Anyone familiar with the Winthrop University Theatre Department’s schedule of performances knows that as the end of any semester approaches, the Student-Directed One-Act Festi- val will be there to give students one of their last chances to see some of Winthrop’s best perform. Despite COVID-19 making most theatre work tricky business, it is not stopping this show.
Unlike previous years, which have seen several plays as a part of the festival, this year only two are being performed. The first is “Love/Sick” by John Cariani.
According to senior theatre education major and director of the play, Hannah Baird, “Love/Sick” is “a series of short scenes between two people. Each scene is a depiction of different stages of hard times in a relationship.”
Taji Mayberry, a senior psychology major who plays the characters of Bill and Jake in the show, said that the show focuses on how “love isn’t one specific thing” and is “very dynamic.”
“[This year], we are very steadfast on making [the play] realistic and hitting close to home,” Baird said. “We believe that these are scenarios that people have been or will be in in their lives at some point, unfortunately. And for those people, we really want it to resonate with them as something that they walk out with almost a pit in their stomach.”
According to Baird, the original writer of the play described it as “a funny until it’s sad play.” She said that she wants “audiences to walk away with having just laughed so hard until they felt horrible, which kind of sounds really weird, but it’s really true. The show is very funny until it takes a turn and it gets very sad.”
Mayberry said that he hopes that audiences also leave the show with the message that “Love is hard, love is difficult, and love isn’t one set thing. Love isn’t perfect. People have issues and are still in love. People go through problems and different relationships and love isn’t one perfect circle. Love comes in many shapes and sizes and situations.”
The second play being performed at the one acts is “Danae Under One Million Stars” by Sarah Burry and is being directed by junior theatre performance major Sierra Kyhkynen. According to them, “Danae Under One Million Stars” is a reinterpretation of the Greek myths of Callisto and Danae using the Roman names of the involved figures.
“Our show, it jumps between two settings and between Danae explaining stuff that happened to her and her girlfriend, Callisto…and these scenes between her and Callisto,” Kyhkynen said. “The function of the play is primarily a memory play. So, it is these two worlds that are completely separated except by the narration of the one character. And with this story, the actual myths of Callisto and Danae never crossed paths, but…[the women] are the daughters of kings of neighbor- ing kingdoms in ancient Greece. So, this story is about two star-crossed princesses.”
Unlike their counterpart’s more realistic centric play, Kyhkynen said that their play is “much more fantasy, it’s less rooted in realism than other [one acts have been]…it takes liberties with realism.” They also hope that audiences will walk out of the show seeing the “circular nature of Greek mythology” and feeling “that there could be some semblance of hope in the world despite anything awful that’s happening, like be able to see how the world could be despite the circumstances.”
Due to the limitations of COVID-19, neither play will be available in person this year. Instead, both shows will be livestreamed and tickets can be bought through showtix4u.com using links on the College of Visual Performing Arts’ section of the Winthrop website. Tickets range from $3 with a Winthrop ID to $5 for the general public with a $10 family option available as well; however, it is warned that the show may contain mature content. Two streams will run of the performance, one at 7:30 pm on Saturday, Nov. 14, and one at 2 pm on Sunday, Nov.15.
Photo by Emma Crouch
