Completely directed, acted and tech-supported by students, five one-act plays drew packed houses in the studio theatre, Kellner Performing Arts Center. They were directed by Chris Biddle ’06, Grey Cusack ’07, Lauren-Elizabeth Palmer ’07 and Colette Perold ’06.
The evening opened with Colette’s “The Pleasure of Detachment” by Perry Souchuk. This one-act portrays and questions the lunacy versus genius of a woman writer strapped to her bed; the play forces the audience to question notions of time, reality and sanity.
The second play was Chris’s production of “The Indian Wants the Bronx,” by Israel Horovitz, in which two young, male New Yorkers come upon a lost traveler from India who is unable to communicate that he’s looking for his son in the city. The two men proceed to mock, humiliate, and physically harm the traveler as the play explores man’s inhumanity to his fellow man.
Lauren-Elizabeth directed “Wanda’s Visit,” by Christopher Durang—the third play. In this comedy, a surprise visit from Wanda, Jim’s high school girlfriend, interrupts Jim and Marsha, a restlessly married couple. Wanda’s inappropriate stories and flirting are met by Marsha’s strained politeness; Jim is flattered by the attention, until it becomes too much to handle.
Fourth was ”Zealot” by Julie Marie Myatt, also directed by Colette, that portrays four young people who witness the suicide of a zealot; the shock of this death forces each of the onlookers to question what they believe in enough to sacrifice life.
Finally, Grey’s production of Steve Martin’s one-act, “Wasp” closed the evening. The play observes a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant family living in the 1950s and examines its values as those associated with W.A.S.P. principles and standards.
The student one-act plays are a much-anticipated event every year and are a venue for student directors and actors to showcase their talents in a broad array of plays and topics.
