A Night at the Theater

So for my theater event this week, I saw the Mixed UP play festival. It consisted of several sort plays, and a short film. It was on a very small stage, with the audience only in front of it, not on the sides at all. The plays used few props, probably as a result of poor funding. I liked this however, as they had to make do with what they had, and focus on dialogue and acting more, as there was no captivating scenery to draw attention away form the actors and bail them out. Unfortunately, they really could have used this, as their acting was very subpar. They made the common mistake of overacting. It was hard to have a suspension of belief when it was so obvious that the actors on stage were acting as the characters, rather than being the characters. The lighting was basic. The lights on the audience were dimmed, and the lights pointed at the stage were on, illuminating the entire stage. This didn’t call extra attention to any particular actor or character, but was really nothing special. The first play was called “Something Shocking.” It was about two scientists who just finished some experiment that went awry. They are trying to reverse the effects of the experiment by doing silly things like spinning their arms in circles and screaming. It was pretty ridiculous, and most of its humor was along the lines of,” Hey look how ridiculous they are acting! That’s hilarious.” I didn’t think it was very funny, and neither did most of the audience. They second play was named “The Boy Who Cried Woof.” It was really funny, and I don’t want to spoil it for you guys, but I will let you know it involved one actor acting like a dog for the entire play, which was surprisingly funny. The jokes in it were witty, and there was a newly wed couple in it that was a riot. They were the lovey-dovey sort of couple that is always finding any excuse to make out and look deeply into each other’s eyes. They talk in dazed, loving voices to each other, and recount their love stories to the other characters several times. I have several friends who certainly fall into the category of “lovey-dovey” couple, so it was really funny to see a parody of that. The short film, Johnny Rock and the Bees was not very good. It’s effects were cheesy, its jokes were dumb, and it used the overdone “guy with bad voice singing” joke several times. Overall, the plays were mediocre, but “The Boy Who Cried Woof” certainly stood out from the rest.