Student Talent Shines in an Evening of One-Acts

The Evening of One-Acts, presented by the theatre arts advanced directing class at Utah State University, has created its own niche of theatre goers and remains a highlighted attraction for patrons wanting something a little different.

 

With the efforts of the advanced directing class, Utah State Theatre presents the annual Evening of One-Acts Jan. 20, 21 and 25-28. Two or three acts, taken from full-length plays, are performed each night at 7:30 p.m. on the Studio Theatre stage (FAC 224) in the Chase Fine Arts Center at USU. The event is free to everyone over the age of 13, with general admission seating. Entrance is limited to a first-come, first-served basis with no reserved tickets. Patrons are encouraged to arrive early to ensure seating.

 

According to Kinsie Kiggins, one of this year’s directors, the theatre is constantly filled and people are turned away. The studio theatre has a relatively small 94-seat capacity, but the response is always surprising, she said.

 

Luke Bybee, who directs an act from Unwrap Your Candy by Doug Wright, believes the series is attractive to audiences because it is student work, providing an avenue for fresh ideas, methods and creativity. “Even though the large stage productions, directed and produced by more seasoned professionals, are great, I think student work has a certain edge that isn’t seen on a regular basis. Most of the acts chosen are small but poignant, and the student directors put so much into giving them punch. I think those who are looking for something diverse and distinct will enjoy what we have to offer. Sometimes a break from Shakespeare or Rodgers and Hammerstein is a good thing.”

 

Fellow director Kiggins agreed.

 

“I think the effort put into the acts by the students is respected and appreciated by other students,” she said. “Every student director, actor and designer wants to show what they can do on stage, and they want their act to make a statement and an impact.”

 

Actors enjoy the event as well.

 

“I enjoy the feeling of a creative working relationship between actors and the director,” said Lindsay Koeppen, a junior performance major who acts under Bybee’s direction in Unwrap Your Candy. “Everyone involved has a chance to give insight or ideas that can make the piece better. Everyone has a say in the process, drawing off others’ brainstorms. To me, that is the best thing about art.”

 

Although the final schedule is not yet set, information will be available soon. For a specific schedule and inquiries, call (435) 797-1500 or email gordon@hass.usu.edu. Some material in certain plays is inappropriate for sensitive audiences and viewer discretion is advised.

 

Six one-acts will be performed during the two-week run.

 

Bybee’s effort includes four stories. Unwrap Your Candy provides a short representation of five theatre patrons — a physician, a fashionable woman, the gabby lady, the well-dressed man and the narcoleptic. The Bone Violin is the tale of a violin prodigy’s skyrocket to fame with tragic results. In Wildwood Park, a neurotic real-estate agent shows a house filled with unspeakable secrets to a potential buyer who harbors an almost insatiable thirst for tabloid atrocities. And in Baby Talk, a woman is unwound when her precocious baby begins to speak while still inside her womb.

 

Kiggins directs the one-act For Whom the Southern Bell Tolls by Christopher Durang. In this story, a parody of The Glass Menagerie, the fading Southern belle, Amanda, tries to prepare her hypochondriacally hypersensitive son, Lawrence, for “the feminine caller.” Terrified of people, Lawrence plays with his collection of glass cocktail stirrers. Ginny, the feminine caller, is hard of hearing and overbearingly friendly. Brother Tom wants to go the movies, where he keeps meeting sailors who need to be put up in his room. Amanda tries to face everything with “charm and vivacity,” but sometimes she just wants to hit somebody.

 

Heather Hunsaker directs Old Saybrook by Woody Allen. The work is a critically acclaimed comedic farce about infidelity, where an orthodontist hosts her sister and golf-mad brother-in-law, a plastic surgeon, at her grand suburban home. When a couple who once owned the building stops by, they spark an old-fashioned farce that is full of verve and cunning.

 

Amber Rolfe directs Universal Language by David Ives. This tale involves a man who makes up a “language” and then offers to teach it to people (passing it off as “The Universal Language”) for a rather large sum of money. He claims that it will catch on like wildfire and soon everyone will be speaking it. His first pupil is a shy, stuttering girl with little money who hopes that this new language will help her overcome her speech problems, allowing her to meet people. The language of love needs no interpretation.

 

Mike Gardner directs James McLure’s Lone Star, the story of Roy, a Vietnam vet who comes back to his hometown to re-live his glory days as a high school jock, drink beer with his buddies behind the local bar and grill and reclaim his prized possession, a 1959 Thunderbird convertible. Roy’s brother, Ray, not the brightest one in the bunch, attempts to let Roy know that his car might not be as easily retrieved as he’d thought.

 

Rachel Cox directs Wendy Wasserstein’s Tender Offer, which focuses on a distant father and his 9-year-old daughter. When he arrives late to pick her up from dance class, they discuss their lack of communication and why he missed her dance recital.

 

“You can’t go wrong with these plays,” Kiggins concluded. “You can appreciate an aspiring director’s effort at their chosen trade, and the passion we have for our work. It will be a great night of alternative theatre whichever night you go.”