The College of the Arts at KSU held its seventh annual festival to put on 10-minute plays written by students at the school.
The night of Feb. 20 began with Margaret Baldwin, senior lecturer for the College of the Arts, explaining that every festival has all of its plays share a common theme. This year’s theme took its inspiration from the works of American contemporary playwright Suzan-Lori Parks.
The first of the eight plays was “Out in Four,” written by Tad Cameron. It told the story of a boy, played by Ian Gibson, listening to all of the voice mails left by his friends. This play especially was very well-written and performed expertly. The comedic timing was excellent with all of the actors and the more dramatic moments were pulled off incredibly well.
The next performance was “Home,” written by Rachel Pendergrass. It told the story of a girl played by Susannah Cook arguing with a man and woman, played by Christian Smith and Tori Thompson, about what home really is. This play was a bit less direct with its message and story line, but it was a very thought provoking piece.
“A Little Game of War,” written by Kelsey Medlin, was the next play. This play had one of the most complex plots of them all. It was one of the most dramatic performances of the night, which made it very memorable. The darkness of it and the excellent performances also made it stand out.
Jay Olsen’s play, “Ring-a-Ding-Ding,” was the fourth of the night. It was one of two plays that only had two characters in it. The sharp dialogue between the two was one of the best parts of this play. It made it one of my favorites of the night.
The fifth play was “Sisters.” The play was written by Skylar Resna Jackson and it dealt with some of the issues facing African-Americans today. The way this play took on these problems head-on was very well-done and left me thinking.
The following play was “Stranger on Morris Avenue,” written by Anna Jordan. It was unlike the other plays of the night because of its structure. It was separated into different parts, which worked well in spite of the short length of the play.
“Today is for Daisies” was the penultimate play of the night and its author was Maddie Fay. It was the second play with just two characters in it. This play was my personal favorite of the night because of the way it showed all the complexities of a relationship in such a short time frame.
The final play was “A Tale as Old as Time” and was written by David-Henry Bennett. It also dealt with romance in a different way. Although it started off with one of the darker stories, it concluded the festival on an uplifting note.
“I thought it was great,” said Adam Sirak, a junior majoring in theater and performance studies. “It activated Parks’ capacity for wordplay and manipulation of language,” which I absolutely agree with. Suzan-Lori Parks would have definitely loved every one of the plays put on at the festival.
