As I'd mentioned, I already had a play lined up for tomorrow.
So, that's one.
I hadn't known of the student-directed One-Act Festival at Savannah Arts Academy until almost 5 PM on Friday!
I'd checked their website to see what was upcoming... and there it was!
I immediately bought tickets for both Friday and Saturday, of course.
Here are the four student directors, the student producer, and David Poole, who made sure all received flower bouquets for their work.
From left to right, and in the order their plays were performed, that's Latricia Jones-Brown, Gavin Rivera, Sarina Mullady, and Shaylee Smith, as well as Alyssa Nascimento, the producer, and the always-hat-clad David, the faculty advisor.
(Nice nod to his defunct Collective Face Theatre Ensemble in the credits! I certainly had some memorable experiences at those plays.)
This time, the two student directors were Emily Cooke and Desmond Chaney, but his play was performed first.
All six plays performed over the two days all had dark themes.
I wonder why the directors chose these works?
The ones Friday night were all modern pieces from this century.
"The Door" concerned a grandmother waiting for her grandson to come home.
He's in the room with her, trying to get her to open the door to whoever is knocking so late at night, trying to get her to acknowledge that he is gay.
It came with a supplemental program with a list of young people who had been killed for being gay or lesbian or trans.
Very serious stuff.
Next was "Don't Hang Up", directed by the only male director on Friday.
This featured a 15-year-old girl on the line with the 'Drain Right' help desk clerk, with the question: "How much of this do I drink to die?"
Very sobering look at the types of calls that get fielded.
"Three Tables" had a cast of seven, with three couples in various stages of being in a relationship: a 5-year anniversary dinner; a last meal to sign divorce papers; a first outing of an internet date.
Then there's the waitress to handle them all as they eavesdrop on each other's conversations at the adjoining tables.
(Of the four plays on Friday, I enjoyed this one the most.)
"The Waves" concerned the suicidal beach-walker (the only one in jeans in the photo) as he fought the voices in his head.
This one actually got a bit scary at times, and loud.
(The performance by a different troupe is available on youTube.)
Now, on to the ones seen tonight.
"The Chairs", an absurdist farce from 1952, was my least favorite.
Yes, that's true, even though it had Trey Wilner.
He was one of the two old people rushing around gathering chairs to the stage as they prattled on about a message of great importance.
Given the play's length, it really got quite tedious.
Then, the message was whispered in the ear of a deaf-mute (the plaid pants), so it ended up all garbled, rendering their suicides null.
Just what was written on the placard?
"Absent food" or some such.
See what I mean?
"Trifles" was exactly what I needed as the last play of this festival!
A murder mystery from 1916, it showed the difference between the way the men were handling the situation (looking for 'what') and the way the women did (in search of 'why').
A wife had been taken into custody for the death of her husband.
The sheriff (in the white coat) was speaking with the two couples who'd lived on nearby farms, gathering information with the men, leaving the women to gather items to take to the woman in jail.
I'm not going to spoil the ending, but I will say this: I'd see it again.
And so ends my tale of the six plays I've seen this weekend, of the seven I will be seeing total.
Kudos to all of the directors for bringing these plays to the audience!
Kudos to all of the actors for bringing these stories to life!
Kudos to SavArtsAcad for sharing with the community!
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