Hillsdale Tower Players took the stage at the Quilhot Blackbox Theatre April 9 through 12 to perform in the club’s biannual Festival of Short Plays.
The series of one-act plays offered stories ranging in variety both in style and mood, and time period and theme. The four plays were “The Girl Who Cannot Be Hurt,” directed by junior Maggie Saffian; “Trifles,” directed by junior Sophia Miller; “The Death of the Hired Man,” directed by senior Joshua Burnett; and “The Gift of the Magi,” directed by senior Yaozhu (Charlie) Cheng.
According to Burnett, directing a play is a course requirement for the theater department’s Advanced Projects in Directing course, which follows the prerequisite Basic Directing for the Theatre course offered in the fall.
“The one-act plays should be educational and also an opportunity for artistic expression for the directors, the actors, and for the audience,” Burnett said.
Saffian staged “The Girl Who Cannot Be Hurt” with actors dressed in black, switching in and out of props to play different characters. Only the main character, named Girl (freshman Grace Gardner), remained in her character for the whole act.
“My favorite of the four plays was ‘The Girl Who Cannot Be Hurt,’” said freshman Jessica Church, who attended the performances. “I thought the idea of the entire ensemble playing multiple characters was very interesting, and the play seemed to almost have a poetic element to it.”
The style of performance in “The Girl Who Cannot Be Hurt” was also enhanced by the Blackbox performance space, with the audience sharing the same floor as the performers. The darkness of the space and outfits also offered a satisfying contrast with Saffian’s lighting choices.
“Having the plays performed in such a small area with the audience so close to the actors was an interesting artistic choice,” Church said.
Set in the early 20th-century farmhouse kitchen of John Wright, a man who has just been murdered, “Trifles” tells the story of investigations surrounding Mr. Wright’s untimely death. His wife is the prime suspect in the crime. The story particularly focuses on Mrs. Peters (sophomore Nora Shull) and Mrs. Hale (freshman Anna Coyle), two women from the town who are interested to find out whether Mrs. Wright killed her husband — and what motivated her if she did.
“It was a dark murder mystery-type situation,” said sophomore Aubrie Wilson, an actor in “The Gift of the Magi.” Wilson said Shull and Coyle were great as the distressed townswomen in “Trifles”
In the program for the event, Burnett said that “The Death of the Hired Man” was adapted from a Robert Frost poem of the same name.
“I was drawn to these characters and the universal struggles they face: life, death, and how to live in community,” Burnett said.
With just four characters, the play tells the story of a wandering old man named Silas, who returns year after year to the New England farmhouse of married couple Warren and Mary seeking work. Warren has repeatedly taken Silas on, despite the man’s rapid aging and inefficiency. The play reveals the tragedy of Silas’ loneliness.
Wilson said she enjoyed junior Josh Underwood’s performance as the old man Silas in “The Death of the Hired Man,” joking that not every performance landed well.
“But, it got a bit awkward during the Sunday show when all the really old alumni came to watch the play,” Wilson said.
Based on the famous short story by O. Henry, “The Gift of the Magi” concluded the Festival of Short Plays with a warm-hearted Christmastime story. Newlyweds Jim and Della look to buy each other a special holiday gift even though money is tight. Cheng, the director, described the main characters as “foolish yet profoundly sincere,” revealing something about the “very essence of gifts.” Jim and Della summon the strength of all their money, love, and thought — and perhaps go to extreme lengths — to find the perfect items for each other, though the reward for doing so ends up being more valuable than any gift.
Church encouraged the Hillsdale community to look out for the Festival of Short Plays the next time it is offered.
“I recommend that people go see the festival of short plays because they’re all very well made and are intriguing to watch,” Church said. “It is nice to see what fellow students have been putting so much time into.”
Being a Tower Player, Wilson offered some insight into the fruits of putting so much time even into small performances such as these.
“What’s the point of having plays in general? Theatre is a way to make sense of life,” Wilson said. “It’s also a way to laugh at life when life doesn’t make sense. And finally, theatre can be a good representation of life. After all, as the great play nerd Shakespeare said, ‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.’”
