USD Department of Theater presents One-Act Plays

From topics covering mental health to comedies, there was something for everyone this weekend as students took the stage in the Warren M. Lee Center for the Fine Arts to perform a series of one-act plays.

Completely student-driven, these are short productions ranging from the dark comedy of “Wanda’s Visit,” the drama of “And Others” and the playful poignance of “Appearances.”

“And Others” was adapted for the USD stage and directed by theater and psychology major Madeline Schmitt. The production of Schmitt’s play ties in with her double major and her interest in becoming a drama therapist, and is also relevant to the fact that Mental Health Awareness Week just ended.

“My show is about a 26-year-old woman, Amanda, who has dissociative identity disorder and her alternate personalities are trying to figure out what happened to her,” Schmitt said. “So it’s her alternate personalities coming together to work through figuring out themselves and discovering who they are and what role they play in her life.”

Dissociative Identity Disorder was previously known as multiple personality disorder, and it can be a reaction to traumatic events. A person can have two or more interchangeable personalities that have their own unique names, histories and qualities.

“It deals with mental illness that even some psychologists don’t want to diagnose and don’t believe exists,” Schmitt said. “It’s bringing the idea to light so that people are aware that it is a psychological disorder, and people do deal with these things in life.”

The show was very unique for the idea that seven actors portrayed Amanda’s personalities. The show was at times invasive and spine-chilling with the thrust stage layout and the actors’ blocking and movements.

“One of the great things about theater is that seven of these actors are really not playing people, they are playing facets of her personality,” said Joe Stollenwork, directing adviser for the three one act directors. “So if this were a movie, you’d probably have one actress play all these characters. But because theater is so much less literal, you can represent that with bodies onstage.”

It was interesting to see how the personalities worked together and interacted with each other at times. They would switch in and out at various times to deal with certain situations and emotions that Amanda would feel.

“Working on the individual characters was certainly a lot of work, but then we got to play with the characters which was a lot of fun,” Schmitt said. “My process was very collaborative, so we were all working together to discover these things about these characters and how they have a role in the life of Amanda.”

After the dramatic intensity of “And Others,” there was a 10-minute intermission that led into the dark comedy of “Wanda’s Visit” directed by MFA theater student Megan Weidner.

“My show is about a married couple in their 30s and the husband’s ex-girlfriend from high school comes to visit,” Weidner said. “She really turns their lives upside down in one weekend and kind of forcefully pulls them out of the rut they’ve been in with being bored with their lives.”

Between jokes about promiscuity, divorce and alcohol, there are glimpses into the mess that has become Wanda’s life, and the rut that the marriage of Jim and Marsha has been stuck in. This play has been about five weeks in the making, and Weidner said the cast and crew has come really far in such a short time.

“There have been long nights of rehearsals, we all have been rehearsing almost every night every week, depending on how the week is going and conflicts between actors and things like that,” Weidner said. “Other than that, we work on it pretty constantly and now we get to sit back and enjoy kind of what the process has become because once the show opens, the directors don’t really have anything else to do.”

Weidner said she hopes that audiences will enjoy the humor in the show and recognize some of the serious themes in the play.

“I just hope that people come and have fun. It is a dark comedy, it’s goofy and silly and sort of out there at points, but it also can be really poignant at some points between all the characters, and they all have different relationships between each other,” Weidner said. “I want people to come and have a good time, but also realize that this is still life. Even though it seems really outlandish, there is still real life going on in these peoples’ lives. They’re still working through problems and growing as humans.”

After “Wanda’s Visit” was “Appearances,” a comedy of sorts about an elderly shopkeeper who encounters a frantic customer in search of a dress for a party. This showstopper was directed by senior theater major Leah Geis and only featured two actresses, first-year theater majors Alexis Gowans and Emmy Bear.

“It’s been kind of a lot of work, but it’s worth it, it’s fun,” Bear said. “It’s kind of hard (to fit in with class) sometimes, but it’s doable. I try to get my stuff done in any little time I have.”

Geis said she knows that for students, going to the theater’s productions can seem rather intellectual, but she argues that it’s better than a night spent indoors watching Netflix or catching a movie.

“Coming to the theater is fun,” Geis said. “It’s real and in your face. It’s right there and it’s something that you can’t go back and experience again.”

Stollenwork said he feels the same way. He advocates for the shared experience of theater and participating as an audience member.

“The other night, we had a small audience for our dress rehearsal,” Stollenwork said. “It was such a great example of what theater can do. In the serious parts, it was so quiet in here. You could just hear how everybody did not want to breathe. In the funny parts, I could see some people just hanging on each other because they were laughing so hard. I think that is the wonderful part about what theater can do to people in an audience together, whether you’ve come with friends or come by yourself, everyone is along for that emotional communal ride.”