Picture taken by: Rebecca Hale / Assistant Reverb Editor
REBECCA HALE
Assistant Reverb Editor
Every semester, writers, actors, actresses, directors and producers get together to create their own short one-act plays, entirely composed and put on in a mere 24-hour period. This semester, four one-acts were performed on Sunday evening in McEwen 209 as a part of Spontaneous Productions.
First, students who wanted to be involved in Spontaneous Productions signed up for their desired positions as writer, talent or director. This semester’s groups were separated into four shows, each with one writer, one director and three actors.
Names were then pulled out of a hat to determine which actors and director were to be put in each group. That way, it was completely spontaneous and randomized.
Once the groups were in order, writers were given two prompts, a relationship and an object, which they were required to incorporate in the plot of their stories. For example, one prompt phrase was “illegal refrigerator,” and another was “newlyweds.”
Though the plays may seem unrelated, they all followed a central theme, which was “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You _____.”
Writers had 12 hours to finish their scripts — from 8 p.m. Saturday night until 8 a.m. on Sunday morning, when they were submitted to their respective directors. Rehearsals began immediately afterwards.
Maddy Sedlor, a senior theatre arts major, is not new to Spontaneous Productions, as this is her third time participating in the event. She gave her two cents on being playwright:
“Once it’s 8 a.m., it’s out of my hands, but the director and the actors probably have the hardest job,” she explained.
“The director is going crazy trying to make it look good, and then the actors have to memorize [it] in 12 hours, which is rough; but usually people pull through, and it comes out well. That’s amazing to me,” Sedlor said.
The actors had eight hours until show time, during which they had to memorize lines and blocking, as well as find their own props and costumes — not to mention that the production was put on inside McEwen 209, where the technical capabilities are very limited.
Still, the production did have technicians on board including Cassidy Fritsch on lighting and Tom Sullivan, co-producer of the production, as stage manager. All of the one-acts involved audio clips to enhance the quality and reality of their productions.
“[The one-acts] are always really cool because they make them in such a short period of time,” said Jillian Ballow, a senior music education major who attended the final performance. Ballow has been to Spontaneous Productions a few times before.
“They only have 24 hours to put the whole thing together, so that’s a lot of thinking in the middle of the night and practice in the middle of the day to bring something together that’s really cool,” she said.
The first show was titled “Traitor Jos,” written by Sedlor and directed by Eleah Peal. Actors included Michael Flanagan, Emma Jessop and Bella Mullen.
The second production was “You May Now Kiss the Bride,” by Maggie Gilroy, directed by Eric Schutt, and acted out by Tanner Jubert, Pandora Kew and Brett Hayes.
For Kew, a sophomore BFA acting major, this was her first time being involved in Spontaneous Productions.
“I’m really happy I did [Spontaneous Productions] because it’s been really rewarding,” Kew said. “I’m having a lot of fun, though I’m kind of nervous, because there’s so little prep time — but it keeps me on my toes!”
The third one-act was titled “The Book of Eschelle,” by Jeffrey Thompson, directed by Monica Lynch, and played by Angela Wheeler, Alex DeJohn and Liz Church-Peters.
The final piece was titled “Welcome to The Bottom,” and was written by Stephanie Ward. It was directed by Kiernan Matts and acted out by Shelby Ebeling, Nicholas Williams and Kevin Gleason.
Spontaneous Productions is put on every semester, and is open to all students.