Play Production class hosts One-Act Play festival featuring six short plays
Sherlock Holmes (Andrew Brosius, left) discusses a case with Dr. Watson (Sam Olson, right).
Photo credit: Elizabeth Salo
By Elizabeth Salo
Six students in a Concordia play production class presented student-selected, student-directed, and student-acted plays, including one student-written play, during the opening night of the annual One-Act Play Festival with much laughter and applause from the packed audience.
John (Jack Hagan, seated center) explains to the other characters the importance of narration: (left to right) Steve (Aiden Jenik), Betty (Michal Black), Lydia (Emma Wakely), Preston (Andrew Brosius), and Jennifer (Rebecca Duerr, standing). Photo: Elizabeth Salo.
The One-Act Play Festival from April 16-18 is produced by students enrolled in the CTA 373: Play Production course, which is taught by Concordia theatre professor Bryan Moore.
The first play, “A Murdered Mystery,” was directed by Sarah Stepp with Assistant Director Mi-Ree Zwick.
The play centers around the murder of the rich but disliked Steve Walters and those who have been invited to his house for the evening. Unlike a regular murder mystery, the characters do not seem to know how a play works, particularly the aspect of narration, which leads to confusion and antics on stage.
The second play called “First Impressions” is about a man and woman who just so happen to meet in a flower shop on Valentine’s Day. Romance ensues, with much overthinking given as asides to the audience. It was directed by Sarah Erickson, and the assistant director was Cayden Carrasco.
“The Statue in the Light” was the third play of the night and was the event’s only student-written play, written by Sarah Stepp. It was directed by Marieka Kaufman and assistant-directed by Catherine Vyhlidal.
This play focused on artist Fineas Mackiney who feels the pressure of believing that he has to make something special to be famous in the art world and watches his relationships fall apart, particularly his relationship with his best friend Melvin Arenworth. Even though he makes what the world sees as an amazing statue in the end, he realizes that he has thrown away all that is important to him, including his best friend.
The fourth play, “Sherlock Holmes Hates You All,” was directed by Joshua Nikodym with Assistant Director Mary Pieper.
In the comedic play, Sherlock Holmes suffers from hemorrhoids as well as the antics of Dr. Watson, who has tried to create a mystery for Sherlock to solve to no avail, as Sherlock quickly sees through the ruse and the acting of those Watson has hired.
Jessica (Aubrey Burmeister, left) and Jason (Josiah Edwards, right) nervously consider each other’s actions. Photo: Elizabeth Salo.
Junior secondary education-math major April Abbett played Rebecca Benson, one of the characters who is in on Watson’s ruse and is also an unstable fan girl towards Sherlock. Abbett noted how nice it was for the comedic elements of the story to be so well-received by the audience.
“My character was Rebecca Benson, [and], well, she’s a tad bit unstable,” said Abbett. “It went very well. It was so nice to hear all the laughter from the audience.”
The fifth play of the evening was directed by Claire Horacek and her assistant Abby Braun and was entitled “Fourteen Fourteenths.”
The play uses short scenes to follow a boy and a girl through 14 Valentine’s Days from kindergarten through post-high school as their relationship changes.
The final play, “Revolting Characters,” was directed by Olivia Pyle and Assistant Director Evan Moloney.
In the play, novelist Jill Frank is attempting to finish a draft of her romance novel when her characters arrive on scene and, having decided that she is a bad writer, announce that they are no longer going to listen to her.
The character Tamara Harrington, who is originally supposed to marry Dexter Hamilton III, decides to run off with Hunter Parkerson instead, and there is a scuffle between Hamilton and the butler, Jeeves, none of which was intended to be in the novel.
The play festival lasted about two hours, and each play received lots of applause and cheering from the packed audience in the Borland Black Box Theatre.
Concordia Professor of English Dr. Hannah Kroonblawd attended the play festival and said she enjoyed the comedic aspects of many of the plays and the unexpected plot turns.
Sherlock Holmes (Andrew Brosius, right) talks to Lady Benson (Maddie Kearns, right). Photo: Elizabeth Salo.
Moore said the festival allows students who don’t have the time to be in a full-scale mainstage play to participate in theatre and showcase their talents.
Moore also said that, although this has been a busy spring between the typical mainstage play, One-Acts, and a senior capstone play, he is very thankful for the students as they work towards the end of the semester.
“The students are hanging in there, and I’m very grateful and blessed to have great students who want to share their talents through this art,” he said.
The One-Act Play Festival has its final performances on April 17 and 18 at 7 p.m.
The cast of “A Murdered Mystery” was Jack Hagan as John, Aiden Jenik as Steve Walters, Michal Black as Betty, Rebecca Duerr as Jennifer, Emma Wakley as Lydia, and Andrew Brosius as Preston.
In “First Impressions,” Josiah Edwards was Jason, Aubrey Burmeister was Jessica, and Cayden Carrasco was Sam.
“The Statue in the Light” featured Morgan Davis as Fineas Mackiney, Nathan Solberger as Melvin Arenworth, Mason Lockwood as William Thompson, Kristen Welling as Brielle Arenworth, and Mary Pieper as Adelaide Merchand. The Ensemble consisted of David Rodriguez, Paige Schuster, Onyx Stone, Aydan Toth, and Kerria Wright.
“Sherlock Holmes Hates You All” had a cast consisting of Andrew Brosius as Sherlock Holmes, Sam Olson as Dr. Watson, Maddie Kearns as Lady Benson, and April Abbett as Rebecca Benson.
In “Fourteen Fourteenths,” Mi-Ree Zwick was Sam and David Rodriguez was Kai.
Finneas Mackiney (Morgan Davis, left) explains the importance of his art to Melvin Arenworth (Nathan Sollberger, right). Photo: Elizabeth Salo.
“Revolting Characters” featured Michal Black as Jill Frank, Nathan Sievert as Dexter Hamilton III, Meadow Burk as Tamara Harrington, Aaron Spivey as Jeeves, and Samuel Olson as Hunter Parkerson.
The week of April 20, Andrew Ring will present his senior capstone, a production of William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” The production will be held in the campus quad Wednesday through Saturday, with the weeknight shows at 7 p.m. and the Saturday show at 2 p.m. Admission is free.
On May 1, the IMPROVables will perform their last improv show of the semester in long form at 7 p.m. in Weller Chapel.
