Concordia Curtain Club incorporates audience participation in their fall 24 hour play

Cast members (left to right) senior Aubrey Burmeister, freshman Caleb Brandon, sophomore Aydan Toth and sophomore Onyx Stone performing “The Rehsaid Family Reunion”

Photo credit: Mi-Ree Zwick

By Maximus Fritsche

The Curtain Club performed “The Rehsaid Family Reunion” along with audience participation in Thom auditorium on Saturday. The Cast and writing crew were given 24 hours to write and practice a full 2 act play with an intermission.

The crew started writing the story for the play at 6:15pm on Friday. The show began at 6:15pm on Saturday.  Around 25 students attended the showing. The crew asked audience members as they walked in if they wanted to participate in the play as improv side characters. About 10 students agreed to help the cast.

Those who wanted to help with the show were directed to sit in the first two rows of the auditorium. Those audience members were occasionally brought forward to be a side character in the play. Other audience members who wanted to participate were directed by a projector screen that gave them different cues. Junior and treasurer of The Curtain Club Marieka Broudy was one of the audience members who participated.

“I walked into the building and Morgan Davis gave me the option to help out with the show if I wanted. Then they mentioned improv, so I rolled with it,” Broudy said.

At the end of the show Broudy said that she enjoyed the improvisation of the cast.

“The show was very goofy! There was a lot of Improv when arguments started and, with the audience participating, the cast constantly improvised as the show went on,” Broudy said. “It doesn’t have to be in the script, and that makes the show that much more enjoyable.”

Many others in the audience decided to just sit and enjoy the performance. The show brought many laughs and gasps from the crowd. The ending twist to the play also brought much excitement from the audience, even causing some students to jump out of their chairs. Junior Alyssa Heimann and sophomore Mason Lockwood said the ending was the best part.

“The plot twist where the uncle was the murderer and had been in the house with the main characters the entire time was my favorite part!” Heimann said.

“That ending to the show where the uncle was the villain? That was my favorite part,” Lockwood said.

Student director and junior Morgan Davis commented on the challenging nature of the show, but said he loved the idea of student participation.

“I didn’t make it to rehearsals until like, 1:00am, so the writing team had already written the script,” Davis said. “I thought it would be a fun challenge especially with the people who unfortunately dropped out of the show. This is my first time ever directing something big. I really enjoyed seeing how students loved to participate in the show as audience members. It added a level of uniqueness to the show,”

Cast members freshman Broderick Splittgerber and senior Aubrey Burmeister also mentioned how difficult it was to write and perform a show in 24 hours.

“It was really creative of them to create such a detailed script in such a short amount of time. I just wish the space wasn’t so cramped,” Splittgerber said.

“It was a really well written script! I loved how the character’s personalities all built off of each other,” Burmeister said. “It is very difficult to produce a show in 24hrs.”

Curtain club offers a couple shows throughout the school year and regularly updates the student body of any events they host on campus.