Grab tickets and snacks and get ready for Cabrini Theatre’s One-Act Play Festival happening November 30 and December 1. Members of the Cabrini Community, including alumni, are putting everything into their comedy-filled performances.
As a member of the theater program for all his years at Cabrini, Ethan Baker, senior digital communication and social media major said, “We have a great group of people which is a huge success. People who came out and auditioned are performing in the play festival. Everyone has a role and everyone is putting all their effort into it.”
Director Kaitlin Glenn said, “We started in September. We auditioned at the beginning of this school year. With everything happening at the school, we weren’t going to do a full production like we normally would do. We did “Pippin” this past Spring, so we thought it was a good idea to pull out some alumni plays.” This year, 10 performers will be participating in the One-Act Play Festival.
Sneak peek
Each of the plays is different, but they all have comedy in common. “There’s three different one-acts and they were written by alumni. They’re all comedic which we chose specifically, I wanted all funny plays. I thought that everyone could use that right now” Glenn said.
One of the plays, “Welcome Home,” is written by alumnus John Morrison. It’s a play that captures the different feelings of a family’s reunion. “’Welcome Home’ is about a family coming together for dinner, and they haven’t seen each other in a long time,” Glenn said.
Baker said, “I really like ‘Welcome Home’ because the Cabrini Theatre alumnus who wrote it actually performed in ‘Pippin’ with me last year. It’s really exciting to get the group of Cabrini Theatre back together from people during my time here and even people before my time.”
The next play is “Casting Call”, written by alumna Samantha Murray. Glenn said, “’Casting Call,’ is about four girls sitting outside of a Broadway audition.” Each of the girls waiting for the audition is from a different background and they all have vastly different personalities.
The final play, a cast favorite, is “Scenes from DelFrisco’s” written by alumna Maddie Logue. Glenn said, “It’s about different people on a first date, and shows how things go wrong, and it’s just comedic chaos.”
“I would say the one that stands out the most to me that I think is going to be a crowd favorite is Del Frisco’s,” Baker said. “I think it’ll touch a lot of people because of the way that it portrays different characters and different stereotypes.”
Overcoming challenges
With any production, there are challenges to be faced. “Some of the plays aren’t super recent and everyone’s sense of humor, everyone’s views on things are changing so much more rapidly these days,” Baker said. “We had another play originally picked but we ended up cutting it and switching it for a different one. The student who wrote it didn’t feel that it aged well, that was definitely one of the challenges.”
Another challenge was the size of the cast. Emily Lichius, sophomore writing and narrative arts major said, “We only have two undergraduate males in the theater program. So, finding shows that are predominantly female can be a struggle sometimes. We do have one alumnus male actor who is coming to help us out with ‘Scenes from Del Frisco’s.’”
“I think this is a chance for us to all enjoy each other one last time. We all had a really good time in ‘Pippin’ last spring and the vast majority of us were our returners to Cabrini Theatre.” Lichius said. “More than anything this is a chance for us to meet regularly and enjoy each other’s company and enjoy getting to act together.”
“I think people undersell Cabrini Theatre a little bit. We’re very capable of doing a lot and especially in the final year of Cabrini, our expectation is to honor its legacy.” Baker said. “It’s the work that not only we’ve put in but that people before us have put in as well and I think that this is a great way for everyone to experience that and see the culmination of the Cabrini Theatre.”
