The most recent 10-minute play festival, presented by student theatre group Effie’s Players last Friday and Saturday night, was really something special, and not just as 70 minutes of compelling and hugely entertaining theatre ñ though it was certainly that. It was one of those most delightful showcases for campus talent that boasted the incomparable feel of an intimate campus event ó by students, for students. Think Don’t Throw Shoes, or the Covers evenings put on by student musicians. This was a play festival for a small space ó specifically the Shoolroy black box theater in Freedlander ó and a relaxed weekend crowd, and it worked beautifully.
Of course, the easygoing atmosphere would have been wasted on subpar plays; fortunately, there wasn’t a single weak link among the seven. The rapid-fire parade of new dramatic scenarios presents a unique challenge for the actors: they must assert their characters and a conflict immediately or risk losing the audience. From the very first piece, however, each cast proved itself up to the task.
Tim Gillis ’10 demonstrated yet again that he is one of the most valuable comedic actors on campus, turning in a nuanced performance as an aloof yet manipulative jerk in Anna Ziegler’s “Sad Song,” directed by Jasmine Verreen ’13. Kate Donnelly ’13 played her more emotionally sensitive role very effectively as well ó the sharp contrast between her character and Gillis’s fully achieved the play’s deeply sad ending.
“Hell Hath No Fury…,” which followed, was similarly fantastic, a highlight even in such sterling company. An original play by Nathan Comstock ’10, the script itself was remarkable ó tough, philosophical and witty. The play’s other great asset was Alex Horning ’13, whose off-stage voice performance as Sandy, a human-like computer system wounded by her first taste of love, was note-perfect and very moving. Horning excavated all the challenging questions the play raises and brought them all to her creation of the character, seemingly effortlessly.
The middle of the program continued the succession of very good material. Gillis reappeared in a totally different role in Itman Mose’s “Men’s Intuition” alongside a winningly straightforward Jake Briggs ’10. Ben Christ ’12, meanwhile, proved a definite highlight of two plays, David Ives’ “The Philadelphia” and Joe Jensen’s (’11) “Boom,” in both of which he portrayed a frustrated man at a restaurant.
Perhaps the greatest play of the evening, however, was the last on the program. Paul Dooley’s “Post-Its,” brought to life by sublime performances from Nina Takacs ’11 and Malcolm Campbell-Taylor ’13, might have been the best 10 minutes of theatre I’ve witnessed at Wooster. With no action on stage apart from the two characters, seated on stools, reading a lifetime’s worth of post-it notes to each other, the success of the piece relied overwhelmingly on the emotional truth the actors brought to the roles.
Tacaks and Campbell-Taylor captured the beauty and the sadness of their characters’ long relationship as completely as you could ask for in a full-length play. What was especially noteworthy was Campbell-Taylor’s grief in the play’s final, tragic development, deeply affecting and unforgettable, ending the evening on the highest of highs affirming the real excellence of student-produced theatre on campus.