Geneva Voice
April 24, 2013

STUDENT-PRODUCED ONE-ACT PLAYS OPEN

LEAH MACDONALD / STAFF WRITER / THE GENEVA CABINET

Want to see the plays yourself? Showings at 8:00 p.m on Thursday, April 25 and Friday, April 26 are still open. A matinee at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday is also available. All shows will be held at the Bagpiper Theater. Admission is $2 at the door; seating is first-come, first serve.

The performance promised by Geneva's student-directed one act plays might rival that of the college's major productions.

The evening entitled "Music, Mystery and Magic" begins with "The Game," written by Louise Bryant and directed by senior communication disorders major Kierstan Williams and her fiancé, senior business major Joseph Grondziowski.

Olivia Mitchell, a sophomore philosophy major, lends a throaty voice to Life, opposite senior business major Ben Makin's Death, as the two engage in a game of dice to determine the fate of two suicidal dreamers--the Youth, sophomore chemistry major Austin Jarvi, and the dancing Hannah Rozgonyi, a sophomore communication disorders major. The show takes a serious tone, tastefully engaging questions of love and desire, life and death, beauty and suicide.

The mood lightens with the comedic "Murder by Midnight." An act following the film noir tradition, "Murder" was written by Jeff Goode and directed by senior writing major Tiffany Battey.

Senior communications major Adam Rowe takes center stage, promising laughs as Dick Piston: Hotel Detective. However, sophomore psychology major Lindsey Bernheisel steals the show as the seductive damsel in distress--who has recently burst forth from the shower, only to find her husband murdered in their bed. Junior engineering major Ben Rumeau makes a cameo as the bellhop while Piston (Rowe) proceeds in his high-spirited investigation.

"Bedtime Battles," written and directed by senior communications major Anna Harris, is almost too cute for words. Senior communications major Micah Taylor stars in this sweet and adorable comedy as Luke, a six-year-old who is not afraid of anything--except, perhaps, the monsters in his closet.

Physical comic Owen Matthess, a junior communications major, is his stuffed cow come-to-life (in the vein of Calvin and Hobbes), who attempts to help Luke (Taylor) become a superhero. Senior communications major Hannah Hunsberger makes an appearance as Luke's mother in this precious show which analyzes the qualifications of a true superhero through the eyes of a child.

The stage adopts a refined tone after the intermission as the curtain rises on Alice Gerstenberg's "Overtones," directed by senior accounting major Marney Walker. An intimate drama of manipulation, "Overtones" opens on Harriet, played by junior writing major Rebekah Farkas, a woman who married for money, debating the condition of her marital happiness with her biting inner self, Hetty (junior music major Elise Lundy).

Enter sophomore elementary and special education major Haley Milligan as Margaret, the woman who married Harriet's former love, and Maggie, Margaret's starving inner self, played by freshman elementary and special education major McKenna Pontoli. Margaret is Harriet's guest for tea, and the women share a common goal--though neither one is willing to admit it.

"Overtones" serves as a testament to the reality that behind every cultured woman, a jealous, petty inner self is screaming to be heard.

The night ends on a high note with the musical "A Prideful Encroachment," written and directed (and co-starring!) by senior communications major Christopher Strangfeld--with help from Walt Disney Studios.

We pick up the plot of Disney's Beauty and the Beast just after Gaston (sophomore English major Josiah Everett) has been rejected. LeFou (Strangfeld) and the rest of the tavern patrons join in a rousing a cappella rendition of "Gaston" in an effort to cheer him up--but, just as the song begins to raise Gaston's spirits, Joe Grondziowski crashes through the tavern door accompanied by his crony, LaRou, played by freshman business major Chelsea Thokar.

Grondziowski plays a version of himself that might be idealized in some respects--and is aptly named Joe Grond. Grond and Gaston are joined by an ensemble of comedic geniuses in the bar-fight which ensues. Who will be the better man? There is only one way to find out.