Taking turns Playing God: Eight original plays
Spencer Weitzel (left) as Tim, Hannah Knous (right) as Patti. Photo by Joe Calatrello
Each play was a well written reflection of modern daily life with a few twists into the imaginative and fantasy world of the mind, including a parody of a famous comic book legend.
Act I began with the first play, Help Wanted written by Tonya Blanco and directed by DeGuie Sanabria. The setting takes place in a business office where Tim, played by Spencer Weitzel (from Five Women Wearing the Same Dress) seeking employment is about to engage in an interview with his perspective employer, Patti played by Hannah Knous. What Tim is about to find out is an alarming discovery of a wrong doing from the past that is about to undo his future.
While the play was less than 15 minutes and with nothing more than a desk and a paper-shredder as the stage props, the play captures the attention with twists and turns to keep audiences fully engaged with quick witty dialogue and fast momentous bursts of funny lines with a story that is relatable.
In the second original play, Consequences written by Brad Morris and directed by Anthony Rutowicz, the atmosphere quickly shifts in direction glee to gloom and into an interrogation room where Rob, the suspect played by Kaito Shiode is interviewed by a detective played by Dawne McClure.
Rob was arrested in connection to a crime and handcuffed with nothing in the room except him, two chairs, a table and the detective. Like many detective stories, Rob is hounded for a confession by the detective, but the story makes an interesting turn of events. At first, the storyline appears not to be an original tail, but the direction of the audience is taken into the mind of the suspect and he reenacts the gruesome scene in morbid detail. Here is where the play goes from dull to exceptional.
In the third play, the audience is again torn from the world of gloom into a strange world of…the after-life? This play was called One, Two written by Rudolfo Gutierrez and directed by Paul Flores. Like the artworks of Salvador Dali known for his abstract painting “The Persistence of Memory”, One, Two is the most abstract and strangest play of the night. Even so, it is entertaining even if many viewers might be whispering to one another, “What are they supposed to be?”
Gyade George (left) as Kyle, Lily Lopez (right) as Cara.Photo by Joe Calatrello
The scene starts off with Blake, played by Sinead Le, pushing a large chest into the center of the room next to Alex, played Alfonso Toxqui who was nervously sitting on a chair trying to count, but a single digit eludes him. Are they angels? Are they just delusional and purely insane? These are the questions that might come to the minds of the audience. Oddly enough, what quickly makes this more confusing is the final scene. Without giving away the climax, be prepared to jump as it turns grim. Although the storyline is bleak and lacks depth, the superb acting by Toxqui and Le, advert the attention and saves the day
The final play of act one ended on a delightful comedy called 1+1= T00 WEIRD written by Nicole Morales and directed by Matt “Danger” Bolduc. In a room for two occupants, Dawn played by DeGuie Sanabria is greeted by a new comer, Eli played by Kim Lonning (in place of Casey Currie). As Dawn sits on her bed, she reads a copy of the vampire novel, Twilight and before long, the two immediately engage in an argument over which fantasy creature is more superior, the vampire or the werewolf. What makes this more enjoyable is when the audience realizes where this scene takes place and how the violent tempers between the two girls abrupt in a heated tug of war battle of wits and superiority amongst the two delusional characters. This play personally had me in stitches and was the absolute crowd pleaser of the night.
Act II began with an elevator scene in the play, Stuck with You. Caught together in an unfortunate event, two people who would probably never speak to one another outside of any other circumstance are trapped in a confined space and have no chose but to make the best of the situation and get to know each other. The beautiful, but stuck up Cara played by Lily Lopez (Five Women Wearing the Same Dress) and the janitor, Kyle played by Gyade George both demonstrate their ability to act and made the scene believable. From a stuck up business women to the lowest on the totem pole janitor, the two set aside their outside world differences and act as humans with many similarities ends with a surprising ending that made for great performance.
In the second play of act II entitled, Lunch was the shortest of the eight plays was very simplistic, but it worked. It worked because it appeared to resemble a reenactment of a real life situation that probably took place during high school. Two adolescent guys played by Joshua Johnson and Adam Boghosian in a school yard conversing about a comic leads to a long drawn out scuffle over a pathetic bologna sandwich. With less than 10 minutes, the play quickly ends with one single line, “All you had to do was ask”.
Arite Santiago (left) as Frank, Jose Maranon (right) as Godfrey
This next play was the headline poster for all the plays combined and the story had a message for its audience in the story called Playing God or Hardly Playing written by Alexander Sann Nishino and directed by Spencer Weitzel. Probably the best written and directed play of the evening, it starts off with a mergence of several characters from other plays exiting and entering a café. The stage is outside of the café with the main characters, Frank played by Artie Santiago and his soon to be ex-girlfriend, Amanda Alvarez. Frank is depressed and is struggling with cancer and Amanda breaks up with him then leaves the stage. Without notice to anyone, a “hobo” named Godfrey played by Jose Maranon captures Frank’s attention and begs him not to give up, but instead live life. With a few twists and turns, the audience discovers and then uncovers the true identity of Godfrey. It was these twists and turns that made this play one of the most crafted entertainment pieces written by a student come to life on stage.
The final play of act II was comedic play written by Spencer Weitzel and directed by Arthur Santiago entitled Super Date. From the previous play, a man and a woman were seen stepping out of the café. They found their way to a cozy apartment where the scene takes place. Without spoiling the story within just one word, it was a well thought of rendition and crafted parody of a famous tail of a metropolitan female reporter and a tall muscular but geeky guy with glasses that
DeGuie Sanabria (left) as A Woman, Jesse Ornelas (right) as A man in Super Date. Photo by Joe Calatrello
See this series of plays this weekend at the Performing Arts Center in the Studio Theater next to the Sophia B. Clarke Theater.
Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010 at 8 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 5, 2010 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010 at 8 p.m.
Sunday Matinee, Feb. 7, 2010 at 2 p.m.
Location: Studio Theater
Admission: $12, Seniors, Students & Children under 12 $9, Mt. SAC Students with ID $6
For ticket and event information, contact the box office at (909) 468-4050
by Michael Jaramillo
No TweetBacks yet. (Be the first to Tweet this post)
