Drum roll, please!
The curtain rises tonight on the first of two 7 p.m. performances of six one-act plays, with several monologues sprinkled throughout.
Burke Scarbrough, the director and theater teacher here at Exeter, describes the grouping as “funny”, while the monologues are more “dramatic and touching.” The monologues are read by the students; however they have no relevance to the plays they are surrounded by.
The first play is called, “Come into the Garden Maud”, written by Don Nigro. A man is awakened from his sleep early in the morning by a phone call from a woman claiming that his cat is in her garden. He does not own a cat, and she insists that it is his, so they proceed to argue. As Mr. Scarbrough describes, “Everything goes terribly wrong”.
The second is “The Origin Story of Lewis Hackett” by Ron Burch. This play consists of a variety of scenes between Lewis and his boss, imagined by his coworkers, as to why he has been promoted but they haven’t. The central theme of this play is gossip.
“Bite Me” by Nina Mansfield is the third. A woman receives a gift covered by a blanket, in a cage. The contents of this gift will be discovered and dealt with over the course of the play.
After intermission, “Untitled #2” by Jim Gordon is next. Two art critics who seem to be similar come upon a crisis when they discover that their interpretations of a certain painting clash. As they begin to quarrel, we are able to witness the importance of winning the argument for each of them.
Dan Hershfield’s, “Courting” has a double meaning in its title. One connotation is that two characters are on a date, and thus he is “courting” her. However, the play also takes place in a restaurant turned into a court. Two other characters switch back and forth between their court persona — lawyers — and their restaurant persona: waiters.
Finally, “Small World,” written by Tracey Scott Wilson, is composed of six actors who are paired off into three separate dates. It is revealed that they all have, at one point or another, dated each other. They tell their memories about their other fellow daters. This play, like the second one, is centered around gossip.
The monologues, placed between the six plays, are read by different people on the different nights, and have a contrasting feel with the one-acts. The variety allows for a comedy-filled, fun night. All of them will be performed on Thursday at 7 p.m. and again on Friday night at 7 in the Fisher Theater.