On Thursday and Friday, April 24-25, in the Florence Busby Corriher Theatre on the Catawba College campus, the Theatre Arts Department will present its One Acts Festival that serves both as a part of the Theatre Arts’ regular season and the culmination of the department’s Directing 2 studio class.
This year’s offerings include:
The Universal Language: Directed by Sara Johnson,this romantic comedy chronicles the relationship between Don, the teacher of Unamunda, and Dawn, his student. The events that occur during the course of this one act help the characters discover aspects of their personalities that they never knew existed. A “Linkwa Supreemka” is the means by which Don and Dawn find an amplifier for their metaphorical “tuning fork” existence. Cast members include Justin Lewis as Don; Caitlin Becka as Dawn; and Mike Matthias as the Young Man.
The Boundary: This one-act comedy by Tom Stoppard and Clive Exton was originally written, rehearsed, and performed as a teleplay for the BBC within a week’s time in 1975. Directed by Guerin Piercy, its plot revolves around two lexicographers, Johnson and Bunyans, who enter their library to find it in complete disarray. As they reassemble their life’s work, they uncover much more about their lives than definitions on slips of paper, including the whereabouts of Johnson’s wife Brenda, the team’s typist, and the strange significance of the cricket game happening outside. Full of wordplay, “The Boundary” is sure to have audiences laughing as they watch two extreme characters realistically try to reassemble their lives in a hyper-realistic world. Cast members include Mike Mathias as Operator and Cricket Player; Jen Short as Brenda; Jeremy Kinser as Bunyans; Justin Johnson as Johnson. Jordan Danz serves as stage manager for the production.
Life under Water: Written by Tony Award winning playwright Richard Greenberg, “Life under Water” tells the story of a handful of rich socialites summering in the Hamptons and struggling with their personal demons. Although they fight to stay above sea level, these privileged characters get sucked into the current of recklessness and show little care for the people who are destroyed in their wake. The play acts as a window into this unreachable world, packed with witty sarcasm and tragic hopelessness. Directed by Betsy Foster, cast members include Amanda Lederer as Amy-Joy; Carrie Foster as Amy-Beth; Chris Herring as Kip; Sarah Koerner as Jinx; and Aaron Ganas as Hank.
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The One Acts Festival is free and open to the public and all three plays run in succession each night beginning at 6:30 p.m. The nightly program will last about 1a hours, and patrons will be admitted between the plays.