A new direction: Three seniors to present short plays next weekend

Next week, the theater department will present something a little different than a “normal” production. Starting Wednesday, three senior directors – Courtney Davis, Abigail Copeland Speer and Ben Schuetz – will direct a total of six short plays that last an average of about 10 minutes each.

The structure of the six together may appeal to more than just the traditional theater audience.  

 “If someone doesn’t like theater or long Shakespeare shows, this provides short entertaining plays in one big show,” said sophomore Kaitlin Wagner, a stage manager.

The stage managers are responsible for scripts, lighting, blocking, entrances and exits, books and sound cues. Wagner said the stage managers have rehearsal every night for an hour. Then during tech week – when they practice cues, lighting and other technical practices that go along with the production – they have practice for three hours every evening.

“A Festival of Short Plays” includes:  “Between Two Friends,” “The Interrogation,” “Waterbabies,” “Pomp and Circumstance,” “Night Visits,” and “Making the Call.”

Freshman Sam West is playing the character of King in “Pomp and Circumstance,” one of the two plays directed by senior Abigail Copeland Speer.

“The basis of the play is that I’m hiring a jester named Bachweist played by [freshman] Brandon Clark,” West said.

“Pomp and Circumstance” is a spoof off of Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus.” Both King and Bachweist are prideful believers who think they are each more important than the other.  The play is basically just two characters who act as if they have an audience watching them which makes it a comedy.

“It’s not like Shakespeare where there are underlying meanings to everything we say; we’re very straight forward with what we say,” said West.

Speer’s more serious play is “Waterbabies,” in which freshman Megan Fuller plays the main character, Emma.

Even Fuller said her character might be difficult to grasp for the audience.

“It’s really hard to figure out what [Emma] is supposed to be like,” said Fuller.

Liz is a young mother who tries to enroll her infant in a YMCA swim class that is taught by Emma. Peculiar answers to profound questions lead to strange, aquatic encounters.

“Making the Call” is senior Courtney Davis’ comedy for the show. The main character – Elizabeth – is trying to make a decision about an offer the President of the United States makes to her. And as women go, making a decision can be a rather funny event, especially when it can change the course of their entire lives. 

“Night Visits” is Davis’ more serious play in the line-up. “Night Visits” is about a young doctor whose wife died a year ago to the day.  He meets a patient who ends up helping him accept what happened to his wife.  In the very end, there’s a question of whether the young doctor’s patient was flesh and blood or one of the spiritual kind.

Schuetz is also directing two plays: “The Interrogation” and “Between Two Friends.”

“Between Two Friends” is the more serious of the two plays, he said.

“It is about how one friend tries to talk another into doing something she considers a work of art, even though it is ethically and legally wrong,” Schuetz said.

On the flip side, “The Interrogation” is a comedy about a previously split couple that by fate run into each other one night. The guy begins to question in detail what the woman had been involved in, recently.

The “Festival” is free for Franklin students, faculty and staff with Franklin College ID.