphor for contemporary society’s inability to suspect anything less than sexual misconduct in a situation such as this, and actress Rachel Bullard did a wonderful job in understanding that important facet of her character.
Freshman Sarah Harmer gave one of the best performances of the night, delivering each of the play’s most crucial moments with powerful emotion as she perfectly combined the naivety of a 14-year-old with the headstrong confidence of a young girl mature beyond her years.
The two were remarkably well cast, showing the difference between the innocent mind of a child and the cynical mind of an adult. Only when the two start to personally connect do we see Evelyn open up to her psychologist.
No definitive verdict is reached about Reggie however, leaving the audience without closure to his or Evelyn’s fate. More importantly than that, however, Equinox makes audiences question our urgency to assume crimes of a sexual nature when considering cases such as Evelyn’s.
The Man Who Couldn’t Dance
Senior Russell McKinley directed the second show — The Man Who Couldn’t Dance by Jason Katims, starring graduate Adam Granberry as Eric and Katie Holt as Gail.
The play takes place in an infant’s room where Gail is introducing her baby to Eric. It sounds normal enough, but the audience soon learns that Eric and Gail used to be a couple when Eric states, “It’s what was behind door number two,” when he sees Gail’s infant daughter sleeping in her crib.
It doesn’t take long for tension to build however, as Eric is understandably swept over with emotions due to the fact that he is sharing a room with the woman he truly loves and the child he could have had with her.
We find that Eric is a philosophical individual unwilling to compromise his convictions to the point that he works on a farm earning minimum wage despite his apparent brilliance, while Gail has started a life with her husband Fred after Eric left her sometime in the past.
Katie Holt did an excellent job as Gail, valiantly defending herself from the lambast of sarcastic comments from Eric while still showing that a part of her cared for Eric. Graduate Adam Granberry also did a wonderful job in showing the vulnerabilities of a man who presumably has none, while McKinley exhibited a fine understanding of creating moments and using elements of the story to strengthen those moments, such as the time Gail gets Eric to dance with her before the cries of her baby stops them.
The Man Who Couldn’t Dance seems to mock the hyper-intellectualism of Eric, but in actuality the play is tackling something much more far-reaching than 21st century bedroom philosophers. The play presents us with a man already past the crux of defining oneself as he deals with the outcome of his decision to leave Gail.
In this way, The Man Who Couldn’t Dance asks us, at which point do we decide to let go of our convictions to lead a so-called happy life, and when we make that decision, are we willing to live with the consequences?
Joan
The final show takes audiences all the way back to 15th century France with Joan by Robert Mauro, directed by Serena Berkes and starring Lauren Holt as Joan of Arc and Michael Gilbert as an English priest.
Joan takes place in the cell of an English stronghold in France where Joan of Arc is being held the day before she is set to be burned at the stake. However, Joan’s fate is not already sealed as the clergymen who gave her an unfair trial and convicted her of heresy have given her the option to confess that the voices she heard were not of God, but of the devil.
This time in her cell gives Joan pause to weigh her options, but as the story famously goes, she chooses to stand by her choice to fight for her country and its people. The priest serves as a voice of reason in that he offers to hear her confession to prevent her grim fate, but he finds himself hard pressed to convince the steadfast girl.
Joan was clearly the most simplistic play of the night, offering only a soiled sleeping cot and a round table fixed with a single candle as scenery. In this case, the barren set worked excellently to portray Joan’s dismal quarters, but it also served as an example of the fine line one-act plays can tread between being seen as simplistic or underwhelming.
Fortunately, director Serena Berkes practically nailed the simplicity of the play through her use of the candle to represent the much bigger flame awaiting Joan. The imagery alone of a pitch-black set penetrated by a single candlelight seemed to mesmerize the audience until they saw the alarming image of Joan holding her hand above the flame to burn herself, testing the next day’s fiery trial.