Theater will be putting on their annual Portraits Advanced Theater Showcase, this year’s title called “30 in 60” Tuesday, May 21 at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the Black Box Theater.
30 original plays will be put on in 60 seconds, one right after the other. The format is modeled after popular theater troupe “The Neo-Futurists.” Audience members will be the ones in charge of picking the order of the plays. Each member receives a “menu” of the performances. The plays are numbered and have their respective numbered clothespins hanging in the back of the theater.
“It’s not passive theater It uses humor or political tone to activate emotion or change in the audience,” theater director Andrew Sinclair said.
The plays must be original and must be from the perspective of the writer. The plays’ genres are either comedy, political, or they discuss serious issues.
Sinclair said that the Portraits show is always trying to do something different.
“Every year we try to do something experimental[with this show[. Last year we did “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” We’ve done a show where there were no words, only music. We try to be non-traditional, experimental, and do something that is not part of the regular theater season,” Sinclair said.
The 21 students involved in “30 in 60” are sophomores Janessa Arango, Katie Doherty, Samantha Larkins, Cynthia Ruberry, Scott Albaum, Andre Eramia, Marie Pamatmat, Brian Sands, and Marian Ismayl; juniors Daniel Bedoya, Caleigh Havansek, Lila Gilbert, and Susy Montoya-Quinchia; and seniors Aria Caldwell, Sam Elkin, Isaiah Gardner, Becca Gratch, Mary Mando, Merrick McWherter, Sarah Meehan, and Rudy Newman.
Junior Lila Gilbert believes that the variety of plays will attract audiences.
“It is literally written by students for students. There’s sure to be something you can relate to and laugh at,” Gilbert said.
The price is $4, unless students want to roll a die to either pay less than the $4 or end up paying a few dollars over the set price. The die is the way the “Neo-Futurists” set up their price of admission.
“Experimental theater is always exciting.[The plays] are taken from text to performance to response. Everything is organically grown,” Sinclair said. “The variety that the audience can see is pretty cool.”
