Throat Culture tries and succeeds at one-acts
"Student theater" is a phrase often waved off by people with upturned noses. They think of poorly written plays performed by stolid actors. Colorful banners in the Breezeway are generally ignored. This is terribly unfortunate, since student productions are actually very entertaining.
Throat Culture's OTCoberfest is no exception. This past weekend, the production company put on three hilarious, well-acted one-act plays.
In the underbelly of Levering, Throat Culture took command of the Arellano Theater with their first attempt at one-acts. Senior, Bill Fuller, the TC president said, "Sketch is definitely our strength, and I like to think we do it very well, but we decided to do these one-acts as a way of mixing it up for the actors and writers."
First came "The Most Dangerous Game," based rather loosely on the short story of the same name by Richard Connell. Throat Culture's version was written by senior Chris Chuang and directed by sophomore Gerrad Taylor. Junior Nikhil Rao starred as the maniacal, eyepatch-wearing master of the island. Brought by various levels of coercion and violence to the island, the ragtag bunch of victims included a bickering couple (sophomores Richard Zheng and Emily Daly), a homeless man (sophomore Brandon Stuart), a "crazy" girl who works at the mall (Toni Del Sorbo) and a poor fellow who just wants the salad he was making when he was abducted (Chuang). The humor focused on the panicked, delirious interactions of the group while facing their imminent demise as subjects of a hunt.
The play was hilarious and very well received by the audience, owing in no small part to the actors' performances. Stuart captured perfectly the somehow almost-logical but still absurd reasoning of the stereotypical homeless man. Rao channeled Myers well with his portrayed of the villain who takes himself a little too seriously. The only flaw that detracted from the play was the inability for some actors to maintain a straight face in a few of the scenes. An issue for serious actors, indeed, but we can hardly blame, for example, Daly when she could not suppress a smirk as Zheng made loudly absurd arguments two inches from her face.
Throat Culture's OTCoberfest is no exception. This past weekend, the production company put on three hilarious, well-acted one-act plays.
In the underbelly of Levering, Throat Culture took command of the Arellano Theater with their first attempt at one-acts. Senior, Bill Fuller, the TC president said, "Sketch is definitely our strength, and I like to think we do it very well, but we decided to do these one-acts as a way of mixing it up for the actors and writers."
First came "The Most Dangerous Game," based rather loosely on the short story of the same name by Richard Connell. Throat Culture's version was written by senior Chris Chuang and directed by sophomore Gerrad Taylor. Junior Nikhil Rao starred as the maniacal, eyepatch-wearing master of the island. Brought by various levels of coercion and violence to the island, the ragtag bunch of victims included a bickering couple (sophomores Richard Zheng and Emily Daly), a homeless man (sophomore Brandon Stuart), a "crazy" girl who works at the mall (Toni Del Sorbo) and a poor fellow who just wants the salad he was making when he was abducted (Chuang). The humor focused on the panicked, delirious interactions of the group while facing their imminent demise as subjects of a hunt.
The play was hilarious and very well received by the audience, owing in no small part to the actors' performances. Stuart captured perfectly the somehow almost-logical but still absurd reasoning of the stereotypical homeless man. Rao channeled Myers well with his portrayed of the villain who takes himself a little too seriously. The only flaw that detracted from the play was the inability for some actors to maintain a straight face in a few of the scenes. An issue for serious actors, indeed, but we can hardly blame, for example, Daly when she could not suppress a smirk as Zheng made loudly absurd arguments two inches from her face.
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