Life > March 20, 2008

By Kara Peruccio | Life editor

Coming into the final weeks of spring semester, the Studio Series will showcase original one-act plays directed by university seniors. The fall series presented shows about a love triangle, high school sweethearts reuniting and Shakespearean sonnets.

It is also the annual directing project required of all theatre majors.

The spring series features two one-acts, one tackling the darkness of America’s past and the other putting a playful twist on a beloved fairytale.

The directors, Micah Andrews and Lauren Gaston, have been diligently preparing their one-acts for the past two semesters and are prepared to wow the crowds with their directorial skills.

An Evening with Dead Essex, a play by playwright Adrienne Kennedy, is directed by Micah Andrews. The play, written, in 1973 is often called a documentary drama as it draws its inspiration from the murder of African-American sniper, Mark James Essex.

The one-act also promises to present a different perspective of horrific past events in American history. Kennedy is known for using historical characters to explore the American experience. An Evening with Dead Essex also delves into violent themes of the past and present.

Actors to look for in the one-act include seniors Troy Pellom and Chloe Mexile.

The second play offers a new take on the Brothers Grimm’s childhood tale of Little Red Riding Hood.

Keeping the same title, Billy Aronson’s one-act directed by Lauren Gaston bastardizes the story your mother read to you before bed and injects the play with dark humor and intriguing characters, perhaps making it Wicked-esque.

The one-act was published in Best American Short Plays 1992-1993 and has been translated into Spanish, Greek, Turkish and Icelandic.

In addition to Gaston’s one-act, Aronson has also written for television shows such as Courage the Cowardly Dog, Wonder Pets and most interestingly helped create the concept for an adaptation of Puccini’s La Boheme, the play we all know as Rent.

Little Red Riding Hood’s characters retain vestiges of storybook stereotypes but have a fresher take on the classic faces: a controlling mother and senile grandmother, a naïve but mischievous heroine and a clumsy hunter.

The most intriguing character is the villain. “The wolf has a sour taste for grandmothers,” Gaston, the director, said.

Although a humorous one-act, she has high hopes for its message. “Hopefully they will examine the contradictions and eccentricities of Aronson’s off-the-wall fairytale characters,” Gaston said.

Freshman Hannah Newman stars as the title character and is joined by sophomore Stephany Rayburn as Mother and university theatre alumna Bethany Novak as Grandmother.

Senior Eric Pearce plays the Hunter and graduate student Adam Humenansky plays the nefarious Wolf.

The Studio Series will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on March 24 and at 4:30 p.m. March 25 in the Ring Theatre. Admission is $2.