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Mitch Frank consoles Dulce Rodriguez in Ryan Hopson's Elevator. [Click to enlarge]

Alex Nica, left, battles Margaret Deli in the hilarious Heroes for Hire. [Click to enlarge]

Andrew Levinson (left) and Tristan Ankerstar have fun in Jon Weisz's Out of Tune, directed by Chris Hamel. [Click to enlarge]

Anyone who saw Witness Theater's latest set of one-act plays last week may be wondering if there is any meaningful link between the project's offerings. Performed at the Mattin Center's Swirnow Theater, the company's four newest student-written, student-directed pieces were a mix of rambunctious satire, social commentary, and character sketches. Fortunately, any lack of continuity can easily be overlooked. Working in a minimalist, theater-in-the-round format, Witness Theater brought us pieces that showed a number of genuine emotions and achieved a few valid, memorable insights.

Independent theatre has never been entirely trustworthy. As just about everyone who has watched Waiting for Guffman knows, misplaced dramatic ambition is the first step towards mediocrity. But it was pleasing to find that Witness's actors, playwrights, and production team -- headed by tech and crew organizers Mona Wu and Maxwell Sobolik -- know how to work masterfully with whatever resources they have, focusing their talents on small-scale, yet respectable projects. Neither grandiose nor self-important, the troupe's fall showcase was a refreshing example of honest, approachable theater.

The production started off with Paige Zeller's The Arrangement (directed by Justine Olin), an examination of both long-term dedication and emotionally detached sex. This two-person play is essentially an open dialogue between two friends: Asuka (Michelle Samson) and Gabe (Tony Zamparelli), who are trying to reconcile their desire for physical intimacy with their history as close, but romantically uninvolved companions. Sitting in Asuka's apartment, both characters convey a sense of nervousness that, though distracting and dramatically inhibiting, becomes somewhat appropriate as the play progresses. For her part, Zeller effectively discusses her protagonists' predicament and conflicting feelings. However, the characters are used for little more than driving The Arrangement's central scenario, which is well considered, but far from unique.

Next, Joshua Leven's comic book satire, Heroes for Hire (directed by Jibbs), took the stage. As the lights go up, we find a disconcerted superhero (Mike Cox) bemoaning his life on a psychologist's couch. In the course of his recollections, Cox's hero recalls his relationship with his high-strung, attention-craving mother (Margaret Deli), not to mention his career as the head of the all-purpose protection company, Heroes for Hire. Sort of like the X-Men with a demented twist, Heroes for Hire features such screwballs as the pompous, clothing-craving muscle-man Lint (Dave Haldane), the sarcastic Superego (Alex Nica), and Captain Binary (Jon Weisz), who talks to machines and spends most of the play walking around without his pants. On top of their ridiculous dispositions, the group, while constantly competing with Superman (Steven Fwanyk), bungles an attempt to save the president (Pavle Milekic).

Leven's work has its share of laughs, although its sense of comic timing is off every now and then. Occasionally hectic and bogged down by scene changes, Heroes for Hire nonetheless follows in the proud tradition of Witness Theater satire. Superhero farces may be nothing new, but all in all, Leven's play makes for an antic, enjoyable second piece.

After a brief intermission, Witness presented Jon Weisz's Out of Tune (directed by Chris Hamel), a drama about, among other things, love, music, and personal expectations. Set in an apartment, the play follows Dan (Tristan Ankerstar), an uptight business student, and Adam (Andrew T. Levinson), his laid-back, directionless roommate as they go about their lives. But when Dan's old friend, Ben (Dave Haldane), shows up one morning, things begin to change. As Ben talks about his life, Adam and his personal friend, Tara (Lisa Nagey), discover that despite his impersonal exterior, Dan was once a dedicated friend and an enthusiastic guitarist. Adam, eager to see a new side of his enigmatic roommate, even borrows a guitar, hoping that Dan is ready to revisit his old hobby.

Weisz's piece features a number of promising characters. But because of its brevity, and a side plot involving one of Dan's former love interests, there is simply not room for the kind of development that Out of Tune's protagonists deserve. Needless to say, there are some fine comic moments -- including Adam's cacophonous guitar solo -- that complement Out of Tune's drama.

The final play of the night was Elspeth Kursh and Ryan Hopson's Elevator (directed by Tim Rhue II), a survey of today's society by a lone man (Mitch Frank) who spends his time observing the passengers in a skyscraper elevator. Frank's character, content to simply look into the lives of others, meets optimistic geriatrics, AIDS patients, feuding couples, and disillusioned professionals in the course of his day. Brought to the stage with a disciplined and enthusiastic ensemble (Jennifer Dein, Dulce Rodriguez, Ashley Watson, Dan Bisers, and Raffi Wartanian), Elevator shows that although modern civilization is fragmented, there is still hope for personal connection. The incidents that it presents are usually not extraordinary on their own, but taken together and seen through the eyes of Frank's protagonist, they add up to an enlightening picture.

Perhaps there is a link between these works after all, though it takes a little time and thought to realize it. In all of Witness's newest pieces, there is a sense of longing for personal connection and self-understanding. Gabe and Asuka in the Arrangement, the hero's mother in Heroes for Hire, Dan in Out of Tune and the pedestrians in The Elevator all express the same desire for real companionship and compassion. Even among a group of plays this diverse, there is a feeling of genuine unity.

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