Seriously Bent places second in Nationals

Article by: Matt McQuaid

Improv comedy has been one of the main staples of funny business since the art form was invented.  Legendary comics such as Robin Williams and Stephen Colbert made appearances on the hit improv show Whose Line is it Anyways?, and many hit TV shows such as Reno 911! and Curb Your Enthusiasm rely on improv comedy to entertain their audiences.

For those not familiar with improv comedy, it’s a form of comedy where the actors create jokes as they go along, without scripts, props, or anything else other than their own creativity. Actors often create scenes by taking suggestions of random things (such as a place, occupation, famous person, etc.) from the audience, or by playing elaborate theatre games that turn into a scene.

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Theater Department presents Spring Showcase

Students present plays about life, death, and rebirth
Article by: Thomas Logan

This week, from Feb. 11 to Feb. 14, the Suffolk Theater Department is running its annual Spring Showcase, a chance for theater students to realize their own creative visions brought to life on stage. All of the plays are student-directed and they all share the themes of life, death, and rebirth.

Reverse Transcription by Tony Kusher, an award winning playwright known best for Angels in America, is being directed by Bryan Daley. It’s an ensemble piece about six playwrights burying a good friend (also a playwright) who are forced to come to terms with their own mortality, as well as their own obscurity. The play focuses heavily on loss and oblivion and how they affect the way we think and value our own lives. … Continue Reading

A Night of Ten Minute Plays

Article By: Alexander Sessa

Consort and Distort: A night of Ten Minute plays was presented this past Friday and Saturday in the Donahue café. Not only did the show attract a large turnout, the audience sat intently through each short play, laughing and having an excellent time. The first of seven plays, John Clancy’s Another Beautiful Story, was a satire that poked fun at plays in general. It opened with a narrator who discussed what it means to be part of a play – then dies. His body is then accompanied by three meaningless characters: one of whom wants to tell a story, one of whom does not want to tell the story, and one who has no purpose at all. The three remaining characters argue about whether or not it would be appropriate to continue the play until one of them establishes that the narrator died from “lack of belief” on the part of the audience.

Ashley Hevey (left) and Carolyn McRae (right) in "Playwrighting 101"

Theater and a dash of murder

Article By: Alex Pearlman

SGA President Brian LeFort as Rick Archer P.I.

Oozing charisma and just sheer adorableness, SGA President Brian LeFort makes his stage debut as Private Eye Rick Archer in the Performing Arts Office’s annual Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre, Café Noir.

Set on a Caribbean island in a small café, the play has a film noir theme, with all the actors wearing period(ish) costumes and attempting to solve a number of homicides with the help of audience input to move the story along, similar to Sheer Madness.

Although LeFort’s acting is certainly better than some of the others’ (he has to be less-than-perfect at something, c’mon), his singing leaves a little  to be desired. Luckily, junior Nat Steinsultz, in his duets with LeFort, picks up the slack and allows for entertaining musical numbers and death scenes. … Continue Reading