Witness Theater presented five student-written one acts to full audiences this past weekend. Ranging from comically absurd to darkly humorous to tensely provocative, the sketches showed that the student playwrights have maintained a high standard of accomplished, if off-beat, work. Witness achieved this with a large, talented group of actors and some very inventive technical work.
The first one-act of the night, Penny, was written by freshman Eric Levitz -- the first freshman to ever submit a work and be accepted for the fall show. Featuring the showcase's largest cast, the sketch cleverly bemoans the meaninglessness of biology tests, high school and life. Freshman David Santare debuted on the Hopkins stage as the seemingly morose yet hopeful Charlie. As he waits for his dad to pick him up from school, Charlie encounters straight-up pessimist Clyde (sophomore Cem Onat Yilmaz), the popular high school meathead and his air-headed girlfriend (junior Tony Chiarito and sophomore Esther Bell), the frazzled Biology teacher amidst a middle-age crisis, Ms. Hoon (junior Michelle Brown) and rock star wannabe Carrie (freshman Rose Xie).
Through the characters that cross Charlie's path, a fatalist mantra is repeated: "Life is meaningless." Michelle Brown does an exceptional job of capturing the depression of a high school biology teacher, delivering lines with the candor of a teacher after hours, freed from the curriculum to say how she truly feels about the world. Tony Chiarito plays the dumb jock convincingly as well, capturing the meathead mentality with style and charm. However the absolute star of the show was the writer himself for breaking up what would have been a wearing, cynical diatribe with a giant puppy massacre.The one-act closes on a slightly uplifting ending -- maybe Charlie can find some direction after all, even if it means little more than looking forward to seeing the pretty Carrie over the weekend.
In keeping with the mood, Penny was followed by junior Sal Gentile's Moral Philosophy, a one-act about an alcoholic professor caught one too many times sleeping with students and asked to leave the university. Junior Rob Kasten played the scoundrel professor, Joseph Kibler, with just the right touch of honesty and humor that while the audience wondered how Kibler could ever be a professor of moral philosophy, he was still likeable.
Rob's performance shone as his character dealt with the unbearably polite British Professor Hawthorne (sophomore Ersin Akinci), the department member overseeing Kibler's leave and the irate former student/love interest Joan (freshman Caity Stuhan). Sal demonstrated himself as a master of comedic dialogue, especially in the final uncomfortable conversation between Kibler and Hawthorne. When the latter breaks an awkward silence by commenting on how nice Kibler's chair is, Kiblerreplies that he peed on it in a drunk stupor, then spent the rest of the night trying to flush it. The play concluded very suddenly, giving it a cheap, unfinished feel that did little justice to the body of the work.
Abduction, by Jackie Jennings, the third and most outstanding performance of the night. A sketch about two extremely advanced, human-culture loving aliens, Reginald 2886 and Reginald 9653 (juniors Aparna Desai and Mitch Frank) who come to a backwoods trailer park in search of the source of brilliantly cultured transmissions they'd been receiving.
What they find instead when they land is beer-drinking, fart-lighting, PJ (sophomore Paxon Trautman).
Mitch and Aparna are absolutely outstanding as aliens, and convey their extraterrestrial qualities, not by being painted green or wearing masks with huge eyes, but by speaking in Oxford accents, shuffling in rainbow-colored slippers and having no concept of personal space. Their combination of physical comedy with Jennings' clever writing stole the show. Paxon relished in his ultimate red-neck, good `ole boy character and provided delightful contrast to the snobby aliens. The whole sketch was dramatically narrated by freshman Cory Diers and brought to life with amazing lighting effects on the stage and in set pieces. The ending of Abduction, that the equally snobbish and Oxford-accented daughter of PJ (sophomore Holly Caracappa) was the one actually sending the transmissions, was perfectly in keeping with the light-hearted and far-fetched one-act.
In Heaven, also by Gentile and junior Adar Eisenbruch, was originally preformed in a 24-Hour Theater Experiment at Baltimore's Top Floor Theater. The sketch takes place in heaven, with two misfits, Zoe (who died by choking on a single rice krispy while stoned) and Jerome Cartwright (who died in a raging inferno from lighting his farts on fire). The roles are played respectively by sophomores Zoe Bell and Rajiv Mallipudi. Most of the one act is physical comedy. Just as this is about to get old, a very angry Jesus Christ (Eric Levitz) makes a surprise appearance and kicks the duo out of heaven for eating his seafood salad sandwich. Zoe and Rajiv excel at hitting each other's buttons with all the believability of bickering siblings and Eric plays one pissed-off Son of God, complete with snazzy white robe.
The final act of the showcase was Leaving Sketch by Mitch Frank. Mitch's play takes a surprising turn from the humor that marked all four previous shows of the night and follows the painful parting of a guy and a girl (senior Garrett Clark and junior Jackie Jennings). Though the reason the girl is leaving is never stated, the intensity with which Garrett and Jackie deliver their roles makes up for the lack of detail provided. Mitch portrays the often overdone, "Don't go!" "No, I must!" parting scene with surprising freshness. Somehow, in neglecting all details and proper nouns, the event of parting with a loved one was distilled to its purest and most visceral experience.
In all, the performances showcased a talented array of writers, actors and technicians. The combined product was a very satisfying experience.
