One Track Mind
& Blazing Orange
Kyle Schmidt
by Mitch Heiz
Those who know Kyle Schmidt, or perhaps even those who don¡¦t know him personally, may probably describe him as eccentric, perhaps even a bit crazy.
His one-act play, entitled One Track Mind, will do nothing to dispel that opinion. As the curtain rises, the audience will see a rather ordinary sight of a single actor giving a monologue; however, the actor will be playing the part of a carrot.
Schmidt will direct another one-act this weekend in addition to One Track Mind. The second, Blazing Orange, provides another dose of the bizarre. As well as directing both plays, Schmidt also penned both of the works. Though his writing may seem over the top at times, Schmidt attempts to tie each piece to everyday ideas.
¡§I¡¦ve been experimenting lately in playwriting with creating heightened worlds that still maintain an entirely humanistic element,¡¨ said Schmidt. ¡§Thus, while the circumstances in both pieces are entirely absurd, I¡¦m trying to create an intense humanity at the core of my plays,¡¨ he added.
The actors, Ross Koon ¡¦06, Chris Forster-Smith ¡¦06, and Jayn Bailey ¡¥05 (who also happen to be three of Schmidt¡¦s closest friends), seem to have responded well to the playwright¡¦s unusual approach to writing.
¡§We started a minute by minute journal of the process to record each time an actor has a ¡¥Diva Moment,¡¦¡¨?according to Schmidt. ¡§Some actors have tallied into the twenties or thirties, which is remarkable in a two-and-a-half week process.¡¨
Finger Food
Margaret Toomey
by Sara Millhouse
Dan Lesh ¡¦06, camera around his neck, artistically spreads some velvet over the table. He pours a glass of wine and sets it down. He dumps a box of rose petals onto the arrangement. He picks up the wine and takes a sip. The stage is set for Finger Food.
Throughout the course of the play, explained director Margaret Toomey ¡¦06, an ad photographer and a hand model come to an ¡§understanding of each others¡¦ passions and it ends in a sexual climax of sorts.¡¨
The play bristles with sexual innuendo, taking cracks at everything from advertising to acting in the process. This is the first play Toomey has directed at Grinnell, though she directed ¡§dark comedies¡¨ in high school, where she also first saw Finger Food.
¡§In high school, the sex was covered up because nobody in high school was comfortable with it,¡¨ she said. ¡§In high school it was like, sex, giggle, giggle, but [this cast] really embraced it and took it to a new level.¡¨
Toomey and stage manager Carolyn Voss ¡¦07 rehearsed with Lesh (Denny) and Laura LeVon ¡¦06 (Mona) in Haines Pit until this week, when they moved into the Wall. The actors used methods such as rehearsing in masks and reversing roles to become more familiar with the play and get comfortable with its content.
Toomey said her experience assistant stage managing Pentecost ¡§ate my life,¡¨ so she¡¦s glad to be doing a more ¡§informal, low-key¡¨ production. She also sees one-acts as a ¡§forum for people who haven¡¦t had a lot of theatre experience to have the freedom to explore.¡¨
¡§The play has me and Carolyn shrieking with laughter every night,¡¨ said Toomey. ¡§It¡¦s really fun. It¡¦s not a family play.¡¨
The Office
Rebecca Mauldin
by Cid Standifer
For Rebecca Mauldin ¡¥05, directing The Office was a second chance to take a conventional but funny and touching play and make it interesting. While Mauldin was studying at The National Theater Institute, she was given a clip of a play to direct with a similar focus on dialogue as The Office. Mauldin was disappointed when the piece received poor reviews from her peers and decided she wanted to try again.
Mauldin said that working with the two actors has been one of the most rewarding aspects of the production. According to Mauldin, she chose Caitlin Skinner ¡¥07 and Quenna LaLonde ¡¥07 because she was pleased with the way the two actresses interacted in their audition. ¡§When I give them new situations to see what they¡¦ll do with them, they always amaze me,¡¨ she said.
Mauldin chose the The Office for her second chance because she felt that most people could sympathize with the two unnamed characters. ¡§Having had an internship and doing miscellaneous laborious work ... I could really identify with these women, and I feel like a lot of students could,¡¨ she said. The characters in The Office are trapped in a situation most of us dread: being stuck doing pointless jobs for the span of our careers. Mauldin feels a strong draw to two monologues that reveal just how far short of their expectations the women¡¦s lives have fallen. Despite the comedy in the play, Mauldin finds the ending poignant. ¡§I think in life we try to find things that will bring us happiness,¡¨ she said, ¡§and I think sometimes it¡¦s just really unsuccessful.¡¨
Carnality
Kat Henry
by Puran Parsani
Michelle and Ben met in college, fell in love, got married, but only Michelle went to grad school, which comes back to bite them in the ass. They have a kid who Michelle doesn¡¦t have time for and the marriage falls a part. Now, six months after the divorce, they are friends who argue a lot and have casual sex when the sexual tension between them breaks.
No, this is not the plot from some steamy romance novel. It¡¦s the ¡§back story¡¨ created by the actors Bradley Iverson-Long ¡¦05 and Katherine Gray ¡¦06, for the characters from their one-act ¡§Carnality.¡¨ Director Kat Henry ¡¦06 felt that the ¡§characters drive the play¡¨ and so she found it important to work out a detailed history with her actors. The process for developing the story ¡§was fairly simple,¡¨ said Gray. Both the actors thought about their characters individually in detail before an intense one-on-one session with their director. Then actors and director met and discussed their common history. ¡§At first it was difficult to agree,¡¨ said Gray, adding, ¡§We had to make a lot of compromises.¡¨
Iverson-Long said that he felt that this detailed history helped him figure out what a lot of the lines meant. Gray commented on how the character work explained the root for a lot of the emotions in the play. Both the actors were surprised to find that they themselves had been in a similar situation, which helped them tap into the emotions of the characters. They are so similar to the characters that they play that Iverson-Long said, ¡§At times I see how much I am like this character. I often quote lines from my play,¡¨ adding, ¡§My friends think it is kind of dorky.¡¨
Body Talk
Gina Tarullo
by Cid Standifer
Gina Tarullo ¡¥06, director of the one-act Body Talk, said that at first she was hesitant to select the play because of its intensity; but when it came down to her final decision she decided it was too beautiful a piece to pass up.
One feature of Body Talk that Tarullo found intimidating was the opening. The play introduces its characters with what Tarullo finds to be very moving monologues. The three unnamed women of the play, who Tarullo believes are all different aspects of the same person, deliver speeches revealing starkly different perceptions of themselves and the world around them.
Indira Vasquez ¡¥07, who is acting in a play for the first time since fifth grade, found herself very drawn to her character and said , ¡§I feel like I am this character sometimes, or at least was at one point.¡¨ Vasquez believes that the characters in the play represent traits that, to some extent, are a part of everyone. ¡§I think [the author] is trying to say that there are always different aspects to one person,¡¨ she said, ¡§and it isn¡¦t until you realize that all these aspects of yourself exist that you can move forward.¡¨
!Sublime Decision!
Sarah Cohen
Grinnellians attending the one-act play !Sublime Decision! directed by Sarah Cohen ¡¥04 this weekend may be a bit surprised once the players begin speaking. Audience members who lack proficiency in the Spanish language may be a bit lost ¡V every line in Cohen¡¦s play will be spoken in Spanish.
¡§During my time at Grinnell, I don¡¦t believe that an acting project of such an immense undertaking in a non-English language has been performed to the public,¡¨ said Cohen. ¡§Although I expect many in our audience to not know Spanish well, our goal is to make it entertaining for all,¡¨ she added.
To work towards keeping everyone in the audience engaged, an English synopsis of the plot will be provided in the program given to audience members.
While the language of the one act sets it apart from the others, a close-knit cast and crew serves as a connecting motif shared with the other one-act performances this weekend. According to Cohen, the people she worked often served to keep the mood light and frustration down.
¡§I was giving the actors notes after they did a run-through one evening and everyone in the room starts giggling. I look up, and Kip Kelley has his shirt buttoned up over his head, his hat resting on top,¡¨ Cohen said. She added, ¡§I¡¦m so happy to be directing the cast I have - they help keep it fun if I get too serious.¡¨
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