From May 11-15, the DU Department of Theatre hosted the final cycle of the 2016 Senior Capstone Festival. Held in JMAC Studios, the plays were directed by senior theatre students. All of the actors, costumers, stage managers and tech crew were also all students.
The first play in the festival, “All We Can Handle,” written by Andrew Dainoff and directed by senior Erik Hanson, was produced in the JMAC White Box Theatre. Two to three-person tables were scattered throughout the theater facing the stage, allowing the actors to wander among the audience. While billed as David #1, 2 and 3, the three actors—sophomores Aristotle Johns and Tamarra Nelson and freshman Samuel Pierce III—rotated roles throughout the play. “All We Can Handle” traced the story of a couple—David and Sally—as David moves to New York just weeks before the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, where Sally works, and then David’s story as he struggles to cope with Sally’s death and the subsequent death of his two friends weeks later. The play really does throw everything that its characters, and audience, can handle at them, not shying away from any topic. Nevertheless, the actors all handle it beautifully, seamlessly switching from character to character. The stark stage design of only three chairs on a stage allows the story’s narrative to be placed at the center.
“Telephone,” written by Ginna Hoben and directed by senior Olivia van den Berg, while not the happiest of plays, was much lighter than “All We Can Handle” or “The Blue Room” which followed “Telephone.” In “Telephone,” freshmen Lois Shih (Kelly) and Rob Harlan (Chris) play a couple who have just broken up over Kelly’s impending move to Chicago and are being consoled by their friends. While the premise of each character wrangling with whether or not to call the other and get back together is cute and well-executed by the cast, the play is too short for there really to be much buy-in to their relationship on the part of the audience. However, the supporting cast, especially Chris’s roommates, provide welcome humor and some background. The staging is also inventive, with each half of the couple occupying a different half of the stage clearly decorated to show who it belongs to.
Finally, “The Blue Room” by Courtney Baron and directed by senior Kikyou Yan, is an austere, atmospheric play about a sailor’s memories of his wife, a woman obsessed with the sea. Stating early on that his wife (senior Liz Butler) died not long into their marriage, the sailor (sophomore Daniel Crumrine) feels that his wife is now trapped inside his memory during his days out at sea. In the one interaction the audience sees between the two of them, Crumrine and Butler clearly articulate the misunderstanding of each other’s needs and dreams that most likely leads to the unfinished nature of their relationship. While the play itself is somewhat strange, the actors and director themselves did a good job with tough content.
Throughout all of the plays, it was clear that the cast and crew dedicated a good deal of time and energy to churn out high-quality performances. The Senior Capstone Festival is the DU Theatre Department’s final production of the year, but their season will start again in the fall.
